XXII THE SEVEN BRASS HINGES Into a space perhaps four feet in width from wall to wall and seven deep from the front door to the foot of a cramped flight of crazy wooden stairs, some ten people were crowded, Sofia and the maid Chou Nu in a knot of excited men.

This made the Tarim basin secure for the Chinese, and threatened the Hsiung-nu with a new danger in their rear.

U-tuc-cu-lim-nu from him flow!

Also the Hsiung-nu of this time seem to have had a similar structure.

A mid-dan-nu to Erech I will take, To see if he its mighty strength can break.

In this way the first great union of tribes in the north of China came into existence in this period, forming the realm of the Hsiung-nu under their first leader, T'ou-man.

2 Effect on the frontier peoples Four groups of frontier peoples drew more or less advantage from the demobilization lawthe people of the Toba, the Tibetans, and the Hsien-pi in the north, and the nineteen tribes of the Hsiung-nu within the frontiers of the empire.

But the king of the city state of Yarkand had increased his power by shrewdly playing off Chinese and Hsiung-nu against each other, so that before long he was able to attack the Hsiung-nu.

Kuang-wu Ti had several frontier wars with the Hsiung-nu without any decisive result.

When, however, there appeared to be the danger of a new union of the two parts of the Hsiung-nu as a restoration of a large empire also comprising all Turkestan, the Chinese trading monopoly was endangered.

The Hsiung-nu beyond the frontier were suffering from a period of depression which was at the same time a period of reconstruction.