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July 11, 969 AD

We read of the ferocity of the Mongolian armies but it turns out the great wall of China was built not to keep out men. The wall was built to keep out horses. Another good defense against horseback soldiers was, a wooden wall. The story is told of Genghis Khan that, faced with a walled city prepared for a long siege, he parlayed with the inhabitants in these terms: give me 1000 cats and 10,000 swallows, and I will end the siege. He received the animals. His men tied pieces of cloth to the tails of the cats and birds, then lit the cloth on fire. The animals were freed to run home, thereby setting the wooden structures aflame.

This is described in a 17th century chronicle written by Sagang Sechen. John R. Krueger, translated Sechen's A History of the Eastern Mongols to 1662 (1964).

David Morgan's book, The Mongols, (1986), points out that "slight variants" of this story are told about other historical figures: Princess Olga of Kiev, Harald Hardrada of Norway, Guthrum the Dane, and Robert Guiscard the Norman.

Princess Olga's slight variant does not include cats. Olga's ploy, when her husband was murdered, and she was faced with solidifying control of what we now call Kievan Russia, in order that her son's inheritance would be safe, involved doves. Olga sent the flaming birds into a rebellious stronghold. She was an early convert to Christianity and the eastern orthodox church considers her a saint, her sanctity equivalent to that "of the apostles." Princess Olga of Kiev died on July 11, 969.

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