n of
Chinghiz Khan, that is to say, on the ancient Karakorum. (_Inscriptions de
l'Orkhon_.)" So Professor Heikel, like Professor Pozdneiev, concludes that
Erdeni Tso was built on the site of Karakorum and cannot be mistaken for
Karabalgasun. Indeed it is highly probable that one of the walls of the
actual convent belonged to the old Mongol capital. The travels and
researches by expeditions from Finland and Russia have made these
questions pretty clear. Some most interesting inscriptions have been
brought home and have been studied by a number of Orientalists: G.
Schlegel, O. Donner, G. Deveria, Vasiliev, G. von der Gabelentz, Dr.
Hirth, G. Huth, E. H. Parker, W. Bang, etc., and especially Professor
Vilh. Thomsen, of Copenhagen, who deciphered them (_Dechiffrement des
Inscriptions de l'Orkhon et de l'Ienissei, Copenhague_, 1894, 8vo;
_Inscriptions de l'Orkhon dechiffrees, par_ V. Thomsen, Helsingfors, 1894,
8vo), and Professor W. Radloff of St. Petersburg (_Atlas der Alterthumer
der Mongolei_, 1892-6, fol.; _Die alttuerkischen Inschriften der Mongolei_,
1894-7, etc.). There is an immense literature on these inscriptions, and
for the bibliography, I must refer the reader to _H. Cordier, Etudes
Chinoises_ (1891-1894), Leide, 1895, Id. (1895-1898), Leide, 1898, 8vo.
The initiator of these discoveries was N. Iarindsev, of Irkutsk, who died
at Barnaoul in 1894, and the first great expedition was started from
Finland in 1890, under the guidance of Professor Axel Heikel.
(_Inscriptions de l'Orkhon recueillies par l'expedition finnoise, 1890, et
publiees par la Societe Finno-Ougrienne_, Helsingfors, 1892, fol.) The
Russian expedition left the following year, 1891, under the direction of
the Academician W. Radloff.

M. Chaffanjon (_Nouv. Archiv. des Missions Scient._ IX., 1899, p. 81), in
1895, does not appear to know that there is a difference between Kara
Korum and Kara Balgasun, as he writes: "Forty kilometres south of Kara
Korum _or_ Kara Balgasun, the convent of Erdin Zoun."

A plan of Kara Balgasun is given (plate 27) in _Radloff's Atlas_. See also
_Henri Cordier et Gaubil, Situation de Holin en Tartarie_, Leide, 1893.

In Rubruquis's account of Karakorum there is one passage of great
interest: "Then master William [Guillaume L'Orfevre] had made for us an
iron to make wafers ... he made also a silver box to put the body of
Christ in, with relics in little cavities made in the sides of the box."
Now M. Marcel Monnier, who