the scoopfull. Thirty-three mountains rear themselves; they are the thirty-three mountains of the Khankhn Khêi range. Yet the water did not flow from the Ubsa Lake; after each dig with his spade the water gushes from the lake, but flows back directly. Then Sartaktai got into a rage, threw aside his work, and said: "Be thy name Subsennor." Bad wine, the dregs of the spirit that comes from the still, is called sybsa.—(Chērēn Dorhkē, a Khalka man by the River Tamēr.)
Near the town of Cobdo, in the valley of the Khara usu, on the right bank of the River Cobdo, there is a peculiar gulley stretching in the direction away from the river. This gulley is attributed by the local inhabitants to Sartaktai-Batuir,[1] who once dug a canal from the Khara usu lake to Peking, and traversed the distance between the two in a single day.—(Muno, a Torgout.)
According to the inhabitants of the Altai, somewhere on the Katune, below the ford of Kort Kēstu, there is a place where the imprint of Sartaktai's sitting down is apparent.
31. Boroltai Ku.
Boroltai Ku lived in a hut on grass, and was clothed in a felt coat. His only possession was a girdle; once he saw a fox's hole, and dug out the fox. She said to him: "Don't kill me, and I will marry thee to a khan's daughter, and will make thee a khan." Boroltai Ku let the fox go. She ran to Gurbushtên Khan, and says: "Boroltai Ku, the rich khan, wishes to marry thy daughter." "If Boroltai Ku is indeed a rich khan then let him procure me a leopard, a lion, and an elephant," said Gurbushtên Khan. The fox ran to Boroltai Ku, and said : "Give me three strings." Boroltai Ku took from his girdle
three strings. The fox took them and went at first to the leopard and said: "Gurbushtên Khan and Boroltai Ku, the rich khan, prepare a summer feast; and, as you are a famous animal, the khan
- ↑ Batuir. Can this be Arabic Badur?
