KAOTSCHE. A characteristic feature in Cen tral Asiatic traditions is the derivation of their origin from some animal. According to the testimony of Chinese history, the Goa Gni (Kao tsche), otherwise known as the Tele or Chili people, sprang from a wolf and a beautiful Hun princess. One of the Hun princes had two daughters of such uncommon beauty that he determined not to marry them to any ordinary mortals. Building a high tower in an uninhabited wilderness, he left them in it, exclaiming, I pray heaven to take them !' The youngest princess falling a prey to ennui, encouraged the attentions of an old wolf, who for a whole year, night and day, prowled around the tower, and at last made his lair at the foot of it, till the princess, notwithstanding the entreaties of her eldest sister, married the wolf.
The Tugus (called Dulgasses by Pere Hyacinthe) professed to derive their origin from a she-wolf, and the Tufans (Tibetans) from a dog. The Chin
ese assert that Batachi, hereditary chief of the Mongol Khans, was the son of a blue wolf and white hind (Memoires Relatifs it l'Asie, par Kla proth, p. 204). In like manner some of the red skinned tribes of North America pretend to be descended from beavers, tortoises, etc. It is evi dent, from these instances, that this kind of tradition in Central Asia, and even in America, is extremely ancient, and even seems to be regarded as a descent to be proud of. The tradition of the origin of the ninety-nine Kipchak branches has been preserved among the Uzbaks and Kaiaks in such an indelicate shape, that it is doubtful whether it will ever bo possible to present it to the general reader.—Russians in Central Asia ; Captain Valikhanof and N. liemukof, p. 96 ; Smith, M. .31. Ch.