To slay Olbē is considered a meritorious action. If slain, Olbē people take courage, and form a cross from his hide which they place at the junction of two roads, and fasten it to the ground with nails. — (Sambo, of the Tabuin Khotoghait tribe on the lake Sanghin Dalai.)
18. Short sayings about Animals.
"The wicked magpie pecks the back,
But the Shabe tea decoction." —
Abta Kherem, in winter, lives by the water like a bird ; but in summer changes himself into a mouse. — (A Uryankhait in Cobdo.)
The animal "Orongo" has only one horn on the head. — (Same as above.)
The flying mouse does not carry taxes and fines to the Khan Garēd, the king of the birds ; the other birds all do. — (Tabuin Sakhal, a Mongol Uryankhait Shaman, in the Altai mountains.)
19. Accounts of the origins of Nations.
In ancient times the Diurbiuts had no khan; ten men wished to have a khan ; they saw in a dream that of the tree Urun[1] and the bird Urun was born a divine son who became their khan. His name was Urun molon êkētai (having for mother the tree Urun), Urun shēbo êtseqtai (having for his father the bird Urun), Udontai Bodontai Gurbushtên Têngriēn Ku (Buēn-dotkho, a Diurbiut, from the valley of the River Cobdo.)
The father of all the Mongols or the race (bone) of Tsagan tuk, was the dog Noka, the mother Odun modun, the tree Odun; the father of the Mongols was born of a tree, and a dog suckled him. The mother of Tanguto was Tents and Sword, and the father,
- ↑ Urun, perhaps Spermaphylus Duricus. (Potanin.)
