Nowadays, Mongolians wear an astonishing plethora of hats: baseball hats have made inroads here as in most other places around the world, but felt or straw fedoras are popular in the summer, and herders are not loath to don a truly bewildering array of "cowboy" hats originating from dozens of Central Asian peoples. In the winter, the Russian shapka is preferred, but many men wear a sheepskin-lined Mongolian felt hat with ear flaps and a chin strap - perfectly adapted to the life of the horse-riding, steppe-dwelling herdsman.

Before the Communist Revolution, most Mongolians wore leather boots with upturned toes - a Tibetan Buddhist importation designed to prevent man from hurting or desecrating the earth beneath him. Since 1921, the vast majority wear Western (especially Russian) boots, which are more durable and, presumably, easier to walk in. Monks still wear them, though, along with the small yellow hats that mark Vajrayana Buddhists from the Mahayana and Hinayana sects of eastern and southern Asia, respectively.

In the wintertime, many Mongolians wear thick, whitish felt boots that almost look like Neil Armstrong's moon boots, or albino elephant feet. They have a somewhat ragged appearance, as well, with thousands of small fibres shooting out into crooked darts like some crazed and dishevelled movie director. You would think they were extremely itchy, but they are, in fact, quite soft and, of course, warm. Nevertheless, they do tend to make a person look like the Yeti's smaller and shorter cousin.