KALMUCS. 
180 
ivith the driest excrements of their cattle, to wliich they are ofien 
obliged to have recourse, for want of Other kinds of fuel, in many 
places of the deserts which are destitute of wood. In summer they 
remove the felt, to enjoy the fresh air. The master of the tent has 
his bed placed opposite to the door, behind the hre-placCi The bed- 
steads are low, and made of wood. The rich adorn their beds with 
curtains, and spread carpets of felt upon the ground. When a Kal- 
inuc possesses an idol, he places it near the head of his bed, and sets 
before it several small consecrated cups, full of water, milk, or other 
food. On festivals the idols are decorated, the lamps are lighted, 
and perfumes are burnt before it. The riches of the Kalmiics, and 
their whole means of subsistence, depends on their flocks, which 
many of them reckon by hundreds, and even by thousands. A man 
is thought capable of living on his possessions, when he is master of 
ten cows with a bull, and eight mares with a stallion. The animals they 
have in great abundance are horses, horned cattle, and sheep. Camels, 
which require time and pains to rear, cannot multiply fast with them ; 
they are besides too delicate, and it is only the rich or the priests 
who possess any of them. Their horses are small, too weak for the 
draught, and too wild ; but they are very swift, and supjiort with 
ease the weight of a man. They may be made to gallop several 
hours without injury, and can pass two days without drinking. They 
have a little hoof, but very hard, and may be used at all times with- 
out being shod. They perpetuate their species w'ithout any assistance 
from man. The KalmucS castrate the greater part of their male 
foals, and slit their noses, that they may breathe more freely when 
they run. The stallions are never separated from the mares, that 
there may always be plenty of milk. Their horned cattle are of a 
beautiful shape. They keep more bulls than are necessary for the 
cows, and employ a great number of them as beasts of burden, for 
carrying their houses and furniture from j)lace to place. They think 
a bull equally to fifty cows. Their sheep have large tails, exceedingly 
fat, and furnish a suet as soft as butter. They have also large pen- 
dent ears, and their heads are much arched. I'lieir wool is coarse, 
and they seldom have horns. One ram is sufficient for one hundred 
ewes. The wmol is only fit to make felt for tents. Many sheep die 
during winter, and a greater number still of the early iarnbs, the 
skins of which are wrought into those fine furs so much esteemed in 
Russia and foreign parts. The rich Kalmucs only have camels ; for 
they are very dear, multiply slowly, and are subjected to many 
diseases. They are guarded with more care in winter, yet many of 
them die of consumption and diarrhtea, occasioned probably by the 
moisture of their pasture. No animal is so tormented with insects, 
and they often die in summer of those they swallow in eating the 
leaves of the oak and birch. The meloe prescarabaeus, which covers 
all the plants in many places where they feed, is generally fatal to 
them. In spring, when they cast their hair, and which falls at once 
from every part of their body, they are exposed to the bite of the 
sjYider scorpion, whose wmund is so venomous, that the camel dies 
of it at the end of eight days, sometimes in three. Gamers milk is 
thick, unctuous, and of a saltish taste, and this last property makes the 
