MOSCOW. 
209 
rials used, to denote a very antient custom. It 
prevails, also, all over Lapland, and the northern 
territories of Sweden and of Norway. The shoes 
are made of the matted bark of trees ; the legs 
being covered by bandages of woollen cloth, 
bound with thongs of the same materials as the 
sandals. These thongs, passing through the 
loose texture of the sandal, and afterwards en- 
twined about the leg, keep the whole apparatus 
together. 
We have already mentioned the filthy esta- Public 
blishment called an Inn, and dignified by the 
title of L' Hotel de Constantinople, where we re- 
sided '. The master of it had not less than five 
hundred persons, as servants, and in other ca- 
pacities, employed to assist him. In this list 
were included a number of hired prostitutes, 
constantly kept, in open stews belonging to the 
house, for the use of the numerous guests by 
whom it was inhabited. 
A swarm of slaves, attendants, hirelings, and Banquets 
dependent sycophants, is remarkably charac- bies. 
teristic of the great houses in Moscow. The 
nobles consider the honour of their families as 
being so materially implicated in maintaining a 
(0 During the reign of the Emperor Paul, this was the only inn 
to which foreigners were allowed to resort. 
VOL. I. P 
