Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 573

1850.

Translation of Two Mongolian Letters.

531

of Öldshäitu, refused to acknowledge the supremacy of the Chinese emperors, were correct: Öldshäitu followed his example; and the seal was not given him by any emperor of China but made by himself. This solution appears to reconcile all inconsistencies, accounting, among other things for the absence at the beginning of the letter of the phrase occurring in Argun's "by the auspices of the Emperor;" which Rémusat renders “par le grâce du khakan,” and of which he says, "l'ommission est surtout singuliére dans une pièce marqueé d'un sceau accordé par le khakan." Old usage, which makes us still keep to Latin and Norman-French mottoes, may have determined Öldshäitu to continue the use of the Chinese seal characters, already in his day very ancient. Besides, it may be remarked here that one of the tutors provided by their father Argun for his elder brother Gazan was a learned Chinese; from whom, or from some colleague of whom, it is hardly too bold a presumption to assume that he also received instruction.

LETTER OF ARGUN.

By the power of the eternal God, and the auspices of the Emperor Argun: Our word :-

King of France! Thou hast delivered to us through thy envoy

Mar Bar-ssvema Sachora, the following message: "When the troops of the Il'khan take the field against Egypt, we shall set out from hence to join them."

Approving of this, thy delivered message, We now declare that We, trusting in God, will set out in the end of the winter month of the tiger year (1290), and on the fifteenth of the first spring month will encamp at Damascus. If thou, thy word truly holding, sendest thy troops at the time, and to the place fixed, We will, if We, by the help of God, con- quer these peoples, deliver Jerusalem over to thee. Should the fixed period and place of meeting not be attended to, and the troops march- ed uselessly about, would that be proper? And if one is afterwards at a loss how to act, what advantage will one obtain? Further, it were well if thou, offering tribute by envoys of different tongues and languages, didst send in presents of the agreeable and rare things of France, together with pictures of various colors. How it is to be ordered must be decided by the power of God and the auspices of the

Thus informing you, We send Müskäril* Churtshi.

emperor.

Supposed to be the Basquarel' of the old writers

“

ܡܥܚܘܗ