PART II. 

 LITHUANIA. 



CHAPTER T. 

 LITHUANIA AND ITS PEOPLE. 



ACCORDING to a Gazeteer published in the last century 

 (1798), Lithuania is ' a large country between Poland and 

 Russia. It is about 300 miles long, and 250 in breadth. 

 It is watered by several rivers, the principal of which are 

 the Dneiper, the Dwina, the Nieman, the Pripeez, and the 

 Bog. It is a flat country like Poland, and the lands are well 

 adapted for tillage. The soil is not only fertile in corn, but 

 it produces heavy wood, pitch, and vast quantities of wool. 

 They have also excellent little horses which they never 

 shoe, because their hoofs are very hard. There are vast 

 forests, in which are bears, wolves, elks, wild oxen, lynxes, 

 beavers, gluttons, wild cats, &c., and eagles and vultures 

 are very common. In these forests large pieces of yellow 

 amber are dug up frequently. The country abounds with 

 Jews, who, though numerous in every other part of Poland, 

 seem to have fixed their head quarters in this duchy, and 

 this is perhaps the only country in Europe where Jews 

 cultivate the ground. The peasants are in a state of 

 the most abject vassalage. The religion was formerly 

 Romish, but now there are Lutherans, Calvinists, Socinians, 

 Greeks, and even Turks, as well as Jews/ 



As it was then, so is it still. In a later Gazeteer 

 published by Fullarton, it is stated : ' Lithuania, called 

 in German Littauen, is a very ancient division of Europe, 



