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450*

ADDITIONAL NOTE

TO P. 61.

"KIRGISSIANS; a people yet unknown."-The author has mentioned the circumstance of his having resided beneath the same roof with a party of Kirgissians, in an inn at Moscow; and he has also stated, that very little is known of this people. They call themselves " Sara Kaïsaki," or "Cossacks of the Desert." Their antient history is so obscure, that even their name, and the existence of their race, were unheard in Europe before the cession of Siberia to the Russians by Jermak (or, as it is pronounced, Yermak), the Cossack hero, in 1581*. The Kirgissians fell under the Russian yoke in 1606, and from that period they have rendered themselves conspicuous by their frequent revolts†. In 1643, they were vanquished by the Calmucks. From immemorial time, they have been divided into three separate hordes, or Clans; and these leading branches admit also of subdivisions. Their Chiefs, or Nobles, are distinguished into three classes; bearing the several titles of Ghodscha, Bü, and Saltan. The first consists of families renowned for their antiquity only; the second, of those families which, as princes, have had Saltans, or famous warriors, for their ancestors. For the rest, their history, owing to the military spirit of the people, and to that contempt of labour which

• See Chap. XIII. p. 376, of this volume. Also Storch's Tableau de la Russie, tom. I. p. 76. Basle, 1800. See also Müller's Description de toutes les Nations, &c. Petersburg, 1776. p. 138.

Müller, p. 139.

characterizes even the lowest of their commoners, much resembles the history of the Scottish Highlanders. The Kirgissians may be considered as Highlanders on horseback. Nearly the same threefold division into orders distinguished the Highland Clans; and the same remarkable superstitions still exist among these widely-separated nations. The author saw a Kirgissian, in Moscow, when about to depart into his own country, busied in divination, by examining the marks upon the blade-bone of a sheep, which had been blackened in the fire: and he remembered, at the time, that such a mode of divination existed in some country that he had visited; but not recollecting where he had observed it, he omitted to mention the fact; deeming it to be too trivial a circumstance to be noticed of itself. Having however recently read an account of this mode of divination as practised in the Highlands of Scotland* (where he now remembers having seen it), and also in the country of the Afghauns, he has thought it right to introduce this Additional Note.

* See the interesting Article on the "Culloden Papers," as inserted in No. XXVIII. of the Quarterly Review, published in May 1816. "The Afghaun's most ordinary mode of divination," observes the writer of that article, “is by examining the marks in the blade-bone of a sheep, held up to the light and even so the Rev. Mr. Robert Kirk assures us, that in his time, the end of the sixteenth century, the Seers prognosticate many future events (only for a month's space) from the shoulder-bone of a sheep, on which a knife never came."

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APPENDIX.

No. I.

THE following document is inserted to prove the remarkable fact, that during a period when England was not at war with Russia, two English Gentlemen, accredited by their Government, and bearing with them recommendatory letters from the English Secretary of State, were detained prisoners in that country, contrary to the laws observed between civilized nations.

It is an answer, from the Governor of Moscow, to their petition for a passport to return to England; after every application to the Emperor, by means of their Minister at Petersburg, had failed of effect; given verbally and literally.

"Le Comte Soltijcof est mortifié qui'l ne peut pas contenter Messieurs Cripps et Clarke, en leurs procurant la permission de sortir hors des frontiéres, par la raison que ça ne dépend que de SA MAJESTÉ L'EMPEREUR même. Ce qui concerne l'envoi de la lettre au Ministre d'Angleterre

à Petersbourg, ces Messieurs la peuvent faire remettre par la poste, et elle sera rendue en toute sureté."

TRANSLATION.

"Count Soltijcof is concerned that he cannot gratify Messrs. Cripps and Clarke in obtaining permission for them to pass the frontiers, since that depends solely on his Majesty the Emperor. As to the conveyance of the letter addressed to the English Minister at Petersburg, those Gentlemen may send it by the post, and it will be delivered in perfect safety."

As a comment upon this curious communication, it may be necessary to add, concerning the pretended security of letters entrusted to the post in Russia, that few of them ever reached their destination: they were all opened and read by the police; and often destroyed, or sent back to their authors. We had, at that time, no other means of intercourse with our Minister, than by sending a messenger the whole way from Moscow to Petersburg; a distance nearly equal to five hundred miles; and it was in this manner we obtained his instructions for attempting an escape by the southern frontier.

No. II.

TRANSLATION

OF THE

REPORT made by a BOARD of RUSSIAN ENGINEERS,

ON THE STATE OF THE

INTERNAL NAVIGATION OF RUSSIA.

The Canals
Voloshole.

of Vyshney

THE present water communication between the Volga and the Baltic, having the Canals of Vyshney Voloshok for its point of separation and reservoir, dates its origin from the year 1711. One part of the reservoirs, sluices, &c. at this place, serves to improve the navigation of the Tveret; and the other, to render the passage of the craft, over the Borovitsky Falls (in the Msta), less dangerous. This part of Inland Navigation is brought to all the state of perfection it is capable of; except finishing the Cut from Vilievsky, for an extraordinary supply of water, in Vilievsky time of drought, out of the Lake Velia. This Canal was begun in 1779, but soon abandoned. In 1797, the work was again resumed. In 1798, an extraordinary drought prevailed, and exhausted the reservoirs of Vyshney Voloshok to that degree, that the vessels bound to St. Petersburg

Canal,

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