Many vessels come likewise by sea for salt, all of which pay tribute, in proportion to the quantities which they carry away. On the third day after leaving Soldaia, we fell in with the Tartars, on joining whom, I thought myself entered into a new world; wherefore, I shall use my best endeavours to describe their manners and way of life, [1] The Euxine or Black Sea. Though not expressed in the text, he probably took his departure from Constantinople.--E [2] By the Latins are here obviously meant the inhabitants of western Europe. The province here mentioned is the Crimea; the Taurica Chersonesus of the ancients, or the modern Taurida.--E. [3] At the mouth of one of the branches of the Kuban is the town of Temruck, formerly called Tmutrakhan by the Russians, and Tamatarcha by the Greeks; this has been corrupted to Tamaterca, Materca, and Matriga.--Forst. [4] This obviously refers to the canal of communication between the sea of Azoph and the Euxine.--E. [5] Called likewise Soldeya, Soldadia and Sogdat, now Sudak.--E. [6] Sartach was the son of Baatu-khan.--E. [7] This name is probably meant to imply the Trucheman, Dragoman, or interpreter; and from the strange appellative, _Man of God_, he may have been a monk from Constantinople, with a Greek name, having that signification: perhaps Theander--E. [8] Cherson or Kersona, called likewise Scherson, Schursi, and Gurzi.--E. [9] These castles of the Goths, first mentioned by Rubruquis, were afterwards noticed by Josaphat Barbaro, a Venetian, in 1436; and Busbeck conversed with some of these Goths from the Crimea at Constantinople in 1562, and gives a vocabulary of their language. From the authority of Rubruquis misunderstood, some ancient map makers have inserted the Castella Judeorum instead of Gothorum in the Crimea, and even Danville placed them in his maps under the name of Chateaux des Juifs, castles of the Jews.--Forst. SECTION II. _Of the Tartars and their Houses_. They have no permanent city, and they are ignorant of the future. They divide all Scythia among them; and each leader, according to the number of his followers, knows the boundaries of his pastures, and where he ought to feed his flocks in winter and summer, and in spring and autumn. In winter they descend into the warmer regions of the south, and in summer they travel towards the colder countries of the north. Such pastures as have no water, are reserved for winter use, when there is snow on the ground, as the snow there serves instead of water.