A typical family is going to have probably a hundred sheep, maybe ten horses. And all that takes a good bit of pasture. And so everyone's going to be spread out. The mongols really, until the twentieth century, the step in general, they did not conceive of owning territory. Everyone had a hereditary pastures that they had used for years and years. And often fighting was over pastures. You want to get no better grass for your animals? No, you move from pasture to pasture depending on the season, depending on the grass. You'd want to be in the highlands during the summer, where it might be a bit cooler, and in the lowlands during the winter, stay ou of the mountains when it's cold, and so forth. Custom

dictates that the tribespeople look out for one another, but protection for young timujin and his mother is an short supply. Hoelon has not found it easy settling into the borjikin clan, hardly surprising given the circumstances of her arrival. As only a second wife to yasuge, she is of a lower status than his first bride, who is also the mother of yasuge's oldest child, holan, must fight for her position within the group and for her sons too. Temujin learns how to ride, how to shoot a bow and arrow and how to wrestle, like pretty much every other mongol child, but he's not an obvious toki. He is afraid of dogs, for example, and quick to tears. He gets on terribly with his older half brother, begte, who bosses him about. As he grows up, temujin quickly comes to understand. He is not favoured by his father. But as it turns out, his father won't be around for much longer. Anyway, one day, when timujin is around nine years old, yasuge makes his way back home after visiting with another clan. He comes upon a party of tartars. Yasuge killed a tartar in battle a few years back. None the less, he has no s about calling on the hospitality.