168 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. was sparing no pains to get a son named Couyouk pro- claimed in the Kouriltai, or general assembly. Couyouk did not ostensibly take part in public affairs before the election, and could not receive the ambassadors, but he gave them shelter, and after leaving them some days to rest themselves, sent them to his mother the em- press regent, Tourakina, who occupied a magnificent tent of white silk. The day fixed for the election, however, was ap- proaching, and the Kouriltai had been convoked to meet at a spot not far from a fine lake, in a district called the Seventy Hills. This convocation had set in motion all the Tartar princes of Asia, and the roads that led from all parts of the continent to the centre of Tartary were covered with travellers. The princes of the blood came attended by a numerous military escort; Utjuken with his eighty sons; the widow of Touloui, accompanied by her children ; the descendants of Ogotai, Djoutchi, and Tchagatai, followed by the chiefs of their particular tribes ; the military and civil governors of the Mongol possessions in China, Argoun, and Massoud ; the go- vernor-general of Persia, and of Turkestan and Trans- Oxiana, with the princes and lords of those countries in their train ; the sultan of Roum-Rok-ud-din ; Yaroslav, the Grand Duke of Russia ; two princes named David, who were contending for the crown of Georgia ; the brother of the sovereign of Aleppo ; ambassadors from the Caliph of Bagdad, and from the Princes of Ismail, Mossoul, Karss, and Kerman ; — all bringing magnificent offerings, and rivalling each other in the richness and pomp of their equipments. In the midst of this crowd of distinguished person- ages, surrounded by all the splendour of Asiatic luxury,
