WILLIAM DE RUBRUQUIS ad. 



J 253. 

 their throtes. Hereupon when a great company of 

 such gentlewomen ride together, and are beheld a far 

 off, they seem to be souldiers with helmets on their 

 heads carrying their launces upright : for the said Botta 

 appeareth like an helmet with a launce over it. Al 

 their women sit on horsebacke bestriding their horses 

 like men : & they bind their hoods or gownes about 

 their wastes with a skie coloured silke skarfe, & with 

 another skarfe they girde it above their breasts : & 

 they bind also a piece of white silke like a mufler or 

 maske under their eyes, reaching down unto their breast. 

 These gentlewomen are exceeding fat, & the lesser their 

 noses be, the fairer are they esteemed : they daube 

 over their sweet faces with grease too shamefully : and 

 they never lie in bed for their travel of childbirth. 



Of the dueties injoined unto the Tartarian women, 

 and of their labours, and also of their 

 mariages. Chap. 9. 



THe duties of women are, to drive carts : to lay their 

 houses upon carts &: to take them downe again : to 

 milke kine : to make butter & Gry-ut : to dresse skins & 

 to sow them, which they usually sowe v/ith thread made 

 of sinewes, for they divide sinewes into slender threads, & 

 then twine them into one long thread. They make 

 sandals & socks & other garments. Howbeit they never 

 wash any apparel : for they say that God is then angry, & 

 that dreadful thunder wil ensue, if washed garments be 

 hanged forth to drie : yea, they beat such as wash, & take 

 their garments from them. They are wonderfully afraid 

 of thunder : for in the time of thunder they thrust all 

 strangers out of their houses, & then wrapping themselves 

 in black felt, they lie hidden therein, til the thunder be 

 overpast. They never wash their dishes or bowles : yea, 

 when their flesh is sodden, they wash the platter wherein 

 it must be put, with scalding hot broth out of the pot, & 

 then powre the said broth into the pot againe. They 

 make felte also, & cover their houses therewith. The 



245 



