gal of Carpini are supposed to have been, the Niroun Mon-
goles, the particular nation to whom the name of Mongol
more properly belonged, and the kinsmen and subjects of
Temutjin. We are assured by Abel-Remusat that they
are termed by the Chinese writers of the time Black Tha-
tha, and distinguished from the White Tha-tha of the same
writers, who are the Oungout of Abulghasi-khan.'f* The
Sa-Mongal or Mongoles of the water, are supposed to be
the Tatars of Lake Bouyir. The Merkyt, as their name
is written by the Mohammedan writers, are probably the
Merghed in M. Schmidt’s version of Sanang-Setsen, the
well-known name of a powerful tribe on the banks of the
Selenga and Lake Baikal, between the Tatars on the eastern
and the Naimans on the western side. The Mecrit of
Carpin are not easily recognised. M. D’Avezac has conjectured
that the name alluded to the Keryt or Keraites.
The Keraites were a numerous people, consisting of. s.eyeral
tribes, who inhabited the mountains of Karakorum. They
are supposed to have resembled the Mongoles in language,
and to have been a branch of the same stock. Immediately
before the rise of the proper Mongoles, under Temutjin, the
Keraites are said to have been one of the most powerful
nations in Eastern Tartary. Their sovereigns bore the
name of Unch-khans, or Great Monarchs. By Nestoriah
missionaries who had previously acquired influence among
their western neighbours, the Ouigours or Igurites, the
Keraites were converted to Christianity, which they,.are
said to have embraced in the early part of the eleventh
century, and to have long retained; though it does not
appear that they possessed any portions of the scriptures
in their language or the art of writing. By Assemani,
who has investigated the history of the eastern nations
converted to the Nestorian creed during the last century,
it appears to have been proved, that the Unch-khans or
* Recherche«, p. 230. Tha-tha, also Tha-tha-eul, is synonymous in Ohinese
orthography with Tatar. The ethnological notices obtained from Chinese
writers are b u t vague and indefinite at best. We find the term Choul Tha-tha
or Water Tatars ascribed, as M. de It6masat assures us, to people of the Tun-
gtfsian race by Chinese writers, whereas the Water Tatars of Carpin are the
genuine Tatars of Lake Bouyir.
sovereigns of the Keraites were the princes celebrated in
Europe under the famous title of Prester John.! Remusat
conjectured that the Tourgots, whose descendants are found
among the Kalmuks of the Wolga, are the lineal descendants
of these ancient Keraites. Besides these tribes known
to Carpin, the Djelaires lived near the Onon, divided into
ten great branches, The Ouirates, also subdivided into
several tribes, inhabited a higher country, watered by eight
rivers, which uniting form the Kem or the Upper Yenisei
The forest Ouriangaites were a sylvan people living further
northward, similar in manners to the Ourianguites of the
Tungusian stock, but of a totally different race. Lastly,
the Naimans were beyond all these towards the west. They
were either the most westerly of all the old Mongolian
nations in the time of Tschingghis and his successors, or
they were the most easterly and the most remote from
Europe of the Turkish tribes, through whose territory Jean
du Plan de Carpin, the earliest European traveller, took
bis way to the encampment of the Great Khakan of Tartary.
The Naimans possessed a very extensive country, of which
Raschid-ed-din has marked out the geographical limits.
It comprised in its extent the chain of the Great Altai
andtho mountains of Karakorum, as well as the mountains
of Elouy Lerass, the lake of Ardisch, supposed to
be Lake Saisan, the course of the river Ardisch and the
mountains which traverse between that river and the
country of the Kirghises. Their neighbours to the northward
were the Kirghises, to the eastward the Keraites.
On the south-west of their country were vast deserts, which
separated them from the territory of the Ouigours. It was,
as we have observed, on passing out of the country of the
Naimans towards the East that Jean du Plan de Carpin
recorded his arrival in the country of the genuine Tatars
or Mongolians. “ It cost him three weeks of travel to arrive
at Karakorum or more properly at Ordou-balig or the imperial
city of Qar&-qaroum, so called because situated at
* Assemani Bibliothèq. Orientale.—Hist. Générale de l’établissement du
Christianisme, par A. Best, torn. 3, p. 100.