The Successors of Genghis Khan - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian ...

BEGINNING OF THE HISTORY OF OGETEI QA'AN
out with various stones, the property of which is that when they are
taken out, placed in water, and washed, wind, cold, snow, rain, and
blizzards at once appear even though it is in the middle of summer.
There was amongst them a Qanql'i120 who was well versed in that art.
In accordance with the command he began to practice it, and Tolui
Khan and the whole army put on raincoats and for 3 days and nights
did not dismount from their horses. The Mongol army [then] arrived
in villages in the middle of Khitai from which the peasants had fled,
leaving their goods and animals, and so they ate their fill and were
clothed. Meantime the Qanqlii continued to practice rain magic,
so that it began to rain in the Mongols' rear and the last day the rain
turned to snow, to which was added an icy wind. Under the effects of
summer cold, such as they had not experienced in winter, the Khitayan
army were disheartened and dismayed. Tolui Khan ordered [his]
army to enter the villages, a unit of a thousand to each village, [and
to] bring their horses into the houses and cover them up, since on
account of the extreme severity of the wind and the icy blast it was
impossible [to move about]. The Khitayan army, meantime, by
force of necessity, remained out in the open country exposed to the
snow and the wind. For 3 days it was altogether impossible to move.
On the fourth it was still snowing, but Tolui observed that his own
army was well fed and rested and no harm had come to them or
their animals from the cold, whereas the Khitayans, because of the
excessive cold, were like a flock of sheep with their heads tucked into
one another's tails, their clothes being all shrunk and their weapons
frozen. He ordered the kettledrum to be beaten and the whole army
to don cloaks of beaten felt and to mount horse. Then Tolui said:
"Now is the time for battle and good fame: you must be men." And
the Mongols fell upon the Khitayans like lions attacking a herd of
deer and slew the greater part of that army, whilst some were scattered
and perished in the mountains. As for the two aforementioned generals,
they fled with five thousand men, flinging themselves into the river,
from which only a few were saved. And because they had jeered at
the Mongols, speaking big words and expressing evil thoughts, it was
120 The Qangli Turks (the Cangitae of Carpini and the Cangle of Rubruck),
were closely associated with the Qjipchaq (Comans).
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