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I wrote to this goldsmith, requesting him to send his son to me; he said in answer, that he could not at the time, but would send him next moon, when his work would be finished. At the court of Baatu no intercourse could be had with other ambassadors, as each was under the charge of a particular Jani; but in that of Mangu, all were under one Jani, and might see and converse with each other.
Next day, 7th November, we arrived at a town belonging to the Mahometans named Kenchat, the governor of which came out to meet our guide with ale and other refreshments; for it is the custom of all the subjected cities, to welcome the messengers of Baatu and Mangu with meat and drink on their arrival.
But Theodolus said he would take them by sea, so that they should not know the way. Mangu gave to his Moal a golden bull or tablet of an hand breadth, and half a cubit long, inscribed with his orders; and whoever bears this, may everywhere command what he pleases.
"Look at these tombs!" said the Hutuktu to me. "Here the son of Khan Uyuk was buried. This young prince was bribed by the Chinese to kill his father but was frustrated in his attempt by his own sister, who killed him in her watchful care of her old father, the Emperor and Khan. There is the tomb of Tsinilla, the beloved spouse of Khan Mangu.
Once more the Sungs obtained a brief respite. The death of Mangu threatened fresh disputes and strife among the Mongol royal family. Kublai was his brother's lawful heir, but Arikbuka, the youngest of the brothers was in possession of Karakoram, and supreme throughout Mongolia. He was hostile to Kublai, and disposed to assert all his rights and to make the most of his opportunities.
Though I did not see that court till my return, I shall briefly mention what befel his son and wives. Ken-khan being dead, Baatu desired that Mangu should be khan, but I could not learn exactly the manner of Ken-khan's death. Friar Andrew says he died of the effects of a medicine, which Baatu was suspected of having procured to be given him.
Upon this the guide returned into the presence and reported to Baatu what we had said, who now gave orders that the two priests and the interpreter should go forwards to Mangu, but that the clerk must immediately return to Sartach; and with this answer the guide came to us.
Mangu Khan was the last of the Mongol rulers whose authority was recognized in both the east and the west, and his successor, Kublai, seeing that its old significance had departed, was fain to establish his on a new basis in the fertile, ancient and wide-stretching dominions of China.
A badger-like animal of Madagascar, the Mangu, is also regarded as a civet: so, too, are the Coatis of the New World, though these last are evidently of much nearer kin to the badgers. Perhaps the curious creature known as the Potto, or Kinkajou, has more pretensions to a place among the civets: at all events, it deserves one in the general group of the weasels.
Octai was succeeded by his son Gayuk; after whose death, the empire devolved successively on his cousins Mangou or Mangu, and Cublai, the sons of Tuli, and the grandsons of Zingis. During the sixty-eight years of the reigns of these four successors of Zingis, the Moguls subdued almost all Asia, and a considerable portion of Europe.
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