TARTARY, CALLED SOORA GOV. ^67 



favourite haunt. In this vicinity the southern glens 

 afford them food and shelter during the severity of 

 winter; in milder seasons the northern aspect is more 

 congenial to their nature, and admits a wider range. 

 They are a very valuable property to the tribes of illi- 

 terate Tartars, who live in tents and tend them from 

 place to place, affording their herdsmen a mode of 

 conveyance, a good covering, and subsistence. They 

 are never employed in agriculture, but are extremely 

 useful as beasts of burthen; for they are strong, sure 

 footed, and carry a great weight. Tents and ropes 

 are manufactured of their hair ; and I have, though 

 amongst the humblest rank of herdsmen, seen caps 

 and jackets worn of their skin. Their tails are esteem- 

 ed throughout the Easi, as far as luxury or parade 

 have any influence on the manners of the people; and 

 on the continent of 'India are found, under the deno- 

 mination of Chozvries, in the hands of the meanest; 

 grooms as well as occasionally in those of the first mi- 

 nisters of state. Yet the best requital with which the 

 care of their keepers is at length rewarded for selecting 

 them good pastures, is in the abundant quantity of 

 rich milk they give, yielding most excellent butter* 

 which they have a custom of depositing in skins or 

 bladders, and excluding the air : it keeps in this cold 

 climate during all the year ; so that after some time 

 tending their flocks, when a sufficient stock is accu- 

 mulated, it remains only to load their cattle and drive 

 them to a proper market with their own produce, 

 which constitutes, to the utmost verge of Vartaty, a 

 most material article of merchandize. 



XXIV. 



