{MN} The attire of those Tartars.
{MN} For the Tartars of Nagi, they have neither Town, nor House, Corn, nor Drink, but Flesh and Milk. The Milk they keep in great Skins like Burracho's, which though it be never so sower, it agreeth well with their strong Stomachs. They live all in Hordias, as doth the Crim-Tartars, three or four hundred in a Company, in great Carts fifteen or sixteen foot broad, which are covered with small Rods, wattled together in the form of a Bird's Nest, turned upwards, and with the Ashes of Bones, temper'd with Oil, Camels Hair, and a Clay they have, they loam them so well, that no Weather can pierce them, and yet very light. Each Hordia hath a Murse, which they obey as their King. Their Gods are infinite. One or two thousand of those glittering white Carts drawn with Camels, Deer, Bulls, and Ulgries, they bring round in a Ring, where they pitch their Camp; and the Murse, with his chief Alliances, are placed in the midst. They do much hurt, when they can get any Stroggs, which are great Boats used up on the River Volga, (which they call Edle) to them that dwell in the Countrey of Perolog, and would do much more, were it not for the Muscovites Garrisons that there Inhabit.
{MN} The Tartars of Nagi and their manners.
CHAP. XIIII.
The Description of the Crim-Tartars; their Houses and Carts, their Idolatry
in their Lodgings
{MN-1} Now you are to understand, Tartary and Scythia are all one, but so large and spacious, few, or none, could ever perfectly describe it, nor all the several kinds of those most barbarous People that inhabit it. Those we call the Crim-Tartars, border upon Moldavia, Podolia, Lithuania, and Russia, are much more regular than the interior parts of Scythia. This Great Tartarian Prince, that hath so troubled all his Neighbours, they always call Chan, which signifieth Emperour; but we, the Crim-Tartar. He liveth for the most part in the best Champion Plains of many Provinces; and his removing Court is like a great City of Houses and Tents, drawn on Carts, all so orderly placed East and West, on the right and left hand of the Prince's House, which is always in the midst towards the South, before which, none may pitch their Houses, every one knowing their Order and Quarter, as in an Army. {MN-2} The Princes Houses are very artificially wrought, both the Foundation, Sides, and Roof of Wickers, ascending round to the top like a Dove coat; this they cover with white Salt, or white Earth, temper'd with the Powder of Bones, that it may shine the whiter; sometimes with black Felt, curiously painted with Vines, Trees, Birds, and Beasts; the breadth of the Carts are eighteen or twenty Foot, but the house stretcheth four or five Foot over each side, and is drawn with ten or twelve, or for more state, twenty Camels and Oxen. {MN-3} They have also great Baskets, made of smaller Wickers, like great Chests, with a covering of the same, all covered over with black Felt, rubbed over with Tallow and Sheep's Milk, to keep out the Rain; prettily bedecked with Painting or Feathers; in those they put their Houshold Stuff and Treasure, drawn upon other Carts for that purpose. When they take down their Houses, they set the door always towards the South, and their Carts thirty or forty Foot distant on each side, East and West, as if they were two Walls: The Women also have most curious Carts; every one of his Wives hath a great one for her self, and so many other for her Attendants, that they seem as many Courts as he hath Wives. One great Tartar or Nobleman, will have for his particular, more than an hundred of those Houses and Carts, for his several Offices and Uses, but set so far from each other, they will seem like a great Village. {MN-4} Having taken their Houses from the Carts, they place the Master always towards the North; over whose head is always an Image like a Puppet, made of Felt, which they call his Brother; the Women on his left hand, and over the chief Mistriss her Head, such another Brother, and between them a little one, which is the keeper of the House; at the good Wives Beds-feet is a Kids Skin, stuffed with Wooll, and near it a Puppet looking towards the Maids; next the door another, with a dried Cows Udder, for the Women that Milk the Kine, because only the Men Milk Mares; {MN-5} every Morning those Images in their orders, they besprinkle with that they drink, be it Cossmos, or whatsoever, but all the white Mares Milk is reserved for the Prince. Then without the door, thrice to the South, every one bowing his knee in honour of the Fire; then the like to the East, in honour of the Air; then to the West, in honour of the Water; and lastly to the North, in behalf of the dead. After the Servant hath done this duty to the four quarters of the World, he returns into the House, where his Fellows stand waiting, ready with two Cups, and two Basons, to give their Master, and his Wife that lay with him that Night, to wash and drink, who must keep him company all the day following, and all his other Wives come thither to drink, where he keeps his House that day; and all the Gifts presented him till night, are laid up in her Chests; and at the door a Bench full of Cups, and drink for any of them to make merry.
{MN-1} The description of the Crim-Tartar's Court.