BOBAK. 
animals when they are very fat, and even con- 
sider them as medicinal : the Mahometan Tar- 
tars, on the contrary, not only abstain from 
therr flesh, but even afford them prote6i:ion from 
injury ; so tliat, near these hordes, they are pro- 
> iiigiously numerous. These Tartars, indeed, 
esteem a warren of Bobaks near them to be 
very fortunate ; and think it a sin to kill either 
a Bobak, a Swallow, or a Dove. 
In Chinese Tartary, the Bobaks are cultiva- 
tors of Rhul.arb : it grows among their bur- 
rows ; the manure which they leave about the 
roots contribute; to it*s increase ; and the loose 
soil they fling up, proves a bed for the ripe 
seed, which would, if scattered among the 
long grass, soon perish, without ever being 
able to reach the ground. 
Buffon says, tliat *' the Hamster has been 
called the Strasburgh Marmot, and the Bobak 
the Polish Marmot- But it is equally certain, 
that the Hamster is not a Marmot ; as it is pro- 
bable, that the Bobak does belong to that spe- 
cies : for the Bobak differs from the Alpine 
Marmot only in the colour of his hair ; which, 
instead 
