lnerable quarter is in the north, where it joins on to
the vast region of the steppes, a country whose scarcity of rain unfits
it for agriculture, but which has sufficient herbage for the pasturage
of immense herds. Here from time immemorial has dwelt a race of hardy
wanderers, driving its flocks of sheep, cattle, and horses from pasture
to pasture, and at frequent intervals descending in plundering raids
upon the settled peoples of the south.

China in particular became the prey of these warlike horsemen. We hear
little of them in the early days, when the Chinese realm was narrow and
the original barbarians possessed most of the land. We hear much of them
in later days, when the empire had widened and grown rich and
prosperous, offering an alluring prize to the restless and daring
inhabitants of the steppes.

The stories we have already told have much to say of the relations of
China with the nomads of the north. Against these foes the Great Wall
was built in vain, and ages of warfare passed before the armies of China
succeeded in subduing and making tributary the people of the steppes. We
first hear of Tartar raids upon China in the reign of the emperor Muh
Wang, in the tenth century B.C. As time went on, the tribes combined and
fell in steadily greater numbers upon the southern realm. Of these
alliances of tribes the first known was named by Chinese historians the
Heung Nou, or "detestable slaves." Under its chiefs, called the Tanjous,
it became very formidable, and for a thousand years continued a thorn in
the side of the Chinese empire.

The Tanjous were dominant in the steppes for some three hundred years,
when they were overthrown by a revolt of the tribes, and were succeeded
by the Sienpi, who under their chiefs, the Topas, or "masters of the
earth," grew formidable, conquering the northern provinces of China,
which they held for a century and a half. Finally a slave of one of the
Topa chiefs, at the head of a hundred outlaws, broke into revolt, and
gathered adherents until the power of the Sienpi was broken, and a new
tribe, the Geougen, became predominant. Its leader, Cehelun by name,
extended his power over a vast territory, assuming the title of Kagan,
or Khan.

The next revolt took place in the sixth century A.D., when a tribe of
slaves, which worked the iron forges of the Altai Mountains for the
Great Khan, rebelled and won its freedom. Growing rapidly, it almost
exterminated the Geougen in a great bat