CONVERSION OF THE KERAITES. Ill from them information concerning the religion of Jesus Christ. The Tartar sovereign then, after having stu- died the Christian doctrine, received baptism, with two hundred thousand of his subjects. Mares adds in his chronicle, — " He had an altar con- structed, upon which he placed a cross and a gospel, and dedicated it to Saint Sergius. He learned the Pater Noster, the Tresagion, and a prayer that begins thus: " To you, Lord and Master of all things," * &c. The facts which we have just related from Mares, are also mentioned in various writings of that period. This is what is said on the subject in the History of the Ori- ental Dynasties, by Aboulfarages.f The Nestorian patriarch, John J, received from Ebed Jesu, metropolitan of Marou, a town of Kho- rassan, a letter in these words : — " The king of the people, called Keraites, who inhabit the interior of Turkey, towards the north-east, being one day hunting on certain mountains of his dominions, which were then covered with snow, lost his way." Then, after having related the miraculous conversion of the Tartar prince, the metropolitan of Marou continues thus : — " The king of the Keraites has just invited me to visit him, or to send him a priest who may bestow baptism on him. He has also interrogated me concerning the fasts, saying, ' We have no other food than milk and meat — how, then, shall we fast ? ' He mentioned that
- " Tibi Domine Universarum," &c. This prayer was composed
by St. Simeon, Archbishop of Seleucia, and martyr. It may still be read in the Chaldee service. — Assemani, Bibl. Orient., vol. iii. part ii. p. 486. f Chron. Sy. vol. ii. p. 445. X He occupied the pontifical seat at Bagdad from 1001 — 1012.
