kits, or
Merkites, they were a nomadic people of Turkish stock, with a possible
infusion of Mongol blood. They are called by Mohammedan writers
Uduyut, and were divided into four tribes. They lived on the Lower
Selinga and its feeders. (_D'Ohsson_, i. 54; _Howorth, History_, I.,
pt. i. 22, 698.)"--H. C.]

[11] [_Onan Kerule_ is "the country watered by the Orkhon and Kerulun
Rivers, i.e. the country to the south and south-east of Lake Baikal.
The headquarters (_ya-chang_) of the principal chief of the Uigurs in
the eighth century was 500 _li_ (about 165 miles) south-west of the
confluence of the Wen-Kun ho (Orkhon) and the Tu-lo ho (Tura). Its
ruins, sometimes, but wrongly, confounded with those of the Mongol
city of Karakorum, some 20 miles from it, built in 1235 by Ogodai, are
now known by the name of Kara Balgasun, 'Black City.'" [See p. 228.]
The name _Onankerule_ seems to be taken from the form _Onan-ou-
Keloran_, which occurs in Mohammedan writers. (_Quatremere_, 115 et
seq.; see also _T'ang shu_, Bk. 43b; _Rockhill_, _Rubruck_, 116,
note.)--H. C.]

[12] Vambery makes _Ong_ an Uighur word, signifying "right." [Palladius
(l.c. 23) says: "The consonance of the names of Wang-Khan and Wang-Ku
(Ung-Khan and Ongu--Ongot of Rashiduddin, a Turkish Tribe) led to the
confusion regarding the tribes and persons, which at M. Polo's time
seems to have been general among the Europeans in China; M. Polo and
Johannes de Monte Corvino transfer the title of Prester John from
Wang-Khan, already perished at that time, to the distinguished family
of Wang-Ku."--H. C.]

CHAPTER XLVII.

OF CHINGHIS, AND HOW HE BECAME THE FIRST KAAN OF THE TARTARS.

Now it came to pass in the year of Christ's Incarnation 1187 that the
Tartars made them a King whose name was CHINGHIS KAAN.[NOTE 1] He was a
man of great worth, and of great ability (eloquence), and valour. And as
soon as the news that he had been chosen King was spread abroad through
those countries, all the Tartars in the world came to him and owned him
for their Lord. And right well did he maintain the Sovereignty they had
given him. What shall I say? The Tartars gathered to him in astonishing
multitude, and when he saw such numbers he made a great furniture of
spears and arrows and such other arms as they used, and set about the
conquest of all those regions till he had conquered eight p