the rulers of four uluses, they may not be on the side of the then powerless Khan, but on the side of their mother. BORTE: The West… the West! An unprecedented and unheard of mysterious world. What awaits us there? ‘The robber is exterminated by the robber, and the Khan is exterminated by the Khan,’ they say. Who can guarantee that a sabre which has cut down many heads will not once rise above your head? GENGHIS KHAN: Was it then that you came to scare me, or to warn me? BORTE: Both. GENGHIS KHAN: I hope I don’t hear such words anymore. Of course, it would not be superfluous to chop off such a head that now and then jumps from one fantasy to another. In my opinion, at times you completely forget who you are standing in front of. BORTE: (Kneeling) Oh, my great lord. I’m not so crazy as to forget who I’m standing in front of. You control half the world, and I am just one of your many wives. All I have is the title of Khansha. Before you, the whole world should tremble, and you want your own wife to tremble. There are millions of heads like mine, and your head is one and only, so you need to take care of it. You shouldn’t worry about my unfortunate little head. Instead, possibly you should laugh in your manner. How did your laugh sound, the one just now? It was something like this, right? Ha ha ha ha! Although it turned out embarrassingly, Borte, laughing loudly, managed to avoid the anger of Genghis Khan and even made him laugh in return. He laughed out of his old habit, that is, with his whole body swaying. GENGHIS KHAN: Oh, you wretch! Everything is the same as before; the same laughter as in my younger years. Do you remember in my youth when my father brought me to your house, and you and I saw an interesting scene? A lamb was grazing by itself behind the barnyard, and a huge ox kept butting and crumpling him and not allowing him to rest. Then a ram walked fifty or sixty paces away from the menacingly, bellowing ox that was beating the ground with its hoof, quickly accelerating as it hit it with
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