354 UNKNOWN MONGOLIA 



to be the facts, so far as we know them, of the history 

 of these people. The story of the Kirei, their con- 

 nexion with Nestorian Christianity, and their supposed 

 but wholly mythical power and wealth, is typical of 

 the days when Asia was so little known to Europe that 

 any stories originating from thence quickly grew into 

 fabulous tales of amazement and wonder. A report, 

 for instance, filtered through to Europe in the early 

 part of the eleventh century — that is to say, at the time 

 when Asia first began to occupy a place in the minds 

 of Western people — of the conversion to Christianity of 

 a powerful Eastern potentate and his subjects. The 

 accounts, however, were so extravagant in their em- 

 bellishment of the might of this great Khan, yet, at the 

 same time, so poor in detail, that it was difficult to 

 decide who he was and where his kingdom was situated. 

 During the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth cen- 

 turies, the solution of the problem of the elusive 

 Prester John occupied the close attention of all writers 

 and travellers ; endless traditions and fables collected 

 around the name of this semi-mythical, kingly pontiff, 

 until it became quite impossible to separate truth from 

 fiction, though men continued their attempts to discover 

 the whereabouts of his fabulous kingdom, as if it were 

 an El Dorado. Many letters, supposed to have been 

 written by the Khan, passed between him and the 

 Pope, the Emperor of Constantinople, and the King of 

 France ; all of these proclaimed not only his greatness, 

 power, and wealth, but also the extent of his dominions, 

 exaggerating his importance to such an extent that, 

 although these fables were believed at the time, they, 

 in the end, defeated their own object, and received no- 

 credence. 



