Chapter YIL KITAN. " On the north bank of the Liao river, a man riding a white horse met a woman riding a grey ox, and the two became husband and wife. They had eight sons, Danlijie, Yisho, Shuhado, Nawei, Pinmo, Nahwiji, Jijie, and Siwun, each of whom in turn became King of Kitan/' This is one account of the rise of Kitan in the land of Ydimili, on the south of the river Htmg, 1,100 li from Tiigwan, the modem Linyii; the ancient Hung being thus identified with the modem Sira muren. Whatever their origin, there, on the south bank of that rapid, rocky river, they were feeding their flocks when the Moyoong family began to strike for empire, and thence they were driven away by the Moyoong, who compelled them to move westwards, to the very edge of the desert of Shamo. They recovered themselves rapidly in their exile ; and, when the Moyoong Bangdom ceased to be, Gaoli, then at the height of its power, believed them worthy of a plundering expedition. To the number of over ten thousand souls, under their chief, Woogan Mohofo, they had, in 479, to flee southwards with their tents and what else of their property was moveable, to seek the protection of Wei, which was then the most northerly of the kingdoms into which China was divided ; Shantung and Chihli forming its principal portion. The Kitan were originally under the sway of the Yo wy an, which was the style assumed by the chief Kokan, who had re-united the dismembered Hiwngnoo. Toomun, a chief of the rising Toogue,* attacked and overthrew the Yowyan Kokhan, Towling, who
- Tiikiie or Turks, who are still the same people as the Yowyan and Hiwngnoo,
diffeiing only in their leaders.
