s a boy.

Being protected by so powerful an escort, Temujin's party were not
molested on their journey, and they all arrived safely at the court of
Vang Khan.

CHAPTER V.

VANG KHAN.

1175

Karakatay.--Vang Khan's dominions.--The cruel fate of Mergus.--His
wife's stratagem.--Nawr.--He falls into the snare.--Armed men in
ambuscade.--Death of Nawr.--Credibility of these tales.--Early life
of Vang Khan.--Reception of Temujin.--Prester John.--His letter to
the King of France.--Other letters.--The probable truth.--Temujin
and Vang Khan.

The country over which Vang Khan ruled was called Karakatay. It
bordered upon the country of Katay, which has already been mentioned
as forming the northern part of what is now China. Indeed, as its name
imports, it was considered in some sense as a portion of the same
general district of country. It was that part of Katay which was
inhabited by Tartars.

Vang Khan's name at first was Togrul. The name Vang Khan, which was,
in fact, a title rather than a name, was given him long afterward,
when he had attained to the height of his power. To avoid confusion,
however, we shall drop the name Togrul, and call him Vang Khan from
the beginning.

Vang Khan was descended from a powerful line of khans who had reigned
over Karakatay for many generations. These khans were a wild and
lawless race of men, continually fighting with each other, both for
mastery, and also for the plunder of each other's flocks and herds.
In this way most furious and cruel wars were often fought between near
relatives. Vang Khan's grandfather, whose name was Mergus, was taken
prisoner in one of these quarrels by another khan, who, though he was
a relative, was so much exasperated by something that Mergus had done
that he sent him away to a great distance to the king of a certain
country which is called Kurga, to be disposed of there. The King of
Kurga put him into a sack, sewed up the mouth of it, and then laid him
across the wooden image of an ass, and left him there to die of hunger
and suffocation.

The wife of Mergus was greatly enraged when she heard of the cruel
fate of her husband. She determined to be revenged. It seems that the
relative of her husband who had taken him prisoner, and had sent him
to the King of Kurga, had been her lover in former times before her
marriage; so she sent him a message, in which she dissembled her grief
for the loss of her husband, and only blamed the King of Kurga f