Ch. vii. among modem Pastoral Nations. 141 



therefore provides only for the most valuable of 

 his cattle during the winter, and leaves the rest 

 to support themselves by the scanty herbage 

 which they can pick up. This poor living, com- 

 bined with the severe cold, naturally destroys a 

 considerable part of them.* The population of 

 the tribe is measured by the population of its 

 herds ; and the average numbers of the Tartars, 

 as of the horses that run wild in the desert, are 

 kept down so low by the annual returns of the 

 cold and scarcity of winter, that they cannot con- 

 sume all the plentiful offerings of summer. 



Droughts and unfavourable seasons have, in 

 proportion to their frequency, the same effects as 

 the winter. In Arabiaf and a great part of Tar- 

 tary£ droughts are not uncommon ; and if the 

 periods of their return be not above six or eight 

 years, the average population can never much 

 exceed what the soil can support during these 

 unfavourable times. This is true in every situa- 

 tion; but perhaps, in the shepherd state, man is 

 peculiarly exposed to be affected by the seasons; 

 and a great mortality of parent stock is an evil 

 more fatal and longer felt than the failure of a 

 crop of grain. Pallas and the other Russian tra- 

 vellers speak of epizooties as very common in 

 these parts of the world.§ 



As among the Tartars a family is always ho- 



* Dccouvertes Russes, vol. iii. p. 261. 



t Voy. de Volney, vol. i. c. 23. p. 353. 



\ Dccouv. Russ. torn. i. p. 467; ii. p. 10, 11, 12, &c. 



§ Id. torn. i. p. 290, &c; ii. p. 1 1 ; iv. p. 304. 



