One Rich
Moal, Or Tartar, Will Have From A Hundred To Two Hundred Such Carts With
Chests.
Baatu has sixteen wives, each of whom has one large house, besides
several small ones, serving as chambers for her female attendants, and
which are placed behind the large house; and to the large house of each
wife there belong two hundred chest-carts.
When the camp is formed, the
house of the first wife is placed on the west, and all the rest extend in
one line eastwards, so that the last wife is on the east, or left of all.
And between the station of each wife there is the distance of a stone's
throw, so that the court of a rich Moal appears like a large city, but in
which there are very few men. One girl is able to lead twenty or thirty
carts; for the ground being quite plain, they fasten the carts, whether
drawn by camels or oxen, behind each other, and the girl sits on the front
of the foremost cart of the string, directing the cattle, while all the
rest follow with an equable motion. If they come to any difficult passage,
the carts are untied from each other, and conducted across singly; and they
travel at a very slow pace, only so fast as an ox or a lamb can easily
walk.
[1] The butter from ewe-milk is probably here meant. - E.
SECTION III.
Of their Beds and Drinking-cups.
After having placed the house on the ground, with its door turned to the
south, the bed of the master is placed to the north, opposite the door. The
place of the women is always on the east, or on the masters left hand,
where he sits on his bed with his face to the south, and the place of the
men on his right hand, to the west; and when any men enter into the house,
they never hang up their quivers on the womens side. Over the head of the
lord there is placed an image or puppet of felt, which is called the
masters brother, and a similar image over the head of the mistress, which
is called her brother; and a little higher between these, there is one very
small and thin, which is, as it were, the keeper of the house. The mistress
places at the foot of her bed, on the right hand, in a conspicuous place,
the skin of a kid, stuffed with wool, or some such material, and beside
that a small puppet looking towards the maidens and women. Near the door,
on the womens side of the house, there is another image, with a cows udder,
as the guardian of the women who milk the kine. On the masters side of the
door is another image, having the udder of a mare, being the tutelary deity
of the men who milk the mares. When they meet together for drinking, they,
in the first place, sprinkle the master's idol with some of the liquor, and
then all the rest in their order; after which a servant goes out of the
house with a cup of drink, and sprinkles thrice towards the south, making a
genuflexion between each, in honour of the fire, then towards the east, in
honour of the air, next towards the west, in honour of the water, and
lastly, towards the north, for the dead.
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