DON COSSACKS. 
derivation, substitutes another still more frivo- 
lous, and maintains it to have been taken from 
Kossa, a small promontory 6 7 . In this wild pur- 
suit of etymology, we might also affirm, that 
Casaca, in Spanish, signifies precisely the sort 
of coat they wear, answering to our English 
word Cassock’’ , did not Peyssonnel much more 
rationally, and perhaps incontestably, explain 
the origin of their appellation. “ The land of 
the Ckazacks,” says he 8 , “ formed a part of that 
country now denominated Circassia, properly so 
called. In this district of Chazakia, according 
to my opinion, we ought to seek the origin of 
the Cossacks of the present day.” This obser- 
vation is actually confirmed by facts already 
related, and by the extract from Constantine 
cited in a former page: although so general 
became the migrations of this people, that their 
colonies now extend from the banks of the 
Dnieper to the remotest confines of Siberia. 
According to their different emigrations and 
settlements, they are at present distinguished 
by the various names of Ma/o-Russian Cossacks, 
Don Cossacks, Cossacks of the Black Sea, of the 
(G) Sclatrer, Tableau ile la Russie, tom. I. p. 67 . 
(7) See letters concerning the Spanish Nation, by the Rev E. Clarke 
(the author’s father), p. 338. 
(8) Observations Historicities, &c. sur les I’euples Barbares, par 
Peyssonnel, p. 125. Paris, 1765. 
