"The (Mare's) Milk Is Poured Into Deep Wooden Casks, About
Which The Blind Slaves Are Placed, And Then The Milk
Is stirred round.
That which rises to the top is drawn off, and considered the best part;
the under portion
Is of less account." Strabo also speaks of the nomads
beyond the Cimmerian Chersonesus, who feed on horse-flesh and other flesh,
mare's-milk cheese, mare's milk, and sour milk ([Greek: oxygalakta])
"which they have a particular way of preparing." Perhaps Herodotus was
mistaken about the wooden tubs. At least all modern attempts to use
anything but the orthodox skins have failed. Priscus, in his narrative of
the mission of himself and Maximin to Attila, says the Huns brought them a
drink made from barley which they called [Greek: Kamos]. The barley was,
no doubt, a misapprehension of his. (Herod. Bk. iv. p. 2, in Rawl.;
Strabo, VII. 4, 6; Excerpta de Legationibus, in Corp. Hist. Byzant.
I. 55.)
CHAPTER LIV.
CONCERNING THE TARTAR CUSTOMS OF WAR.
All their harness of war is excellent and costly. Their arms are bows and
arrows, sword and mace; but above all the bow, for they are capital
archers, indeed the best that are known. On their backs they wear armour
of cuirbouly, prepared from buffalo and other hides, which is very
strong.[NOTE 1] They are excellent soldiers, and passing valiant in
battle. They are also more capable of hardships than other nations; for
many a time, if need be, they will go for a month without any supply of
food, living only on the milk of their mares and on such game as their
bows may win them. Their horses also will subsist entirely on the grass of
the plains, so that there is no need to carry store of barley or straw or
oats; and they are very docile to their riders. These, in case of need,
will abide on horseback the livelong night, armed at all points, while the
horse will be continually grazing.
Of all troops in the world these are they which endure the greatest
hardship and fatigue, and which cost the least; and they are the best of
all for making wide conquests of country. And this you will perceive from
what you have heard and shall hear in this book; and (as a fact) there can
be no manner of doubt that now they are the masters of the biggest half of
the world. Their troops are admirably ordered in the manner that I shall
now relate.
You see, when a Tartar prince goes forth to war, he takes with him, say,
100,000 horse. Well, he appoints an officer to every ten men, one to every
hundred, one to every thousand, and one to every ten thousand, so that his
own orders have to be given to ten persons only, and each of these ten
persons has to pass the orders only to other ten, and so on; no one having
to give orders to more than ten.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 458 of 655
Words from 239087 to 239589
of 342071
