"Then master William [Guillaume L'Orfevre] had made for us an
iron to make wafers ... he made also a silver box to put the body of
Christ in, with relics in little cavities made in the sides of the box."
Now M. Marcel Monnier, who is one of the last, if not the last traveller
who visited the region, tells me that he found in the large temple of
Erdeni Tso an iron (the cast bore a Latin cross; had the wafer been
Nestorian, the cross should have been Greek) and a silver box, which are
very likely the objects mentioned by Rubruquis. It is a new proof of the
identity of the sites of Erdeni Tso and Karakorum. - H. C.]
[Illustration: Entrance to the Erdeni Tso Great Temple.]
NOTE 2. - [Mr. Rockhill (Rubruck, 113, note) says: "The earliest date to
which I have been able to trace back the name Tartar is A.D. 732. We find
mention made in a Turkish inscription found on the river Orkhon and
bearing that date, of the Tokuz Tatar, or 'Nine (tribes of) Tatars,' and
of the Otuz Tatar, or 'Thirty (tribes of) Tatars.' It is probable that
these tribes were then living between the Oguz or Uigur Turks on the west,
and the Kitan on the east. (Thomsen, Inscriptions de l'Orkhon, 98, 126,
140.) Mr. Thos.
