VALLEY OF BAIDAR, 
twelve inches from the floor, occupying one 
entire side of the apartment; not for the purpose, 
however, of a seat, but as a receptacle for their 
household chests, for the Dii domesiici, and for 
heaps of carpets, mats, cushions, and clothes. 
The same custom may be observed in the tents 
of the Ccdmuchs. Simplicity generally charac- 
terizes the manners and dress of the Tahtars ; 
yet some of their customs betray a taste for 
finery. Their pillows are covered with coloured 
linen ; and the napkins for their frequent ablu- 
tions are embroidered and fringed. If one of 
their guests chance to fall asleep, although but 
for a few minutes during the day, they bring 
him water to wash himself as soon as they 
perceive he is awake. In their diet they make 
great use of honey. Their mode of keeping and 
taking bees accords with the usual simplicity 
of their lives. They form cylinders, about six 
inches in diameter, from the trunks of young 
trees, scooping out almost all the wood, ex- 
cepting the bark ; then, closing the extremities 
of these cylinders with mortar or with mud, 
they place them horizontally, piled upon one 
another, in their gardens, for hives. They often 
opened such cylinders, to give us fresh honey : 
the bees were detached, merely by being held 
over a piece of burning paper, without any aid 
of sulphur. The honey of the Crimea is of a 
very superior quality ; the bees, as in Greece, 
