CHAPTER XII 



THE KIREI OF THE ALTAI, THE CHILDREN OF PRESTER JOHN 



** The name of * Pr ester John ' has an attractive interest 

 both for those who love the romances of the nursery, and for 

 those who study the more sober facts of medieval history. 

 To both it is a puzzle and a paradox, and has given rise to 

 much discussion. That a Christian king and priest reigned 

 in an isolated far-off land over a Christian people, en- 

 vironed by pagans and barbarians, was a belief of most 

 medieval writers. Some of them fixed his residence in 

 Abyssinia, others in India, others again on the borders 

 of China. The legend gradually grew more definite as 

 the various envoys to the Mongol Khans returned and 

 brought news of their having been in contact with the Chris- 

 tian people, and opinion became settled that the Prester 

 John of history was the King of the nation of the Keraits, 

 a disciple of the Nestorians." — Sir H. H. Ho worth. 



The Kirei ^ represent a section of the Kirghiz family, 

 and one of the purest branches of the great Turkish 

 race. In fact, if we endeavour to trace back the history 

 of the Kirghiz, we find that they came into existence, 

 — from an unknown origin, as it were, — in the Kemchik 

 valleys of the Yenisei basin, at a period when it would 

 be almost impossible to draw distinctions between the 



1 There are various forms of spelling, such as Kirai, Kerrit, Kerait, 

 and in the earliest writings it takes the form of Crit. 



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