THE UKRAINE OR LITTLE RUSSIA. 231 



Vladimer; the Mongolian assault, the Polish conquest, 

 the recovery by Peter the Great. The provinces around 

 Kiev resemble it, and rival it in historic fame. The country 

 of Mazeppa and Gonta, the Ukraine teems with story, 

 tales of the raid, the flight, the night attack, the revolted 

 town. Every village has its legend, every town its epic, 

 of love and war. The land is aglow with personal life. 

 Yon chapel marks the spot where a Grand Duke was 

 killed, this mound is the tomb of a Tartar horde, that 

 field is the site of a battle with the Poles. The men are 

 brighter and livelier, the houses are better built, and the 

 fields are better trimmed, than in the north and east. 

 The music is quicker, the brandy is stronger, the beer is 

 warmer, the hatred is keener, than you find elsewhere. 

 These provinces are Gogol's country, and the scenery is 

 that of his story called " Dead Souls." 



' Like all the southern cities Kiev fell into the power of 

 Batu Khan, the Mongol chief, and groaned for ages under 

 the yoke of Asiatic begs. These begs were idol worship- 

 pers, and under their savage and idolatrous rule the 

 children of Vladimer had to pass through heavy trials j 

 but Kiev can boast that in the worst of times she kept in 

 her humble churches, and her underground caves, the 

 sacred embers of her faith alive. 



' Below the tops of two high hills, three miles from that 

 Vichgorod in which Vladimer built his harem, and raised 

 the statue of his Pagan god, some Christian hermits, 

 Anton, Feodosie, and their fellows, dug for themselves in 

 the loose red rock a series of corridors and caves, in 

 which they lived and died, examples of lowly virtue and 

 Christian life. The Russian word for cave is "peck," 

 and the site of these caves was called Peckersk. Above 

 the cells in which these hermits dwelt two convents 

 gradually arose, and took the names of Anton and 

 Feodosie, now become the patron saints of Kiev, and the 

 reputed fathers of all men living in Russia a monastic life. 



' A green dip between the old town, now trimmed and 

 planted, parts the first convent - -that of Anton from the 



