time sought the wicked Bo,[1] and at last discovered his dwelling-place, by seeing a grey horse (Boro morēn) standing in the valley of the Kiver Arkhuin Borol, on which Tain Tērkhēn rode. Genghis Khan smote the shaman, striking him with his sword on the right cheek. Even now on the rock may be seen the mark of the sabre stroke.
According to the account of Tabuin-sakhal, a shaman who lived in the town of Cobdo, two tribes, Khar darkhat and Shar Tērkhēn, reside in the neighbourhood of Tain Tērkhēn.
The figure of Tain Tērkhēn enjoys the greatest fame in Mongolia. To the rock travel pilgrims from places such as Wrga in the far west, from the Diubrut Vlus (villages) by the Ubsanor Lake. Even in the Gobi desert this rock is known of. It is remarkable that persons dwelling in the farthest parts of Mongolia in speaking of it always observe, "Round Tain Tērkhēn are many trembling shamans." Aivoha, a Mongoe who was our (Potanin's) guide across Gobi, and who was taken from a village of Nam, which is on the southern boundary of Gobi, knew of two Tērkhēns; one was a blue rock (Khu khu chēlo) in the country of Têlengētên Uryankhai; the other was whitish-grey (Boro tsagan) on the Seleuge River. The Mongoes say that the image (Kēshachēlo) first laid upon the ground but that it raised itself up and stands now solid and upright. They say, also, that in front of Tain Tērkhēn can only serve a true shaman, a false shaman will at once reveal himself and die. All these tales induce me (Potanin) to imagine that in front of Tain Tērkhēn there is still preserved a religious service of shamans.
When I asked for representation of Tain Tērkhēn, they brought me, printed on a sort of paper with Indian ink, the portrait of a horseman with a standard in the right hand. The horseman was provided with a quiver and a sword. Clouds surrounded the horseman; at the top amidst the clouds were mountain-peaks, and below them the sun and the moon; on the feet of the horseman were observed two statues. Other Mongoes to whom I showed the portrait called it Dainsuin Têngēr.
- ↑ Bo, in Mongolian, demon.
