Life on the Steppe. Unlike the Chinese Han (206 B.C.E.- 220 C.E.) people, who lived in a settled, agrarian economy, the lives of the Inner Asian peoples of the steppe evolved around a pastoral economy. The nomadic tribal peoples depended on sheep and horses for their livelihood. These people ate mutton and drank horse milk; were clothed in sheepskins and slept in felt tents; and used dried animal dung for fuel. They rode horses when tending their herds, moving the animals from pasture to pasture, and fighting their enemies. They only needed to contact agricultural people when they traded for salt, tea, grain, textiles, and metals. They migrated on a seasonal basis, herding in the open plains in summer and in sheltered mountain valleys in winter. The migrant nature of life...