The khan's palace, once 'entirely in the Chinese' style
Editorial contextDe Tott describes the palace of the Crimean khans at the edge of Bakhchysarai, ringed by rocks and fed by streams channelled into kiosks and gardens. He says it was first built in a 'Chinese' manner and later repaired in Turkish fashion. On the same page he claims crime was rarer in Tartary than anywhere, so the capital had no guards but the khan's.
The Palace he inhabits, formerly built entirely in the Chinese, but repaired in the Turkish fashion, still retains some of the beauties of its former stile of construction. It is placed at one of the extremities of the town, and is surrounded by very high rocks, from whence flows an abundance of streams, which are conveyed into the kiosks and gardens in a most delightful manner.
About Crimean Tatars (Giray khans)
Keep in mind
'Chinese' is de Tott's impression of the painted, wide-eaved style; he gives no source for who built it.
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)
Supper cooked by the best cook of the horde
Editorial contextCurious about Nogai food, de Tott watches a young cook stir roasted millet flour into boiling water, then crumble in balls of salted, dried mare's-milk cheese until the mixture turns to a dough he turns out by hand. He liked the dish better than expected, but admits he could not bring himself to enjoy the mare's milk.
he then asks for one of the white balls, which was cheese, made of mare's milk, saturated with salt, and dried… he then draws out his flat knife, empties the kettle on his hand, and presents me with a cylinder of puff-paste in a spiral form. I was anxious to taste it, and was really better pleased with the mess than I expected.
About Nogai Tatars
Tartar law: the victim's family carries out the sentence
Editorial contextA Jew's slave murdered his master and then converted to Islam hoping for pardon. De Tott explains that under Tartar law the injured family must execute the criminal themselves. Khan Maksud Giray refused to spare the convert, saying he would hand over his own brother if guilty; in the end the Jews were allowed to stone the murderer according to the law of Moses.
by the Tartar law the criminal must perish by the hand of the injured person, or by his heirs. It was objected then, but in vain, that a Turk could not be delivered up to the Jews. “I would deliver up my brother to them,” replied the Kam, “if he was guilty; I leave Providence to reward his conversion, if it be sincere; it is my duty to do justice.”
About Crimean Tatars; Crimean Jews
A bride's dowry measured in a pyramid of millet
Editorial contextIn a footnote de Tott describes an old Tartar wedding custom: a dish was set on the veiled bride's head and millet poured over it until the heap reached the dish. Small brides fared badly, so by his day families simply counted measures of millet. He then speculates that European nuptial crowns and sugar-plums come from this rite.
they placed a flat dish… on the head of the new married woman; they stretched a veil over her head… after this they poured millet on the trencher, which, spreading all around her, formed a cone… her dowry was not complete until the pyramid of millet reached up to the trencher, the veil still allowing her to breath. This custom was not favourable to little persons
About Crimean and Nogai Tatars
Keep in mind
Told in the past tense; the link to European wedding customs is de Tott's own guess.
How a raider carried off his captives
Editorial contextRiding with the khan's army on its last great slave raid into Russian New Serbia, de Tott watches a single Tartar manage a whole captured family and flock: children in a sack at the saddle, the girl in front, the mother behind, the father and son on led horses. He admires the skill but calls the scene an image of 'avarice' and 'the most cruel injustice'. He reckons about 20,000 captives were taken.
Five or six slaves, of different ages, sixty sheep, and twenty oxen, the prize of a single man, do not embarrass him. The children, with their heads peeping out of a sack, hanging by the pummel of the saddle; a young girl sitting before, leaning on her left hand; the mother behind on the crupper, the father on a led horse, the son upon another
About Crimean and Nogai Tatars (Krim Giray's army)
Dung fuel, millet and a whole sheep at one sitting
Editorial contextCrossing treeless plains, de Tott explains that the Nogais burn cakes of dung kneaded with sandy earth. He reports (as hearsay) that they had uprooted the old forests so no enemy could surprise them. Their everyday diet is millet and mare's milk, yet a Nogai could eat a whole sheep for a wager.
each family carefully collects the dung of the cattle, which they knead with a sort of sandy earth, and produce a turf which unfortunately smokes the Tartars more than it warms them. No people live more soberly. Millet and mares milk are their usual diet… A Noguais might lay a wager that he eat a whole sheep, and win his wager, without having an indigestion.
About Nogai Tatars
Keep in mind
The claim that the Nogais tore up the forests is something he was 'assured' of, not something he saw.
Tartary as the first land after the Flood
Editorial contextTouching on the 'Atlantis' debate of his day, de Tott argues that the high plateau of Tartary must have been the first land inhabited in Asia, the source of the swarms that later poured into Europe as Goths, Ostrogoths and Visigoths. He says a Tartar tradition told him by Khan Krim Giray supports this, and on the next page traces the Crimean dynasty back to Genghis Khan.
this country, possessed at present by the Tartars, must have been the first discovered land in Asia, and the earliest inhabited; the source of that population which first sent forth those swarms which, constantly driven back by the wall of China, and the defiles of Thibet and of Caucasus, fell upon the northern parts of Asia, and overflowed our Europe, under the name of Goths, Ostrogoths, and Visigoths.
About Tartars (in general)
Keep in mind
A speculative 18th-century theory based on geography and one conversation, not on evidence; de Tott himself calls it a 'hypothesis'.
A Manchu and a Budjak Tartar: one name, 1,500 leagues apart
Editorial contextIn his opening essay de Tott argues that government shapes peoples more than climate. His example shows how widely 'Tartar' stretched in his day: a Manchu from beyond China and a Tatar from Bessarabia share the name and, he claims, the same kind of government.
Bring together a Manchou and a Bass-Arabian Tartar, you will search in vain the interval of fifteen hundred leagues that separates their countries: the climate differs but little; the government is the same.
About Manchus; Budjak (Bessarabian) Tatars
Keep in mind
A rhetorical generalisation, not an observation.
Electric shocks at the khan's court taken for magic
Editorial contextAfter a fireworks show for the khan's birthday, de Tott staged 'a little chamber fire-work' of electrical experiments. The courtiers thought it sorcery; the khan asked to be shocked himself, and next day the whole town talked of nothing but electricity.
The first effects of this phenomenon excited such astonishment, that I had some difficulty in destroying the opinion of magic I saw arising in their minds… The Kam, however, had the air of comprehending me, and was himself desirous of being electrified. I gave him the stroke very moderately, but I handled the courtiers in such a manner as to obtain the Prince's approbation.
About Crimean Tatars (Khan Maksud Giray and courtiers)
Keep in mind
A self-flattering anecdote; only de Tott tells it.
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.