A Russian solder who traveled to Mongolia in the nineteenth century described the Mongols this way:

"The first things that strikes the traveler in the life of the Mongol is his excessive dirtiness: He never washes his body and very seldom his face and hands. Owing to his constant dirt, his clothing swarms with parasites, which he amuses himself by killing in the most unceremonious way. It is a common sight to see a Mongol open his sheepskin or kaftan to catch an offending insect and to execute him on the spot between his front teeth. The uncleanness and dirt amidst which they live is partly attributable to their dislike, almost amounting to dread, of water"

Quoted in Chingis Khan and the Mongol Empire, by Malcolm Yapp (Greenhaven Press, Inc.).

The Mongols believed that water was a live spirit and that it would be sinful to pollute it. They did not wash their clothes or bodies because they believed it would anger their gods. They were terrified of rain and thunder.

Mongols

Asian people, numbering between 2.5 and 3 million and distributed mainly in the Republic of Mongolia (formerly Outer Mongolia), the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China, the Buryat Republic, and the Kalmyk Republic. Mongolian traits include short limbs, skin color ranging from yellow to dark brown, dark hair, and tilted eyes with an epicanthic fold.

Traditionally the Mongols were a predominantly pastoral people, following their herds of horses, cattle, camels, and sheep on a seasonal round of pasturage, and, when encamped, living in felt-covered yurts. Shamanism was the traditional religion of the Mongols, but Buddhism was introduced in the 16th cent.; competition between the two produced Lamaism, a combination of both.

The Mongols have a written language; the earliest extant work written in Mongolian dates from 1240.

The origin of the Mongols is obscure, but it is believed that many of the so-called Huns, who invaded Europe, as well as the Khitan, who founded a dynasty (916-1125) in Northern China, may have been Mongols. However, it was not until the early 13th cent. and the creation of the Mongol empire by Jenghiz Khan that the numerous Mongol tribes, hitherto loosely confederated and constantly feuding, emerged in world history as a powerful and unified nation.

The Yasa (Jasagh), or imperial code, was promulgated. It laid down the organizational lines of the Mongol nation, the administration of the army, and criminal, commercial, and civil codes of law. As administrators the Mongols employed many Uigurs, whose script they adopted. From their capital at Karakorum the Mongol hordes swept West into Europe and East into China, and by c.1260 the sons of Jenghiz Khan ruled a far-flung Eurasian empire that was divided into four khanates.

They were the Great Khanate, which comprised all of China and most of East Asia (including Korea) and which under Kublai Khan came to be known as the Y?an dynasty; the Jagatai khanate in Turkistan; the Kipchack khanate, or the Empire of the Golden Horde, founded by Batu Khan in Russia; and a khanate in Persia.

Actually, the Mongol hordes (particularly those who conquered Russia and penetrated as far as Hungary and Germany) included large elements of Turkic peoples; they came to be known collectively as Tatars. Tamerlane, who conquered most of the Jagatai khanate in the 14th cent. and founded a new empire, claimed descent from Jenghiz Khan, as did Babur, who in the 16th cent. founded the Mughal (i.e., Mongol) empire in India. The Mongols were completely expelled from China by 1382 and soon thereafter lapsed into relative obscurity. 

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