Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/135

123 TCIIINGUIZ-KHAN, SOVEREIGN OF THE TARTARS. 123 " image of God." He never spoke but by the inspiration of Hormoustha, and all his words were regarded as oracles. This personage now began a solemn oration, and addressing Temoutchin told him, that, after having vanquished and destroyed several sovereigns, who had borne the title of Gour-Khan *, that is, Khan-General, or universal, it did not become him to adopt the same qualification, since its glory was for ever tarnished ; but that Heaven ordered him to take the title of Tclmiguiz- Khan f, or " Khan of the Strong." No sooner had Bout-Tengri ceased, than an immense clamour arose from the camp, and the whole multitude of Tartars cried out with one voice, " Ten thousand years of life to Tchinguiz- Khan." Tchinguiz-Khan, the " Sovereign of the Strong," was formerly but the chief of some very poor tribes, wander- ing about with their flocks under the most rigorous climate and in the most elevated regions of Tartary, namely, to the south-east of Lake Barkal, where the rivers Onan, Keroulan, and Toula take their rise. A few years sufficed for him to collect under one banner a crowd of the ferocious and turbulent hordes, whom he let loose to ravage the earth. Tchinguiz owed his success to the strength of his will, the resources of his genius, and the employment of every stratagem that could further his ends. Cunning and perfidy were always ready to second his warlike efforts ; never did conqueror carry further his contempt for humanity, never had ambitious chief an army more adapted to execute his designs. Made up of nomadic hordes, who at all times led the lives of soldiers f Tchink, in Mongol, signifies strong or firm, and the particle guiz is the plural inflection.
 * The word gour, in Mongol, conveys the idea of totality,