Beauplan.
Of the Crim Tartars.
Since we are upon the Tartar Country, I think it will not be amiss to say somewhat of their Manners, way of living, how they make War in the Field, what order they observe in marching through an Enemy's Country, and how they make their Retreats into the Desert Plains.
The Tartars for several days after they are born, do not open their Eyes, like the Dogs and other Creatures; their Stature is low, for the tallest of them are scarce above our midling Men; they are rather slender than gross, but lusty and bony, their Stomach high and large, their Shoulders thick, their Neck short, their Head big, their Face almost round, their Forehead high, their Eyes narrow, black and long, their Nose short, their Teeth as white as Ivory, their Complexion fallow, their Hair very black and harsh, like a Horse's Mane. In short, they have quite another Physiognomy than Christians, and a Man may know them at first sight. Their Shape and Countenance is somewhat like that of the American Indians about Maragnon, and of those they call Caraibes. They are all of them lusty and bold Soldiers, hardy to endure Fatigue, and all the sorts of Weather. For from seven years of age when they come out of their Cantares, that is, their Houses or Huts upon two Wheels, they never lie under any other Roof but the Canopy of Heaven, and after that age they never give them any thing to eat but what they fetch down with their Arrows.
Thus they teach their Children to hit a Mark, and when they come to twelve years of age they send them to the Wars. It is their Mothers care when their Children are very young, to bath them every day in Water that has Salt dissolv'd in it, to harden their Skin, and make them less sensible of the Cold, when they are forced to swim Rivers in Winter.
