Brother Julian hastened home to report his discoveries and warn his country, which he had reached between two and three years before our story begins; but nothing more had come of his pilgrimage, no more had been heard of the "Magyar[4] brothers." [Footnote 4: Europeans called them Ugrians-Hungarians, but they called themselves "Magyars"--"children of the land," as some think to be the meaning of the word.] "But why, Father Roger?" asked Dora, with wide eyes. "Because the 'thick-headed people' have not only overrun nearly the whole of Central Asia as far as Pekin, covering it with ruins and reducing it to a desert, but have streamed westward like a flood, a torrent, and have submerged nearly the whole of Eastern Europe." "Then they are not Tartars?" "No, Mongolians[5]; but they have swallowed up many Tartar tribes and have forced them to join their host. Tartars we have known before, but Mongols are new to us, so most people keep to the name familiar to them, which seems appropriate too--Tátars, Tartari, you know, denizens of Tartarus, the Inferno, as we Italians call it; and their deeds are 'infernal' enough, Heaven knows!" [Footnote 5: Temudschin was but thirteen when he became chief (in A. D. 1175) of one horde, consisting of thirty to forty thousand families. After some vicissitudes, he entered upon a career of conquest, and, between 1204 and 1206, he summoned the chiefs of all the hordes and tribes who owned his sway to an assembly, at which he caused it to be proclaimed that "Heaven had decreed to him the title of 'Dschingiz' (Highest), for he was to be ruler of the whole world." From this time he was known as Dschingiz, or Zenghiz Khan.] "And are they coming, really?" "As to whether they will come here, God alone knows; but Oktai, son of Dschingiz, who is now chief Khan, has sent a vast host westward, and, as I said, they have overrun great part of Russia; it is reported that they have burnt Moscow." "Come, come, Father," interrupted Peter, who had been growing more and more restless, "you are not going to compare us Magyars with the Russians, I hope, or with the Chinese and Indians either. If they show their ugly dog's-heads here, they will find us more than a match for such a rabble." "I hope so!" said Father Roger. But he spoke gravely, and added, "You have heard, of course, of the Cumani, Kunok, you call them, I think." "To be sure! Peaceable enough when they are let alone, but brave, splendid fellows when they are attacked, as Oktai has found, for I know they have twice defeated him," said Master Peter triumphantly.