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A FEMALE TARTAR,
OF THE TELEOUTI TRIBE,
SHEWING THE BACK PART OF HER DRESS.
THE dress of this tribe is not remarkable for its excellence, though
it is made like that of most other Tartars; but these people are in
general so poor, they cannot afford to expend much on their dress.
The females are the best clothed: they wear rings, or small chains, in
their ears; their hair is divided into two or more parts, which they
ornament with ribands and small shells (Cyprea momta. LINN.). They
wear a smaD flat cap, with glass beads and medals for ornament: and
over this a sort of bonnet, bordered with fur. The unmarried women
generally wear a peculiar ornament from the nape of their necks,
consisting of a piece of cloth about four inches wide and eighteen long,
entirely covered with beads and pieces of money. They are by no
means a cleanly people, tlieir dress is generally very dirty, and their
linen covered with grease. Their food is various, but one of their
greatest delicacies is horse-flesh. Their usual drink is water, but they
distil some spirits from corn, and a sort of arrack. It was formerly
the custom of these people to burn their dead, or to place them upon
some tree in a forest: in this manner they still expose their young
children, when dead. They partly profess Schamanism, and are partly
Mahometans.
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