Captives sold at Caffa, as far as Persia and India
Editorial contextChevalier says Crimean Tartars left farming to Christians, Jews and their own slaves, and counted their wealth in horses, cattle and captives taken in raids. The captives were sold to merchants at Caffa and shipped east, and Polish women, he says, could end up in harems in Persia and India.
Their Horses and Cattel are their Riches, with the Booty and Slaves of both Sexes, which they take in their incursions and sell to the Merchants of Caffa … especially the Women and Maids of Poland, who are carried away sometimes as far as Persia and India, to furnish the Serraglios of those Countreys
About Crimean Tatars
Keep in mind
Written from the Polish side of a long frontier war.
Horse meat cooked under the saddle
Editorial contextChevalier repeats the famous story that Tartars on the march softened horse meat by riding on it under the saddle and ate it with no sauce but the horse's sweat. He adds that they chose worn-out, sick or lame horses for this, not the best ones. At home they ate millet porridge and boiled horse meat.
when they goe to war and are upon their March, they make it ready, or rather mortify, or just heat it, under their Saddles, and eat it afterwards in this condition without any other sauce then the froth upon the Flesh, made by the sweating of the Horse
About Crimean Tatars on campaign
Keep in mind
The saddle-meat story goes back to medieval writers and is a stock European image of steppe warriors; Chevalier does not say he saw it.
Water, millet beer and mare's milk
Editorial contextHere Chevalier speaks as an eyewitness: in Poland he saw Tartar prisoners carry dead horses out of stables to feast on. He then lists their drinks: water, snow in winter, horse broth, 'Breha' (a millet drink, the steppe boza), and for the better-off mare's milk, mead and spirits, even though Islam forbade them wine.
I have seen at my being in Poland, divers Tartar prisoners come and take away dead Horses out of the Stables to feast one another with … their drink is ordinarily clear water, and in winter snow … or else Breha, which is a drink made with boiled Millet, but those who are better accommodated, and more delicate, drink Mares milk, Mead, and Strong waters
About Crimean Tatars (including prisoners in Poland)
Tartar captives hauling brick and lime in Poland
Editorial contextSlavery ran both ways. Chevalier says the Poles kept most Tartar prisoners as chained slaves, used 'as Beasts' to carry building materials, firewood and other loads, living on bread and water. He saw two or three hundred of them in Warsaw, earning a little by making and selling whips.
the rest are kept as Slaves, having always Irons upon their feet, and are made use of as Beasts to carry all manner of burthens, Lime, Brick, and all other materials for building … when I was at Warsaw, I had opportunity to take notice of two or three hundred of them
About Crimean Tatar prisoners of war
Sheepskins, bows and whips no European could copy
Editorial contextThe Tartars living out on the steppe wore sheepskins and sheepskin caps and carried a scimitar, bow and about twenty arrows, all homemade from horse parts. Chevalier admires their plaited whips, which he says French and German saddlers could not imitate, and notes they were beginning to use firearms.
The Tartars who live abroad, are habited in Sheep-skins with a Cap of the same Stuffe; their Arms are ordinarily a Cimeter, a Bow and a Quiver, with about twenty Arrows … of which also they make their Whips so neatly, by a particular Art which they have, that our Sadlers in France and Germany have not yet been able to imitate them
About Crimean Tatars (the steppe-dwelling ones)
Honest at home, raiders abroad
Editorial contextAn enemy's surprisingly warm verdict: Chevalier calls the Tartars among the least vicious of nations, chaste, sincere and faithful, with no thieves or false witnesses among themselves. He explains their raids on Christian lands by saying they did not regard robbing 'infidels' as wrong. On the next page he says Polish nobles trusted young Tartar servants with the keys to their money and jewels.
As to their Morals, there are very few Nations to be found less vitious, for besides their continence, they are extremely sincere, and faithful, they have no Thieves or false witnesses amongst them, little injustice or violence, and live in Union and great tranquility
About Crimean Tatars
Keep in mind
A generalisation; on the next page Chevalier adds his own observation that Polish nobles trusted young Tartar servants with their money and jewels.
Five Tartaries on the map
Editorial contextHere 'Tartary' is a geographer's label for most of northern Asia, carved into five parts: Crim Tartary, the hordes under the Tsar (including Kazan and Astrakhan), Zagatay or the Uzbek country where Tamerlane reigned, Cathay or Great Tartary, and an unknown far north-east. It shows how loosely the name was spread over many peoples.
Tartary is devided into five parts, the first is the lesser Tartary, or Tartary of Precop, called also Crim Tartary. The second is Sarmatia Asiatica, which containeth many Hordes of the Tartars subject to the Great Duke of Moscovia, as the Czeremisses, the Nagais, Zauolhans, and those of Cazan and Astracan.
About Crimean Tatars, Volga Tatars, Nogais, Uzbeks and the peoples of 'Great Tartary'
Keep in mind
A textbook geographic scheme, not observation. The list continues on p.35 with Zagatay (where Tamerlane reigned), Cathay or Great Tartary, and an unknown north-east.
Scythians under a new name
Editorial contextChevalier opens his Tartar chapter by saying the name 'Tartar' was only about four hundred years old and that the people were really the ancient Scythians under a new label. He reports the scholar Leunclavius's view that the name came from a 'River Tartar' in their homeland.
The Tartars have not been known by this name, but for about four hundred years, and are properly the Scythians; some Authors, as Leunclave and others, derive this name from the River Tartar, in the Countrey where they did inhabit
About Tartars in general, including the Crimean Tatars
Keep in mind
The river etymology is reported from earlier authors, not Chevalier's own finding.
Were the Tartars the Lost Ten Tribes?
Editorial contextChevalier repeats a learned theory that 'Tartar' was a corruption of 'Tatares', supposedly a Syriac word for 'remnant', making the Tartars the remnant of the Ten Tribes of Israel carried off by the Assyrians. He presents it as what 'some say', not as his own view.
There are some who say that the name of Tartar is improper and corrupted, and that they ought to be called Tatares or Totares, A word which in the Syriack Language signifies a Remnant, supposing that these people are the remnant of the Ten Tribes which Salmanazar and his predecessors led away captive into Assyria
About Tartars in general
Keep in mind
A scholarly speculation of the period, reported secondhand.