Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/225

213 PLANO CARPINl's ACCOUNT OF THE TARTARS. 213 they eat from, wash them with the liquor, and then pour it back into the cauldron." These details from the narrative of Rubruk are nearly the same that might be given, at the present day, concerning the nomadic people of Tartary ; for these formidable shepherds, after having invaded and ravaged the world, have resumed, in the midst of their im- measurable steppes, the wandering life of their fore- fathers. The portraits, too, which the missionaries of the middle ages have left us, of the physical characteristics of the Tartars, may be recognised, feature for feature, in the Mongols of the present day. John de Piano Carpini has described Tartary as the country of men of middle size, with broad flat faces, prominent cheek bones, short flat noses, little eyes, placed obliquely, and separated by a great space, with the beard scanty or entirely wanting: a portrait of such precision, says M. d'Avezac *, that no modern naturalist could improve on it, with respect to the external characteristics of the Mongols. Another monk has left us a picture no less striking, a little satirical perhaps, but not the worse likeness for that. " After leaving Turkey," says the lively Friar Ricoldf, "we entered Tartary, where we met with that wonderful and horrid people, the Tartars, who able work of M. d'Avezac has furnished us with many valuable details, especially on the obscure question of Prester John. This learned geographer has thoroughly studied the Mongols of the middle ages. cbeurs." Feuillet, 36. p 3
 * "Relation des Monghols ou Tartares," p. 524. The admir-
 * " Peregrinacion de Frere Ricold de l'Ordre des Freres Pes-