Their Houses Are Made Of
Slender Rods Covered With Felt, Mostly Of A Round Form, And Are Carried
Along With Them In Carts Or Waggons With Four Wheels, And The Doors Of
These Moveable Houses Are Always Placed Fronting The South.
They have also
very neat carts on two wheels, covered so closely with felt, that the rain
cannot penetrate, in which their wives and children and household goods are
conveyed from place to place.
All these are drawn by oxen or camels.
The rich Tartars are clothed in sables and ermines, and other rich furs,
and in cloth of gold, and all their apparel and furniture is very costly.
Their arms are bows, swords, battle-axes, and some have lances; but they
are most expert in the use of the bow, in which they are trained from their
infancy. They are hardy, active, and brave, yet somewhat cruel; are
exceedingly patient and obedient to their lords, and will often remain two
days and nights armed on horseback without rest. They believe in one
supreme God of heaven, to whom they daily offer incense, praying to him for
health and prosperity. But every person has a little image covered with
felt, or something else, in his house, called Natigay; and to this
household god they make a wife, which is placed on his left hand, and
children, which are set before his face. This image or idol is considered
as the god of earthly things, to whom they recommend the protection of
their wives and children, their cattle, corn, and other valuables. This god
is held in great reverence, and before eating any thing themselves, they
anoint the mouth of the idol with the fat of their boiled meat, and they
cast some broth out of doors in honour of other spirits; after which they
eat and drink their fill, saying, that now their god and his family have
had their due portion.
If the son of one Tartar, and the daughter of another die unmarried, the
parents meet together and celebrate a marriage between their deceased
children. On this occasion they draw up a written contract, and paint
representations of men and women for servants, of horses, camels, cattle,
and sheep, of clothes of all kinds, and of paper money; and all these
things are burned along with the contract, conceiving that these will all
follow their children substantially to the other world to serve them, and
that they will be there united in affinity, as if they had been actually
married while living.
When the Tartars go to war, the prince usually leads an army of not less
than an hundred thousand men, all cavalry; each man having usually eight or
more horses or mares. Their troops are regularly distributed into bands of
tens, hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands; a troop of an hundred is
called a Tuc, and a body of ten thousand is called a Toman. They carry
them felt houses along with them, for shelter in bad weather. When
necessity requires, they will ride for ten days together without victuals,
subsisting upon the blood of their horses, by cutting a vein and sucking
the blood. But they likewise prepare dried milk, for taking with them in
their expeditions, in the following manner: After taking off the cream,
which is made into butter, they boil the milk and dry it in the sun into a
kind of hard curd, of which every man in the army carries about ten pounds
along with him. Every morning they take about half a pound of this curd,
which they put into a leathern bottle with a quantity of water, and as he
rides along, the motion of the horse shakes and mixes these together, and
this mess suffices for the food of one day. When they approach towards the
enemy, they send out numerous scouts on all sides, that they may not be
assaulted unawares, and to bring intelligence of the numbers, motions, and
posture of the enemy. When they come to battle, they ride about in apparent
disorder, shooting with their arrows; and sometimes make a show of
precipitate flight, discharging their arrows backwards as they fly; and
when by these means they have broken or dispersed the enemy, they suddenly
rally their forces, and make an unexpected assault, which generally decides
the victory, their horses being all so thoroughly under command, as to turn
any way merely by a signal.
If any Tartar steals a thing of small value, he is not put to death, but
receives a certain number of blows with a cudgel, according to the measure
of the offence; either seven, or seventeen, or twenty-seven, thirty-seven,
or forty-seven; though some die through the severity of this cudgelling.
But if any one steal a horse or other thing of great value, for which he
deserves to die according to their laws, he is cut asunder with a sword,
unless he redeem his life by restoring the theft nine fold. Such as have
horses, oxen, or camels, brand them with their particular marks, and send
them to feed in the pastures without a keeper.
Leaving the city of Caracarum, and the mountain Altai, we enter the
champaign country of Bargu[6], which extends northwards for about fifty
days journey. The inhabitants of this country are called Medites[7], and
are subject to the great, khan, and resemble the Tartars in their manners.
They have no corn or wine, and employ themselves chiefly, during summer, in
the chase of wild beasts, and in catching birds, on the flesh of which they
subsist in winter; and they have great abundance of a kind of stags, which
they render so tame that they allow themselves to be ridden. In the winter
this country is so excessively cold, that fowls, and all other living
things, remove to warmer regions. After forty days journey we arrive at the
ocean, near which is a mountain frequented by storks, and fine falcons, as
a breeding place, and from whence falcons are brought for the amusement of
the great khan.
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