so that when the inundation is over there is a space under each where cattle are frequently kept. In most of the streets are lofty wooden brides which run along the middle of them, and to which a smaller bridge leads from the door of each house. Where this is not the case the inhabitants are obliged, during the time of the inundation, to step immediately out of their houses into a boat, when going about their ordinary business. Hence it is evident that this town is by no means adapted to riding either in a carriage or on horseback.

On the Don itself, where the ground is rather higher and where nothing is to be feared from the water, are situated the Gymnasium, some other buildings belonging to the government, and the principal church. The shops are very spacious and well arranged, and furnished with all sorts of domestic commodities, as also with most of the foreign productions that are subservient to the convenience of life. In consequence of the proximity of Taganrog and the Krym the place is in particular abundantly supplied with articles of Greek and Turkish merchandize, which are sold at very moderate prices. I remarked many shops with iron and brass wares, woollen cloth of home and foreign manufacture, tea, sugar, coffee, wines and other strong liquors.

To a stranger visiting Tscherkassk for the first time, it is a striking spectacle to find a city peopled by Cossacks alone, and where all the male inhabitants wear the same costume, which consists of a blue Cossack coat turned up with red. Even great part of the foreigners resident here adopt this

dress, which looks very neat. Besides the Cossacks properly so called, the Tartars, who are upon the same footing as the Cossacks, occupy a whole suburb, and have likewise a well-fitted-up wooden messdshet.

The inundations, which leave behind in the streets a great quantity of mud, and in many places large standing pools, whence issue pernicious exhalations, render the situation of the town extremely unhealthy; for which reason New Tscherkassk has been begun on a branch of the Don, a German mile from the present town, and is said to be at this time ready for the reception of inhabitants. Those of the old town, who will be in some measure indemnified for the expense thus occasioned, are all to remove to New Tscherkassk; so that in half a century, perhaps, no vestiges of the present place will remain.

Tscherkassk was founded in 1570 by the Cossacks, the year after the Turks had undertaken their fruitless expedition from Asow against Astrachan, and the former town had been almost entirely destroyed by the explosion of a powder-magazine set on fire by lightning. The origin of the Cossacks themselves is an historical problem which has hitherto been by no means satisfactorily solved. This name first occurs in Constantine Porphyrogenneta (about A.D.948). who places the province of Kasachia among the countries lying beyond the Ckuban, as appears from the following passage:-" On the eastern side of the Palus Mæotis several rivers empty themselves into it, as the Tanais, which comes from Ssarkel; the Chorakul, in

which the Oxian fishes (To BepTIXOV) are taken; likewise some other rivers, as the Bal, Burlik, Chadir, and many more. But the mouth of the Palus Mæotis is also called Burlik, and goes into the Pontus. Here is the Bosphorus, on which stands the town named Tamatarcha. The above-mentioned mouth is eighteen miles broad. In the middle of these eighteen miles lies a large flat island called Atech. The river Ukruch which separates Sichia (Zyxia) from Tamatarcha, is 18 or 20 miles from the latter. Sichia extends about 300 miles from the Ukruch to the river Nikopsis, on which also is situated a town of the same name. Beyond Sichia lies the country of Papagia, beyond Papagia Kusachia, beyond Kasachia Mount Caucasus, and beyond the Caucasus the country of the Alans." The inhabitants of Kasachia were consequently neighbours of the Sichs or Eastern Tscherkessians, and themselves Tscherkessians; for this nation is still called by its neighbours, the Ossetes, Kasach or Kessek. Ibn el Vardi, an Arabian geographer, who lived and wrote about 1230, mentions a people called Keschek in the Caucasus, and cannot sufficiently extol the beauty of their women, on which subject he breaks forth into the warmest praises of the Almighty. This exactly applies to the Tscherkessian women, who are still accounted the most beautiful in all Asia. Massudi, another Arabian, who wrote near two centuries earlier, about A. D. 947, says that many Mohhammedan merchants came every year to Trebisonde, on the sea of Constantinople, from Rum (Anatolia),

Armenia, and the land of Kaschek; but it is a question whether the Tscherkessians are here meant, as he has not more precisely described the situation of their country. It might be that at this early period they carried their slaves thither to market, as they lately did to Anapa, Dsugodshuk-Ckala, and other ports of the Black Sea. Be this as it may, so much at least is certain, that the Tscherkessians first bore the name of Kasach, and it is very probable that from them it may have been transferred to other neighbouring nations who led the same kind of life as they did. Some writers have indeed asserted that Ckasack in the Turco-Tartar dialects signifies a robber, but this is erroneous; a sledge indeed is called Ckasack, but it will scarcely be contended that the name can be thence derived. It is likewise remarkable that in later times the Russian Cossacks were termed Tscherkessians, and that both ap. pellations were indiscriminately employed.

