CALMUCKS. 
322 
chap, to which they are exposed, places their situ- 
y ation in a point of view more favourable, per- 
haps, than we have done. “ For the rest,” says 
he, “ to whatsoever degree of wretchedness 
the poorest of the Calmucks may be reduced, 
it is very rare to behold them dejected by 
sorrow, and they are never subdued by 
despair. The generality, notwithstanding a 
mode of life apparently so adverse to health, 
attain to a robust and very old age. Their 
disorders are neither very frequent, nor very 
dangerous. Few become grey-headed at forty 
or fifty. Persons from eighty to a hundred 
years of age are by no means uncommon among 
them ; and at that advanced period of life they 
still sustain with great ease the fatigue of horse- 
manship. A simple and uniform diet 1 ; the free air 
they uninterruptedly respire ; inured, vigorous, 
and healthy bodies; continual exercise, without 
care, without laborious employment ; such are 
the natural causes of these felicitous effects.” 
Leaving this encampment, we continued to 
traverse the steppes in a south-westerly direction, 
(1) It is difficult to reconcile this statement with the real diet of the 
Calmucks. Can that properly be deemed simple, which consists of 
the grossest animal food of all kinds, without admixture of vegetable 
diet, without bread, or any of the fruits of the earth ? 
