cularly instructed him in the art of shooting his arrow in any
direction when riding at a gallop upon his horse, behind as well as
before, and to the right side as well as to the left. To do this
coolly, skillfully, and with a true aim, required great practice as
well as much courage and presence of mind.

Young Temujin entered into all these things with great spirit. Indeed,
he very soon ceased to feel any interest in any thing else, so that by
the time that he was nine years of age it was said that he thought of
nothing but exercising himself in the use of arms.

Nine years of age, however, with him was more than it would be with a
young man among us, for the Asiatics arrive at maturity much earlier
than the nations of Western Europe and America. Indeed, by the time
that Temujin was thirteen years old, his father considered him a
man--at least he considered him old enough to be married. He was
married, in fact, and had two children before he was fifteen, if the
accounts which the historians have given us respecting him are true.

Just before Temujin was thirteen, his father, in one of his campaigns
in Katay, was defeated in a battle, and, although a great many of his
followers escaped, he himself was surrounded and overpowered by the
horsemen of the enemy, and was made prisoner. He was put under the
care of a guard; for, of course, among people living almost altogether
on horseback and in tents, there could be very few prisons. Yezonkai
followed the camp of his conqueror for some time under the custody of
his guard; but at length he succeeded in bribing his keeper to let him
escape, and so contrived, after encountering many difficulties and
suffering many hardships, to make his way back to his own country.

He was determined now to make a new incursion into Katay, and that
with a larger force than he had had before. So he made an alliance
with the chieftain of a neighboring tribe, called the Naymans; and, in
order to seal and establish this alliance, he contracted that his son
should marry the daughter of his ally. This was the time when Temujin
was but thirteen years old. The name of this his first wife was
Karizu--at least that was one of her names. Her father's name was
Tayian.

Before Yezonkai had time to mature his plans for his new invasion of
Katay, he fell sick and died. He left five sons and a daughter, it is
said; but Temujin seems to have been the oldest of them all, for by
his will his father left his