ETnNOLO(JY OF THE PliEISENT DAY. 107 



in the ice, which Is named the Jordan. After the customary prayers, tlic 

 priesthood repair thither in their richest robes, followed by the imperial 

 family and the entire court. All the troops are under arms with ilyin^ 

 colors. One of the priests hereupon consecrates the water of the Neva^ 

 dipping the holy cross thrice In tlie Hood, and pronouncing the words of 

 consecration. Then he fills a vessel with the water, with which he 

 sprinkles the clergy and all other attendants. Discharges of artillery con- 

 clude the solemnities proper. As soon, however, as the court have with- 

 drawn, all hasten to the Jordan to fetch water for themselves, which, ac- 

 cording to the opinion of the common people of Russia, will reuiain for 

 years pure as the clearest spring water, and will have the power of healing 

 diseases. 



On the evening previous to the feast of St. John, bonfires are kindled in 

 many places, which are visited by processions of the people [pL 12, Jig. 4). 



PL 10. figs. 1—3. represent characters from the early history of Russia, to 

 wit : figs. 1 and 2, two Strielzi ; and fig. 8, a soldier of the old Russian 

 Polish Guard. The Strielzi or Strolzi, signifying riflemen, were a Russian 

 militia established in the latter part of the sixteenth century by Czar Ivan 

 Vasiliiewitsh as his life-o;uards. The v. numbered from 30,000 to 40.000, 



K< O .J 111 



and were clad and armed entirely in the ancient Russian style. The Stri- 

 elzi were the best troops of the Russian army at that time, but stubbornly 

 attached to their ancient regulations and privileges. Indeed, they soon 

 acquired the general consequence and character of the Janizaries. They 

 rebelled more than once ; and Peter the Great at length found himself 

 under the necessity of disbanding the few remnants of the once formidable 

 body, in 1705. 



The Russians are the most important of the Slavonic nations, partly on 

 account of their prodigious number, and their extension over a very large 

 territory, partly on account of the commanding position maintained by 

 their sovereign in Europe. The Russian race rule from the Black Sea to 

 the Arctic Ocean, from the Vistula and Wartha as far as Kamschatka and 

 Sitka. The Russians are usually divided into : (1.) Little-Russians, who in- 

 habit the entire southern portion of Russia, Galicia, and the northeastern 

 part of Hungary ; (2.) White-Russians, along the borders of Poland and 

 Lithuania, bounded by the territories of the Little-Russians in the south, 

 the Great-Russians in the east, and the Novogorodians in the north ; (3.) 

 Great-Russians, or the Russians proper, who form the centre of the Rus- 

 sian power ; (4.) Novogorodians, the inhabitants of the former republic of 

 Novogorod, whose independence was superseded by the monarchical rule of \ 

 the Great-Russians. 



The Russian territory includes not only European, but also Asiatic and 

 American countries ; and Asiatic Russia comprehends almost one third 

 part of the whole continent of Asia. The inhabitants of Asiatic Russia 

 are partly of Slavonic stock (Russians and Cossacks) ; partly Finns (Permians, 

 Woguls, Tchuwaches, Tchcremisses, Wotiaks, Morduines, Ostiaks) ; Tar- 

 tars (Tartars proper, Karakalpaks, Bashkirs, Kirghiz Teloites, Yakoutes) ; 

 Armenians, Circassians (Lesghians. Kistes, Ossctes, Circassians, Abasians, 



339 



