«Тахиййат»: Сборник статей в честь Н. Н. Дьякова

m 122 n John Masson Smith, Jr. The division of labor in Mongol society (as in other nomad societies) made the men available for military service. "[The Mongol] men do not bother themselves about anything but hunting and warfare and falconry” said Marco Polo 1 . William of Rubruck fleshes out their warfare-related re- sponsibilities: The men make bows and arrows, manufacture stirrups and bits and make saddles; they build the houses and carts, they look after the horses and milk the mares, churn the cosmos [ kumis ] that is the mares’ milk, and make the skins in which it is kept, and they also look after the camels and load them 2 . Women and children had different duties. They “buy and sell and do all that is needful for their husbands and households” according to Polo 3 . In Rubruck’s account, It is the duty of the women to drive the carts, to load the houses on to them and to unload them, to milk the cows, to make the butter and grut , to dress the the skins and sew them, which they do with thread made out of tendons ... They also sew shoes and socks and other garments. They never wash their clothes ...They never wash their dishes, but when the meat is cooked, they wash out the bowl in which they are going to put it with some boiling broth which they afterwards pour back. The women also make the felt and cover the houses 4 . Thus the military aspect of Mongol pastoralism was handled by the men, and the “civilian” by the women and children; the men and their families could operate together or separated. Contrary to the common view that the Mongols campaigned with their families and their sheep, goats and cows as well as their ponies — a whole people on the marc — in most of the major wars the families and subsistence animals stayed at home, partly for their safety, largely because the “civilian” animals moved too slowly: 4 mpd for sheep, 10 mpd for cows/oxen; as against 15 mpd for ponies. The “civilian” animals were not only too slow, but ate too 1 Polo M. The Travels of Marco Polo , R. Latham trans. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1958; 1980 reprint [n.b. pagination varies among reprints]. P. 98. 2 Rubruck/D, Cf. Rubruck/J, 90–91. 3 Polo, 98. 4 Rubruck/D, 103: Rubruck/J, 90–91. This division of labor persisted into the twentieth century, as may be seen in the study of the Mongol Narobanchin nomads in Vreeland 49–51.