HUNTING OF THE TARTARS 



grasses remind one of the waves of the ocean and, in spite 

 of their monotony, leave a pleasant impression.""^ 



Tulips, Hyacinths, Veronicas, Periwinkles, Scotch Thistles, 

 Euphorbias, Wormwoods, and other of our common plants 

 or their near cousins, make up most of the flora of the 

 Steppes. Yet there are hundreds of others, for it is a 

 vegetation very rich in species. 



If one reads in Gibbon's stately language of the mode of 

 life of the Huns, the Scythians, and those other barbarians 

 who, originating in these huge grasslands, occasionally 

 overflowed and overwhelmed the civilization of declining 

 Rome, the resemblance to Red Indians, Pampas Indians, 

 cowboys, gauchos, and Boers is not a little striking. 



Read, for instance, the magnificent account of the great 

 hunting matches of the Tartar princes. " A circle is drawn 

 of many miles in circumference, to encompass the game of an 

 extensive district; and the troops that form the circle 

 regularly advance towards a common centre, where the 

 animals, surrounded on every side, are abandoned to the 

 darts of the hunters."" Both the Red Indians of the Prairie 

 and the savages of the Pampas used to surround and destroy 

 the game in exactly the same way. 



The unfortunate Chinese princess given over for political 

 advantages to a prince of the Huns, " laments that she had 

 been condemned by her parents to a distant exile, under a 

 barbarian husband, and complains that sour milk was her 

 only drink, raw flesh her only food, a tent her only palace."" 

 This describes exactly the ordinary life and home of the 

 Huns. " The Scythians of every age have been celebrated 

 as bold and skilful riders ; and constant practice had seated 

 them so firmly on horseback, that they were supposed by 



^ Schiraper, I.e.; Drude, l.c. 

 224 



