ASIATIC RUSSIA. 



895 



they can the most easily obtain.* All of the Tartar race make use of Koumiss., the spirit 

 drawn from mare's milk. 



The courtship of the Calmucks is a horse racg. The lady whose good will is solicited, is 

 mounted on horseback, and the wooer follows. If he is favored, he is permitted to overtake : 



if not, whip and spur are 

 vain, for the lady is too 

 good an equestrian, and 

 has too much at stake, to 

 be overtaken. Among 

 the Crim Tartars, court- 

 ship and marriage are 

 cumbered with ceremo- 

 nies. The parties seldom 

 see each other till the 

 ceremony, and the con- 

 tract is made with the 

 heads of the tribe. At 

 the period of the wed- 

 ding, the villages near are 

 feasted for several days. 

 Much ceremony is used 

 in preparing the bride, 

 who is bound to show 

 every symptom of reluc- 

 tance. There is a con- 

 test between the matrons 

 and girls for her posses- 

 sion. The priest asks the 

 bride if she consents, and 

 on the affirmative, blesses the couple in the name of the prophet, and retires. There is a 

 great ceremony and cavalcade, when the bride is carried to her future home. She is carried 

 in a close carriage, under the care of her brothers, while the bridegroom takes a humble sta- 

 tion in the procession, dressed in his worst apparel, and badly mounted. A fine horse, how- 

 ever, is led for him by a friend, who receives from the mother of the bride a present of value, 

 as a shawl. There are not many facilities for traveling in any part of Asia. In the Russian 

 possessions, however, posts are generally established ; and in Ivamschatka, they are supplied, 

 instead of horses, with dogs. In Siberia, there are few inns, and the traveler finds money to 

 be an incumbrance. The generous hospitality of the people not only supplies his wants in 

 food and clothing, but he is feasted as though he were a long absent relation. The diseases 

 most general or fatal are scurvy, smallpox, fevers, and the most of the common maladies of 

 other countries. 



Tartar Weddinir. 



* Cochrane relates the following instances of what he 

 represents as a general voraciousness : 



" At Tabalak, I had a pretty good specimen of the ap- 

 petite of a child, whose age (as I understood from the 

 steersman, who spoke some English and less French) did 

 not exceed five years. 1 had observed the child crawling 

 on the floor, and scraping up with its thumb the tallow- 

 grease which fell from a lighted candle, and I inquired, in 

 surprise, whether it proceeded from hunger or liking of 

 the fat. I was told from neither, but sim|)ly from the ha- 

 bit, in both Yakuti and Tongou3i,of eating whenever there 

 is food, and never permitting anything that can be eaten 

 to be lost. I gave the child ii candle made of the most 

 impure tallow, • — a second, — and third ; and all were de- 

 voured with avidity. The steersman then gave him seve- 

 ral pounds of sour, frozen butter ; this, also, he immedi- 

 ately consumed; lastly, a large piece of yellow soap; all 

 went the same road ; but as 1 was now convinced , that the 

 child would continue to gorge as long as it could receive 

 anything, I begged my companion to desist. 



" As to the statement of what a man can or will eat, 

 either as to quality or quantity, I am afraid it would be 

 quite incredible ; in fact, there is nothing in the way of 

 lisli or meat, from whatever animal, however putrid or un- 

 wholesome, but they will devour with impunity; and the 

 quantity only varies from what they have, to wliat they 

 can get. 1 have repeatedly seen a Yakut or a Tongouse 

 devour forty pounds of meat in a day. The effect is very 

 observable upon them, for from thin and meagre-looking 

 men, they will become perfectly pot-bellied. Their sto- 

 machs must be differently formed from ours, or it would 

 be impossible for them to drink off at a draught, as they 

 really do, their tea and soup scalding hot (so hot, at least, 

 that a European would have difficully in even sipping at 

 it), without the least inconvenience. I have seen three 

 of ihese gluttons consume a reindeer at one meal ; nor are 

 they nice as to the choice of parts ; nothing being lost, 

 not even the contents of the bowels, which, with the aid 

 of fat and blood, are converted into black puddings." 



