twenty roubles if negociated by way of exchange. Poor Tartars, like Jacob, serve an apprenticeship for their wives, and are then admitted as a part of the family.'-p. 6.

6

The first remark which must occur to every one who attends to the manners of the modern Tartars, and compares them with those of their forefathers, is the extraordinary alteration which they have undergone since the days of Batou and even of Mengli Gherei. Their character, indeed, seems not to have submitted to those more ordinary modifications, which so frequently affect the habits of other nations, but to have passed at once from the ne plus ultra of restless ferocity, to the opposite extreme of passive indolence. Instead of the Kaptjack butchers of Souzdal, Vladimir, and Kieff; instead even of the Krym,' who, at a less remote period,* fired Moscow, and sent the Russe Emperor a knife, as was said, to sticke himself withall,' we find, after the lapse of a couple of centuries, a quiet harmless race, not given to violence or open plunder,'+ remarkable for temperance, soberness, and chastity, deeming it their greatest happiness to sit still, to smoke, and to sleep, having nothing to employ their thoughts and as little as possible to do.' A change to all appearance so complete is not, we think, altogether to be accounted for by the luxurious enjoyment, during several ages, of a rich and productive country like the Crimea, nor by the lulling effects of the Mahometan religion, after its first fanaticism has evaporated, though both these causes have undoubtedly had a share in the operation. More in this case is, we suspect, to be attributed to the utter extinction of military power and military feeling among this branch of the Tartar nation, and to the depressed and feeble state of their present political situation. Deprived of their arms,' says M. Reuilly, they have lost the habit of using them.' Reduced to a small and insignificant tribe, detached from their kinsmen and natural allies, and without a hope of ever striking again a successful blow for their own independence, they seem to have turned away their thoughts in despair from the more active occupations of their ancestors, and to have fallen at once into a state of peaceful and unresisting apathy, which hardly requires any assistance from opium. Moreover, it should be remembered, that when we contemplate them now, they are at home and in the midst of their families, where they never have exhibited any of those barbarous excesses, which have characterised their transactions abroad. Allowing, indeed, for an accumulation of very natural ennui, we are strongly disposed to believe, that they never differed very widely, under their own vines and

*In 1571. Purchas, iii. 439, VOL. XXIX. NO. LVII.

+ Holderness, 99.

I

Clarke, ii. 248.

fig

fig-trees, from the good creatures described by Mrs. Holderness. Broniovius, who resided among them in the sixteenth century as ambassador from Stephen, king of Poland, describes them in terms which, with some few exceptions, might be used at the present day. He represents them, for instance, as courteous and friendly to wayfarers and strangers, lamenting, at the same time, as much as our author can do, that the greatest part of them are always idle;' but qualifying this less creditable constituent of their character, by making honourable mention of their peaceableness.' 'They are far,' says he, from controversies, criminations, justices, unnecessary and personal brawlings, envy, hatred, filthy excess, luxury, and ambition in their victuals and array. I abode there nine months, neither heard I criminal or civil act to have happened among them, or any composition by reason of enmity."* All this too was written at a time when the Tartars, ' fierce by nature, hardy and bloody,' were in the annual habit of making those atrocious incursions into the Russian territory, of which, if we are to believe Dr. Fletcher, the special business was to carry off little boys and girls. To this purpose,' says the Doctor, they take with them great baskets, made like bakers' panniers, to carry them tenderly, and if any of them happen to tire or to be sick on the way, they dash him against the ground or some tree, and so leave him dead.'+ A combination, like this, of inhumanity in war, with hospitality and bonhommie at home, is no very unusual or incredible phænomenon in the history of uncivilized tribes. But whatever alteration they may have undergone in other respects, one national propensity remains, in which the modern Tartars have preserved, unsuspected and undiminished, the full force of their hereditary character. Deficient in the energy which prompts to active violence, in pilfering they are as unrivalled as ever. The produce of the orchard and bee-garden are never safe, and horse-stealing is a flourishing trade. Even their friend, Broniovius, is obliged to admit this foible; indeed so frequent in ancient times were their attacks upon the live stock of the Russians, that, as Fletcher (c. 19.) tells us, the borderers of those parts were at last compelled to vest their farming capital almost exclusively in large herds of swine, by which ingenious expedient they drew a cordon of pork from one side of the empire to the other, and thus effectually succeeded in paralysing the assaults of the conscientious disciples of the Koran.

