ORDER I. BEETLES. 25 



a great variety of the most beautiful insects, offered me an 

 immense field for collecting plants and insects, a catalogue 

 of which I published in St. Petersburg in 1827. On the 

 first excursion I made in that country, I was followed at 

 a distance by a dozen mysterious-looking young Tartars, 

 who, as soon as they perceived me picking up those violet- 

 colored carabs from under the stones, and putting them 

 into a vial, suddenly all disappeared. But judge of my as- 

 tonishment, on my return in the evening, in finding a crowd 

 of Tartars in front of my house. Had I been less ac- 

 quainted with the kind feeling of those people, and par- 

 ticularly their hospitality toward strangers, I should cer- 

 tainly have witnessed that crowd with some alarm. But 

 as I approached the house, a number of them walked sol- 

 emnly toward me, the right hand on the breast, as a sign 

 of salutation, and with the left presented me jars filled 

 with these splendid carabs, as a token of their affection for 

 me. 



Nor was this all ; for two days after, when I left Baidar 

 for Theodosia, and when almost ten miles distant from the 

 former place, I heard behind me the swift trotting of horse- 

 men, and, turning round, met one of those friendly Tartars 

 of Baidar, who had followed me for the purpose of present- 

 ing me another jar full of those carabs. No persuasion 

 could induce any one of these Mohammedans to accept the 

 least recompense for any service or for my board ; and in 

 all their villages and towns I was exceedingly annoyed by 

 the inhabitants, for every one offered his house as my resi- 

 dence, from the tolerant Mullah, or Mohammedan priest, 

 to the unsophisticated country peasant of Jenicale and 

 Kertsch — the industrious manufacturers in the cities of 

 Baktschiserai or Achmetschet, as welt as the opulent mer- 

 chant of Kosloff. All vied with each other in showing 

 hospitality and munificence to the stranger. Would that 

 stranger could repay them I 



B 



