136 Of the Checks to Population Bk. i. 



tion,* their fatiguing predatory incursions, or 

 from long droughts and mortality of cattle; but 

 in the common course of things the approach of 

 poverty would be the signal for a new marauding 

 expedition; and the poor Kirgisien would either 

 return with sufficient to support him, or lose his 

 life or liberty in the attempt. He who deter- 

 mines to be rich or die, and does not scruple the 

 means, cannot long live poor. 



The Kalmucks, who before their emigration in 

 1771 inhabited the fertile steppes of the Wolga 

 under the protection of Russia, lived in general 

 in a different manner. They were not often en- 

 gaged in any very bloody wars ;f and the power 

 of the Chan being absolute,^ and the civil admi- 

 nistration better regulated than among the Kir- 

 gisiens, the marauding expeditions of private ad- 

 venturers were checked. The Kalmuck women 

 are extremely prolific. Barren marriages are 

 rare, and three or four children are generally 

 seen playing round every hut. From which (ob- 

 serves Pallas) it may naturally be concluded that 

 they ought to have multiplied greatly during the 

 hundred and fifty years that they inhabited tran- 



* Cette multitude devaste tout ce qui se trouve sur son pas- 

 sage; ils emmenent avec eux tout le betail qu'ils ne consomment 

 pas, et reduisent a l'esclavage les femmes, les enfans, et les hommes, 

 qu'ils n'ont pas massacres. Decouv. Russ. torn. iii. p. 390. 



t Decouv. Russ. torn. iii. p. 221. The tribe is described here 

 under the name of Torgots, which was their appropriate appella- 

 tion. The Russians called them by the more general name of 

 Kalmucks. 



% Id. p. 327. 



