REYS VAN Voyage of

1558

neighbors. They are born of different mothers, and thus they do not share the same understanding that others have that they are brothers. Each of these Sultans has 3 or 5 wives, as well as many concubines and young men, and they lead a very irregular life.

They wage war with one another and live by plundering caravans.

These brothers are almost constantly at war. The defeated ones withdraw with their cattle into the field and live off the plunder they obtain from caravans and merchants, ambushing them when they arrive at places where they know these people must provide themselves with water. They persist in this brigandage until they have again found an opportunity to establish themselves in their states. These people have no fixed place of residence but move from one to the other with their herds of sheep, camels, and horses. Their sheep are very fat, and their tails are sometimes 80 pounds in weight.

Wild horses caught by falcons, and how.

They have an abundance of wild horses, which the Tartars often catch in the following manner with their falcons. These falcons are trained to attack the heads of these beasts; they beat them with their wings and obstruct them in such a way that the hunters have time to reach them and kill them either with arrows or swords. In this entire land one finds no grass, but certain shrubs with which the beasts sustain themselves and become very fat.

These Tartars have neither gold nor silver. They trade their beasts for things that they need. They have no use for bread, but they are great meat-eaters and are particularly fond of horse meat. Their drink is made of fermented mare's milk, of which they often drink their fill, just like the Nogai Tartars.

The manner of life of these Tartars is noted.

From the place where we disembarked to this second gulf, we found nothing but well-water. On November 26th we departed.