I.

OF THE KINGDOM OF EGRIGAIA.

Starting again from Erguiul you ride eastward for eight days, and then
come to a province called EGRIGAIA, containing numerous cities and
villages, and belonging to Tangut.[NOTE 1] The capital city is called
CALACHAN.[NOTE 2] The people are chiefly Idolaters, but there are fine
churches belonging to the Nestorian Christians. They are all subjects of
the Great Kaan. They make in this city great quantities of camlets of
camel's wool, the finest in the world; and some of the camlets that they
make are white, for they have white camels, and these are the best of all.
Merchants purchase these stuffs here, and carry them over the world for
sale.[NOTE 3]

We shall now proceed eastward from this place and enter the territory that
was formerly Prester John's.

NOTE 1.--Chinghiz invaded Tangut in all five times, viz. in 1205, 1207,
1209 (or according to Erdmann, 1210-1211), 1218, and 1226-1227, on which
last expedition he died.

A. In the third invasion, according to D'Ohsson's Chinese guide (Father
Hyacinth), he took the town of _Uiraca_, and the fortress of Imen, and
laid siege to the capital, then called Chung-sing or Chung-hing, now
Ning-hsia.

Rashid, in a short notice of this campaign, calls the first city _Erica_,
_Erlaca_, or, as Erdmann has it, _Artacki_. In De Mailla it is _Ulahai_.

B. On the last invasion (1226), D'Ohsson's Chinese authority says that
Chinghiz took Kanchau and Suhchau, Cholo and Khola in the province of
Liangcheu, and then proceeded to the Yellow River, and invested Lingchau,
south of Ning-hsia.

Erdmann, following his reading of Rashiduddin, says Chinghiz took the
cities of Tangut, called _Arucki_, _Kachu_, _Sichu_, and _Kamichu_, and
besieged Deresgai (D'Ohsson, _Derssekai_), whilst Shidergu, the King of
Tangut, betook himself to his capital _Artackin_.

D'Ohsson, also professing to follow Rashid, calls this "his capital
_Irghai_, which the Mongols call _Ircaya_." Klaproth, illustrating Polo,
reads "Eyircai, which the Mongols call _Eyircaya_."

Petis de la Croix, relating the same campaign and professing to follow
Fadlallah, i.e. Rashiduddin, says the king "retired to his fortress of
_Arbaca_."

C. Sanang Setzen several times mentions a city called _Irghai_,
_apparently_ in Tangut; but all we can gather as to his position is that
it seems to have lain east of Kanchau.

We perceive that the _Arbaca_ of P. de la Croix, the _Eyircai_ of
Klaproth, the