The Secret History of the Mongols and Other Pieces by Arthur Waley

Author:Arthur Waley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Secret History of the Mongols and Other Pieces
ISBN: 9780755122769
Publisher: House of Stratus
Published: 2012-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

2. Turkic Story

The ancestor of the Turks was Shê-mo. The lake-spirit Shê-li displayed his divinity to the west of the cave called A-shih-tê. To Shê-mo a divine wonder happened; every day at dusk the lake-spirit’s daughter sent a white deer to fetch him. Shê-mo went with it into the lake; at dawn it escorted him out (of the water). This went on for twenty or thirty years. One night when the tribe was going to have a great hunt, the lake-spirit (’s daughter) said to Shê-mo, ‘Tomorrow during the hunt a white deer with golden horns will come out of the cave where your ancestors were born. If your arrow hits this deer’s wondrous form you will be able to go on visiting me. But if you do not hit the deer, it is all over between us.’

When day came and he entered the beaters’ ring a white deer with golden horns did indeed start up in the birth-cave. Shê-mo told his servants to make the ring secure; but just as the deer was bounding out, one of the beaters killed it. Shê-mo was angry and with his own hand slew the headman A-jo and as he did so swore, saying, ‘For ever afterwards, now that this (deer) has been killed, there must be human sacrifices offered up to Heaven.’ He took A-jo’s sons and grandsons and slew them in sacrifice. Till this day when the Turks perform human sacrifice they use men of the A-Jo tribe.

So Shê-mo slew A-jo and in the evening went back to the lake-spirit’s daughter. But she told Shê-mo, ‘With your hand you have slain a man. You stink with the smell of blood. All is over between us.’

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