The ceremony attending the departure of the hordes in spring is not without interest. The Kalmuck chiefs never begin a march without making an offering to the Bourkhan, or god of the river, as an acknowledgment of the protection vouchsafed to their camp during the winter. To this end they repair in great pomp to the banks of the Kouma, accompanied by their families and a large body of priests, and throw several pieces of silver money into the river, at the same time invoking its future favours.
According to the official documents communicated to me, the Kalmuck population does not appear to exceed 15,000 families. On this head, however, it is impossible to arrive at very exact statistics, for the princes having themselves to pay the crown dues, have of course an interest in making the population seem as small as possible. I am inclined to believe, from sundry facts, that the number of the tents is scarcely under 20,000. At all events, it seems ascertained that the Kalmuck population has remained stationary for the last sixty years, a fact which is owing to the ravages of disease, such as small-pox, and others of the cutaneous kind.
The Kalmucks, all of them nomades, are exclusively engaged in rearing cattle, and know nothing whatever of agriculture. They breed camels, oxen, sheep, and above all, horses, of which they have an excellent description, small, but strong, agile, and of great endurance. I have ridden a Kalmuck horse often eighteen and even twenty-five leagues without once dismounting. The Russian cavalry is mounted chiefly on horses from the Caspian steppes: the average price of a good horse is from 80 to 100 rubles. Formerly the Kalmucks used to send their horses to the great fairs of Poland, paying a duty of 1.75 rubles on every horse sold; but the duty was raised to 5.25 rubles in 1828, for every horse arriving in the fair, and this unlucky measure immediately destroyed all trade with Poland. The business of horse-breeding has diminished immensely ever since in the Caspian steppes. The government afterwards returned to the old rate of duty; but the mischief was done, and the Kalmucks did not again appear in their old markets.
It is impossible to know, even approximately, the amount of cattle belonging to the tribes, for the Kalmucks are too superstitious ever to acknowledge the number of their stock. From various data I collected at Astrakhan, and from the superintendents of the hordes, we may estimate that the Kalmucks possess on the whole from 250,000 to 300,000 horses, about 60,000 camels, 180,000 kine, and nearly a million sheep.
Prince Tumene is the only one of the Kalmucks who has engaged in agriculture, and his attempts have been exceedingly favoured by the character of the soil in his domains on the left bank of the Volga. His produce consists of grain, grapes, and all kinds of fruit. He has even tried to manufacture Champagne wine, but with little success; and when we visited him, he entreated me to send him a good work on the subject, that he might begin his operations again on an improved plan.