nowledge
was gained. In the end the Yuchi were found in their new home. With them
Chang Keen dwelt for a year, but all his efforts to induce them to
return were in vain. They were safe in their new land, and did not care
to risk encounter with their old foes, even with the Emperor of China
for their friend.

Finally the adventurous envoy returned to China with two of his
companions, the only survivors of the hundred with whom he had set out
years before. He had an interesting story to tell of lands and peoples
unknown to the Chinese, and wrote an account of his travels and of the
geography of the countries he had seen. Chang Keen was subsequently sent
on a mission to the western kingdom of Ousun, where he was received with
much honor, though the king declined to acknowledge himself a vassal of
the ruler of China. From here he sent explorers far to the south and
north, bringing back with him fresh information concerning the Asiatic
nations.

Of the Yuchi later stories are told. They are said to have come into
collision with the Parthians, whom they vanquished after a
long-continued struggle. They are also credited with having destroyed
the kingdom of Bactria, a far-eastern relic of the empire of Alexander
the Great. Several centuries later they may have combined with their old
foes to form the Huns, who flung themselves in a devastating torrent
upon Europe, and eventually became the founders of the modern kingdom of
Hungary.

_THE "CRIMSON EYEBROWS."_

With the opening of the Christian era a usurper came to the Chinese
throne. In the year 1 B.C. the emperor Gaiti died, and Wang Mang, a
powerful official, joined with the mother of the dead emperor to seize
the power of the state. The friends and officials of Gaiti were ruined
and disgraced, and in the year 1 A.D. a boy of nine years was raised to
the throne as nominal emperor, under whose shadow Wang Mang ruled
supreme. Money was needed for the ambitious upstart, and he obtained it
by robbing the graves of former monarchs of the jewels and other
valuables buried with them. This, from the Chinese point of view, was a
frightful sacrilege, yet the people seem to have quietly submitted to
the violation of the imperial tombs.

Five years passed away, and the emperor reached the age of sixteen. He
might grow troublesome in a year or two more. Wang Mang decided that he
had lived long enough. The poisoned cup, which seems to have been always
ready in the Chinese pa