- "The Mongols are not prohibited from having a plurality of wives;
the first manages the domestic concerns, and is the most respected."
(Timk. II. 310.) Naturally Polygamy is not so general among the Mongols
as when Asia lay at their feet. The Buraets, who seem to retain the old
Mongol customs in great completeness, are polygamists, and have as many
wives as they choose. Polygamy is also very prevalent among the Yakuts,
whose lineage seems to be Eastern Turk. (Ritter, III. 125; Erman, II.
346.)
Of the custom that entitled the son on succeeding to take such as he
pleased of his deceased father's wives, we have had some illustration (see
Prologue, ch. xvii. note 2), and many instances will be found in
Hammer's or other Mongol Histories. The same custom seems to be ascribed
by Herodotus to the Scyths (IV. 78). A number of citations regarding the
practice are given by Quatremere. (Q. R. p. 92.) A modern Mongol writer
in the Melanges Asiatiques of the Petersburg Academy, states that the
custom of taking a deceased brother's wives is now obsolete, but that a
proverb preserves its memory (II. 656). It is the custom of some Mahomedan
nations, notably of the Afghans, and is one of those points that have been
cited as a supposed proof of their Hebrew lineage.
"The Kalin is a present which the Bridegroom or his parents make to the
parents of the Bride. All the Pagan nations of Siberia have this custom;
they differ only in what constitutes the present, whether money or
cattle." (Gmelin, I. 29; see also Erman, II. 348.)
CHAPTER LIII.
CONCERNING THE GOD OF THE TARTARS.
This is the fashion of their religion. [They say there is a Most High God
of Heaven, whom they worship daily with thurible and incense, but they
pray to Him only for health of mind and body. But] they have [also] a
certain [other] god of theirs called NATIGAY, and they say he is the god
of the Earth, who watches over their children, cattle, and crops. They
show him great worship and honour, and every man hath a figure of him in
his house, made of felt and cloth; and they also make in the same manner
images of his wife and children. The wife they put on the left hand, and
the children in front. And when they eat, they take the fat of the meat
and grease the god's mouth withal, as well as the mouths of his wife and
children. Then they take of the broth and sprinkle it before the door of
the house; and that done, they deem that their god and his family have had
their share of the dinner.[NOTE 1]
Their drink is mare's milk, prepared in such a way that you would take
it for white wine; and a right good drink it is, called by them
Kemiz.[NOTE 2]
