Tartar woman presents in her
bearing and manners a power and force well in accordance with her active
life and nomad habits, and her attire augments the effect of her
masculine, haughty mien.

Large leather boots, and a long green or violet robe fastened round the
waist by a black or blue girdle, constitutes her dress, except that
sometimes she wears over the great robe a small coat, resembling in form
our waistcoats, but very large, and coming down to the hips. The hair of
the Tartar women is divided in two tresses, tied up in taffetas, and
hanging down upon the bosom; their luxury consists in ornamenting the
girdle and hair with spangles of gold and silver, pearls, coral, and a
thousand other toys, the form and quality of which it would be difficult
for us to define, as we had neither opportunity, nor taste, nor patience
to pay serious attention to these futilities.

[Picture: Chapter Tailpiece]

[Picture: Barbarous Lamanesque Ceremony]

CHAPTER IX.

Departure of the Caravan--Encampment in a fertile Valley--Intensity of
the Cold--Meeting with numerous Pilgrims--Barbarous and Diabolical
Ceremonies of Lamanism--Project for the Lamasery of
Rache-Tchurin--Dispersion and rallying of the little Caravan--Anger of
Samdadchiemba--Aspect of the Lamasery of Rache-Tchurin--Different Kinds
of Pilgrimages around the Lamaseries--Turning Prayers--Quarrel between
two Lamas--Similarity of the Soil--Description of the Tabsoun-Noor or
Salt Sea--Remarks on the Camels of Tartary.

The Tartar who had just taken his leave had informed us, that at a short
distance from the caverns we should find in a vale the finest pasturages
in the whole country of the Ortous. We resolved to depart. It was near
noon already when we started. The sky was clear, the sun brilliant; but
the temperature, still affected by the storm of the preceding day, was
cold and sharp. After having travelled for nearly two hours over a sandy
soil, deeply furrowed by the streams of rain, we entered, on a sudden, a
valley whose smiling, fertile aspect singularly contrasted with all that
we had hitherto seen among the Ortous. In the centre flowed an abundant
rivulet, whose sources were lost in the sand; and on both sides, the
hills, which rose like an amphitheatre, were covered with pasturage and
clumps of shrubs.

Though it was still early, we gave up all idea of continuing our journey
that day. The place was too b