The baron de Tott gives the following account of their method of tailoring: “I approached a group of Tartars assembled round a dead horse, which they had just skinned. A young man about eighteen, without clothing, had the hide of the animal thrown over his shoulders. A woman, who performed the office of tailor with great dexterity, began by cutting the back of this new dress, following with her scissors the round of the neck, the fall of the shoulders, the semicircle which formed the sleeve, and the side of the habit, which was intended to reach below the knee. She proceeded in the same manner with the other parts, till the cutting out was finished. The man, who had served as a mould, then crouched on his hams, while the several pieces were stitched together; so that in less than two hours he had a good bay coat, which only needed to be tanned by continual wearing.” The Mongul race of Tartars are very ugly. Their complexion, which is naturally fair, becomes tawny by exposure. They have high cheek bones, broad flat noses, exceedingly small eyes, widely separated and placed very obliquely, scanty eyebrows, thick lips, and projecting ears. The infants are said to be so unsightly, that they resemble bear’s cubs rather than human beings. The Tartar men and women dress very nearly alike. Both wear wide trowsers; but the women’s robe reaches to the feet, while that of the men does not extend further than the knees. The poorest wear garments made of the skins of animals, with the hair turned inside in winter, and outside in summer. Some wear woollen, others linen; and the khans, or princes, with their families, sometimes wear embroidered silks and brocades, trimmed with rich furs. Tartar women of all classes are very fond of ornaments. Their ear-rings are plain hoops of metal, to which strings of beads, or pieces of mother-of-pearl, are suspended. The neck and bosom is often covered with a net-work of beads, and their caps are frequently embroidered with beads, or covered with coins, laid one over another, like shingles on the roof of a house. The shape of these caps vary with the different tribes; some are conical, some round, and others exactly resemble a bishop’s mitre. Married women may generally be distinguished from unmarried, by the arrangement of the head-dress. Girls braid their hair in a much greater number of tresses than the matrons, and adorn the ends with ribbons or coins. They sometimes interweave a quantity of horse-hair with their own. Children wear no clothing whatever, until they are ten or twelve years old. These tribes, like most people who have no care about accumulating wealth, are of an easy, indolent disposition, and spend much of their time in amusement. During the long winter nights, the young people of both sexes enjoy themselves with music and dancing. Their most common instrument is a two-stringed lute. Their dancing consists more in the motions of the hands than the feet.