It Never Rains In Winter, But
Frequently In Summer, Yet So Gently As Scarcely To Lay The Dust, Or To
Moisten The Roots Of The Grass.
But there are often prodigious showers of
hail; insomuch, that by the sudden melting of one of these, at
The time
when the emperor elect was about to be placed on his throne, at which time
we were at the imperial court, above an hundred and sixty persons were
drowned, and many habitations and much valuable things were swept away. In
summer there are often sudden and intolerable heats, quickly followed by
extreme cold.
[1] This strange personification of the East and North, as if they were
stationary geographical terms, not merely, relative, only means that
Mongalia lay in the most north-easterly part of the then known world.
- E.
[2] Called likewise Karakum, or Caracorum, and said to signify the Black
Sand. - E
SECTION IV.
Of the Appearance, Dress, and Manner of Living of the Tartars.
The appearance of the Mongols or Tartars is quite different from all other
nations, being much wider between the eyes and cheeks, and their cheeks are
very prominent, with small flat noses, and small eyes, having the upper
lids opened up to the eyebrows, and their crowns are shaven like priests on
each side, leaving some long hair in the middle, the remainder being
allowed to grow long like women, which they twist into two tails or locks,
and bind behind their ears. The garments of the men and women are alike,
using neither cloaks, hats, nor caps, but they wear strange tunics made of
bucram, purple, or baldequin. Their gowns are made of skins, dressed in the
hair, and open behind. They never wash their clothes, neither do they allow
others to wash, especially in time of thunder, till that be over. Their
houses are round, and artificially made like tents, of rods and twigs
interwoven, having a round hole in the middle of the roof for the admission
of light and the passage of smoke, the whole being covered with felt, of
which likewise the doors are made. Some of these are easily taken to pieces
or put together, and are carried on sumpter-cattle; while others are not
capable of being taken to pieces, and are carried on carts. Wherever they
go, whether to war, or only travelling to fresh pastures, these are carried
with them. They have vast numbers of camels, oxen, sheep, and goats, and
such prodigious multitudes of horses and mares, as are not to be found in
all the rest of the world; but they have no swine. Their emperor, dukes,
and other nobles, are extremely rich in gold and silver, silks, and gems.
They eat of every thing that is eatable, and we have even seen them eat
vermin. They drink milk in great quantity, and particularly prefer that of
mares. But as in winter, none but the rich can have mares milk, they make a
drink of millet boiled in water; every one drinking one or two cups in the
morning, and sometimes having no other food all day; but in the evening,
every one has a small quantity of flesh, and they drink the broth in which
it was boiled.
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