invaded Tangut three times, in 1206, 1217, and at last in 1225; the final struggle took place the following year, when Kanchau, Liangchau, and Suhchau fell into the hands of the Mongols.  After the death of Chinghiz (1227), the last ruler of Tangut, Li H’ien, who surrendered the same year to Okkodai, son of the conqueror, was killed.  The dominions of Tangut in the middle of the 11th century, according to the Si Hia Chi Shih Pen Mo, quoted by Dr. Bushell, “were bounded, according to the map, by the Sung Empire on the south and east, by the Liao (Khitan) on the north-east, the Tartars (Tata) on the north, the Uighur Turks (Hui-hu) on the west, and the Tibetans on the south-west.  The Alashan Mountains stretch along the northern frontier, and the western extends to the Jade Gate (Yue Men Kwan) on the border of the Desert of Gobi.”  Under the Mongol Dynasty, Kan Suh was the official name of one of the twelve provinces of the Empire, and the popular name was Tangut.

(Dr. S. W. Bushell:  Inscriptions in the Juchen and Allied Scripts and The Hsi Hsia Dynasty of Tangut.  See above, p. 29.)

“The word Tangutan applied by the Chinese and by Colonel Prjevalsky to a Tibetan-speaking people around the Koko-nor has been explained to me in a variety of ways by native Tangutans.  A very learned lama from the Gserdkog monastery, south-east of the Koko-nor, told me that Tangutan, Amdoans, and Sifan were interchangeable terms, but I fear his geographical knowledge was a little vague.  The following explanation of the term Tangut is taken from the Hsi-tsang-fu.  ’The Tangutans are descendants of the Tang-tu-chueeh.  The origin of this name is as follows:  In early days, the Tangutans lived in the Central Asian Chin-shan, where they were workers of iron.  They made a model of the Chin-shan, which, in shape, resembled an iron helmet.  Now, in their language, “iron helmet” is Tang-kueeh, hence the name of the country.  To the present day, the Tangutans of the Koko-nor wear a hat shaped like a pot, high crowned and narrow, rimmed with red fringe sewn on it, so that it looks like an iron helmet, and this is a proof of [the accuracy of the derivation].’  Although the proof is not very satisfactory, it is as good as we are often offered by authors with greater pretension to learning.

“If I remember rightly, Prjevalsky derives the name from two words meaning ‘black tents.’” (W.  W. Rockhill, China Br.  R. As.  Soc., XX. pp. 278-279.)

“Chinese authorities tell us that the name [Tangut] was originally borne by a people living in the Altai’, and that the word is Turkish....  The population of Tangut was a mixture of Tibetans, Turks, Uighurs, Tukuhuns, Chinese, etc.” (Rockhill, Rubruck, p. 150, note.—­H.  C.)]

Sachiu is SHACHAU, “Sand-district,” an outpost of China Proper, at the eastern verge of the worst part of the Sandy Desert.  It is recorded to have been fortified in the 1st century as a barrier against the Hiongnu.