84 A STKANGE SPECTACLE. 



Nogais. They profess the Lamaii religion, and obey the chiefs whom 

 they themselves elect, and who bear the title of khans. The Russian 

 Government levies among the Kalmuk tribes encamped on its terri- 

 tory a body of irregular troops, whom it employs in the defence of 

 its eastern and southern frontiers. 



According to Madame de Hell, the Kalmiiks are as friendly as 

 the Cossacks in their reception of a stranger. " The last encamp- 

 ment," she says, " where we passed the night, appeared to us one of 

 the most considerable which we had hitherto met with. The country, 

 almost transformed, was no longer saddened by the great sandy 



plains of the Caspian Sea and the Manitch Herds of horses, 



camels, and oxen furrowed the surface of the Steppe, announcing the 

 wealth of the hordes to which they belonged. No hostile manifesta- 

 tion on the part of the latter occurred to disturb our security. 

 Happy in receiving us in the very midst of their tents, these good 

 Kalmiiks never attempted to rob us even of the most trifling article. 

 Their desires and their wants are so limited ! To tame a wild 

 horse, to roam from one Steppe to another on their camels, to smoke, 

 and to drink koumis, to shut out the cold airs of winter with smoke 

 and ashes, and to observe devoutly the superstitious practices of a 

 religion which they cannot understand such is their whole life." 



At intervals, the traveller who crosses the Steppes of the Caspian 

 encounters with astonishment, in the most dreary localities, far from 

 every Cossack village and Kalmuk kibitka, a group of men, women, 

 and children with bronzed complexions, with features strongly defined, 

 covered with squalid and grotesque rags, dragging their naked feet 

 over the damp and burning soil, and leading small vehicles loaded 

 with implements and utensils of every kind. He easily recognizes in 

 these beings of sinister mien, audacious mendicants, skilful thieves, 

 musicians, blacksmiths, conjurers what shall I say ? the debris, in 

 a word, of that once great, and perhaps powerful race, now so degraded 

 and corrupt, whose problematical history is the despair of the scholar. 

 The scorn and mistrust of every nation impatient of all discipline, 

 all education without law, without religion, without country these 



