DON COSSACKS. 
they consume all their wine. This wine resembles 
the wines of Burgundy and Champagne, in ex- 
hibiting effervescence. When it has acquired 
a certain age, it sells in Tcherkask at a price 
equivalent to three shillings and sixpence the 
bottle. The Don wine is both red and white. 
If the Cossacks would allow their grapes to 
ripen, and were made acquainted with the 
French mode of preparing this beverage, it 
would certainly surpass all the wines of the 
world ; so rich and generous is the fruit affording 
it'. The Cossacks seldom use tobacco, and they 
live to very advanced age. The merchants, in 
their turn, go to war with the rest, and have 
their rank in the army'. In fact, there are few 
(1) “ The Don wine is sometimes very pleasant ; but it is, I suspect, a 
fabrication, I tasted some that was warranted genuine, which I could 
easily believe to be so ; it was, indeed, 
‘ As wicked dew as Sycorax could brush 
With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen.’ ** 
Heber's MS. Journal. 
(2) “ The government of the armies of the Don differs, in many 
respects, from the antient Mai o- Russian, and has lately suffered repeated 
encroachments. Their territory, which is almost entirely pasture land, 
is divided into stanitzas, or cantons ; for many stanitzas now contain more 
than a single village. To each of these, a certain portion of land and 
fishery is allotted by Government, and an annual allowance of corn from 
Voronetz, and northwards, according to the returned number of Cossacks. 
They are free from all taxes ; even from those of salt and distilleries. The 
distribution of the land to the individuals in each stanitza is settled by the 
inhabitants and their Ataman. This Ataman was chosen by the people, 
and 