In all points connected with the customs and ceremonies of religion, as well as in many particulars of their domestic manners, the Tartars, as might be expected, closely resemble their neigh

* Purchas, iii. 639.

Fletcher's Treatise of Russia, 1388. c. 19.

bours

bours the Turks. Polygamy, however, is less commonly practised among them, partly from economical motives and partly from a characteristic love of peace and quiet. In cases where husbands have two or more wives, separate apartments and separate establishments must be given them; they will never consent to live together, and always regard each other with feelings of hatred, jealousy, and pride.' Of the state of the female department of a Tartar menage, much new information is afforded by the work before us; for with the advantage of a lady, instead of a philosopher, for our guide, we are not turned back from the door even of the harem, but are enabled to obtain a very clear and curious notion of the interior of that forbidden sanctuary. The Murza ladies, if we may trust the report of Mrs. Holderness, are rarely handsome, but endeavour to supply, in the barbarous magnificence of their habiliments, what is wanting in personal beauty. Their fashions are in general copied from the Turkish, and like the women of all eastern nations, they are very fond of showy colours and gilding in their dress as well as in the decoration of their apartments.' Stiff with brocade, weighed down with necklaces of money, collars of silver and bracelets of gold, each finger loaded with a multitude of rings of every material, from lead to jewels, a Tartar wife passes her dull and monotonous existence in embroidering napkins and towels, and varying her finery for the gratification of a single pair of eyes, unfurnished with any atom of instruction which might occupy or amuse her mind-and not always without suspicion of the itch. Married women are allowed to paint their faces both white and red, a process which they execute with little skill on a bad ground; those who are unmarried are denied this high privilege, but may stain their fingers and toe-nails with kna. The rooms of the harem swarm with fleas, but in other respects are tolerably comfortable, and are ornamented with specimens of the needle-work of its inmates. On occasion of a wedding they hang the chemises of the bride round the walls, forming, as Mrs. Holderness justly remarks,' an extraordinary sort of tapestry.' Their diversions, as might be guessed, are few and not lively. The gayest and most popular is swinging, which they practise with all the spirit and enthusiasm of children, and were surprised that Mrs. Holderness did not join them. So great an indulgence as this, however, is only granted at the feast of Bairam; but at other seasons, if a piper should arrive, they are sometimes, as an extraordinary favour, permitted to look down, from a lofty latticed gallery, on the men who are dancing in the court. The Tartars are a goodnatured race, and unhappy marriages are said to be rare among

1 2

them,

them, but the domestic despot keeps up the forms of state to a greater degree than we were aware of.

'When a murza visits the apartments of his women, they all rise on · his entrance and again when he leaves it, although he comes and goes very frequently. This ceremonious mark of respect is never omitted even by the wife, or by any other of the females, except they be very old women, who, on account of their age, are excused.'-p. 21.

Next to his harem in the affections of a Tartar is that favourite of his fathers, the horse. The taboons, or studs, of some of the murzas, are still, it appears, very considerable, and maintained more from traditional habit than from any view to utility or profit.

