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.
