They sallied from the mountains; [25] a sceptre was the reward of his advice; and the annual ceremony, in which a piece of iron was heated in the fire, and a smith's hammer [2511] was successively handled by the prince and his nobles, recorded for ages the humble profession and rational pride of the Turkish nation.

Bertezena, [2512] their first leader, signalized their valor and his own in successful combats against the neighboring tribes; but when he presumed to ask in marriage the daughter of the great khan, the insolent demand of a slave and a mechanic was contemptuously rejected.

The disgrace was expiated by a more noble alliance with a princess of China; and the decisive battle which almost extirpated the nation of the Geougen, established in Tartary the new and more powerful empire of the Turks.

[2513] They reigned over the north; but they confessed the vanity of conquest, by their faithful attachment to the mountain of their fathers.

The royal encampment seldom lost sight of Mount Altai, from whence the River Irtish descends to water the rich pastures of the Calmucks, [26] which nourish the largest sheep and oxen in the world.