ady seen, was attached to the ties of
relationship and family connection among these pastoral nations. Two
families could bind themselves together and make themselves legally
one, in respect to their connection, by a fictitious marriage arranged
between children no longer living. In such a case the contracts were
regularly made, just as if the children were still alive, and the
ceremonies were all duly performed. After this the two families were
held to be legally allied, and they were bound to each other by all
the obligations which would have arisen in the case of a real
marriage. This custom is said to be continued among some of the Tartar
nations to the present day. The people think, it is said, that such a
wedding ceremony, duly solemnized by the parents of children who are
dead, takes effect upon the subjects of it in the world of spirits,
and that thus their union, though arranged and consecrated on earth,
is confirmed and consummated in heaven.

Besides these peculiar and special enactments, there were the ordinary
laws against robbery, theft, murder, adultery, and false witness. The
penalties for these offenses were generally severe. The punishment for
stealing cattle was death. For petty thefts the criminal was to be
beaten with a stick, the number of the blows being proportioned to the
nature and aggravation of the offense. He could, however, if he had
the means, buy himself off from this punishment by paying nine times
the value of the thing stolen.

In respect to religion, the constitution which Temujin made declared
that there was but one God, the creator of heaven and earth, and it
acknowledged him as the supreme ruler and governor of all mankind, the
being "who alone gives life and death, riches and poverty, who grants
and denies whatever he pleases, and exercises over all things an
absolute power." This one fundamental article of faith was all that
was required. For the rest, Temujin left the various nations and
tribes throughout his dominions to adopt such modes of worship and to
celebrate such religious rites as they severally preferred, and
forbade that any one should be disturbed or molested in any way on
account of his religion, whatever form it might assume.

At length the time arrived for the grand assembly of the khans to be
convened. The meeting was called, not at Karakorom, the capital, but
at a central spot in the interior of the country, called Dilon Ildak.
Such a spot was much more conve