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PELT BY THE ANCIENTS. 415
likewise the doors are madc*P Very recently the same ac-
count of these "portable tents of felt" has been given by JuUus
von Klaprotht. Kupffer says of the Caratchai, " Leurs larges
manteaux de feutre leur servent en meme terns de matelas et
de couverturet." The large mantle of felt, here mentioned, is
used for the same purpose in the neighbonng country of Cir-
cassian, One of these mantles now in the possession of Mr.
Urquhart was made of black goats'-hair, and had on the out-
side a long shaggy villus. Tiie Circassians sleep under this
mantle by night, and wear it, when required, over their other
dress by day. A similar article is thus described by Colonel
Leakell : the postillions in Phrygia " wear a cloak of white
camels'-hair, half an inch thick, and so stiff that the cloak
stands without support, when set upright on the ground. There
are neither sleeves nor hood ; but only holes to pass the hands
through, and projections like wings upon the shoulders for the
purpose of turning off the rain. It is the manufacture of the
country." The Chinese traveller, Chy Fa Hian, who visited
India at the end of the fourth century, says, that the people of
Chen Chen, a kingdom in a mountainous district situated about
the Lake of Lob, wore dresses hke those of the Chinese, except
that they made use of felt and stuffs {du feutre et des ctojfes^).
In conformity with the prevailing use of this manufacture in
* Kerr's Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. i. p. 128. See also p. 167,
where the same facts are related by William de Rubruquis.
The account which Herodotus gives (iv. 23) of the habitations of the Argippsei
evidently alludes to customs similar to those of the modem Tartars. He says,
" They live under trees, covering the tree in winter with strong and thick undyed
felt (viho arsyvu Xeuxw), and removing the felt in summer." Among the ceremo-
nies observed by the Scythians in burying the dead, Herodotus also mentions the
erection of three stakes of wood, which were surrounded with a close covering of
woollen felt (iv. 73). Also, in the next section but one (iv. 75.) therp is an evi-
dent allusion to the practice of living under tents made of felt (uToJui'OTirt vTrdrovj
TTiXous).
t Reise in dem Kaucasus und nacli Georgien, ch. vi. p. 161.
t Voyage dans les Environs du Mont Elbrouz. St. Petersburg, 1829, 4to,
p. 20.
§ Travels in Circassia, by Edmund Spencer.
II Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor, p. 38.
T Ch. ii. p. 7, of Remusat's Translation, Par. 1836, 4to.