from The Secret History of the Mongols (c. 1250 A.D.)

I've skipped the part where the two eldest sons wonder how the other three sons came from their widowed mother, and deleted her explanation in the middle. But it deserves a mention, because in many endeavors, we come from different places but must work from what basis we have. This is from the first section of the Secret History--The Origins of Chinghis Khan.

Then one day in the spring
after boiling a soup of dried mutton,
Alan the Fair assembled her five sons together.
She seated them all in a row,
gave them each the shaft of an arrow
and said to them, "Break it!"
A single arrow shaft,
It took no strength to break it,
and each of them broke it and tossed it away.
Then she bound five shafts together in a bundle,
and giving the bundle to each one in turn,
said to each of them: "Break it!"
Each of the brothers held the five bound together
and no one could break them.
. . . .
Then Alan the Fair said to each of her five sons
"You five were all born from one womb.
If, like the five single arrows you held
you separate yourself, each going alone
then each of you can be broken by anyone.
If you are drawn together by a singular purpose
bound like the five shafts in a bundle
how can anyone break you?"

The Secret History of the Mongols, pp. 6-7.  An Adaptation by Paul Kahn of the Yuan Ch'ao Pi Shih, based upon the English Translation by Francis Woodman Cleves. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1984.