CHAPTER LIV.

CONCERNING THE TARTAR CUSTOMS OF WAR.

All their harness of war is excellent and costly. Their arms are bows

and arrows, sword and mace; but above all the bow, for they are capital

archers, indeed the best that are known. On their backs they wear

armour of cuirbouly, prepared from buffalo and other hides, which is

very strong.{1} They are excellent soldiers, and passing valiant in

battle. They are also more capable of hardships than other nations; for

many a time, if need be, they will go for a month without any supply

of food, living only on the milk of their mares and on such game as

their bows may win them. Their horses also will subsist entirely on the

grass of the plains, so that there is no need to carry store of barley

or straw or oats; and they are very docile to their riders. These, in

case of need, will abide on horseback the livelong night, armed at all

points, while the horse will be continually grazing.

Of all troops in the world these are they which endure the greatest

hardship and fatigue, and which cost the least; and they are the best

of all for making wide conquests of country. And this you will perceive

from what you have heard and shall hear in this book; and (as a fact)

there can be no manner of doubt that now they are the masters of the

biggest half of the world. Their troops are admirably ordered in the

manner that I shall now relate.

You see, when a Tartar prince goes forth to war, he takes with him,

say, 100,000 horse. Well, he appoints an officer to every ten men, one

to every hundred, one to every thousand, and one to every ten thousand,

so that his own orders have to be given to ten persons only, and each

of these ten persons has to pass the orders only to other ten, and so

on; no one having to give orders to more than ten. And every one in

turn is responsible only to the officer immediately over him; and the

discipline and order that comes of this method is marvellous, for they

are a people very obedient to their chiefs. Further, they call the

corps of 100,000 men a _Tuc_; that of 10,000 they call a _Toman_; the

thousand they call ...; the hundred _Guz_; the ten ....{2} And when the

army is on the march they have always 200 horsemen, very well mounted,

who are sent a distance of two marches in advance to reconnoitre, and

these always keep ahead. They have a similar party detached in the

rear, and on either flank, so that there is a good look-out kept on all

sides against a surprise. When they are going on a distant expedition

they take no gear with them except two leather bottles for milk; a

little earthenware pot to cook their meat in, and a little tent to

shelter them from rain.{3} And in case of great urgency they will ride

ten days on end without lighting a fire or taking a meal. On such an

occasion they will sustain themselves on the blood of their horses,

opening a vein and letting the blood jet into their mouths, drinking

till they have had enough, and then staunching it.{4}

They also have milk dried into a kind of paste to carry with them; and

when they need food they put this in water, and beat it up till it

dissolves, and then drink it. [It is prepared in this way; they boil

the milk, and when the rich part floats on the top they skim it into

another vessel, and of that they make butter; for the milk will not

become solid till this is removed. Then they put the milk in the sun

to dry. And when they go on an expedition, every man takes some ten

pounds of this dried milk with him. And of a morning he will take a

half pound of it and put it in his leather bottle, with as much water

as he pleases. So, as he rides along, the milk-paste and the water in

the bottle get well churned together into a kind of pap, and that makes

his dinner.{5}]

When they come to an engagement with the enemy, they will gain the

victory in this fashion. [They never let themselves get into a regular

medley, but keep perpetually riding round and shooting into the enemy.

