ging to its tail. In this fashion, they ran
nearly a li. The Tartar then quitted his victim, and came quietly back
to us, who were quite amazed at this new method of curing cows. He
declared there was no further danger for the beast; for he had
ascertained, he said, by the stiffness of the tail, the good effect of
the ferruginous medicine he had administered.

The Tartar veterinarians sometimes perform their operations at the belly,
as we have just seen; but it is more generally, with the head, ears,
temple, upper lip, and about the eyes that they deal. The latter
operation is principally had recourse to, in the disease which the
Tartar's call Hen's dung, to which mules are greatly subject. When this
disease breaks out, the animals leave off eating, and fall into extreme
weakness, so that they can hardly keep themselves on their legs; fleshy
excrescences, similar to the excrements of poultry, grow under the lids,
in the corners of the eyes. If these excrescences are removed in time,
the mules are saved, and recover by degrees their original vigour; if
not, they pine for a few days, and then die.

Although cupping and bleeding have great place in the veterinary art of
the Tartars, you must not suppose that they have at their disposal fine
collections of instruments, such as those of European operators. Most of
them have nothing but their ordinary knife, or the small iron awl, which
they keep in their girdle, and which they use daily to clear their pipes,
and mend their saddles and leathern boots.

The young Lama who had sold us the sheep, spent a great part of the day
in telling us anecdotes, more or less piquant and curious, about the
veterinary science in which he seemed to be very skilful. Moreover, he
gave us important instructions concerning the road we had to pursue. He
settled the stages we ought to make, and indicated the places where we
should encamp, so as to prevent our dying from thirst. We had still
before us in the country of the Ortous, a journey of about fourteen days;
in all that time we should find neither rivulet, nor spring, nor cistern;
but only, at certain distances, wells of an extraordinary depth; some of
them distant from each other two days' march, so that we should have to
carry with us our provision of water.

Next morning, after having paid our respects to the Tartar family, who
had shown us so much kindness, we proceeded on our way. Towards evening,
when it was nearly time to p