The Tartar custom is to spend the winter in warm plains,
where they find good pasture for their cattle, whilst in summer they
betake themselves to a cool climate among the mountains and valleys, where
water is to be found as well as woods and pastures.
Their houses are circular, and are made of wands covered with felts.[NOTE
1] These are carried along with them whithersoever they go; for the wands
are so strongly bound together, and likewise so well combined, that the
frame can be made very light. Whenever they erect these huts the door is
always to the south. They also have waggons covered with black felt so
efficaciously that no rain can get in. These are drawn by oxen and camels,
and the women and children travel in them.[NOTE 2] The women do the buying
and selling, and whatever is necessary to provide for the husband and
household; for the men all lead the life of gentlemen, troubling
themselves about nothing but hunting and hawking, and looking after their
goshawks and falcons, unless it be the practice of warlike exercises.
They live on the milk and meat which their herds supply, and on the
produce of the chase; and they eat all kinds of flesh, including that of
horses and dogs, and Pharaoh's rats, of which last there are great numbers
in burrows on those plains.[NOTE 3] Their drink is mare's milk.
They are very careful not to meddle with each other's wives, and will not
do so on any account, holding that to be an evil and abominable thing. The
women too are very good and loyal to their husbands, and notable
housewives withal.[NOTE 4] [Ten or twenty of them will dwell together in
charming peace and unity, nor shall you ever hear an ill word among them.]
The marriage customs of Tartars are as follows. Any man may take a hundred
wives an he so please, and if he be able to keep them. But the first wife
is ever held most in honour, and as the most legitimate [and the same
applies to the sons whom she may bear]. The husband gives a marriage
payment to his wife's mother, and the wife brings nothing to her husband.
They have more children than other people, because they have so many
wives. They may marry their cousins, and if a father dies, his son may
take any of the wives, his own mother always excepted; that is to say the
eldest son may do this, but no other. A man may also take the wife of his
own brother after the latter's death. Their weddings are celebrated with
great ado.[NOTE 5]
NOTE 1. - The word here in the G. T. is "fennes," which seems usually to
mean ropes, and in fact Pauthier's text reads: "Il ont mesons de verges
et les cueuvrent de cordes." Ramusio's text has feltroni, and both
Muller and the Latin of the S. G. have filtro.
