Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-19

'\O understand WIlaJ happened
now, it is necessary to turn
back nearly a hundred years
i and look at Kubilai Khan. Or
rather at the Mongol empires OF
the day of Kubilai Khan.
The conquestS of GenghiS Khan had
been too sudden and too huge for any
single man to dominate for long. AL
though his grandson, Kubilai, was still
the Kha Khan, still the great Khan,
overload of his brethren, he was &C
tually master of no more than Cathay.
From his city Of Kambalu he ruled the
Cobb desert, China proper and Korea.
Elsewhere the other grandsons were at
war. e.h-lqnr.4 n 30
1t was domestic war, savage and
ceaseless and usually without result.
Anarchy succeeded. Meanwhile the
great Khan in Cathay had been cast
out by the Chinese, and his Mongols
driven back slowly into their. native
steppes, the Cobb. Their. strength
Slapped by Chinese civilization, they had
lost the secret Of victory; surprised and
obstinate, they were penned beyond the
great wall again. to rebel at times, but
never to march as conquerors upon the
highways.
The smallest of the Mongol appanages
had been that of the Jats-as the de-
scendants of Chagatai, son of Ghengis
Khan, came to be called. And now, in
1875, Timur the Amir had ouSted them
from their mountains around Almalyk.
Timur in his advance north had not
only crossed the mountain barriers. he
had put himself astride the great high
ways of Asia. Without knowing about
it, or probably caring in the least.
he had marked the end OF the bar
barian inroads from North Asia. Scyth-
TItinc-TtJYkc ~
gols, they had all come out of the
limbo Of the steppes. They had been
his ancestors and he had prevailed over
his foster brothers. The gentleman
was driving the barbarian into the
desert
In this decade, 137o-13So, three quar-
tiers of the old Mongol dominion van
ished from the map, and the highways
were closed. But the most formidable
quarter remained intact. This was to
the north and east of Timur, and it was
called the Golden Horde.
It had grown up around Juchi, the
eldest son Of GenghiS Khan. It had
been dubbed the Golden Horde because
Batu the Splendid, the son of Juchi,
had covered his great domed tent with
cloth of gold. 1t had Jared well, in
deed, because the steppes of Mid-ASia
and Russia were perfectly suited to the
ueeuo VI LilcSc Loulduo, ~ Ad0 AiC!cdoCo
and its cattle had multiplied and 1t had
worried Europe exceedingly for $50
years.
AT Thurs birth the Golden Horde
= was at the height of its power.
Life in the open plains, seasoned by
constant raiding, had keep these nomad
clans At and more aggressive.
They wandered over the snow coun-
tries, whipped by the winds from the
northern tundras-the women and chill
dren keeping to the covered carts that
were lowed by oxen, the warriors riding
beside them. Whole cities moved in
this fashion, smoking Kitchens and
wagons, domed mosques Of gray felt
adorned with banners. Sometimes they
pine logs, up north where the blue tim
Der marks the limit of the grasslands.
They were half pagan. Long-haired
Shamans, girdled with strings of iron
images, squatted beside mullahs. and
the tame bears of conjurers slept under
the mosque wagons. Uncounted horse
herds filled their changing pastures,
and the sheep were numbered by the
dogs that drove them.
Only the ruling families were Mon
gols. The rest were the offspring of all
the north that our ancestors called the
Land of Darkness. They were largely
Turks and Tatars, but it Is simplest to
call them men of the Golden Horde.
They were cousins of Thurs Tatars
-slant-eyed and n-bearded, nervous
and acquisitive. They dressed in sables
| and padded silks and had excellent ar
NOR. And they were less barbaric than
the Russians of their day-they minted
coins for the Russians to pay back to
| them as tribute, and supplied the
| counting machines to calculate what
was due them, and the paper on which
they made out the charters OF the Rus
sian grand princes.
Russia was ruled by them from dis
tance-from their city of Sarai, on the
Volga, and AStrakhan. To them went
the Russian princes with gifts and
tribute, and as a rule they only en-
tered Russia when the tribute failed. to
burn and slay and fill their saddle bags
with what they fancied
Toktamish was chief OF the Golden
Horde In Thurs day. Headlong, cruel,
| and untroubled by scruples. he passed