I. The corn, or even the rice, which constitutes the ordinary and whole fome food of a civilized people, can be obtained only by the patient toil of the hufbandman. Some of the happy favages, who dwell between the tropics, are plentifully nourished by the liberality of nature; but in the climates of the North, a nation of fhepherds is reduced to their flocks and herds. The fkilful practitioners of the medical art will determine (if they are able to determine) how far the temper of the human mind may be affected by the ufe of animal, or of vegetable food; and whether the common affociation of carnivorous and cruel, deferves to be confidered in any other light than that of an innocent, perhaps a falutary prejudice of humanity. Yet if it be true, that the fentiment of compaffion is imperceptibly weakened by the fight and practice of domeftic cruelty, we may obferve that the horrid objects which are difguifed by the arts of European refinement, are exhibited in their naked and most difgufting fimplicity, in the tent of a Tartarian fhepherd. The ox, or the fheep, are flaughtered by the fame hand from which they were accustomed to receive their daily food; and the bleed

ing limbs are ferved, with very little preparation, on the table of their unfeeling murderer. In the military profeffion, and efpecially in the conduct of a numerous army, the exclusive ufe of animal food appears to be productive of the moft folid advantages. Corn is a bulky and perishable commodity; and the large magazines, which are indifpenfably neceffary for the fubfiftence of our troops, must be flowly tranfported by the labour of men or horses. But the flocks and herds, which accompany the march of the Tartars, afford a fure and increasing fupply of flesh and milk: in the far greater part of the uncultivat ed wafte, the vegetation of the grafs is quick and luxuriant; and there are few places fo extremely barren, that the hardy cattle of the North cannot find fome tolerable pafture. The fupply is multiplied and prolonged, by the undiftinguishing appetite, and patient abftinence, of the Tartars. They indifferently feed on the flesh of those animals that have been killed for the table, or have died of difeafe. Horse-flesh, which in every age and country has been profcribed by the civilized nations of Europe and Afia, they devour with peculiar greedinefs; and this fingular tafte facilitates the fuccefs of their military operations. The active cavalry of Scythia is always followed, in their most diftant and rapid incurfions, by an adequate number of fpare horfes, who may be occafionally ufed, either to redouble the fpeed, or to fatisfy the hunger of the Barbarians. Many are the refources of courage and poverty. When the forage round a camp

of

of Tartars is almoft confumed, they flaughter the greateft part of their cattle, and preferve the flesh, either fmoaked, or dried in the fun. On the fudden emergency of a hafty march, they provide themfelves with a fufficient quantity of little balls of cheefe, or rather of hard curd, which they occafionally diffolve in water; and this unfubftantial diet will fupport, for many days, the life, and even the fpirits, of the patient warrior. But this extraordinary abftinence, which the Stoic would approve, and the hermit might envy, is commonly fucceeded by the most voracious indulgence of appetite. The wines of a happier climate are the most grateful prefent, or the most valuable commodity, that can be offered to the Tartars; and the only example of their induftry feems to confift in the art of extracting from mare's milk a fermented liquor, which poffeffes a very strong power of intoxication. Like the animals of prey, the favages, both of the old and new world, experience the alternate viciffitudes of famine and plenty; and their stomach is inured to fuftain, without much inconvenience, the oppofite extremes of hunger and of intemperance.

II. In the ages of ruftic and martial fimplicity, a people of foldiers and husbandmen are difperfed over the face of an extenfive and cultivated country; and fome time muft elapfe before the warlike youth of Greece or Italy could be affembled under the fame ftandard, either to defend their own confines, or to invade the territories of the adjacent tribes. The progrefs of manufactures and

commerce infenfibly collects a large multitude within the walls of a city: but these citizens are no longer foldiers; and the arts which adorn and inprove the state of civil fociety, corrupt the habits of the military life. The paftoral manners of the Scythians feem to unite the different advantages of fimplicity and refine ment, The individuals of the fame tribe are conftantly affembled, but they are affembled in a camp; and the native spirit of these dauntlefs fhepherds is animated by mutual fupport and emulation. The houfes of the Tartars are no more than fmall tents, of an oval form, which afford a cold and dirty habitation, for the promifcuous youth of both fexes. The palaces of the rich confift of wooden huts of fuch a fize that they may be conveniently fixed on large waggons, and drawn by a team perhaps of twenty or thirty oxen. The flocks and herds, after grazing all day in the adjacent paftures, retire, on the approach of night, within the protection of the camp. The neceffity of preventing the most mischievous confufion, in fuch a perpetual con courfe of men and animals, muft gradually introduce, in the diftri bution, the order, and the guard, of the encampment, the rudiments of the military art. As foon as the forage of a certain diftrict is confumed, the tribe, or rather army, of fhepherds, makes a regular march to fome fresh paftures; and thus acquires, in the ordinary occupations of the paftoral life, the practical knowledge of one of the most important and difficult operations of war. The choice of ftations is regulated by

