Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/275

 of mind will assist the traveller in the most trifling circumstances. For instance, we boiled water for fixing altitudes openly, often in the presence of Mongols, to whom we used to explain that this was our manner of praying to God.

A little more than seven miles to the north-east of Lake Tsaideming-nor, not far from the shore of the Hoang-ho, stands a tolerably high conical hill, called by the Mongols Tumyr-alhu, and by the Chinese Dju-djing-fu. Here, the Mongols say, the wife of Chinghiz-Khan is buried. The tradition runs as follows. One of the Mongol princes, by name Gichin-Khan, had a beautiful wife who pleased the great warrior so much that he threatened to make war if her lawful husband did not resign this woman to him. The terrified prince agreed to this demand, and Chinghiz-Khan set off for Peking accompanied by his bride. In passing through the country of the present Chakhars, the beautiful captive escaped from her lord and fled in the direction of the Hoang-ho; on the opposite bank of this river she piled up a mound of earth with her own hands and hid in it. When the pursuers sent by Chinghiz-Khan approached her hiding place, the unfortunate woman, despairing of safety, threw herself into the River, whence the Mongols call it to the present day the Khatun-gol, i.e. Lady's River. The body of