TO MOSCOW. 
41 
gress was as devious as possible. In all the chap. 
province or district of Valday , the soil is hilly, ' 
not to say mountainous ; so that what with the rfiday. °* 
undulations of the road itself, from the heaps 
of drifted snow, and the rising and sinking of the 
countrv, our motion resembled that of a vessel 
rolling in an Atlantic calm. Our good friend 
Professor Pallas experienced as rough a journey 
along this route, a few years before. He men- 
tions the delay, and even the danger, to which 
he was exposed on the Heights of Valday e . So 
precisely similar were the circumstances of the 
seasons, that in both cases the snow failed in the 
moment of arrival in Moscow. 
The female peasants of the Valday have a Costume, 
costume that resembles one in Switzerland. 
It consists of a shift with full sleeves, and a 
short petticoat, with coloured stockings. Over 
this, in winter, they wear a pelisse of lamb's 
wool, as white as the snow around them, lined 
with cloth, and adorned with gold buttons and 
lace. The hair of unmarried women, as in most 
parts of Russia, is braided, and hangs to a great 
length down their backs. On their heads they 
wear a handkerchief of coloured silk. When 
married, the hair is trussed up ; and this consti- 
( 2 ) Travels through the Southern Provinces, &c. Vol.I. p. 4. 
