ily to know what I said,
and I gave him leave to tell him a few days after, for we were then
almost out of their country, and he was to leave us in a little time
afterwards; but when he knew what I had said, he was dumb all the rest
of the way, and we heard no more of his fine story of the Chinese power
and greatness while he staid.

After we had passed this mighty nothing, called a wall, something like
the Picts wall, so famous in Northumberland, and built by the Romans, we
began to find the country thinly inhabited, and the people rather
confined to live in fortified towns and cities, as being subject to the
inroads and depredations of the Tartars, who rob in great armies, and
therefore are not to be resisted by the naked inhabitants of an
open country.

And here I began to find the necessity of keeping together in a caravan,
as we travelled; for we saw several troops of Tartars roving about; but
when I came to see them distinctly, I wondered how that the Chinese
empire could be conquered by such contemptible fellows; for they are a
mere herd or crowd of wild fellows, keeping no order, and understanding
no discipline, or manner of fight.

Their horses are poor, lean, starved creatures, taught nothing, and are
fit for nothing; and this we found the first day we saw them, which was
after we entered the wilder part of the country. Our leader for the day
gave leave for about sixteen of us to go a hunting, as they call it; and
what was this but hunting of sheep! However, it may be called hunting
too; for the creatures are the wildest, and swiftest of foot, that ever
I saw of their kind; only they will not run a great way, and you are
sure of sport when you begin the chase; for they appear generally by
thirty or forty in a flock, and, like true sheep, always keep together
when they fly.

In pursuit of this odd sort of game, it was our hap to meet with about
forty Tartars: whether they were hunting mutton as we were, or whether
they looked for another kind of prey, I know not; but as soon as they
saw us, one of them blew a kind of horn very loud, but with a barbarous
sound that I had never heard before, and, by the way, never care to hear
again. We all supposed this was to call their friends about them; and so
it was; for in less than half a quarter of an hour, a troop of forty or
fifty more appeared at about a mile distance; but our work was over
first, as it happened.

One of the Scots merchants of Moscow happened to