Chap. II. Northern Coafts 
in France. Our Co'nverfation was tender and pleafant *, 
it ran partly on our former Acquaintance, and partly on 
the Wildnefs of the Country, and the Barbarity of the 
Inhabitants ; upon which I took occafion to defire him to 
communicate to me the Obfervations he had made of 
the Court, Country, and Cuftoms of Miifcovy ; telling 
him I intended to publifh my Voyage to the North •, 
and wanted only fome Account of the inland Provinces, 
to render it, in fome Meafure, perfed. 
He replied, he was loth to.fpend any of the little 
Time we had to be together, on fo general a Subjed : 
But if I thought his Refledions and Remarks would 
be of any Ufe to me, he would give me the Memoirs he 
had colleded when he came firit into Mufcovy^ for his 
private Satisfadion. He could not recommend them to 
me as things that did not require to be carefully digefted 
and methodized : But he afiured me the Obfervations 
were as juft and entertaining as any he had been able to 
make fince, in fifteen or fixteen Years Refidence in that 
Country. 
He then went to a Cihefl; he had in a Corner of an in- 
ner Room, and took out about twenty Sheets of Paper, 
containing the Subftance of what I infert in the follow- 
ing Pages, relating to the Manners and Policy of the 
Ruffians % as alfo the Account I give of Siberia, which 
I took entirely from his Memoirs. I would fain have 
excufed myfelf, and not accepted his Prefent, believing 
he could finifli his Work, and make it ufeful to the 
Public, with more Succefs than I could : But he obliged 
me to take the Memoirs, faying. The things in it were 
now fo common to him, that he needed no Remem- 
brances j and his Sufferings had given him fuch a Dif- 
guft to the Country, that he fhould never more have any, 
Curiofity concerning it, or defire to let the World know 
any thing of it. And as to thefe Memoirs, though pro- 
bably they might be of Service to me, they could not be 
ib to him : In a Word, he obliged me to take them with 
•me, and I refolved to add them to my own, when I re- 
turned to France, and fliould put the Journal of my 
Voyage into order for the Prds. I have not publifhed 
above half the Obfervations the Lorrain Gentleman gave 
me : Plowever, they are the moft ufeful and diverting of 
them, and what I doubt not the Reader will be pleafed 
with. The Perfon that made them being a Perfon of 
good Senfe, and very curious in his Refledions on Places 
and Perfons •, he mingled feveral Paffages of the Muf- 
covUe Hiftory with his Memoirs, which he took from 
their own Books ; for he underftood their Language as 
well as the Natives ; fpoke it and wrote it as well as 
their beft Scholars *, who, indeed, are not the moft learn- 
•ed or elegant Perfons in Europe : For Learning is held in 
• Contempt by almoft all the Ruffians*, their Clergy being 
as brutal and illiterate as their Laity. When my Friend 
and 1 had tired ourfclves with talking, we lay down as 
ufual, on Bear-Skins, and flept found till the next Morn- 
ing. 
We rofe early, and at the Defire of the five banifhed 
Gentlemen, took each of us, our Guide excepted, a Fu- 
zee in our Flands, which they lent us ; and we went 
with them into the Woods, to their Walks, to fee if 
their Game were caught in the Snares we had laid for 
them. We killed among us tenor twelve white Foxes, 
and half a Dozen grey Martens ; we met with none of 
the larger Game 5 and both the Gentlemen and we were 
■loth to fpend any more Time about it, for we intend- 
to proceed on our Journey when we had dined 5 fo we 
returned to their Huts, brought forth our Provifions, 
the fame did our Hofts, and refrefhed ourfelves, as well 
as could be expe6led in fo wretched a Place. After we 
had drank plentifully, the Gentleman forced us to take 
feven Bear-Skins, ten white Fox-Skins, two Pair of Er- 
■ mines, and eight Wolf-Skins ; they would not have any 
Money for them, and it was with Difficulty that we could 
perfuade them to accept of fome Brandy, Tobacco, and 
Cloth, to the Value of their Furs. We were fo grateful 
to them for their Civilities to us, that we took care our 
Commodities fhould be rather worth more than lefs than 
theirs. Having eat and drank Efficiently, we took our 
Leaves of them., embracing them heartily, and wiftied 