Of all the different Cossacks those of Little Russia are the most ancient; for their origin dates from 1340, after the Poles had reduced Red Russia under their dominiou. It is probable that, on this event, many Russians emigrated from that country in order to seek an asylum lower down the Dnjeper, where they intermingled with the Tartars and Tscherkessians; for in general the Cossacks are of a much more slender make than the other Russians, and their features upon the whole more handsome and expressive. The invasions of Russia by the Tartars, and in particular the destruction of Kiew in 1415, increased the num ber of these refugees, who now ex

tended

tended to the Bug and the Dniester. Those who resided beyond the cataracts of the Dnjeper now received the name of Saporogians, and these were the most powerful tribe. Thus, though the Little Russian Cossacks had long existed, it was not till late that they were distinguished by this appellation. During the reign of the grandprince Iwan Wassiljewitch I. the Tartar Cossacks first make their appearance: they were afterwards divided into those of Ordinsk and Asow. There were likewise Cossacks who were in the immediate service of certain Tartar princes; and it is possible enough that they may have been originally bodyguards of Tscherkessians. Thus Wassili Iwanowitsch, son of the prince just mentioned, had in his service Cossacks, whom he often employed in missions to the Krym. The Ordinsk Cossacks had their name from being dependant on the Great Orda, the chief settlement of the Tartars on the Wolga, as were the Asow Cossacks on Asow, consequently on the Turks, who in 1471 made themselves masters of that town.

In 1500 Agus Tscherkass and Karabai were the chiefs of the Asow Cossacks, who inhabited the country between Asow and the Russian frontiers; and these seem to have intermingled most with their neighbours the Tscherkessians; for from that time the terms Tscherkessian and Cossack became synonymous. It is not surprising that they should retain their language and religion, for the Russians seem still to constitute the greater part of the nation. In later times we have a striking instance of a similar intermix

ture; for about sixty years ago the Grebensk Cossacks on the Terek had so blended themselves with the Tschetschenzes and other mountaineers as scarcely to be distinguished from them; but they still retained the Russian language, although they had taken foreign wives.

The origin of the state of the Don Cossacks dates not much earlier than 1570, for many refugees had some time before settled on the Don and its branches; but it was not till after the building of Tscherkassk that their political constitution was settled. The Zar Iwan Wassiljewitsch, on occasion of the expedition of the Turks against Astrachan in 1569, is said to have ordered out against them 5000 Saporogians from among the Tscherkessians (Cossacks) residing on the Dnjeper, under the conduct of Prince Michael Wyschnewetskii, who, in conjunction with those established on the Don, gained a complete victory over the Turks. It is related that the greater part of these 5000 men remained near the Don, and in concert with the Cossacks there founded the city of Tscherkassk; where, after the manner of the Saporogians, they lived a long time without wives. Their losses were supplied by stragglers and unmarried men from the first colonies of the Don Cossacks. The troubles which soon afterwards broke out in Russia contributed to augment their numbers; they extended their possessions to the Donez, the Medwediza, the Choper and the Busuluk, and made the town of Tscherkassk their capital.

These Cossacks soon became dangerous

dangerous to their neighbours, so that it was found necessary to flatter them and to gain them by presents, to prevent them from committing depredations and driving away the flocks in time of peace, and in war to secure the aid of such brave and serviceable troops. At present all the Cossacks pay implicit obedience to the crown, and are as faithful subjects as any in the empire. Content with little, they patiently endure every kind of hardship; but they are the first in war wherever there is an opportunity for plunder. Their country is not, strictly speaking, a Russian province, but has its peculiar government and constitution, and is under an Ataman or commander in chief, who on all occasions that arise communicates directly with St. Petersburg. This has inspired them with a manly love of freedom which unfortunately is not to be found in the other Russians; but nevertheless perfect submission to the orders of their superiors prevails among them.

The fertility of the country, and their whole establishment, render them but little disposed to pursue agriculture with assiduity, and they grow only just so much corn as they require for their own consumption. On the other hand, the vine is largely cultivated along the whole of the Don, and they make several truly excellent sorts of wine, which when not adulterated are equal to the light French wines. Here is likewise produced a kind of champagne, which, under the name of Symlianskii, is sent all over Russia; but it is commonly debased with potash, and produces head-ache

and disorders of the stomach. I here drank a light sort of red wine, which nearly resembles the Petit Bourgogne, and was of excellent flavour. Of this I took with me at my departure a half-anker; but it froze at a temperature of no lower than five degrees, so that I could use it no other way than mulled.

The women of Tscherkassk may upon the whole be pronounced handsome, and appear very showy, especially on holidays, with their half oriental costume. The use of paint is common at this place, as it is all over Russia; but here ! think I observed this disguise on the faces of middle-aged females only. The young women and girls have a fresh complexion, and seem to employ few artificial means of improving their natural beauty.

The principal church is one of the most remarkable objects in the town, not only on account of its architecture, but for the prodigious quantity of gold, silver, and jew els, especially pearls, which it con tains. All these treasures formed part of the booty which the Cossacks have made in different wars, and particularly in Poland. Besides a multitude of images of saints wrought in gold, or overlaid with that metal, which are adorned with the largest and most costly stones, you here see an altar. piece of considerable height and breadth, studded all over with pearls, many of which are of the largest size and finest quality, There is likewise more gold and silver coin among the Cossacks than any where else in Russia, Many of the widows of people of distinction have whole pots full of ducats lying in their bouses,