262 



COSSACKS. 



Cossacks. It is both white and reel ; and " if they would suffer 

 v — ■ ~"y~"-' the grapes to ripen," says Dr Clarke, " and knew the 

 best art of preparing it, it would certainly surpass all 

 the wines in the world, so rich and generous are the 

 grapes affording it." For several miles round Tcher- 

 chaskov, there are many excellent orchards, well stock- 

 ed with apples, pears, peaches, plums, &c. ; and in their 

 gardens they raise melons, cucumbers, and all kinds of 

 kitchen stuffs. Most of the towns and villages are built 

 upon the edge of the rivers, below the level of the 

 plain, and are so concealed by the banks, that a stranger 

 crossing the country might suppose himself in a desert, 

 and yet be in the midst of habitations. 

 Rivers. The principal of these rivers are the Don, Danaetz, 



Choper, Medveditz, Havla, Bouzoulook, Sal, and Man- 

 Don, hytch. The Don, according to Dr Clarke, resembles 

 the Nile in almost all its characteristics. It has the 

 same regular annual inundation, the same aquatic 

 plants, the same tall flags, reeds, and bulrushes, some- 

 times rising to the height of twenty feet • and falls in- 

 to the sea by a plurality of mouths, forming several 

 small islands, as in the Delta, filled with fens and mo- 

 rasses. It rises in the government of Rezan, near 

 Tula, from the Ivan Ozevo Lake, or St John's Sea, and 

 after a course of about 660 miles, falls into the Sea of 

 Azof. Its bed is generally formed of sand, marl, and 

 lime, without either rocks or stones of any size ; and du- 

 ring the inundations, from the middle of April to the end 

 of June, it is of sufficient depth for ships of burden as 

 high as Woronetz ; but during the rest of the year it is 

 so low, that upon several of the shallows the water is 

 scarcely eighteen inches deep. The Donetz, or more 

 Baiuetz. properly the Danaetz, takes its rise in the government 

 of Kursk, and is navigable as far as the Isum. It falls 

 into the Don about forty- six miles above Tcherchaskoy, 

 and receives the name of the Northern Danaetz, to dis- 

 tinguish it from one of the arms of the Don which' 

 takes a north-westerly direction a few miles below the 

 fortress of Rastof, and which is called the Dead Da- 

 naetz ; from a supposition that has existed from time 

 immemorial, that the Danaetz, at this place, separates 

 itself again from the Don. From this circumstance, 

 Dr Clarke is of opinion, that the Tanais of the Greeks 

 is the same as the Danaetz of the Cossacks, the change 

 from D to T being a very common modification in 

 language ; and that the Greeks, when steering along 

 the shore from the Crimea, having first entered into 

 this arm of the Don, gave the name of it to the whole 

 river. The banks of these rivers are in many places 

 finely wooded with forests of pines and oaks, and the 

 rivers themselves abound with plenty of excellent fish, 

 in the greatest variety and perfection. Among these, 

 the principal is the beluga, the largest eatable fish known. 

 It resembles a sturgeon in shape, and has been seen fifty- 

 six feet long, and eighteen feet thick, though in the Don 

 it seldom exceeds twelve feet in length. There are also 

 sturgeon, sterlet, trout, rudak, Prussia carp, tench, pike, 

 perch, water-tortoises, and craw-fish of an enormous size, 

 sometimes indeed as large as our lobsters. 



The immense steppes of the Don are inhabited 

 Ouadru- by innumerable animals. Besides the wolf and the 

 peds. bear, is the biroke, which is of a grey colour, with 



a long full tail hanging to the ground. It is about 

 the size of a wolf, and has some resemblance to 

 that animal ; but is so ferocious that it will attack 

 a man. It is hunted by the Cossack peasants, armed 

 with lances, and on horseback. But the most nume- 

 rous class of quadrupeds in these plains bs ©f a smaller 



race, of which the Madst remarkable are the snroJte and Clacks, 

 sustic. The former is the arctomys bobac of zoologists, -"" "Y"*^ 

 and is about the size of a large badger, of a greyish- 

 brown colour. Its head, teeth, and mouth, are like 

 those of a squirrel, but its eyes are round, dark, and 

 bright, and its ears rather shorter. It has a large pro- 

 tuberant belly, a short tail, and its paws resemble very- 

 much the hands of a man. It burrows in the earth 

 with amazing rapidity, where it remains in a state of 

 torpor during the half of the year ; and, in general, 

 makes such extensive subterraneous chambers, that the 

 land is destroyed wherever it is found. Its voice re- 

 sembles the grunting noise of a guinea-pig ; and, when 

 pleased or frightened, it utters short and loud squeaks 

 like a person whistling. Many of these animals are 

 kept tame in the houses of the peasants, but they inva- 

 riably retire to their burrows in September, and never 

 appear again until about the beginning of April. The 

 siistic is a much smaller animal, and is supposed to b» 

 the mus cilillus of Buffon. It, however, resembles the 

 suroke in many of its habits. It makes the same whist- 

 ling noise, and burrows in the earth with great quick- 

 ness ; but it is not supposed to sleep the half of the 

 year, as it collects a hoard of provisions for the winter. 

 It is a beautiful little creature, about the size of a 

 weazel, and its colour is thus described by Dr Clarke : 

 " All the upper part of its body is of a deep yellow, 

 spotted with white. Its neck is beautifully white ; the 

 breast yellowish, and the belly a mixed colour of yel- 

 low and grey : it has, moreover, a black forehead, red- 

 dish-white temples, and a white chin. The rest of its , 

 head is of an ash-coloured yellow ; and the ears are re- 

 markably small." Sustics are a favourite food of the 

 Calmucks, but are seldom eaten by the Cossacks ; and 

 are found in such swarms near the Don, that they 

 may be taken in almost any number. Among the 

 birds of these steppes may be mentioned those called Birds. 

 starilchi, or elders, which are about the size of a snipe, 

 of a brown colour, and very elegant form, and are held 

 by the Cossacks in superstitious veneration. 



Ancient sepulchral hillocks, or tumuli, are scattered all Tumuli. 

 over the country ; but they increase both in number and 

 size towards the Don and the Sea of Azof. Some of them 

 which have been opened by the Cossacks, were found 

 to contain bones of men and horses, earthen vessels, 

 and instruments of war common to ancient nations. 

 Near the mouth of the Don, on the European side of 

 the river, are a remarkable groupe of these tumuli, 

 which from time immemorial have been known by the 

 name of the Five Brothers. From their position and 

 appearance, Dr Clarke supposes that they are the 

 /3«j«o<, or altars either of Alexander or Caesar, which 

 were mentioned by Ptolemy in his Geography, lib. iii. 

 c. 5. At a place called Zimlanskaia, on the Don, and 

 about 200 miles above Tcherchaskoy, are said to exist 

 the traces of a citadel built by Alexander the Great. 

 The inhabitants have a tradition among them, that 

 Alexander crossed the river at this place, and built a 

 city or citadel. . Dr Clarke saw two stelae, or marble 

 pillars, which had been brought from thence by Gene- 

 ral Orloff. 



Though the Don Cossacks are in complete subordina- Cdtfera- 

 tion to the Russian government, they possess a consti- ment, 

 tution of their own, which is at once military and de- 

 mocratic, and which keeps them entirely distinct from 

 the other subjects of the empire. Their territory is di- 

 vided into 112 stanitzas, or cantons, which are dispo- 

 sed along the rivers in the following manner : 