'That belonging to Yie Yie Murza, in our immediate neighbourhood, consists of no less than 500 mares. They appear to have no idea of deriving any fixed revenue from breeding these animals, nor indeed any advantage, that I could understand, from keeping so many. Their pride. is gratified by the number of their taboon, and they never part with any till the want of a little money compels them. . . . . The native horses. of the country are small and ill-looking. The Tartars usually ride them in an amble, and this is the only pace which they go well. Nothing can be more slight and rapid than their method of breaking them in. Having ensnared the animal by means of a rope fixed at the end of a long light pole, they tie a halter round his neck, so tight that there seems to be danger of strangling him, and in this manner they. pull him about for some few minutes, till they consider him subdued; he is then mounted and soon becomes tractable.'. ... Some few Circassian horses are imported, but there are not many proprietors in the Crimea, who will put themselves to the expense of buying them. They are remarkably fine animals, and are sold at from 200 to 500 roubles; while those of the country may generally be bought for forty roubles, or about two pounds sterling.'-p. 131.

The Crimean dinner tables are, it seems, no longer supplied with entrées of these cheap but noble quadrupeds, and the Tartars had even the hardihood to deny to Mrs. Holderness, that the custom of eating horse-flesh was ever practised by their nation. While we cordially congratulate the present inhabitants of the Crimea on the advancement in decency which this disclaimer denotes, we must take the liberty of assuring them, that their assertion to our author is totally unsupported by fact. There is not the slightest reason to believe, that the Crim of former days was less equivorous than the rest of his race. Not to dwell on the admission of the resident Bronievius, who says, they feed on camels, horses, and oxen, unprofitable for burthen, and kill them when they are about to die,' the good old English evidence of Fletcher is so direct and positive, that we are induced to extract the passage at length. When the emperor,' he tells us, hath any use of them, (i. e. of the Dukes or Murzas,) to

of

serve in his' wars, they are bound to come and to bring with them their soldiers to a certain number, every y man with his two horse at the least; the one to ride on, the other to kill, when it cometh to his turn to have his horse eat. For their chief vic'tual is horse-flesh, which they eat without bread, or any other thing with it. So that if a Tartar be taken by a Russ, he shall be sure lightly (commonly) to find a horse-leg, or some other part of him, at his saddle bow. This last year, when I was at the Mosko, came in one Kiriach Morsey, nephew to the emperor the Chrims, that now is, (whose father was emperor before,) accompanied with 300 Tartars,' and his two wives, whereof one was his brother's widow; where being entertained in very good sort after the Russ manner, he had sent unto his lodging for his welcome, to be made ready for his supper and his companies, two very large and fat horses, ready flayed in a sled, (sledge.) They prefer it before other flesh, because the meat is stronger, as they say, than beef, mutton, and such like.' (c. 19.) In more modern times, De Tott's Souper vraiment Militaire,' will occur to the recollection of our readers; and even as recently as the year 1803, when M. Reuilly paid a visit to the brother of Atay Murza, that nobleman, he says, regaled him with the flesh of a young mare, which he slaughtered in honour of his arrival.* Lastly, should it be objected, that in the lighter sort of travels such anecdotes are not always to be taken tout bonnement; the testimony of M. Reuilly may be satisfactorily confirmed by reference to the conclusive authority of Pallas.+

Not hippophagy alone, but falconry and archery, two other favourite diversions of the earlier Tartars, have shared, within these few years, the same fate as elsewhere, and have gone out of fashion in the Crimea. M. Reuilly describes his friend Atay Murza as excelling in toxophilite pursuits, and has introduced a vignette in which he himself is represented as receiving from his host a complete archer's equipment. Acceptez,' said the old bey, 'cet arc et ce carquois rempli de flêches; puissent elles abattre tous vos ennemis! Mrs. Holderness observed only one bow during the whole of her residence in the peninsula, and even this appears, from the account she gives of it, to have been preserved as an object of curiosity. The characteristic amusement of horse-racing, however, is still practised, with considerable eagerness, and is seldom omitted on occasions of festivity, of which it forms a very principal feature.

A mon arrivée chez le frère d'Ataymyrza, ce prince me dit: Soyez le bien venu. J'ai abattu (tué) une jeune jument à la nouvelle de votre arrivée. L'interprète qui m'accompagnait me fit observer que je recevais de mon hôte la plus grande marque d'estime.'-Reuilly, 157.

tii. 359.