And] as they do not count it any shame to run away in battle, they

will [sometimes pretend to] do so, and in running away they turn in

the saddle and shoot hard and strong at the foe, and in this way make

great havoc. Their horses are trained so perfectly that they will

double hither and thither, just like a dog, in a way that is quite

astonishing. Thus they fight to as good purpose in running away as if

they stood and faced the enemy, because of the vast volleys of arrows

that they shoot in this way, turning round upon their pursuers, who are

fancying that they have won the battle. But when the Tartars see that

they have killed and wounded a good many horses and men, they wheel

round bodily, and return to the charge in perfect order and with loud

cries; and in a very short time the enemy are routed. In truth they

are stout and valiant soldiers, and inured to war. And you perceive

that it is just when the enemy sees them run, and imagines that he has

gained the battle, that he has in reality lost it; for the Tartars

wheel round in a moment when they judge the right time has come. And

after this fashion they have won many a fight.{6}

All this that I have been telling you is true of the manners and

customs of the genuine Tartars. But I must add also that in these days

they are greatly degenerated; for those who are settled in Cathay

have taken up the practices of the Idolaters of the country, and have

abandoned their own institutions; whilst those who have settled in the

Levant have adopted the customs of the Saracens.{7}

NOTE 1.—The bow was the characteristic weapon of the Tartars,

insomuch that the Armenian historians often call them “The

Archers.” (_St. Martin_, II. 133.) “CUIRBOULY, leather softened

by boiling, in which it took any form or impression required, and

then hardened.” (_Wright’s Dict._) The English adventurer among

the Tartars, whose account of them is given by Archbishop Ivo of

Narbonne, in Matthew Paris (_sub._ 1243), says: “De coriis bullitis

sibi arma levia quidem, sed tamen impenetrabilia coaptarunt.” This

armour is particularly described by Plano Carpini (p. 685). See the

tail-piece to Book IV.

[Mr. E. H. Parker (_China Review_, XXIV. iv. p. 205) remarks that

“the first coats of mail were made in China in 1288: perhaps the

idea was obtained from the Malays or Arabs.”—H. C.]

NOTE 2.—M. Pauthier has judiciously pointed out the omissions that

have occurred here, perhaps owing to Rusticiano’s not properly

catching the foreign terms applied to the various grades. In the G.

Text the passage runs: “_Et sachiés que les cent mille est apellé

un_ Tut (read _tuc_) _et les dix mille un_ Toman, _et les por

milier et por centenier et por desme_.” In Pauthier’s (uncorrected)

text one of the missing words is supplied: “_Et appellent les

C.M. un_ Tuc; _et les X.M. un_ Toman; _et un millier_ Guz _por

centenier et por disenier_.” The blanks he supplies thus from

Abulghazi: “_Et un millier_: [un Miny]; _Guz, por centenier et_

[Un] _por disenier_.” The words supplied are Turki, but so is the

_Guz_, which appears already in Pauthier’s text, whilst _Toman_

and _Tuc_ are common to Turki and Mongol. The latter word, _Túk_

or _Túgh_, is the horse-tail or yak-tail standard which among so

many Asiatic nations has marked the supreme military command. It

occurs as _Taka_ in ancient Persian, and Cosmas Indicopleustes

speaks of it as _Tupha_. The Nine Orloks or Marshals under Chinghiz

were entitled to the _Tuk_, and theirs is probably the class of

command here indicated as of 100,000, though the figure must not be

strictly taken. Timur ordains that every Amir who should conquer a

kingdom or command in a victory should receive a title of honour,

the _Tugh_ and the _Naḳḳárá_. (_Infra_, Bk. II. ch. iv. note 3.)

Baber on several occasions speaks of conferring the _Tugh_ upon his

generals for distinguished service. One of the military titles

at Bokhara is still _Tokhsabai_, a corruption of _Túgh-Sáhibi_

(Master of the Tugh).

We find the whole gradation except the _Tuc_ in a rescript of

Janibeg, Khan of Sarai, in favour of Venetian merchants dated

February 1347. It begins in the Venetian version: “_La parola

de Zanibeck allo puovolo di Mogoli, alli_ Baroni di Thomeni,[1]

delli miera, delli centenera, delle dexiene.” (_Erdmann_, 576;

_D’Avezac_, 577–578; _Rémusat, Langues Tartares_, 303; _Pallas,

Samml._ I. 283; _Schmidt_, 379, 381; _Baber_, 260, etc.; _Vámbéry_,

374; _Timour Inst._ pp. 283 and 292–293; _Bibl. de l’Ec. des

Chartes_, tom. lv. p. 585.)

The decimal division of the army was already made by Chinghiz at an

early period of his career, and was probably much older than his

time. In fact we find the Myriarch and Chiliarch already in the

Persian armies of Darius Hystaspes. From the Tartars the system

passed into nearly all the Musulman States of Asia, and the titles

_Min-bashi_ or _Bimbashi_, _Yuzbashi_, _Onbashi_, still subsist not

only in Turkestan, but also in Turkey and Persia. The term _Tman_

or _Tma_ was, according to Herberstein, still used in Russia in his

day for 10,000. (_Ramus._ II. 159.)

