372 
DON COSSACKS. 
CHAP. 
XIII. 
' ' 
menced an intercourse with the people of that 
country : this was often attended with an aug- 
mentation of their horde by the settlement of 
Polish emigrants among them. Their first notable 
armament is said to have been in the year 94s 
when the Greek Emperor employed them as 
mercenaries in his war against the Turks. From 
their address in archery, their neighbours had 
given them the name of Choaars, and Chazars : 
under this latter appellation they are frequently 
mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenetes, and 
their country called Chazaria ®. The Greek 
Emperor, for the services they rendered, sent 
them, with assurances of protection, and recom- 
mendatory letters, to the Polish Sovereign, 
requesting that, in future, their appellation 
might be Cossacks, and not Chozars 1 2 3 4 . As to the 
origin of that name, some will have it to be 
derived from a Tahtar word signifying An armed, 
man* ; others, from the sort of sabre they use ; 
others, from a word which signifies a Rover ; others 
again pretend, that the Poles called them Cossacks 
from a word in the Polish language implying 
a Goat, because they formerly wore the skins 
of that animal 5 . Scherer, objecting to this last 
(1) Scherer, Tableau de la Petite Russie, tom. I. p. 67. 
(2) See Const. Porphyrogenetea, cap. 10, 12, 13, 39, &e. 
(3) Scherer, ibid. p. 71. 
(4) Storch, Tableau de la Russie, tom. 1. p. 55. 
(5) See “ A Discourse of the Original of the Cossacks,” by Edward 
Brown, p. 1. Load. 1672. 
