HOW PRESTER JOHN MARCHED TO MEET CHINGHIS.
Now the story goes that when Prester John became aware that Chinghis
with his host was marching against him, he went forth to meet him with
all his forces, and advanced until he reached the same plain of Tanduc,
and pitched his camp over against that of Chinghis Kaan at a distance
of 20 miles. And then both armies remained at rest for two days that
they might be fresher and heartier for battle.{1}
So when the two great hosts were pitched on the plains of Tanduc as you
have heard, Chinghis Kaan one day summoned before him his astrologers,
both Christians and Saracens, and desired them to let him know which
of the two hosts would gain the battle, his own or Prester John’s. The
Saracens tried to ascertain, but were unable to give a true answer;
the Christians, however, did give a true answer, and showed manifestly
beforehand how the event should be. For they got a cane and split
it lengthwise, and laid one half on this side and one half on that,
allowing no one to touch the pieces. And one piece of cane they called
_Chinghis Kaan_, and the other piece they called _Prester John_. And
then they said to Chinghis: “Now mark! and you will see the event of
the battle, and who shall have the best of it; for whose cane soever
shall get above the other, to him shall victory be.” He replied that he
would fain see it, and bade them begin. Then the Christian astrologers
read a Psalm out of the Psalter, and went through other incantations.
And lo! whilst all were beholding, the cane that bore the name of
Chinghis Kaan, without being touched by anybody, advanced to the other
that bore the name of Prester John, and got on the top of it. When the
Prince saw that he was greatly delighted, and seeing how in this matter
he found the Christians to tell the truth, he always treated them with
great respect, and held them for men of truth for ever after.{2}
NOTE 1.—Polo in the preceding chapter has stated that this plain
of Tanduc was in Prester John’s country. He plainly regards it as
identical with the Tanduc of which he speaks more particularly in
ch. lix. as belonging to Prester John’s descendants, and which must
be located near the Chinese Wall. He is no doubt wrong in placing
the battle there. Sanang Setzen puts the battle between the two,
the only one which he mentions, “at the outflow of the Onon near
Kulen Buira.” The same action is placed by De Mailla’s authorities
at Calantschan, by P. Hyacinth at Kharakchin Schatu, by Erdmann
after Rashid in the vicinity of Hulun Barkat and Kalanchinalt,
which latter was on the borders of the Churché or Manchus. All this
points to the vicinity of Buir Nor and Hulan or Kalon Nor (though
the Onon is far from these). But this was _not_ the final defeat
of Aung Khan or Prester John, which took place some time later
(in 1203) at a place called the Chacher Ondur (or Heights), which
Gaubil places between the Tula and the Kerulun, therefore near the
modern Urga. Aung Khan was wounded, and fled over the frontier
of the Naiman; the officers of that tribe seized and killed him.
(_Schmidt_, 87, 383; _Erdmann_, 297; _Gaubil_, p. 10.)
NOTE 2.—A Tartar divination by twigs, but different from that
here employed, is older than Herodotus, who ascribes it to the
Scythians. We hear of one something like the last among the Alans,
and (from Tacitus) among the Germans. The words of Hosea (iv. 12),
“My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth
unto them,” are thus explained by Theophylactus: “They stuck up a
couple of sticks, whilst murmuring certain charms and incantations;
the sticks then, by the operation of devils, direct or indirect,
would fall over, and the direction of their fall was noted,” etc.
The Chinese method of divination comes still nearer to that in the
text. It is conducted by tossing in the air two symmetrical pieces
of wood or bamboo of a peculiar form. It is described by Mendoza,
and more particularly, with illustrations, by Doolittle.[1]
But Rubruquis would seem to have witnessed nearly the same process
that Polo describes. He reprehends the conjuring practices of the
Nestorian priests among the Mongols, who seem to have tried to
rival the indigenous _Káms_ or Medicine-men. Visiting the Lady
Kuktai, a Christian Queen of Mangu Kaan, who was ill, he says: “The
Nestorians were repeating certain verses, I know not what (they
said it was part of a Psalm), over two twigs which were brought
into contact in the hands of two men. The monk stood by during the
operation” (p. 326).[2] Pétis de la Croix quotes from Thévenot’s
travels, a similar mode of divination as much used, before a fight,
among the Barbary corsairs. Two men sit on the deck facing one
another and each holding two arrows by the points, and hitching
the notches of each pair of arrows into the other pair. Then the
ship’s writer reads a certain Arabic formula, and it is pretended
that whilst this goes on, the two sets of arrows, _of which one
represents the Turks and the other the Christians_, struggle
together in spite of the resistance of the holders, and finally
one rises over the other. This is perhaps the divination by arrows
which is prohibited in the Koran. (_Sura_, V. v. 92.) It is related
by Abulfeda that Mahomed found in the Kaaba an image of Abraham
with such arrows in his hand.
P. della Valle describes the same process, conducted by a Mahomedan
conjuror of Aleppo: “By his incantations he made the four points
of the arrows come together without any movement of the holders,
and by the way the points spontaneously placed themselves, obtained
answers to interrogatories.”
And Mr. Jaeschke writes from Lahaul: “There are many different
ways of divination practised among the Buddhists; and that also
mentioned by Marco Polo is known to our Lama, but in a slightly
different way, making use of _two arrows_ instead of a cane split
up, wherefore this kind is called _da-mo_, ‘Arrow-divination.’”
Indeed the practice is not extinct in India, for in 1833 Mr. Vigne
witnessed its application to detect the robber of a government
chest at Lodiana.
As regards Chinghiz’s respect for the Christians there are other
stories. Abulfaragius has one about Chinghiz seeing in a dream a
religious person who promised him success. He told the dream to
his wife, Aung Khan’s daughter, who said the description answered
to that of the bishop who used to visit her father. Chinghiz then
inquired for a bishop among the Uighúr Christians in his camp, and
they indicated Mar Denha. Chinghiz thenceforward was milder towards
the Christians, and showed them many distinctions (p. 285). Vincent
of Beauvais also speaks of Rabbanta, a Nestorian monk, who lived
in the confidence of Chinghiz’s wife, daughter of “the Christian
King David or Prester John,” and who used by divination to make
many revelations to the Tartars. We have already said that there
seems no ground for assigning a daughter of Aung Khan as wife to
Chinghiz. But there was a _niece_ of the former, named Abika, among
the wives of Chinghiz. And Rashiduddin _does_ relate a dream of the
Kaan’s in relation to her. But it was to the effect that he was
divinely commanded to give her away; and this he did next morning!
(_Rawlins. Herod._ IV. 67; _Amm. Marcell._ XXXI. 2; _Delvio, Disq.
Magic._ 558; _Mendoza_, Hak. Soc. I. 47; _Doolittle_, 435–436;
_Hist. of Genghizcan_, pp. 52–53; _Preston’s al-Hariri_, p. 183;
_P. della V._ II. 865–866; _Vigne_, I. 46; _D’Ohsson_, I. 418–419).
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[1] [On the Chinese divining-twig, see _Dennys, Folk-lore of China_,
57.—H. C.]
[2] [With reference to this passage from _Rubruck_, Mr. Rockhill says
(195, note): “The mode of divining here referred to is apparently
the same as that described by Polo. It must not however be
confounded with rabdomancy, in which bundles of wands or arrows
were used.” Ammianus Marcellinus (XXXI. 2. 350) says this mode of
divination was practised by the Alans. “They have a singular way
of divining: they take straight willow wands and make bundles of
them, and on examining them at a certain time, with certain secret
incantations, they know what is going to happen.”—H. C.]