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the

the difference of the feafons: in the fummer, the Tartars advance towards the North, and pitch their tents on the banks of a river, or, at least, in the neighbourhood of a running ftream. But in the winter they return to the South, and fhelter their camp, behind fome convenient eminence, against the winds, which are chilled in their paffage over the bleak and icy regions of Siberia. These manners are admirably adapted to diffufe, among the wandering tribes, the fpirit of emigration and conqueft. The connection between the people and their territory is of fo frail a texture, that it may be broken by the flighteft accident. The camp, and not the foil, is the native country of the genuine Tartar. Within the precincts of that camp, his family, his companions, his property are always included; and, in the moft diftant marches, he is ftill furrounded by the objects which are dear, or valuable, or familiar in his eyes: The thirst of rapine, the fear, or the refentment of injury, the impatience of fervitude, have, in every age, been fufficient caufes to urge the tribes of Scythia boldly to advance into fome unknown countries, where they might hope to find a more plentiful fubfiftence, or a lefs formidable enemy, The revolutions of the North have frequently determined the fate of the South; and in the conflict of hoftile nations the victor and the vanquifhed have al-' ternately drove, and been driven, from the confines of Chinato thofe of Germany, Thefe great emigrations, which have been fometimes executed with almoft incrediple diligence, were rendered

more eafy by the peculiar nature of the climate. It is well known, that the cold of Tartary is much more fevere than in the midst of the temperate zone might reafon. ably be expected: this uncommon rigour is attributed to the height of the plains, which rife, efpecially towards the Eaft, more than half a mile above the level of the fea; and to the quantity of faltpetre, with which the foil is deeply impregnated. In the winter-feafon, the broad and rapid rivers, that discharge their waters into the Euxine, the Cafpian, or the Icy Sea, are ftrongly frozen; the fields are covered with a bed of fnow and the fugitive, or victorious, tribes may fecurely traverse, with their families, their waggons, and their cattle, the fmooth and hard furface of an immense plain.

III. The pastoral life, compared with the labours of agriculture and manufactures, is undoubtedly a life of idleness; and as the most honourable fhepherds of the Tartar race devolve on their captives the domeftic management of the cattle; their own leifure is feldom disturbed by any fervile and affiduous cares. But this leifure, inftead of being devoted to the foft enjoyments of love and harmony, is ufefully fpent in the vio lent and fanguinary exercise of the chace, The plains of Tartary are filled with a ftrong and ferviceable breed of horses, which are easily trained for the purposes of war and hunting. The Scythians of every age have been celebrated as bold and skilful riders and conftant practice had feated them fo firmly on horfeback, that they were fup pofed by ftrangers to perform the ordinary duties of civil life, to

eat,

eat, to drink, and even to fleep, without difmounting from their fteeds. They excel in the dexterous management of the lance; the long Tartar bow is drawn with a nervous arm; and the weighty arrow is directed to its object with unerring aim, and irrefiftible force, Thefe arrows are often pointed against the harmless animals of the defert, which increase and multiply in the abfence of their most formidable enemy; the hare, the goat, the roebuck, the fallow deer, the ftag, the elk, and the antelope. The vigour and patience both of the men and horfes are continually exercised by the fatigues of the chace; and the plentiful fupply of game contributes to the fubfiftence, and even luxury, of a Tartar camp. But the exploits of the hunters of Scythia are not confined to the deftruction of timid or innoxious beafts; they boldly encounter the angry wild boar, when he turns against his purfuers, excite the fluggish courage of the bear, and provoke the fury of the tyger, as he flumbers in the thicket. Where there is danger there may be glory and the mode of hunting, which opens the faireft field to the exertions of valour, may justly be confidered as the image, and as the school, of war. The general hunting-matches, the pride and delight of the Tartar princes, compofe an inftructive exercife for their numerous cavalry. A circle is drawn, of many miles in circumference, to encompass the game of an extensive distric; and the troops that form the circle regularly advance towards a common centre; where the captive animals, furrounded on every fide, are aban

doned to the darts of the hunters. In this march, which frequently continues many days, the cavalry are obliged to climb the hills, to fwim the rivers, and to wind through the vallies, without interrupting the prescribed order of their gradual progrefs. They ac quire the habit of directing their eye, and their steps, to a remote object; of preferving their inter vals; of fufpending, or accelerating their pace, according to the motions of the troops on their right and left; and of watching and repeating the fignals of their leaders. Their leaders ftudy, in this practical school, the most important leffon of the military art; the prompt and accurate judgment of ground, of distance, and of time. To employ against a human enemy the fame patience and valour, the fame fkill and discipline, is the only alteration which is required in real war; and the amufements of the chace ferve as a prelude to the conquest of an empire.

The political fociety of the an cient Germans has the appearance of a voluntary alliance of independent warriors. The tribes of Scy thia, diftinguished by the modern appellation of Hords, affume the form of a numerous and increafing family; which, in the course of fucceffive generations, has been propagated from the fame original ftock. The meanest and most ignorant of the Tartars preferve, with confcious pride, the ineftimable treasure of their genealogy; and whatever diftinctions of rank may have been introduced, by the unequal diftribution of paftoral wealth, they mutually respect themselves, and each other, as the B 4 defcendants