K A LMUCS, 
177 
biit in hunting only, and chiefly against the monkeys. The flesh of the 
animal thus killed may be safely eaten, and even the poison itself 
swallowed with impunity. 
Kalmucs. 
These are a tribeof Tartars. They are in general, says professor Pal- 
las, of a middle size, and it is even rare to see among them a person that 
is tali ; the women especially are of low stature, and have very agree- 
able features. Their limbs are neatly turned, and very few have any 
defects contracted in infancy. Their education being left solely to 
nature, procures for them a well-formed body and sound constitution. 
Their skin is pretty fair, especially when young ; but the lower sort 
allow their male young children to go quite naked, both in the heat of the 
sun, and in the smoky atmosphere of their felt huts ; the men, too, 
sleep naked, covered only with their drawers ; and thus they acquire 
that vellowdsh brown colour which characterizes them. The women, 
on the contrary, have a very delicate complexion ; among those of a 
certain rank are found some of the most beautiful faces, the whiteness of 
which is set off by the fine black of their hair; and in this, as well as 
in the features, they perfectly resemble the figures in Chinese paintings. 
The physiognomy of the Kalmucs is peculiar. Strangers are made 
to believe that it is frightfully deformed ; and though there are indeed 
very ugly men to be found, yet in general their countenances have an 
openness that bespeaks a mild, frank, and social disposition. In 
many it is of a roundish shape, and exceedingly agreeable ; among the 
women, some would be thought beauties, even in those European 
cities where the taste is most scrupulous. The characteristic features 
of a Kalmuc or Mongol countenance are the following : The interior 
angle of the eye is placed obliquely downwards towards the nose, 
and is acute and fleshy; the eye-brows are black, narrow, and much 
arched ; the nose is of a structure quite singular, being generally flat 
and broken towards the forehead ; the cheek-bone is high, the head 
and face very round ; the eye is dark, the lip thick and fleshy, the 
chin short, and the teeth exceedingly white, continuing so to old age; 
the ears are of an enormous size, standing out from the head. These 
characters are more or less visible in each individual ; but the per- 
son that possesses them all in the highest degree is considered as 
the most beautifully formed. Among all the Mongul nations, the men 
have much less beard than in our European countries, and among 
the Tartars it apppears much later. The Kalmucs have most of it, 
and yet even with them the beard is very scanty and thin ; and few 
have much hair on any other part of the body. They enjoy the bodily 
senses in the greatest perfection. They find the subtilty of their 
sense of smell very useful in their military expeditions ; by it they 
perceive at a great distance the smoke of a fire or the smell of a camp ; 
many of them can tell, by applying the nose to the hole of a fox or 
any other quadruped, if the animal be within or not. They hear at 
a great distance the trampling of horses, the noise of an enemy, or 
strayed cattle ; they have only to stretch themselves on the ground, 
and to apply their ear close to the turf. But nothing is more astou- 
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