Tartars in huts, now made to build villages
Editorial contextDescribing the lands between Beijing and the Russian frontier, Careri says the vast 'Imperial Tartary' owned by the emperor of China was uncultivated and wooded, and its 'poor Tartars' lived in huts without walled houses, like the ancient nomads with portable dwellings. But the present emperor was now 'civilising' them, beginning to have villages built and gathering them in, with forty tributary princes including the Khalkha.
those poor Tartars living there under huts, without walled houses, in the manner of the ancient Numidians or Hamaxobians, who, all given to the pastoral life, did not even have houses but went to live wherever it was most convenient with their portable huts. But the present Emperor of Tartary, now civilising them well, is beginning to have villages built for them and to gather them into these in communities
Working translation
Original wording
vivendovi que' poveri Tartari sotto capanne, senza case murate, a modo degli antichi Numidi, o Hamaxobiti, che tutti intesi alla vita pastorale, nè men case avevano, ma con loro portatili mapali, ove più concio era, andavano ad abitare. Ma l'Imperador odierno della Tartaria, bene al presente dirozzandogli comincia a far loro fabbricare Ville, e raccorgli entro a quelle in comunanza
About Mongols under Qing rule ('poor Tartars'; Khalkha)
Keep in mind
Careri did not travel there; this comes from Jesuits at court (Grimaldi, Gerbillon, Pereira). The classical comparison is his own.
Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.
