When they come to an engagement with the enemy, they will gain the victory in this fashion. [They never let themselves get into a regular medley, but keep perpetually riding round and shooting into the enemy.  And] as they do not count it any shame to run away in battle, they will [sometimes pretend to] do so, and in running away they turn in the saddle and shoot hard and strong at the foe, and in this way make great havoc.  Their horses are trained so perfectly that they will double hither and thither, just like a dog, in a way that is quite astonishing.  Thus they fight to as good purpose in running away as if they stood and faced the enemy, because of the vast volleys of arrows that they shoot in this way, turning round upon their pursuers, who are fancying that they have won the battle.  But when the Tartars see that they have killed and wounded a good many horses and men, they wheel round bodily, and return to the charge in perfect order and with loud cries; and in a very short time the enemy are routed.  In truth they are stout and valiant soldiers, and inured to war.  And you perceive that it is just when the enemy sees them run, and imagines that he has gained the battle, that he has in reality lost it; for the Tartars wheel round in a moment when they judge the right time has come.  And after this fashion they have won many a fight.[NOTE 6]

All this that I have been telling you is true of the manners and customs of the genuine Tartars.  But I must add also that in these days they are greatly degenerated; for those who are settled in Cathay have taken up the practices of the Idolaters of the country, and have abandoned their own institutions; whilst those who have settled in the Levant have adopted the customs of the Saracens.[NOTE 7]

NOTE 1.—­The bow was the characteristic weapon of the Tartars, insomuch that the Armenian historians often call them “The Archers.” (St. Martin, II. 133.) “CUIRBOULY, leather softened by boiling, in which it took any form or impression required, and then hardened.” (Wright’s Dict.) The English adventurer among the Tartars, whose account of them is given by Archbishop Ivo of Narbonne, in Matthew Paris (sub. 1243), says:  “De coriis bullitis sibi arma levia quidem, sed tamen impenetrabilia coaptarunt.”  This armour is particularly described by Plano Carpini (p. 685).  See the tail-piece to Book IV.

[Mr. E. H. Parker (China Review, XXIV. iv. p. 205) remarks that “the first coats of mail were made in China in 1288:  perhaps the idea was obtained from the Malays or Arabs.”—­H.  C.]

NOTE 2.—­M.  Pauthier has judiciously pointed out the omissions that have occurred here, perhaps owing to Rusticiano’s not properly catching the foreign terms applied to the various grades.  In the G. Text the passage runs:  “Et sachies que les cent mille est apelle un Tut (read tuc) et les dix mille un Toman, et les por milier et por centenier et por desme.”