_Of the Beasts they eat, of their Garments, and of their Hunting parties._
The great lords have farms in the southern parts of their dominions, from
whence millet and flour are brought them for winter provisions; and the
meaner people procure these in exchange for sheep and skins. The slaves
content themselves with thick water[2]. They do not eat either long tailed
or short tailed mice. There are many marmots in their country, which they
call Sogur, which gather during winter, in companies of twenty or thirty
together, in burrows, where they sleep for six months; these they catch in
great numbers and use as food. There are likewise a kind of rabbits, with
long tails like cats, having black and white hairs at the extremity of
their tails. They have many other small animals fit for eating, with which
they are well acquainted. I have seen no deer, and very few hares, but many
antelopes. I saw vast numbers of wild asses, which resemble mules. Likewise
an animal resembling a ram, called _artak,_ with crooked horns of such
amazing size, that I was hardly able to lift a pair of them with one hand.
Of these horns they make large drinking-cups. They have falcons,
gyrfalcons, and other hawks in great abundance, all of which they carry on
their right hands. Every hawk has a small thong of leather fastened round
his neck, the ends of which hang down to the middle of his breast; and
before casting off after game, they bow down the hawk's head towards his
breast, by means of this thong, with their left hand, lest he be tossed by
the wind, or should soar too high [3]. The Tartars are most expert hunters,
and procure a great part of their sustenance by the chase.
When the Tartars intend to hunt wild beasts, a vast multitude of people is
collected together, by whom the country is surrounded to a large extent in
a great circle; and by gradually contracting this circle towards its
centre, they at length collect all the included game into a small space,
into which the sportsmen enter and dispatch the game with their arrows.
From Cataya, and other regions of the east, and from Persia, and other
countries of the south they procure silk stuffs, cloth of gold, and cotton
cloth, of which they make their summer garments. From Russia, Moxel,
Greater Bulgaria, Pascatir, which is the greater Hungary, and Kersis, all
of which are northern countries and full of woods, and from other countries
towards the north which are subject to their authority, they procure
valuable furs of many kinds, which I have not seen in our parts. With these
they make their winter garments; and they have always at least two fur
gowns, one of which has the fur inwards, and the other has the fur outwards
to the wind and snow; which outer garments are usually made of the skins of
wolves, foxes, or bears. But while they sit within doors, they have gowns
of finer and more costly materials. The garments of the meaner sort are
made of the skins of dogs and goats.
They likewise have breeches made of skins. The rich often line their
garments with silk shag, which is exceedingly soft, light, and warm. The
poor line theirs with cotton cloth, wadded with the finest wool which they
can sort out from their fleeces; and of the coarser wool they make felts
for covering their houses and chests, and for sleeping upon. Their ropes
are likewise made of wool, mixed with a third part of horse hair. Of felt
they also make cloths to lay under their saddles, and caps to defend their
heads from rain. In all these things they use vast quantities of wool. Your
majesty has seen the habits of these people[4].
[1] Under the name of Kumyss, this liquor is much used by the Russian
gentry, as a restorative for constitutions weakened by disease or
debauchery: and for procuring it they travel to the Tartar districts
of the empire.--E.
[2] Whether the author here means the dissolved sour curd, mentioned at the
close of the former Section, or gruel made from meal and water, does
not appear.--E.
[3] Our falconers use the left hand for carrying their hawks. I leave the
inexplicable use of the thongs to be understood by professional
falconers.--Hakluyt, ad loc.
[4] Probably this concluding sentence means, that as the king of France had
seen some Tartars in Syria, the author did not deem it necessary to
describe their form and fashions.--E.