s stifled and dead; condescend to
enter our small house.'

"Temudjin accepted the invitation, but before going he was warned by
his mother: 'Rate not the crafty foe too lightly,' she said. 'We do
not dread a venomous viper the less because it is so small and weak.
Be cautious!'

"He replied: 'You are right, mother, therefore do you, Khassar, have
the bow ready: Belgutei, you also be on your guard: you, Chadshikin,
see to the horse; and you, Utsuken, remain by my side. My nine Orloks,
you go in with me; and you, my three hundred and nine bodyguards,
surround the _yurt_.'

"When he arrived he would have sat down in the middle of the
treacherous carpet, but Utsuken pulled him aside and seated him on the
edge of the felt. Meanwhile a woman was meddling with the horse and
cut off its left stirrup. Belgutei, who noticed it, drove her out, and
struck her on the leg with his hand, upon which one Buri Buke struck
Belgutei's horse with his sword. The nine Orloks now came round,
helped their master to mount the white mare of Toktanga Taishi of the
Kortshins; a fight began, which ended in the defeat and submission of
the enemy."

Once more free, Temudjin, who was now seventeen years old, married
Burte Judjin. He was not long in collecting a number of his men
together, and soon managed to increase their number to thirteen
thousand. These he divided into thirteen battalions of one thousand
men each, styled _gurans_, each guran under the command of a
_gurkhan_. The gurkhans were chosen from his immediate relatives and
dependents. The forces of the Taidshuts numbered thirty thousand. With
this much more powerful army Temudjin risked an encounter on the banks
of the Baldjuna, a tributary of the Ingoda, and gained a complete
victory. Abulghazi says the Taidshuts lost from five thousand to six
thousand men. The battle-field was close to a wood, and we are told
that Temudjin, after his victory, piled fagots together and boiled
many of his prisoners in seventy caldrons--a very problematical story.

Among his neighbors were the Jadjerats, or Juriats, the subjects of
Chamuka, who, according to De Guignes, fled after the battle with the
Taidshuts.

One day a body of the Jadjerats, who were hunting, encountered some of
Temudjin's followers, and they agreed to hunt together. The former ran
short of provisions, and he generously surrendered to them a large
part of the game his people had captured. This was favorably compared
by them with