[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.
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].
[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.
SECTION VIII.
Of the Fashion of their Hair, and the Ornaments of their Women.
The men have a square tonsure on their crowns, from the two front corners of which they shave two seams down to their temples. The temples also, and hinder part of the head, to the nape of the neck, are shaved, and the forehead, except one small lock which falls down to the eyes. On each angle of the hind head, they leave a long lock of hair, which they braid and knot together under each ear. The dress of unmarried women differs little from that of the men, except in being somewhat longer. But on the day after marriage, the head is shaved, from the middle down to the forehead, and the woman puts on a wide gown, like that of a monk, but wider and longer. This opens before, and is tied under the right side. In this the Tartars and Turks differ, as the Turks tie their garments always on the left side. They have an ornament for their heads which they call Botta, which is made of the bark of a tree or any other very light substance, made in a round form, so thick as may be grasped with both hands, becoming square at the upper extremity, and in all about two feet long, somewhat resembling the capital of a pillar. This cap is hollow within, and is covered over with rich silk. On the top of this they erect a bunch of quills, or slender rods, about a cubit long, or even more, which they ornament with peacocks feathers on the top, and all around with the feathers of a wild drake, and even with precious stones. The rich ladies wear this ornament on the top of their heads, binding it on strongly with a kind of hat or coif, which has a hole in its crown adapted for this purpose, and under this they collect their hair from the back of the head, lapped up in a kind of knot or bundle within the botta; and the whole is fixed on by means of a ligature under their throat. Hence, when a number of these ladies are seen together on horseback, they appear at a distance like soldiers armed with helmets and lances. The women all sit astride on horseback like men, binding their mantles round their waists with silken scarfs of a sky-blue colour, and they bind another scarf round their breasts. They likewise have a white veil tied on just below their eyes, which reaches down to their breasts. The women are amazingly fat, and the smaller their noses, they are esteemed the more beautiful. They daub over their faces most nastily with grease; and they never keep their beds on account of child-bearing.
SECTION IX.
Of the Duties and Labours of the Women, and of their Nuptials.
The employments of the women are, to lead the waggons, to load and unload the horses, to milk the cows, to make butter and gryut, to dress skins, and to sew them together, which they generally do with sinews finely split and twisted into long threads. They likewise make sandals, and socks, and other garments, and felts for covering their houses. They never wash their garments, alleging that it would offend God, and that hanging them up to dry would occasion thunder; and they even beat any person who pretends to wash their garments, and take their clothes from them. They are astonishingly afraid of thunder, during which they turn all strangers from their dwellings, and wrapping themselves in black felt, remain covered up till it is over. They never wash their bowls or dishes; or if they do wash the platters into which the boiled meat is to be put, they do it merely with the scalding broth, which they throw back into the pot.
The men make bows and arrows, saddles, bridles, and stirrups, construct houses and carts, takes care of the horses, and milk the mares, agitate the cosmos or mares milk, make leather sacks, in which these are kept, take care of, and load the camels, tend the cows, sheep, and goats, and these are sometimes milked by the men, sometimes by the women. They dress hides with sheeps milk, thickened and salted. When they mean to wash their head and hands, they fill their mouths with water, which they squirt out gradually on their hands, and moisten their hair or wash their heads.
No man can have a wife unless by purchase; so that many maids are rather old before marriage, as their parents always keep them till they can get a good market. They keep the first and second degrees of consanguinity inviolate, but pay no regard to affinity, as one man may have either at once, or successively two sisters. Widows never marry, as their belief is, that all who have served a man in this life, shall do so in the next; so that widows believe that they shall return after death to their husbands. Hence arises an abominable custom among them, that the son sometimes marries all his father's wives except his own mother; for the court or household of the father and mother always devolves to the younger son, and he has to provide for all his father's wives, which fall to his share along with the inheritance; and he considers, that if he takes his father's wives, it will be no injury or disgrace to him though they went to his father in the next world. When any one has made a bargain with another for his daughter, the father of the maid gives a feast to the bridegroom, and the bride runs away and hides herself in the house of one of her relations. Then the father says to the bridegroom, "My daughter is now yours, take her wherever you can find her." On which he seeks for her, with the assistance of his friends, till he discovers her concealment, and then leads her as if by violence to his house.
SECTION X.
Of their Laws and Judgments, and of their Death and Burial.
When two men fight, no one must interfere