No towns, only felt tents: Cumans like the Nogais
Editorial contextWriting of the Cumans who held the land between the Danube, the Black Sea and the Dniester in the 13th century, Peyssonnel says they had no towns, villages or fixed homes and lived always in movable felt tents. He adds from his own knowledge that they were just like the Nogais of his day, whom he considers almost the same nation.
These barbarians still had neither towns, nor villages, nor fixed dwellings; they were constantly camped under felt tents, which they carried from place to place; they were exactly like the Nogais of today, who are almost the same nation.
Working translation
Original wording
Ces Barbares n'avoient encore ni Villes, ni Villages, ni Habitations fixes; ils étoient sans cesse campés sous des Tentes de feutre, qu'ils transportoient d'un lieu dans un autre; ils étoient parfaitement semblables aux Nogaïs d'aujourd'hui, qui sont à peu près la même Nation.
About Cumans (Kipchaks); compared with Nogai Tatars
Keep in mind
The first part rests on medieval sources; the comparison with the Nogais is Peyssonnel's own.
The khan who died to music, poisoned by his doctor
Editorial contextDe Tott tells how Krim Giray, suffering 'hypochondriac' fits, took a draught from the Greek physician Siropolo despite de Tott's warnings. The khan sent for his friend, said farewell, and had six musicians play as he went to sleep; he died within the hour. The doctor left freely, and de Tott says embalming showed clear signs of poison.
Prince breathed his last to the sound of music… Siropolo obtained, without difficulty, a passport, and the necessary order for post-horses, to return quietly to Wallachia. The symptoms of poison appeared very manifest, however, on embalming the body; but the present interest of that Court, stifled every idea of vengeance, and of the punishment of the offender.
About Crimean Tatars (Khan Krim Giray)
Keep in mind
De Tott was present at the death, but the poisoning is his suspicion and a report from the embalming; no trial followed.
Villages of felt tents strung along the valleys
Editorial contextAfter defining 'Little Tartary' (Crimea, the Kuban, part of Circassia and the steppe between Russia and the Black Sea) on the previous page, de Tott contrasts the settled Tatars of the Budjak and Crimea, who live in villages, with the Nogais, who have only felt tents. Yet the Nogais are not aimless wanderers: their tents stand in single lines along valleys, forming 'villages' tens of leagues long that mark out each horde.
The latter province, called at present the Boudjak, is inhabited by Tartars settled in villages, as well as those of the peninsula, but the inhabitants of the three other provinces have only tents made of felt, which they remove at pleasure… their tents ranged along them in one line, form a kind of villages
About Nogai Tatars; Budjak and Crimean Tatars
Keep in mind
The exact length he gives for these tent-villages is damaged in the OCR.
The khan's campaign tent, big enough for sixty
Editorial contextBefore the winter campaign de Tott describes Tartar tents in detail: folding lattice walls, roof rods hooked to a ring, felt covering bound with a girth, and snow banked against the walls instead of posts or ropes. The khan's own tent was the same design on a huge scale, hung inside with crimson cloth and ringed by twelve smaller tents for his officers.
This covering is bound with a girth, and a few shovels full of snow, thrown up against the walls, prevents the external air from penetrating, and perfectly consolidates these tents, without either posts or cordage… The tent of the Kam was of this kind, but so large, that more than sixty persons might conveniently sit round the wood fire.
About Crimean Tatars (Khan Krim Giray's camp)
Continue in this sourceBaron de Tott's memoirs of the Crimean Tatar court1750 to 1779 · 15 passages