Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/562

536 tribe called Karith, living on the confines of China. The hero of the legend is said to have been the king of this people, and to have lived at Kara-Korum, a city on the Orchar about six hundred miles west of Pekin. His original name and title were Ung or Avenk Khan; but coming under the Christian influences of the Syrians he was converted, and then he received his baptismal name and title, Malek Juchana, i.e. King John. His niece, who also became a Christian, was said to have been married to Tuli, the son of Genghis Khan. If the story is correct, like Bertha of Canterbury, she introduced the faith of Christ to her pagan husband's court, with the result that a succession of kings of the tribe of Karith professed Christianity.

In the year 1145 the Syrian bishop of Gabala (Jibal, in Laodicea of Syria), coming to Europe to lay his grievances before Pope Eugenius, reported that not long before, a certain John, living in the Far East, a king and Nestorian priest, claiming descent from the three wise kings, had made war on the Samiard king of the Medes and Persians, and had taken Ecbatana their capital. Proceeding to deliver Jerusalem, he was stopped by the Tigris and by the sickness of his army. The probability is that this story refers to a raid by some Armenian prince. The Crusading project of rescuing Jerusalem and the stoppage of it at the Tigris do not point to China.

Great as was the fame of the mysterious John, possibly attached to more than one real or mythical person in more than one locality, it was not undisputed. For example. Friar William of Rubruch, who preceded Marco Polo by a few years, and travelled in these Eastern parts during the years 1253 to 1255, when referring to a famous Mongolian chieftain, says, "The Nestorians used to call him King John, and to say of him ten times more than was true, for this is the way of the Nestorians who come from these parts. Out of nothing they will make a great story, and so great reports went out concerning this King