ABSTRACT
The members of the horde at the foot of Mount Burkan-Kaldun were light-hearted and exuberant. Mounting the highest peak of Burkan-Kaldun, he took off his girdle, hung it round his neck as a sign of humiliation, turned his cap inside out on his fist, made nine genuflexions, poured a libation of koumiss, and returned thanks to the Eternal Blue Heaven for his marvellous escape. The Mongols could not understand what Temuchin was about, hi the neighbourhood were many other tribes of Merkits. He had deprived them of the possibility of penetrating deeper into the country of the Merkits, and perhaps of attacking the Merkit Khan Toto, an old enemy of Togrul. It never occurred to anyone that this youthful and taciturn Mongolian leader with a reserved countenance might have ideas of his own. No one dreamed that his desire was to leave the balance of power in Mongolia undisturbed until he was himself strong enough to turn the scale.
