Kumiss to boots.

[Mordraut Freyulf]

Mikjal Annarbjorn writes >

>Actually, Mongolia has a climate much like the Canadian plains, being
>on about the same latitude.  Remember, this is the place where they
>wear felt shoes during the winter, which are about the only kind that
>won't freeze and break in the extreme cold.

        Actually, not everyone there wears felt shoes during the winter.
Ulaanbaator is a *reasonably* mordern city.   Also, in period they did wear
leather boots as well.  
        I know of at least one case, second hand, of a Mongolian who wears
Reboks year round.  Of course he has cut uppers off of traditional mongol
boots, and attached them so that he does not stand out in the countryside.  

>I believe that the Russian army still maintains a brigade of Mongol
>horse soldiers, who are trained for conducting winter operations in
>conditions where mechanical weapons (like tanks, APC and most modern
>rifles) stop working due to extreme cold.

I can understand that, although the Russian tanks themselves are quite good
at working when all other tanks are frozen down.

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