The result was that Dariti Utshegin, with a
tribe of Mongols, and the Sakiat tribe of the Keraits, went over to
Temudjin, while Altun and Kudshir, the latter's relations, who had
deserted him, took refuge with the Naimans.

Among the companions of his recent distress, a constant one was his
brother Juji Kassar, who had also suffered severely, and had had his
camp pillaged by the Keraits. Temudjin had recourse to a ruse. He sent
two servants who feigned to have come from Juji, and who offered his
submission on condition that his wife and children were returned to
him. Wang Khan readily assented, and to prove his sincerity sent back
to Juji Kassar some of his blood in a horn, which was to be mixed with
koumiss, and drunk when the oath of friendship was sworn. Wang Khan
was completely put off his guard, and Temudjin was thus able to
surprise him. His forces numbered about four thousand six hundred, and
he seems to have advanced along the banks of the Kerulon, toward the
heights of Jedshir, between the Tula and the Kerulon, and therefore
toward the modern Urga, where Wang Khan was posted. In the battle
which followed, and which was fought in the spring of 1203, the latter
was defeated; he fled to the Naimans, and was there murdered. Temudjin
was sincerely affected by the death of the old man.

The Naiman chief, Tayang, had his skull encased in silver and
bejewelled, and afterward used it as a ceremonial cup; a custom very
frequent in Mongolia. Such cups have been lately met with in Europe,
one of which was exhibited at the great exhibition of 1851, where it
was shown as the skull of Confucius. Another, or perhaps the same,
which was encased in marvellous jeweller's work, has been lately
destroyed; the gold having been barbarously melted by the Jews. By the
death of Wang Khan, Temudjin became the master of the Kerait nation,
and thus both branches of the Mongol race were united under one head.

He now held a _kuriltai_, where he was proclaimed khan. There is some
confusion about the period when he adopted the title of Genghis, but
the probability is that he did so three years later. The earlier date
(1203) is the one, however, from which his reign is often reckoned to
have commenced.

VENETIANS AND CRUSADERS TAKE CONSTANTINOPLE

PLUNDER OF THE SACRED RELICS

A.D. 1204

EDWIN PEARS

In the treaty arranged at the end of the Third Crusade
(1192) it was stipulated that all hostilities between the