The Horse Is Then
Flayed, And The Flesh Eaten After The Performance Of Certain Ceremonies.
They Then Stuff The Horses
Skin with straw, and sew it up, so as to appear
entire, fixing pieces of wood under the skin of
The legs, that the stuffed
animal may stand up as it did when alive. They next construct a scaffold,
amid the branches of a large tree, upon which they fix the stuffed horse
skin, and worship it as a god; offering up to it the furs of sables,
ermines, grey squirrels, and foxes, which they hang among the boughs of the
sacred tree, just as we offer up wax-lights to the images of the saints.
The food of this people consists mostly of flesh, and that chiefly of
venison, got by hunting; but they likewise catch abundance of fish in the
rivers of their country. Many of the Tartars are idolaters, and carry the
idols which they worship about with them, on carts, in their moveable huts;
and some of them have the strange custom of worshipping each day, the
animal they meet first in a morning, after going out of their houses.
The grand duke of Russia has likewise conquered Nowgorod, or Novogorod[34].
This is an extensive province, about eight days journey to the north-west
of Moscow, which was formerly a republic. The inhabitants were without
sense or reason, and had a great many heretics among them; but at present,
the catholic faith makes its way among them by degrees, though some are
still misbelievers.
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