about accumulating wealth, are of an easy, indolent disposition, and spend much of their time in amusement. During the long winter nights, the young people of both sexes enjoy themselves with music and dancing. Their most common instrument is a two-stringed lute. Their dancing consists more in the motions of the hands than the feet.

The Calmucks are not, like some of the Tartar tribes, addicted to drunkenness; but they occasionally have festivals, during which they continue to drink for half a day without interruption. On these occasions the young women place themselves by the men, and sing songs of love, or war, or fabulous ad

ventures.

The necessity of procuring fresh pasturage for their flocks, induces frequent migrations among the Calmucks; and these occasions are celebrated with a good deal of parade and festivity. The khan, whose tents are carried before him, heads the proces sion, accompanied by the princes on horseback Women of any distinction have awnings over their saddles, to protect them from the sun and rain.

The doctrines of Lamaism forbid polygamy; there fore the Calmucks, with very few exceptions, have but one wife. The husband may, however, put away his partner, and seek another, whenever it pleases him; and the wife may do the same. Such separations are not uncommon. Princes sometimes marry their half-sisters; but in general the Calmucks do not wed within the fourth or fifth de

gree of relationship; and they very rarely marry out of their own class.

When a young man has fixed his mind upon a girl, he sends to her relations to make proposals. If these are accepted, the lover gives an entertainment at the house of the bride's parents, where the betrothal is forthwith celebrated. In case of refusal, the young man sometimes seizes the damsel and carries her off full speed. The parents cannot reclaim their daughter, if he succeeds in getting her within his hut, and preventing her escape until the next day; but this compulsory proceeding does not release him from the obligation of paying the accustomed price, in reindeer, camels, horses, or flocks.

When the terms are settled in a more amicable way, a magician is consulted to ascertain what day will be most fortunate for the nuptials; and sometimes the superstitious young couple are required to wait several months. On the appointed day, the bridegroom erects a neat new tent of white felt, very near the bride's parents. Her relations place her on horseback to be conducted to her husband; and custom requires that she should offer some resistance to the proceeding. A priest purifies the hut with incense and prayers, while the young couple go out and squat beside each other on their heels, according to the Tartar fashion. The priest comes forth, sits down cross-legged before them, and repeats the usual prayer.

A dish of minced meat is offered the young couple, of which the man eats three handfuls, but the woman

refuses to partake. The caps of the bridal pair are then thrown into the hut, and an entertainment begins, which lasts till midnight. Before they sepa rate, the married and unmarried females have a contest together for the bride; the former, who always gain the victory, arrange the girl's head-dress after the fashion of matrons.

In a few days, the bridal tent is taken down, and the husband removes to his accustomed dwelling. During the two first years, the wife is not allowed to visit her parents, unless upon some great emergency; and then she must sit down outside of their hut, without presuming to enter it. At the end of that period, she goes to see them, and is loaded with presents.

Among one tribe of the Calmucks, called Soongas, marriages are celebrated on horseback. The bride, mounted on a fleet horse, gallops off at full speed; the lover pursues; and if he overtakes her, she is carried to his hut, and becomes his wife without further ceremony, except an entertainment to friends. If the damsel be disinclined to the match, the lover seldom succeeds in overtaking her before they arrive at the destined goal.

The Calmucks are, almost without exception, remarkably expert riders. Even matrons of eighty years old will gallop twenty miles without stopping, and children pursue the fleet-footed antelopes half a day, upon their unshod horses.

If men think they have sufficient cause for jealousy, they sometimes put their wives to death with

their own hands; but if a woman should, in a sudden fit of desperation, kill her husband, her nose and ears would be cut off, and she would be sold for a slave. They have very definite laws concerning marriages and marriage portions; and certain punishments are appointed for those who attempt to break off a match.

The Buraits, on the frontiers of China, live in a manner very similar to the other Tartars. They have in their huts images of wood, felt, or tin, intended to represent good and evil spirits. The women are not permitted to approach these images, or even to pass before them. Polygamy is lawful among this tribe; and they take from one wife to five, according to their means of support. A girl costs from five head of cattle to one hundred; and the wealthy sometimes give five hundred. The dowry given with the bride generally amounts to about one-fourth of the price paid for her. A new tent is built for a wedding. Festivities are kept up for five days, with singing, dancing, wrestling, and horse-racing, and each day a horse is killed, to feast relations and friends. Owing to the general contempt in which women are held, boys treat their fathers with much more respect than their mothers. When a woman dies, cooking utensils, a pipe, and a quantity of tobacco are buried with her, for her use in another world, as bows and arrows are always buried with the men.

The inhabitants of western Tartary differ very much in personal appearance from the Mongul race;

being generally well shaped, with handsome features, and a Turkish cast of countenance. A large pro

portion of them are Mohammedans. Many of them, having gathered into large cities and villages, and acquired wealth, wear more elegant and tasteful apparel, and are more civilized in their habits, than the tribes previously described. The women are not handsome, but have a fresh, healthy, modest look, which is very pleasing. They are extremely frugal, industrious, and submissive. In some of the larger towns there are schools for girls as well as boys; and though they probably never learn any thing more than reading and writing, these are rare advantages for the women of Asia. Among the Tartars, as among other eastern nations, married women are generally better dressed than girls. All the expense bestowed upon the latter would be a loss to the father when his daughters were sold, exchanged, or bestowed in marriage; but the finery of wives is a perpetual credit to the wealth and generosity of their husbands. Almost all the Tartars are great admirers of scarlet garments, and all share the oriental taste for ornaments. The rich have their foreheads covered with a net-work of pearls, in lieu of which the poor wear glass beads. The married women fasten to the back of their jewelled-covered caps a piece of gay brocaded silk, adorned with pearls or beads, which hangs down nearly to the end of their robes. Some of the tribes stain their nails red, and their eyebrows black. They seldom appear before strangers without a veil. Dr. Clarke's