CHAPTER L.

THE BATTLE BETWEEN CHINGHIS KAAN AND PRESTER JOHN.

And after both sides had rested well those two days, they armed for the

fight and engaged in desperate combat; and it was the greatest battle

that ever was seen. The numbers that were slain on both sides were very

great, but in the end Chinghis Kaan obtained the victory. And in the

battle Prester John was slain. And from that time forward, day by day,

his kingdom passed into the hands of Chinghis Kaan till the whole was

conquered.

[Illustration: _A. Housselin D._

Death of Chinghiz Khan. (From a miniature in the _Livre des

Merveilles_.)]

I may tell you that Chinghis Kaan reigned six years after this battle,

engaged continually in conquest, and taking many a province and city

and stronghold. But at the end of those six years he went against a

certain castle that was called CAAJU, and there he was shot with an

arrow in the knee, so that he died of his wound. A great pity it was,

for he was a valiant man and a wise.{1}

I will now tell you who reigned after Chinghis, and then about the

manners and customs of the Tartars.

NOTE 1.—Chinghiz in fact survived Aung Khan some 24 years, dying

during his fifth expedition against Tangut, 18th August 1227, aged

65 according to the Chinese accounts, 72 according to the Persian.

Sanang Setzen says that Kurbeljin Goa Khatún, the beautiful Queen

of Tangut, who had passed into the tents of the conqueror, did

him some bodily mischief (it is not said what), and then went and

drowned herself in the Karamuren (or Hwang-ho), which thenceforth

was called by the Mongols the _Khátún-gol_, or Lady’s River, a name

which it in fact still bears. Carpini relates that Chinghiz was

killed by lightning. The Persian and Chinese historians, however,

agree in speaking of his death as natural. Gaubil calls the place

of his death Lou-pan, which he says was in lat. 38°. Rashiduddin

calls it Leung-Shan, which appears to be the mountain range still

so called in the heart of Shensi.

The name of the place before which Polo represents him as mortally

wounded is very variously given. According to Gaubil, Chinghiz

was in reality dangerously wounded by an arrow-shot at the siege

of Taitongfu in 1212. And it is possible, as Oppert suggests,

that Polo’s account of his death before _Caagiu_ (as I prefer

the reading), arose out of a confusion between this circumstance

and those of the death of _Mangku Kaan_, which is said to have

occurred at the assault of HOCHAU in Sze-ch’uan, a name which Polo

would write _Caagiu_, or nearly so. Abulfaragius specifically says

that Mangku Kaan died _by an arrow_; though it is true that other

authors say he died of disease, and Haiton that he was drowned;

all which shows how excusable were Polo’s errors as to events

occurring 50 to 100 years before his time. (See _Oppert’s Presbyter

Johannes_, p. 76; _De Mailla_, IX. 275, and note; _Gaubil_, 18, 50,

52, 121; _Erdmann_, 443; _San. Setzen_, 103.)

It is only by referring back to ch. xlvii., where we are told that

Chinghiz “began to think of conquering a great part of the world,”

that we see Polo to have been really aware of the vast extent and

aim of the conquests of Chinghiz; the _aim_ being literally the

conquest of the world as he conceived it; the _extent_ of the

empire which he initiated actually covering (probably) one half of

the whole number of the human race. (See remarks in _Koeppen, Die

Relig. des Buddha_, II. 86.)