g the submission of all the tribes
and khans that inhabited that region of country, he set out on his
return home.

It is related that one of the khans who gave in his submission to
Genghis Khan at this time made him a present of a certain bird called
a _shongar_, according to a custom often observed among the people of
that region. The shongar was a very large and fierce bird of prey,
which, however, could be trained like the falcons which were so much
prized in the Middle Ages by the princes and nobles of Europe. It
seems it was customary for an inferior khan to present one of these
birds to his superior on great occasions, as an emblem and token of
his submission to his superior's authority. The bird in such a case
was very richly decorated with gold and precious stones, so that the
present was sometimes of a very costly and magnificent character.

Genghis Khan received such a present as this from a chieftain named
Urus Inal, who was among those that yielded to his sway in the country
of the Irtish, after the battle at which Tukta Bey was defeated and
killed. The bird was presented to Genghis Khan by Urus with great
ceremony, as an act of submission and homage.

What, in the end, was the fate of Prince Kushluk, will appear in the
next chapter.

[Illustration: PRESENTATION OF THE SHONGAR.]

CHAPTER XIV.

IDIKUT.

1208

Idikut.--The old system of farming revenues.--Evils of farming the
revenue.--Modern system.--Disinterested collectors.--Independent and
impartial courts.--Waste of the public money.--Shuwakem.--Idikut's
quarrel with Gurkhan's tax-gatherers.--Rebellion.--He sends to
Genghis Khan.--His reception of the embassy.--Idikut's visit to
Genghis Khan.--Gurkhan in a rage.--Jena.--Subsequent history of
Kushluk.--Kushluk's final defeat and flight.--Hotly pursued by
Jena.--Kushluk's death.--Genghis Khan's triumph.

There was another great and powerful khan, named Idikut, whose tribe
had hitherto been under the dominion of Gurkhan, the Prince of
Turkestan, where Kushluk had sought refuge, but who about this time
revolted from Gurkhan and went over to Genghis Khan, under
circumstances which illustrate, in some degree, the peculiar nature of
the political ties by which these different tribes and nations were
bound to each other. It seems that the tribe over which Idikut ruled
was tributary to Turkestan, and that Gurkhan had an officer stationed
in Idikut's country whose business it was to collect an