relative of
Yezonkai, and also his principal minister of state. This man, by his
skill in astrology, which he applied to the peculiar circumstances of
the child, foretold for him at once a wonderful career. He would grow
up, the astrologer said, to be a great warrior. He would conquer all
his enemies, and extend his conquests so far that he would, in the
end, become the Khan of all Tartary. Young Temujin's parents were, of
course, greatly pleased with these predictions, and when, not long
after this time, the astrologer died, they appointed his son, whose
name was Karasher, to be the guardian and instructor of the boy. They
trusted, it seems, to the son to give the young prince such a
training in early life as should prepare him to realize the grand
destiny which the father had foretold for him.

There would be something remarkable in the fact that these predictions
were uttered at the birth of Genghis Khan, since they were afterward
so completely fulfilled, were it not that similar prognostications of
greatness and glory were almost always offered to the fathers and
mothers of young princes in those days by the astrologers and
soothsayers of their courts. Such promises were, of course, very
flattering to these parents at the time, and brought those who made
them into great favor. Then, in the end, if the result verified them,
they were remembered and recorded as something wonderful; if not, they
were forgotten.

Karasher, the astrologer's son, who had been appointed young Temujin's
tutor, took his pupil under his charge, and began to form plans for
educating him. Karasher was a man of great talents and of considerable
attainments in learning, so far as there could be any thing like
learning in such a country and among such a people. He taught him the
names of the various tribes that lived in the countries around, and
the names of the principal chieftains that ruled over them. He also
gave him such information as he possessed in respect to the countries
themselves, describing the situation of the mountains, the lakes, and
the rivers, and the great deserts which here and there intervened
between the fertile regions. He taught him, moreover, to ride, and
trained him in all such athletic exercises as were practiced by the
youth of those times. He instructed him also in the use of arms,
teaching him how to shoot with a bow and arrow, and how to hold and
handle his sabre, both when on horseback and when on foot. He
parti