Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/223

211 MIGRATIONS OF THE TARTARS. 211 and preserve it for a long time by cutting it into thin slices, and drying it in the air, or in the smoke of their fires. " These people are under the necessity of constant mi- grations, in order to seek fresh pastures for their cattle, and as soon as the grass has been eaten from the district where they are encamped, they load their animals with their household goods and young children, and go to seek fresh fields and pastures, no matter in what direction. In the spring they proceed to the mountains, and when the cold season comes they return to the plains. At that time the cattle have no food but what they can obtain by scratching away the snoAV with their feet, and when a severe frost succeeds a thaw, so that the ground becomes covered with ice, the animals which cannot break the ice perish of hunger. Horses, which are least exposed to this danger, on account of the great strength of their legs, always form a large proportion of the Tartar herds, and the care of them is the principal branch of Tartar economy. " The cotton and silk stuffs, embroidered in gold or silver, which the wealthy Tartars wear in summer, come from China and Persia ; the costly furs that they wrap themselves in, in winter, chiefly from Eussia and Bul- garia. Their usual plan in the winter is to wear two pelisses, one with the hair inward, the other with it turned out ; and they are thus protected against wind and snow. These outer pelisses are of sheep or goat's skin for the poor, and of fox or wolf's skin for the rich, or sometimes the latter line them with silk or cotton wadding, or fine wool. " The warmest kind of wool is kept for making felt, of which there is a great consumption, as it is used p 2