Flemish Friar found it somewhat pungent, and says that 'it biteth a man's tongue like the wine of raspes when it is drunk. After a man hath taken a draught thereof, it leaveth behind it a taste like the taste of almon milke, and goeth downe very pleasantly, intoxicating weake braines.' Another beverage is named Caracosmos, or Black Cosmos, which was reserved for the great lords,' and is described as 'like unto whay or white must.' The lees were given to the servants and caused them to sleepe exceedingly.' 'That which is thinne and cleare their masters drinke; and in very deed it is marvelous sweete and holesome liquor.' The Russian priests more truly than wisely declared that cosmos was not a drink fit for Christians, and consequently the Tatars declined to embrace a religion that forbade indulgence in their favourite liquor. The women in winter time usually drank a mixture made by pouring hot water upon curds kept in a bladder, the result being a very sour beverage.

Such as could afford it, loved to array themselves in silken stuffs, cotton cloths, and gold brocade brought from Persia, India, and Cathay, and in rich and costly skins procured from Russia and the northern regions of Asia. The house inhabited by Mangou Khan—for Okkadai, or Oktai, had set the example of abandoning the nomad tent for a settled residence-was hung with cloth of gold. In the midst was a Fire made of Thorns, Wormwood Roots of a great Size, and Ox-Dung. The Khan sat on a Bed, and was clad with a Robe of spotted Fur, which shined like a Seal Skin. He was of middle Stature, flat-nosed, and about 45 years old. His Wife, who was a little pretty Woman, sat by him.'

When in doubt as to what course to pursue, Mangou Khan had recourse to divination by means of the shoulder-bones of rams, and which seems to have been much on a par with our modern vulgar practice of tossing a coin in the air and crying

Heads or Tails. The Khan, we are told, would call for three bones, and, holding them in his hands, would inwardly formulate his dilemma. The bones were then taken away and put into a fire, and when quite black were brought back to him. If one were cleft lengthwise, the sign was affirmative; if one were cleft across, or if round pieces had flown off, the answer was held to be negative; but it is not stated how the response was to be read should both these events occur.

Apparently under the impression that a benediction can do no harm, if it does no good, Mangou Khan, when drinking, allowed the Nestorian priests to wave incense towards his cup and pronounce a blessing on its contents. The rumoured toleration and munificence of the Tatar chief drew to his court at Karakoram adventurers from all parts of the world. Rubruquis particularly mentions a Norman Bishop, a French lady from Metz with her Russian husband, several Hungarians, Greeks, Russians, Georgians, and Armenians, and a goldsmith from Paris, who had executed for the Khakhan a silver tree supported by four lions of the same precious metal, and ejecting four different kinds of liquor. There was also a colony of Germans, carried off as captives by Batou Khan, settled on the Jaxartes, or Syr Darya, and employed as miners.

The gradual decline of the Tatars from their original simplicity, and their attainment to a certain degree of barbaric splendour, have been described by Gibbon with his usual felicity of diction. On the banks of the Onon and Selinga, the royal or golden horde exhibited the contrast of simplicity and greatness; of the roasted sheep and mares' milk which composed their banquets; and of a distribution in one day of five hundred waggons of gold and silver. The ambassadors and princes of Europe and Asia were compelled to undertake this distant and laborious pilgrimage; and the life and reign of the great dukes of Russia, the kings of Georgia and Armenia, the sultans of

Iconium and the Emirs of Persia, were decided by the frown or smile of the great Khan. The sons and grandsons of Zingis had been accustomed to the pastoral life; but the village of Caracorum (about 600 miles to the north-west of Pekin) was gradually ennobled by their election and residence.

