Yessugai with his brothers was now triumphant and prosperous. He was
terribly hostile to the Buyur Lake Tartars; he was ever watching the
Taidjut opposition, which though resting at times never slumbered. Once
in the days of his power Yessugai while hawking along the Onon saw a
Merkit named Yeke Chilaidu taking home with him a wife from the
Olkonots. Seeing that the woman was a beauty Yessugai hurried back to
his yurta and returned with his eldest and youngest brothers to help
him. When Yeke saw the three brothers coming he grew frightened, struck
his horse and rushed away to find some good hiding place, but found
none and rode back to the cart where his wife was. “Those men are very
hostile,” said the woman. “Hurry off, or they will kill thee. If thou
survive find a wife such as I am, if thou remember me call her by my
name.” Then she drew off her shift and gave it to Yeke. He took it,
mounted quickly and, seeing Yessugai approaching with his brothers,
galloped up the river.
The three men rushed after Yeke, but did not overtake him, so they rode
back to the woman, whose name was Hoelun. She was weeping. Her screams
when they seized her “raised waves on the river, and shook trees in the
valley.”
“The husband has crossed many ridges already, and many waters,” said
Daritai, Yessugai’s youngest brother, “no matter how thou scream he
will not come to thee, if thou look for his trail thou wilt not find
it. Stop screaming!” Thus they took Hoelun, and she became a wife then
to Yessugai.
Some months after the capture of Hoelun, Yessugai made attacks on the
Tartars, and among other captives took Temudjin Uge, a chieftain.
Hoelun gave birth to a son at that period [2] near the hill Dailiun
Baldak. The boy was born grasping a lump of dark blood in his fist very
firmly, and since he was born when Temudjin Uge was taken they called
the child Temudjin. After that Hoelun had three other sons: Kassar,
Hochiun and Taimuge, and one daughter, Taimulun.
When this first son had passed his thirteenth year Yessugai set out
with the lad on a visit to Hoelun’s brothers to find among them a wife
for him. When between the two mountains Cihurga and Cheksar he met one
Desaichan, a man of the Ungirs. “Whither art thou going O Yessugai?”
asked Desaichan. “I am going with my son to his uncles to look out a
bride for him among them.” “Thy son has a clear face and bright eyes,”
said Desaichan. “Last night I dreamed that a white falcon holding the
sun and the moon in its talons flew down to my wrist, and perched on
it. ‘We only know the sun and the moon through our eyesight,’ said I to
some friends of mine, ‘but now a white falcon has brought them both
down to me in his talons, this must be an omen of greatness.’ At the
right time hast thou come hither Yessugai with thy son and shown what
my dream means. It presages high fortune undoubtedly. I have a daughter
at home, she is small yet but come and look at her.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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