[The King of An-nam, Dinh Tiên-hòang (A.D. 968) had an army of

1,000,000 men forming 10 corps of 10 legions; each legion forming

10 cohorts of 10 centuries; each century forming 10 squads of 10

men.—H. C.]

NOTE 3.—Ramusio’s edition says that what with horses and mares

there will be an average of eighteen beasts (?) to every man.

NOTE 4.—See the Oriental account quoted below in Note 6.

So Dionysius, combining this practice with that next described,

relates of the Massagetæ that they have no delicious bread nor

native wine:

“But with horse’s blood

And white milk mingled set their banquets forth.”

(_Orbis Desc._ 743–744.)

And Sidonius:

“Solitosque cruentum

Lac potare Getas, et pocula tingere venis.”

(_Parag. ad Avitum._)

[“The Scythian soldier drinks the blood of the first man he

overthrows in battle.” (_Herodotus_, _Rawlinson_, Bk. IV. ch.

64, p. 54.)—H. C.] “When in lack of food, they bleed a horse

and suck the vein. If they need something more solid, they put

a sheep’s pudding full of blood under the saddle; this in time

gets coagulated and cooked by the heat, and then they devour it.”

(_Georg. Pachymeres_, V. 4.) The last is a well-known story, but

is strenuously denied and ridiculed by Bergmann. (_Streifereien,

etc._ I. 15.) Joinville tells the same story. Hans Schiltberger

asserts it very distinctly: “Ich hon och gesehen wann sie in reiss

ylten, das sie ein fleisch nemen, und es dunn schinden und legents

unter den sattel, und riten doruff; und essents wann sie hungert”

(ch. 35). Botero had “heard from a trustworthy source that a Tartar

of Perekop, travelling on the steppes, lived for some days on the

blood of his horse, and then, not daring to bleed it more, cut off

and ate its _ears_!” (_Relazione Univers._ p. 93.) The Turkmans

speak of such practices, but Conolly says he came to regard them as

hyperbolical talk (I. 45).

[Abul-Ghazi Khan, in his History of Mongols, describing a raid of

Russian (_Ourous_) Cossacks, who were hemmed in by the Uzbeks,

says: “The Russians had in continued fighting exhausted all their

water. They began to drink blood; the fifth day they had not even

blood remaining to drink.” (_Transl. by Baron Des Maisons_, St.

Petersburg, II. 295.)]

NOTE 5.—Rubruquis thus describes this preparation, which is called

_Kurút_: “The milk that remains after the butter has been made,

they allow to get as sour as sour can be, and then boil it. In

boiling, it curdles, and that curd they dry in the sun; and in this

way it becomes as hard as iron-slag. And so it is stored in bags

against the winter. In the winter time, when they have no milk,

they put that sour curd, which they call _Griut_, into a skin,

and pour warm water on it, and they shake it violently till the

curd dissolves in the water, to which it gives an acid flavour;

that water they drink in place of milk. But above all things they

eschew drinking plain water.” From Pallas’s account of the modern

practice, which is substantially the same, these cakes are also

made from the leavings of distillation in making milk-arrack. The

Kurút is frequently made of ewe-milk. Wood speaks of it as an

indispensable article in the food of the people of Badakhshan, and

under the same name it is a staple food of the Afghans. (_Rubr._

229; _Samml._ I. 136; _Dahl_, u.s.; _Wood_, 311.)

[It is the _ch’ura_ of the Tibetans. “In the Kokonor country and

Tibet, this _krut_ or _chura_ is put in tea to soften, and then

eaten either alone or mixed with parched barley meal (_tsamba_).”

(_Rockhill, Rubruck_, p. 68, note.)—H. C.]

NOTE 6.—Compare with Marco’s account the report of the Mongols,

which was brought by the spies of Mahomed, Sultan of Khwarizm,

when invasion was first menaced by Chinghiz: “The army of Chinghiz

is countless, as a swarm of ants or locusts. Their warriors are

matchless in lion-like valour, in obedience, and endurance.