'A change of manners is implied in the removal of Octai and Mangou from a tent to a house; and their example was imitated by the princes of their family and the great officers of their empire. Instead of the boundless forest (?), the enclosure of a park afforded the more indolent pleasures of the chase: their new habitations were decorated with painting and sculpture; their superfluous treasures were cast in fountains and basins, and statues of massy silver; and the artists of China and Paris vied with each other in the service of the great Khan. Caracorum contained two streets, the one of Chinese mechanics, the other of Mohammedan traders; and the places of religious worship, one Nestorian church, two moschs, and twelve temples of various idols, may represent in some degree the number and division of inhabitants. Yet a French missionary declares that the town of St Denys, near Paris, was more considerable than the Tatar capital; and that the whole palace of Mangou was scarcely equal to a tenth part of that Benedictine Abbey.'

CHAPTER V.

THE TATARS.

KING HAITON I. OF ARMENIA-CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MOGHUL AND CHRISTIAN PRINCES-LETTERS OF EDWARD II. TO THE KING OF THE TATARS-LETTER FROM PRESTER JOHN TO ALEXIUS COMNENUS-VARIOUS ACCOUNTS OF PRESTER JOHN-NESTORIUS-REVIVAL OF MOHAMMEDANISM-BIRTH OF TIMOUR-HIS EARLY LIFE AND ADVENTURES-RAISED TO THE THRONE HIS CONQUESTS-SHEEAHS AND SOONEES-THE TWELVE IMAMS-DEFEAT OF BAYAZID-RETURN OF TIMOUR TO SAMARKAND.

THE prevalent belief in Europe as to the Christianity of the Tatars may have been partly attributable to the letters addressed to the King and Queen of Cyprus by the Constable of Armenia, who wrote from Saurequant, conjectured by Colonel Yule to be a misprint for Samrequant, or Samarkand. In 1246, or thereabout, Hetoum or Hayton I., King of Little Armenia, deeming it prudent to place himself under the protection of the Great Khan, deputed his brother Sempad, or Sinibald, the constable of his tiny kingdom, to congratulate Kuyuk Khan on his accession to the power and dignity of the 'Cham of Tatarie.' The ambassador appears to have corresponded with their Cyprian Majesties, and to have furnished them with information of a novel as well as interesting character. Among other curious matters he states that the Three Kings who made their offerings to the Saviour in the manger came from Tanchat, or Tangut, and carried back with them to their distant homes on the borders of China the chief articles of the Christian faith.

Some years later King Hayton repaired in person to the court of Mangou Khan, successor to Kuyuk, — first of all

visiting the camp of the Tatar General at Kars. Thence the royal traveller proceeded through Armenia Proper and, traversing the Derbend Pass, at length arrived at Sarai on the Volga. Here he made the acquaintance of Batou Khan and his son Sartach, both of whom he declared to be Christians. Resuming his journey on the 13th May, 1254, he reached Karakoram in the early part of September, and was welcomed with profuse hospitality. On the 1st November the Armenian started on his homeward journey, travelling in safety by way of Zungaria, Otrar, Samarkand, Bokhara, Khorassan, Mazanderan, and Tabriz.

Towards the close of the 13th and in the beginning of the 14th century, diplomatic communications were more than once opened between Christian Powers and the Moghul Khans of Persia. The initiative seems to have been taken by the latter, who, with the diminution of their martial spirit, had laid aside their insolence of tone and manner, and were only solicitous to obtain assistance from the Franks in their wars with the Sultan of Egypt. According to Colonel Yule, two of these supplicatory letters are still preserved among the French archives. The earlier is from Argun Khan, and came in 1289. It is written in Uigur characters in the Mongol language, on a roll of cotton paper six feet and a half long by ten inches wide. The seal is thrice impressed on the face of the letter in red. It is five inches and a half square, containing six characters: 'Seal of the Minister of State, Pacificator of Nations.' The second letter is from Khodabandah, otherwise called Oljaitu, and written in 1305. The seal in this case contains the words: 'By a supreme decree the Seal of the Descendant of the Emperor, charged to reduce to obedience the ten thousand barbarous nations.'

A duplicate was probably sent to Edward II. of England, whose reply, dated from Northampton, 16th October, 1307, will