In a preceding note (p. 236) we have quoted a passage in which Rubruquis calls Chinghiz “a certain blacksmith.”  This mistaken notion seems to have originated in the resemblance of his name Temujin to the Turki Temurji, a blacksmith; but it was common throughout Asia in the Middle Ages, and the story is to be found not only in Rubruquis, but in the books of Hayton, the Armenian prince, and of Ibn Batuta, the Moor.  That cranky Orientalist, Dr. Isaac Jacob Schmidt, positively reviles William Rubruquis, one of the most truthful and delightful of travellers, and certainly not inferior to his critic in mother-wit, for adopting this story, and rebukes Timkowski—­not for adopting it, but for merely telling us the very interesting fact that the story was still, in 1820, current in Mongolia. (Schmidt’s San.  Setz. 376, and Timkowski, I. 147.)

NOTE 2.—­Several historians, among others Abulfaraj, represent Chinghiz as having married a daughter of Aung Khan; and this is current among some of the mediaeval European writers, such as Vincent of Beauvais.  It is also adopted by Petis de la Croix in his history of Chinghiz, apparently from a comparatively late Turkish historian; and both D’Herbelot and St. Martin state the same; but there seems to be no foundation for it in the best authorities:  either Persian or Chinese. (See Abulfaragius, p. 285; Speculum Historiale, Bk.  XXIX. ch. lxix.; Hist. of Genghiz Can, p. 29; and Golden Horde, pp. 61-62.) But there is a real story at the basis of Polo’s, which seems to be this:  About 1202, when Aung Khan and Chinghiz were still acting in professed alliance, a double union was proposed between Aung Khan’s daughter Jaur Bigi and Chinghiz’s son Juji, and between Chinghiz’s daughter Kijin Bigi and Togrul’s grandson Kush Buka.  From certain circumstances this union fell through, and this was one of the circumstances which opened the breach between the two chiefs.  There were, however, several marriages between the families. (Erdmann, 283; others are quoted under ch. lix., note 2.)

CHAPTER XLVIII.

HOW CHINGHIS MUSTERED HIS PEOPLE TO MARCH AGAINST PRESTER JOHN.

When Chinghis Kaan heard the brutal message that Prester John had sent him, such rage seized him that his heart came nigh to bursting within him, for he was a man of a very lofty spirit.  At last he spoke, and that so loud that all who were present could hear him:  “Never more might he be prince if he took not revenge for the brutal message of Prester John, and such revenge that insult never in this world was so dearly paid for.  And before long Prester John should know whether he were his serf or no!”