, the chief amusements of the tribes.

Like all who dwell upon vast plains, they enjoy an exceedingly keen
sight. An hour after sunset they can distinguish a camel at a distance
of upwards of three miles. Madame de Hell tells us that often when she
could see nothing but a point on the horizon, they would clearly make
out a horseman armed with lance and gun. They have also an extraordinary
faculty for tracing their way through the pathless wildernesses. Without
any apparent landmarks they would traverse hundreds of miles with their
flocks, and never deviate from the right course.

The costume of the common Kalmuks exhibits no decided peculiarity, apart
from the cap, which is invariably of yellow cloth trimmed with black
lambskin, and is worn by both sexes. Madame de Hell seems inclined to
think that some superstitious notions are connected with it, from the
difficulty she experienced in procuring a specimen. The trousers are
wide and open below. The well-to-do Kalmuks wear two long tunics, one of
which is fastened round the waist, but the usual dress consists only of
trousers and a jacket of skin with tight sleeves. The men shave a part
of their heads, and the rest of the hair is collected into a single
cluster, which hangs down on the shoulders. The women wear two tresses,
which is really the sole visible distinction of their sex. The princes
have adopted the Circassian costume, or the uniform of the Astrakhan
Cossacks, to which body some of them belong. The ordinary _chaussure_ is
red boots with very high heels and generally much too short. The Kalmuks
have almost as great a partiality for small feet as the Chinese, and, as
they are constantly on horseback, their short boots cause them no great
inconvenience. But for these reasons they are very bad pedestrians,
their "cribbed, cabined, and confined" foot-gear obliges them to walk on
their toes; and their distress is great when they have no horse to
mount.

Like all pastoral people, the Kalmuks live frugally, because their wants
are few, and their nomadic life is unfavourable to the growth of a
liking for luxuries. They live chiefly upon milk and butter, with tea
for their favourite beverage. Their bill of fare also includes meat, and
particularly horse-flesh, which they prefer to any other, but they do
not eat it raw, as some writers have pretended. As for cereals, which
Europeans value so highly, their use is scarcely known; it is at rare
intervals only that some of