ABSTRACT

Thereupon he campaigned against the Western Ten Thousands. He entered the defile of Onggon-u Sübe, and was campaigning along the Türgen River, when Bagatur Negürekei of the Dalad came that way, driving his oxen and blowing ypon great trumpets. The Three Eastern Ten Thousands took the noise of the hooves of the oxen for the sound of armed men, and thought that the men with flags and the men with trumpets meant that soldiers were coming, and they fled away in disorder. Dayan Khagan’s horse, called Horned Sorrel, fell trying to jump over the river, and the top of the Khagan’s helmet stuck in the mud, and he could not get up. Then a man called Togan of the Besüd called out: ‘The yellow horse has got stuck in the mud,’ and two men of the Jagud, Chagan and Chegeje, turned back and dismounted, and rehorsed him. They fled away by night, but could not find the mouth of the defile, so they crossed over where the mountain was low, but many of their saddles fell off and were lost, so that it became known as Saddle Pass.