34 FROM THE CIRCASSIAN FRONTIER, 
chap. Taman and Temrook, he saw the lower part of a 
. Soros ; and perhaps the cistern at Yenihale was 
the upper part of this, that is to say, its 
operculum'. When a traveller has reason to 
suspect that he is upon or near to the site of 
antient cities, an inquiry after the cisterns 
used by the inhabitants may guide him to very 
curious information : to this use the Soroi have 
been universally applied; and upon those 
cisterns antient inscriptions may frequently be 
discovered. Another cause of the loss of antient 
monuments at Taman, originated in the esta- 
blishment of a colony of Russians at a veiy 
early period, when the city bore the name of 
Tmuiara- Tamatarccm, or Tmutaracan* . Near the gate of 
the church-yard of Taman lies a marble slab, 
with the curious inscription which ascertains 
the situation of that antient principality ot Russia, 
once the residence of her princes. W e had the 
satisfaction to see this stone, and to copy the 
inscription : it has already been illustrated by 
the writings of Pallas, and by a celebrated 
Russian antiquary, who published, in his own 
near a well, there is a sort of a long and large chest of hard stone, as 
valuable as marble, and without a cover, almost like the tombs at 
hampsaco .” Molraye’s Travels, vol. II. p- 40. 
(1) Pallas says it was brought from the Isle of Taman., See vol. II. 
p. 285. 
(2) “ The name in Theodosius’s Itinerary is Tamatarca. Tmutaraean 
means literally The Swarm of Beetles.” Holer's MS. Journal. 
