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He was the fifth in descent from Carashar-Nevian, who had been vizir or prime minister to Zagathai, of which sovereign Timour was descended in the female line.
Then the servant who conducted us, informed me that it was requisite for us to make a present to Zagathai, and desired us to stop while he went forwards, to announce our arrival. It was then past three o'clock, and the Tartars unladed their houses near a certain water.
In the distribution of the vast empire of Zingis, we have already seen that Zagathai, one of his sons, received the subordinate rule of Transoxiana, or the rich country on the rivers Jihon or Amu, and the Sir or Sihon, the Oxus and Jaxartes of the ancients.
We were presented also with a goat to serve us as food, and a great many skin bags of cows milk, but they gave us very little cosmos, as that liquor is in great estimation among themselves. From the station of Zagathai we travelled directly north, and our attendants began to pilfer largely from us, because we took too little heed of our property, but experience at length taught us wisdom.
See, with Herodotus, young Greece spring up into life, or note with him how already the wondrous old Orient world is crumbling into giant decay; or go with Carpini and Rubruquis to Tartary, meet 'the carts of Zagathai laden with houses, and think that a great city is travelling towards you. 'Gaze on that vast wild empire of the Tartar, where the descendants of Jenghis 'multiply and disperse over the immense waste desert, which is as boundless as the ocean. Sail with the early Northern discoverers, and penetrate to the heart of winter, among sea- serpents and bears and tusked morses with the faces of men.
To the north-east lies Siberia, the true country of fine furs; and which Barbara, by mistake, must have named Zagathai: though perhaps it might at one time form part of that extensive empire. Moxia is the country of the Morduanians, one tribe of whom call themselves Mokscha, or Moxa. Forst.
Other authors give a different account of the family of Zingis. According to Harris, I. 556, Zuzi, or Tuschi, was his eldest son, who died six months before his father, and his son Baatu got a great part of Tartary for his share. Zagathai, a son of Zingis, got Transoxiana, or the country of the Kirguses. Tuli, another son, had Chorassan, Persia, and western India.
After the death of Zagathai, he was succeeded by a son who was not of the Christian faith, and from him the Mahometans obtained an order, by which the Christians were compelled to restore that stone; and though they offered a sum of money as a compensation, the Mahometans absolutely insisted to have the stone itself, hoping, by that means, to reduce the Christian church to ruins: But the pillar lifted itself up, that the Mahometans, might remove the contested stone, and still continues suspended in the air.
Zagathai, the brother of the great khan, then governed this country, and was persuaded to become a Christian; and the Christians, through his favour, built a church in honour of St John the Baptist, which was constructed with such skill, that the whole roof seemed to depend for support upon one central pillar, which was founded upon a large stone, which, by the permission of Zagathai, had been taken from a building belonging to the Mahometans.
On the same evening, our conductor gave us some cosmos, which was very pleasant to drink, but not having been accustomed to that liquor, it occasioned me to sweat most profusely. Of the Court of Zagathai, and how the Christians drink no Cosmos. Next morning, we met the carts of Zagathai, laden with houses, and I thought that a great city was travelling towards us.
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