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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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| 4 CHAP. I.I. | INTER1-MENT OF TIIE TARTAR KAANS | |||
| 249 | ||||
| month the empire of the Hia (Tangut) submitted. Chinghiz rested on the river Si Kiang in the district of Ts'in; shui (in Kansuh ; it has still the same name). In autumn, in the seventh month (August), on the day jen wu, the Emperor fell ill, and eight days later died in his palace Ha-lao-t'u on the River Sa-li. This river Sali is repeatedly mentioned in the Klan shi, viz. in the first chapter, in connection with the first military doings of Chinghiz. Rashid reports (D'Ohsson, I. 58) that Chinghiz in 1199 retired to his residence Sari Kilzar. The Yiian chao pi ski (Palladius' transi., Si) writes the same name Saari Reber (Keher in modern Mongol means a plain'). On the ancient map of Mongolia found in the Yüan shi lei lien, Sa-li IL'ie-rh is marked south of the river Ida-nan (the Onon of our maps), and close to Sa-li IC'ie-rh we read : ` Here was the original abode of the Yiian' (Mongols). Thus it seems the passage in the Yiian history translated above intimates that Chinghiz died in Mongolia, and not near the Liu j5'an skan, as is generally believed. The Yüan ch'ao pi shi (Palladius' transi., 152) and the 'Ts'in cheng lie (Palladius' transi., 195) both agree in stating that, after subduing the Tangut empire, Chinghiz returned home, and then died. Colonel Yule, in his Marco Polo (I. 245), states ` that Rashid calls the place of Chinghiz' death Leung skan, which appears to be the mountain range still so-called in the heart of Shensi.' I am not aware from what translation of Rashid, Yule's statement is derived, but d'Ohsson (I. 375, note) seems to quote the same passage in translating from Rashid : ` Liu-p'an-shan was situated on the frontiers'of the Churche (empire of the Kin), Nangias (empire of the Sung) and Tangut ;' which statement is quite correct." We now come to the Mongol tradition, which places the tomb of Chinghiz in the country of the Ordos, in the great bend of the Yellow River. Two Belgian missionaries, MM. de Vos and Verlinden, who visited the tomb of Chinghiz Khan, say that before the Mahomedan invasion, on a hill a few feet high, there were two courtyards, one in front of the other, surrounded by palisades. In the second courtyard, there were a building like a Chinese dwelling-house and six tents. In a double tent are kept the remains of the bokta (the Holy). The neighbouring tents contained various precious objects, such as a gold saddle, dishes, drinking-cups, a tripod, a kettle, and many other utensils, all in solid silver. (Missions Catholiques, No. 315, 18th June, 1875.)—This periodical gives (p. 293) a sketch of the tomb of the Conqueror, according to the account of the two missionaries. Prjevalsky (Mongolia and Tangut) relates the story of the Khatún Gol (see supra, p. 245), and says that her tomb is situated at II versts north-east of lake of Dzaïdemin Nor, and is called by the Mongols Tumir-Alku, and by the Chinese Djiou-Djin Fu ; one of the legends mentioned by the Russian traveller gives the Ordo country as the burial-place of Chinghiz, 200 versts south of lake Dabasun Nor ; the remains are kept in two coffins, one of wood, the other of silver ; the Khan prophesied that after eight or ten centuries he would come to life again and fight the Emperor of China, and being victorious, would take the Mongols from the Ordos back to their country of Khalka ; Prjevalsky did not see the tomb, nor did Potanin. " Their holiest place [of the Mongols of Ordos] is a collection of felt tents called ` Edjen-joro,' reputed to contain .the bones of Jenghiz Khan. These sacred relics are entrusted to the care of a caste of Darhats, numbering some fifty families. Every summer, on the twenty-first day of the sixth moon, sacrifices are offered up in his honour, when numbers of people congregate to join in the celebration, such gatherings being called Milgan." On the southern border of the Ordos are the ruins of Borobalgasun [Grey town], said to date from Jenghiz Khan's time. (Potanin, Proc. R. G. S. IX. 1887, p. 233.) The last traveller who visited the tomb of Chinghiz is M. C. E. Bonin, in July 1896 ; he was then on the banks of the Yellow River in the northern part of the Ordo country, which is exclusively inhabited by nomadic and pastoral Mongols, forming seven tribes or }lords, Djungar, Talat, Wan, Ottok, Djassak, Wushun and Hangkin, among which are eastward the Djungar and in the centre the Wan ; according to their own tradition, these tribes descend from the seven armies encamped in the | ||||
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