e
ceremony upon a carpet of black felt spread upon the ground. In the
address the khan reminded Temujin that the exalted authority with
which he was now invested came from God, and that to God he was
responsible for the right exercise of his power. If he governed his
subjects well, God, he said, would render his reign prosperous and
happy; but if, on the other hand, he abused his power, he would come
to a miserable end.

After the conclusion of the address, seven of the khans, who had been
designated for this purpose, came and lifted Temujin up and bore him
away to a throne which had been set up for him in the midst of the
assembly, where all the khans, and their various bodies of attendants,
came and offered him their homage.

Among others there came a certain old prophet, named Kokza, who was
held in great veneration by all the people on account of his supposed
inspiration and the austere life which he led. He used to go very
thinly clad, and with his feet bare summer and winter, and it was
supposed that his power of enduring the exposures to which he was thus
subject was something miraculous and divine. He had received
accordingly from the people a name which signified _the image of God_,
and he was every where looked upon as inspired. He said, moreover,
that a white horse came to him from time to time and carried him up to
heaven, where he conversed face to face with God, and received the
revelations which he was commissioned to make to men. All this the
people fully believed. The man may have been an impostor, or he may
have been insane. Oftentimes, in such cases, the inspiration which the
person supposes he is the subject of arises from a certain spiritual
exaltation, which, though it does not wholly unfit him for the
ordinary avocations and duties of life, still verges upon insanity,
and often finally lapses into it entirely.

This old prophet advanced toward Temujin while he was seated on his
carpet of felt, and made a solemn address to him in the hearing of all
the assembled khans. He was charged, he said, with a message from
heaven in respect to the kingdom and dominion of Temujin, which had
been, he declared, ordained of God, and had now been established in
fulfillment of the Divine will. He was commissioned, moreover, he
said, to give to Temujin the style and title of Genghis Khan,[D] and
to declare that his kingdom should not only endure while he lived, but
should descend to his posterity, from generati