They take no rest, and flight or retreat is unknown to them. On

their expeditions they are accompanied by oxen, sheep, camels,

and horses, and sweet or sour milk suffices them for food. Their

horses scratch the earth with their hoofs and feed on the roots

and grasses they dig up, so that they need neither straw nor oats.

They themselves reck nothing of the clean or the unclean in food,

and eat the flesh of all animals, even of dogs, swine, and bears.

They will open a horse’s vein, draw blood, and drink it.... In

victory they leave neither small nor great alive; they cut up women

great with child and cleave the fruit of the womb. If they come

to a great river, as they know nothing of boats, they sew skins

together, stitch up all their goods therein, tie the bundle to

their horses’ tails, mount with a hard grip of the mane, and so

swim over.” This passage is an absolute abridgment of many chapters

of Carpini. Still more terse was the sketch of Mongol proceedings

drawn by a fugitive from Bokhara after Chinghiz’s devastations

there. It was set forth in one unconscious hexameter:

“_Ámdand u khandand u sokhtand u kushtand u burdand u raftand!_”

“They came and they sapped, they fired and they slew, trussed up

their loot and were gone!”

Juwaini, the historian, after telling the story, adds: “The

cream and essence of whatever is written in this volume might be

represented in these few words.”

A Musulman author quoted by Hammer, Najmuddin of Rei, gives an

awful picture of the Tartar devastations, “Such as had never been

heard of, whether in the lands of unbelief or of Islam, and can

only be likened to those which the Prophet announced as signs of

the Last Day, when he said: ‘The Hour of Judgment shall not come

until ye shall have fought with the Turks, men small of eye and

ruddy of countenance, whose noses are flat, and their faces like

hide-covered shields. Those shall be Days of Horror!’ ‘And what

meanest thou by horror?’ said the Companions; and he replied,

‘SLAUGHTER! SLAUGHTER!’ This beheld the Prophet in vision 600 years

ago. And could there well be worse slaughter than there was in Rei,

where I, wretch that I am, was born and bred, and where the whole

population of five hundred thousand souls was either butchered or

dragged into slavery?”

Marco habitually suppresses or ignores the frightful brutalities of

the Tartars, but these were somewhat less, no doubt, in Kúblái’s

time.

The Hindustani poet Amir Khosru gives a picture of the Mongols more

forcible than elegant, which Elliot has translated (III. 528).

This is Hayton’s account of the Parthian tactics of the Tartars:

“They will run away, but always keeping their companies together;

and it is very dangerous to give them chase, for as they flee they

shoot back over their heads, and do great execution among their

pursuers. They keep very close rank, so that you would not guess

them for half their real strength.” Carpini speaks to the same

effect. Baber, himself of Mongol descent, but heartily hating his

kindred, gives this account of their military usage in his day:

“Such is the uniform practice of these wretches the Moghuls; if

they defeat the enemy they instantly seize the booty; if they are

defeated, they plunder and dismount their own allies, and, betide

what may, carry off the spoil.” (_Erdmann_, 364, 383, 620; _Gold.

Horde_, 77, 80; _Elliot_, II. 388; _Hayton_ in _Ram._ ch. xlviii.;

_Baber_, 93; _Carpini_, p. 694.)

NOTE 7.—“The Scythians” (_i.e._ in the absurd Byzantine pedantry,

_Tartars_), says Nicephorus Gregoras, “from converse with the

Assyrians, Persians, and Chaldæans, in time acquired their manners

and adopted their religion, casting off their ancestral atheism....

And to such a degree were they changed, that though in former days

they had been wont to cover the head with nothing better than a

loose felt cap, and for other clothing had thought themselves well

off with the skins of wild beasts or ill-dressed leather, and had

for weapons only clubs and slings, or spears, arrows, and bows

extemporised from the oaks and other trees of their mountains and

forests, now, forsooth, they will have no meaner clothing than

brocades of silk and gold! And their luxury and delicate living

came to such a pitch that they stood far as the poles asunder from

their original habits” (II. v. 6).

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[1] This is _Chomeni_ in the original, but I have ventured to correct

it.