788 
black, which is retained for several 
months, At weddings, or on other 
solemn occasions, the wealthy far- 
ther ornament their faces with 
flowers of gold leaf; colour their 
hands and feet as far as the wrist 
and ancle, of an orange hue, with - 
kna, and destroy all the hairs on 
the body with a mixture of orpiment 
and lime. 
The women, both married and 
Single, wear yellow half boots or 
stockings of Morocco leather (Ter- 
Yuk), orsocks; for walking they 
use red slippers with thick soles, 
and in dirty weather, put on stilt 
shoes, like the Circassian females. 
Abroad they wear a kind of undress 
gown (Feredshé) of a loose texture, 
manufa¢tured by themselves of white 
wool, and called Chirka ; next they 
wrap several coloured Turkish or 
white cotton handkerchiefs round 
their head, which they tie under the 
chin, and over all this throw a white 
linen cloth, reaching half way down 
the arms, drawing it over the face 
with the right hand, so that their 
black eyes alone are visible. Inde- 
pendently of this mummery, they 
evade, as much as possible, the 
company of men; and, when they 
accidentally meet a man in the 
Streets, a false modesty enjoins the 
woman to avert her face, or turn 
towards the wall. 
The nobility and the priesthood 
are highly respeéted among the Cri- 
mean Tartars ; and, in former times, 
were often able to make a formida- 
ble resistance to the khan, and even 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1803. 
to affeét his deposition. The khan 
was always chosen from the family 
of the Ghireis: I am, however, by 
no means convinced, that they 
sprang from a direct descendant of 
Tshingis-khan. Irom this family, 
(of which there is no male branch 
now remaining in the Crimea, though 
there are seyeral in the ‘Turkish 
empire) were also uniformly chosen 
the Kalga-sultan, and Nuraddin- 
sultan, who are the persons next in 
rank to the khan. The Tshoban- 
ghirei are the only descendants of a 
collateral branch of the Ghireis in 
Crim Tartary ; who, at the request 
made by one of the former khans 
to the sultan of Constantinople, 
were excluded from the right of suc- 
cession, which was formerly grant- 
ed to their own family. 
The food of the Crimean Tartars 
is rather artificial for so unpolished 
a nation. When the higher classes 
give entertainments, numerous sim. 
ple and made dishes are set out, be- 
side a desert of fruit. Among the 
most esteemed delicacies, are forced- 
meat balls, wrapped in green vine 
or sorrel leaves,* and called sarma; 
various fruits, as cucumbers, 
quinces, or apples, filled with minced 
meat, dolma; stuffed cucumbers, 
dishes of melons, badilshan, and 
hibiscus esculentus, or bamia, pre-~ 
pared in various ways with spices 
or saffron ; all of which are served 
up with rice; also pelaw, or rice, 
boiled in meat broth till it becomes 
dry; fat mutton and lamb, both 
boiled, and roasted, &c. &c. Colt’s 
flesh 
* A dish of vegetables, much used in the Crimea, is made with the large leaved 
sorrel, or aat-kulak, which is the patience dock, or rumex patientia; and also 
with the acetous garden sorrel, that occasionally grows on the mountains, 
