hundred armed men. Such a company
as this, when moving across the country on its way from one region
of pasturage to another, appeared like an immense caravan on its
march, and when settled at an encampment the tents formed quite a
little town.

Whenever the head of one of these wandering families died, the
tendency was not for the members of the community to separate, but to
keep together, and allow the oldest son to take the father's place as
chieftain and ruler. This was necessary for defense, as, of course,
such communities as these were in perpetual danger of coming into
collision with other communities roaming about like themselves over
the same regions. It would necessarily result, too, from the
circumstances of the case, that a strong and well-managed party, with
an able and sagacious chieftain at the head of it, would attract other
and weaker parties to join it; or, on the arising of some pretext for
a quarrel, would make war upon it and conquer it. Thus, in process of
time, small nations, as it were, would be formed, which would continue
united and strong as long as the able leadership continued; and then
they would separate into their original elements, which elements would
be formed again into other combinations.

Such, substantially, was pastoral life in the beginning. In process of
time, of course, the tribes banded together became larger and larger.
Some few towns and cities were built as places for the manufacture of
implements and arms, or as resting-places for the caravans of
merchants in conveying from place to place such articles as were
bought and sold. But these places were comparatively few and
unimportant. A pastoral and roaming life continued to be the destiny
of the great mass of the people. And this state of things, which was
commenced on the banks of the Euphrates before the time of Abraham,
spread through the whole breadth of Asia, from the Mediterranean Sea
to the Pacific Ocean, and has continued with very little change from
those early periods to the present time.

Of the various chieftains that have from time to time risen to command
among these shepherd nations but little is known, for very few and
very scanty records have been kept of the history of any of them. Some
of them have been famous as conquerors, and have acquired very
extended dominions. The most celebrated of all is perhaps Genghis
Khan, the hero of this history. He came upon the stage more than three
thousand years afte