CHAP. XIII. that little of the lamentable characteristics of the Russian people' can be applied to them. It is only in proportion as they recede from their natural effeminacy, that any traits have appeared to liken them to the men of their country: an instance or two of this kind may have been mentioned; but, speaking generally of them, they have this only fault, if it be not rather a misfortune, that of servility to the most abject slaves. (1) At the time of making this extract from my Journal, our English papers are filled with the atrocities committed, not merely by their common soldiers, but by their general-officers in Finland. An account of them is published by the Lord-lieutenant of the county of Vasa, to which his respectable name is affixed. Posterity may there be informed what Russians were in the beginning of the present century, when a Major-general, Demidof, gave up the town of Vasa, during five days, to plunder, merely because he could not retain its possession; and, assisted by another monster in a human form, the Governor Emine, "galloped through the streets, to give vigour and activity to a scene of murder, horrible cruelty, and devastation; crying out to his troops, Dobra! dobra! (Bravo! bravo!) as they were bayonetting the weeping and kneeling inhabitants, mothers with their infants, aged and venerable men, ladies of distinction, children, and persons of whatever sex, age, or situation. "It instructs the world," observes the Lord-lieutenant, to describe their conduct; inasmuch as it determines their national character; and determines, with historic truth, that with barbarian slaves the character remains unchanged, notwithstanding the varnish put on by a sort of external humanizing, produced by intercourse with civilized nations." In the parish of Nerpis, Major-general Orlof Denesof caused three of the peasants to be bound together: and this being done, to prolong the pain and agony of the poor sufferers, the Russians pierced their thighs, arms, belly, and other parts, with bayonets, before they killed them. able XIII. Perhaps an anecdote, which may now be CHAP. related, will render the contrast between Cossacks and Russians more striking. The truth of it, owing to its notoriety, will not be disputed by either party. When a quarrel among the Cossacks causes them to combat each other, they fight, as in England, with their fists, and never with knives, daggers, or any similar weapon. This practice is so established a characteristic of the people, that it gave rise to a very remarkable wager. Teplof and Gelagin, two of the late RemarkEmpress Catherine's privy-counsellors, chanced Wager. to be in her presence, when it was told her that a Cossack priest, then a monk in the Convent of St. Alexander Nevsky, had been arrested for cutting the throat of a young woman, whom he had made pregnant, and with whom he had quarrelled upon this Teplof offered to wager with Gelagin that the monk was not a Cossack. The bet was made, and won by Teplof; the monk proving to be a Russian. Being questioned" how he could possibly divine the probable success of his wager; "Because," said he, "no Cossack would strike a woman: if he did, he would use his cane; not his knife." : the Town. It was during one Sunday evening that Lieu- Survey of tenant-colonel Papof conducted us over the whole of Tcherkask. We walked a distance XIII. CHAP. equal to four miles without once being off a bridge. The people were all in their best attire; and the sight on that account was the more interesting. From the high and narrow bridges, single planks frequently lead off, as the only mode of approaching the houses of the inhabitants: these have covered galleries around them. In those galleries, where the deal, of which they are constructed, was as white as water and the sun's rays could make it, sat the old and respectable Cossacks; almost all of whom, as we passed, pressed us to walk into their houses and to regale ourselves. The water flows beneath many of the buildings; and all of them are upon piles, in the midst of the flood'. The prodigious quantity of timber consumed in The (1) "Tcherkask stands on some marshy islands in the river. houses are all raised on wooden pillars, and connected by foot bridges. The foot-paths run like galleries before the houses. When we saw it, every part was flooded, except the principal street, the great church, and the market-place. The antic wooden cabins, mixed with the domes of churches, tops of trees, and Calmuck tents, had an interesting effect, just rising from the water. The sudak still continued to poison the air; but the houses, notwithstanding the people are all fishers, are neat. The Cossacks are much cleaner than the Russians. There is a spacious and antient cathedral, nearly on the same plan as the Casan Church in Mosco. Detached from the rest of the building is a large tower, which, at a distance, gives a faint recollection of St. Mary's spire at Oxford. There are many other churches, full of very costly ornaments. I never saw so many pearls at once, as on the head of a Madonna in the cathedral. These treasures are the spoils of Turkey and Poland." Heber's MS. Journal. the town, for houses, causeways, and bridges, is brought from the Volga, the Don being inadequate to such a supply. Formerly they had walls to their watery settlement, but the inundations of the river have swept these entirely away. The principal part of the inhabitants are exceedingly desirous to remove their capital to Axay; this would increase its commerce, and thereby add to its importance: the rest, who, from attachment to the place of their nativity, are still anxious to preserve the original situation, propose to surround it again with walls, and to form channels, after a plan which would make its resemblance to Venice greater than it is at present; but the level of the water not remaining constant, as in the Adriatic, and sometimes varying full fifteen feet, prevents the adoption of this plan. They neglect, however, no opportunity to improve the town, forming it as much as possible into streets when fires have taken place and destroyed the old buildings, and insulating the houses where they were too closely situate. If any attempt should be made to remove the town, little difficulty would occur in transplanting the houses almost entire. They are chiefly of wood, and, being placed upon rafts, might be floated to the place of their destination. (2) The capital has been since removed; and now occupies a situation upon the European side of the Don, higher up the river. CHAP. XIII. CHAP. Houses tire. They speak of moving a house in this part of the world as a very trifling undertaking. When moved en- Sir Charles Gascoigne went from Petersburg, to preside over the foundry at Lugan, he paid a visit to a gentleman about twenty-seven miles distant from the establishment. Finding him excellently lodged, in a well-furnished, handsome, and very convenient house, "I wish," said he, "I could have such a building erected for me at Lugan." His host replied, "If you admire my house, it is at your service, exactly as you see it; and I engage to place it for you at Lugan in the course of the week." A bargain was concluded between them; the house was moved; and Sir Charles, who informed us of the fact, resided in it when we were in that country. The inhabitants of Tcherkask complain much of want of room. Not a single house has a court-yard; the inhabitants are all huddled together, as if they had dropped from the clouds during a shower into the river, and only waited the retiring of the waters to make their escape. They are much troubled with mosquitoes, which abound in all the neighbourhood of the Don'. (1) Edward Brown, who published, in the seventeenth century, “A Discourse upon the Cossacks," mentions the swarms of flies and locusts infesting their country; which is the only faithful account of their history contained in his work. See p. 22. Lond. 1672. |
