ORDER I.—BEETLES. 20 
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- 
guainted 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 well 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! 
B 
