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.

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