132 



The Persian Travels Book III. 



CHAP. XIII. 



Of the lejfer Tartars , caiïd Nogaïes , bord* ring upon Co- 

 mania. 



f |H ^ H E IeiTcr Tartars have a very ancient race of Horfes, which they breed 

 up even to Superftition -, fo that it would be among them an aft of 

 I ; Sacriledge to fell them to ftrangers, as being not a little curious 

 JSL. how they fell them to one another. Thefe are the Horfes which they 

 tide, fifty or fixty in a Troop together when they go a thieving \ and fometimes 

 a hunder'd together , when they defign any Incurfion upon their Enemies. When 

 the old Men come to be infirm and impotent , if they know any ftout young Man 

 that is a Souldier, they willjend him one of their Horfes ( if he have none of his 

 own ) to make an Incurfion , upon condition to have half of the Booty. Many 

 times they run up as far as Hungary , near to Comora and Javarin. Thefe Horfes, 

 partly by nature, partly by early cuftom, will travel four or five days together 

 with a handful of Grafs giv'n them once in eight or ten hours, and a little Water 

 every four .and twenty hours. But they never go a robbing with them 'till they 

 come to be leven or eight years old : befides that , they muft undergo a very 

 fevere education ere they make ufe of them in thofe hardfhips. Their Bit is only 

 a piece of Iron with a Buckle on each fide , to which they faft'n the Bridle and 

 Head-ftall. For eight days together they put under the Saddle a bag of Gravel 

 or Earth. The firft day the Sack is a Horfe-man's weight *, and fo they add to it 

 every day, 'till it come to be double the weight at the end of the eight days. As 

 they increafe every day the weight upon the Horfes back , they abate every day 

 the Horfes Provender and Drink. During thefe eight days , they get up and walk 

 the Horfe two or three Leagues. The next eight days , they abate every day of 

 the weight , 'till the Sack be quite empty. Proportionably alfo they abate him of 

 his Meat and Drink as in the firft eight days , and every day take up the Girt 

 a hole fhorter. The three or four laft days they afford the Horfe neither Proven- 

 der nor Drink , according as they find him able to endure hunger and thirft, and 

 the labour which, he is to undergo. The laft day, they work him 'till he be all over 

 of a Sweat:, then they unbridle and unfaddle him , and pour upon him the coldeft 

 Water they can meet with. That done, they lead him into a field, and tye him 

 by the leg with a Cord , àt fuch a length as they intend he (hall feed -, yet ftill from 

 clay to day allowing him more Rope , 'till at laft they let him loofe , and feed with 

 the reft of the Horfes. This terrible faffing and labour, during which time, that 

 little which they do eat and drink , they eat and drink with the Bit in their mouth, 

 brings them to be fo lean and out of flefh , that their very bones are ready to ftart 

 out of their skins: So that if any one fhould fee them in that mii'erable condition, 

 that does not know the nature of the Horfes, would think they would never be fit 

 for good fervice. The hoofs of thefe Horfes are fo hard that they never fhooe 

 them, and yet they will leave the prints of their feet in the Earth, or upon the Ice, 

 as if they had been fhod. Thefe Tartars are fo curious in having Horfes that will 

 endure labour, that fo loon as they fee any handfom Colt in their Breed, they 

 prefently take him up, to fchool him as I have related : but hardly ten in fifty endure 

 the tutoring. 



As for their, Diet, 'tis a great advantage for thefe Tartars to ride a Mare, in 

 regard they drink the Milk. They that ride Horfes , carry along with them a 

 little Bag full of pieces of Cheefe dry'd in the Sun -, they have alio a fmall Boracho 

 of Goat-skin, which they fill with Water where they meet with-it, into which 

 they put two or three bits of their hard Cheefe , which lbftens with the motion of 

 the Horfe , the Boracho being ty'd under his Belly : and thus the Water becomes 

 a kind of fowr Milk , which is their ordinary Drink. 



As for their Inftruments of Cookery, every Horfe-man has a large wooden Ladle 

 hanging at the Pommel of his Saddle, out of which the rider drinks himfelf, and gives 

 his Horfe likewife to drink. They that encounter them , can hope for no better Booty 



than 



/ 



