Note 1056 — Chapter XIV · —Plains, Steppes And Deserts

Every aspect of human life in the steppes bears the stamp of mobility. The nomad tolerates no clog upon his movements. His dwelling is the tent of skin or felt as among Kalmucks and Kirghis, or the tent wagon of the modern Boer1056 and the ancient Scythian as described by Herodotus.1057 "This device has been contrived by them as the country is fit for it," he says,—level, grassy, treeless. The temporary settlement of shepherd tribes is the group of tents, or the ancient carrago camp of the nomadic Visigoths,1058 or the laager of the pastoral Boers, both a circular barricade or corral of wagons.