V” P U R 0 P 15 . 471 
them Patience to endure their Sufferings, and a happy 
Deliverance out of them, and fainting them all roundj 
wept reciprocally at parting. Ouf Rain-Deer and SledgeS 
being got ready we mounted^ and bid them all adieu ; 
the like did the Gentlemen to us. Our Rain-Deer, at 
our Guide’s Signal, ran away with us ; and the unfor- 
tunate Exiles went to their Huts^ 
12. The Territories of the Czar or Emperor of Rujfa^ 
are fo little known, that we have few Defcrip'tions of 
them worth reading, v/liich proceeds from the little 
Commerce there is between his Dominions and other 
Parts of Europe, and indeed between fome of his Pro- 
vinces with the reft •, his Country is the largeft in Europe^ 
befides what he poffeffes in Afia, but moft of it is thinly 
peopled ; and being uninhabited in many Places, it iS 
confequently unfrequented. By this Means Travellers 
never give themfelves the Trouble of going far beyond 
the Coaft, or the Province of Mofeow and the Czar’s 
Subjedls are fo illiterate they can give no Account of 
Things, for they are fo ignorant that they know as little 
of their own Country as thofe that w'-ere never in it. I 
found very few Obfervations on the geographical Part of 
Mufeovy am.ong my Friend’s Papers ; but feveral Re- 
marks on the Cuftoms and Religion of the Mufeovites, 
with which I believe the Reader will be diverted ; for they 
w'ere made by one who had more Opportunities of in- 
forming himfelf than ever any other Man had before 
him. 
Every body that travels into Mufeovy, with a Defign to 
fatisfy their Curiofity, about the Manners and Polity,. 
Ecclefiaftical and Civil, of the Mufeovites, will meet with 
many Difficulties that they will hardly have Patience to 
furmoLint ; The People of Ruffia are naturally jealous, 
and miftruftful % they have no Knowledge of the World, 
and but very little in any kind of Affairs either Spiritual 
or Temporal wherefore they fufpecd: all that make any 
Enquiries into the State of their Government or Religion, 
and yet know not why or for what. Printing was 
brought into Mufeovy in the Year 1560, and the Czar 
then reigning eredted a College for teaching Grammar, 
and the Latin Tongue ; but it came to nothing in a few 
Years. The Priefts, the moft ignorant, illiterate Creatures 
that ever afflimed that Office, ruined it, for fear it might 
in Time ruin them ; Thefe Priefts are only , Laics of 
good Lives and Converfation, v/ho are for that Rea- 
fon chofen into the Priefthood. The Occafion of the 
Mufeovites embracing the Chriftian Religion, v/as from 
the Prayers of a Prieft of Chioff, who praying to Almighty 
God for the Duke, who was dangeroufly ill, his Prayers 
were heard, and that Prince miraculoufly recovered to 
his Health. Their Liturgy is taken from that of the 
Greeks in the Sclavonian Language, the Knowledge of 
which is as rare among them as that of the Latin among 
the Roman Catholics. They imitate the Greeks in the 
Manner of building their Churches. 
They have Pidtures in them, and formerly had Images 
richly adorned with Jewels, and other coftly Ornaments ; 
but this is not fuffered now, all Sorts of Sculptures being 
forbidden; and they looked upon the Worftiip rendered 
them by the Papifts to be Idolatry. They don’t kneel at 
their Prayers, but proftrate themfelves on the Ground. 
On the Eve of certain Feafts celebrated among them, 
they fpend the whole Night at Church in their De- 
votions. They often throw themfelves on the Floor, 
fign themfelves with the Sign of the Crofs, and beat their 
Heads againft the Ground. Amidft the feveral Parts of 
their Services, there are Intervals in which they difcoiirfe 
of their temporal Affairs. The Emperor feldom miffes 
aflifting at the Public Worfhip ; he is generally attended 
by the whole Court : He difpatches Bufinefs at Church, 
and if any of the Courtiers are not prefent he feverely re- 
primands them. 
On F/hitfunday their Churches are filled with Maple 
Boughs, which the Ruffians miftake for Sycamore. 
Whenever they proftrate themfelves, they verily believe 
the Holy Ghoft defeends on thofe Boughs, as Manna fell 
on the Leaves of Oak in the Defart. Mufical Inftruments 
are not ufed in Churches ; the laft Patriarch abolifhed 
that Cuftom. Their Prayers, which are performed three 
Hours 
