688 A SKIRMISH WITH TARTARS.

fellows; for they are a mere horde or crowd of wild fellows. keep-
ing no order, and understanding no discipline or manner of fight.

Their horses are poor, lean, starved creatures, taucht nothing,
and fit for nothing; and this we said 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-hunt-
ing, as they call it; and what was this, but hunting of sheep. How-
ever, 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 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 T had never heard be-
fore, 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 ap-
peared at about a mile distance; but our work was over first, as it
happened.

One of the Scots merchants of Moscow happened to be amongst
us, and as soon as he heard the horn he told us, in short, that we
had nothing to do but to charge them immediately without loss of
time; and drawing us up ina line, he asked if we were resolved ?
We told him we were ready to follow him; so he rode directly up
to them. They stood gazing at us like a mere crowd, drawn up
in no order, nor showing the face of any order at all; but as soon
as they saw us advance, they let fly their arrows, which however
missed us very happily. It seems they mistook not their aim, but
their distance; for their arrows all fell a little short of us, but with
so true an aim, that had we been about twenty yards nearer, we
must have had several men wounded, if not killed.

Immediately we halted; and though it was at a great distance,
we fired, and sent them leaden bullets for wooden arrows, following
our shot full gallop, to fall in among them sword in hand, for so