The men have a square tonsure on their crowns, from the two front corners of which they shave two seams down to their temples. The temples also, and hinder part of the head, to the nape of the neck, are shaved, and the forehead, except one small lock which falls down to the eyes. On each angle of the hind head, they leave a long lock of hair, which they braid and knot together under each ear. The dress of unmarried women differs little from that of the men, except in being somewhat longer. But on the day after marriage, the head is shaved, from the middle down to the forehead, and the woman puts on a wide gown, like that of a monk, but wider and longer. This opens before, and is tied under the right side. In this the Tartars and Turks differ, as the Turks tie their garments always on the left side. They have an ornament for their heads which they call Botta, which is made of the bark of a tree or any other very light substance, made in a round form, so thick as may be grasped with both hands, becoming square at the upper extremity, and in all about two feet long, somewhat resembling the capital of a pillar. This cap is hollow within, and is covered over with rich silk. On the top of this they erect a bunch of quills, or slender rods, about a cubit long, or even more, which they ornament with peacocks feathers on the top, and all around with the feathers of a wild drake, and even with precious stones. The rich ladies wear this ornament on the top of their heads, binding it on strongly with a kind of hat or coif, which has a hole in its crown adapted for this purpose, and under this they collect their hair from the back of the head, lapped up in a kind of knot or bundle within the botta; and the whole is fixed on by means of a ligature under their throat. Hence, when a number of these ladies are seen together on horseback, they appear at a distance like soldiers armed with helmets and lances. The women all sit astride on horseback like men, binding their mantles round their waists with silken scarfs of a sky-blue colour, and they bind another scarf round their breasts. They likewise have a white veil tied on just below their eyes, which reaches down to their breasts. The women are amazingly fat, and the smaller their noses, they are esteemed the more beautiful. They daub over their faces most nastily with grease; and they never keep their beds on account of child-bearing.
The employments of the women are, to lead the waggons, to load and unload the horses, to milk the cows, to make butter and gryut, to dress skins, and to sew them together, which they generally do with sinews finely split and twisted into long threads. They likewise make sandals, and socks, and other garments, and felts for covering their houses. They never wash their garments, alleging that it would offend God, and that hanging them up to dry would occasion thunder; and they even beat any person who pretends to wash their garments, and take their clothes from them. They are astonishingly afraid of thunder, during which they turn all strangers from their dwellings, and wrapping themselves in black felt, remain covered up till it is over. They never wash their bowls or dishes; or if they do wash the platters into which the boiled meat is to be put, they do it merely with the scalding broth, which they throw back into the pot.
The men make bows and arrows, saddles, bridles, and stirrups, construct houses and carts, takes care of the horses, and milk the mares, agitate the cosmos or mares milk, make leather sacks, in which these are kept, take care of, and load the camels, tend the cows, sheep, and goats, and these are sometimes milked by the men, sometimes by the women. They dress hides with sheeps milk, thickened and salted. When they mean to wash their head and hands, they fill their mouths with water, which they squirt out gradually on their hands, and moisten their hair or wash their heads.
No man can have a wife unless by purchase; so that many maids are rather old before marriage, as their parents always keep them till they can get a good market. They keep the first and second degrees of consanguinity inviolate, but pay no regard to affinity, as one man may have either at once, or successively two sisters. Widows never marry, as their belief is, that all who have served a man in this life, shall do so in the next; so that widows believe that they shall return after death to their husbands. Hence arises an abominable custom among them, that the son sometimes marries all his father's wives except his own mother; for the court or household of the father and mother always devolves to the younger son, and he has to provide for all his father's wives, which fall to his share along with the inheritance; and he considers, that if he takes his father's wives, it will be no injury or disgrace to him though they went to his father in the next world. When any one has made a bargain with another for his daughter, the father of the maid gives a feast to the bridegroom, and the bride runs away and hides herself in the house of one of her relations. Then the father says to the bridegroom, "My daughter is now yours, take her wherever you can find her." On which he seeks for her, with the assistance of his friends, till he discovers her concealment, and then leads her as if by violence to his house.
When two men fight, no one must interfere to part them, neither may a father presume to aid his own son; but he who considers himself injured must appeal to the court of his lord, and whoever shall offer him any violence after this appeal is put to death. He who is appealed against, must go without delay, and the appellant leads him as a prisoner. No one is punished capitally, unless taken in the act, or unless he confesses; but when witnessed against by many, he is severely tortured to extort confession. Homicide, adultery, and fornication, are punished with death; but a man may use his own slave as he pleases. Great thefts are punished capitally; but for small ones, as for stealing a sheep, when the party is not caught in the fact, but otherwise detected, the thief is cruelly beaten. And when an hundred strokes are to be given by order of the court, an hundred separate rods are required, one for each blow. Pretended messengers are punished with death, as are likewise sacrilegious persons, whom they esteem witches, of which more will be said hereafter.
When any one dies, he is mourned for with violent howlings, and the mourners are free from tribute during a whole year. Any one who happens to enter a house, in which a grown up person lies dead, must not enter the house of Mangu-khan during a whole year; if the dead person is a child, he is only debarred for one lunation. One house is always left near the grave of the deceased; but the burial place of any of the princes of the race of Jenghis-khan is always kept secret; yet there is always a family left in charge of the sepulchres of their nobles, though I do not find that they deposit any treasure in these tombs. The Comanians raise a large barrow or tomb over their dead, and erect a statue of the person, with his face turned towards the east, holding a drinking cup in his hand; they erect likewise, over the tombs of the rich, certain pyramids or sharp pinnacles. In some places, I observed large towers built of burnt bricks, and others of stone, though no stones were to be found about the place. I saw the grave of a person newly buried, in honour of whom there were hung up sixteen horses hides, four of which towards each quarter of the world, between high poles; and beside the grave they had set cosmos, that the deceased might drink, and flesh for him to eat, although the person was said to have been baptized. Farther east, I saw other kinds of sepulchres, consisting of large areas, paved with stone, some round and others square, having four large stones placed upright around the pavement, and fronting the four cardinal points. When any one lies sick in bed, a mark is affixed to the house, that no one may enter, as no one ever visits the sick, except his own servant; and when any one belonging to the great courts is sick, watchmen are placed at a great distance, all round, that no one may enter the precincts; as they dread lest evil spirits, or bad winds, might enter along with visitors. They consider their soothsayers, or people who practise divination, as priests.