ithout selling any of their goods at all.

The next company of merchants that came, having heard of the adventure
of the others, determined to act on a different principle.
Accordingly, when they came into the presence of the khan with their
goods, and he asked them the prices of some of them, they replied that
his majesty might himself fix the price of the articles, as he was a
far better judge of the value of such things than they were. Indeed,
they added that if his majesty chose to take them without paying any
thing at all he was welcome to do so.

This answer pleased the emperor very much. He paid them double price
for the articles which he selected from their stores, and he granted
them peculiar privileges in respect to trading with his subjects while
they remained in his dominions.

The trade which was thus opened between the dominions of the sultan
and those of Genghis Khan was not, however, wholly in the hands of
merchants coming from the former country. Soon after the coming of the
caravan last mentioned, Genghis Khan fitted out a company of merchants
from his own country, who were to go into the country of the sultan,
taking with them such articles, the products of the country of the
Monguls, as they might hope to find a market for there. There were
four principal merchants, but they were attended by a great number of
assistants, servants, camel-drivers, etc., so that the whole company
formed quite a large caravan. Genghis Khan sent with them three
embassadors, who were to present to the sultan renewed assurances of
the friendly feelings which he entertained for him, and of his desire
to encourage and promote as much as possible the commercial
intercourse between the two countries which had been so happily begun.

The three embassadors whom Genghis Khan selected for this service were
themselves Mohammedans. He had several persons of this faith among the
officers of his court, although the Monguls had a national religion of
their own, which was very different from that of the Mohammedans;
still, all forms of worship were tolerated in Genghis Khan's
dominions, and the emperor was accustomed to take good officers into
his service wherever he could find them, without paying any regard to
the nature of their religious belief so far as their general duties
were concerned. But now, in sending this deputation to the sultan, he
selected the embassadors from among the Mohammedans at his court,
thinking that it woul