402 
VOYAGE DOWN THE DON, 
CHAP. 
XIV. 
' — * — > 
Tahtars . 
Armenian 
Merchants 
of Nakht - 
shiv 411. 
The Tahtars near to the Sea of Azof are a small 
race of men, but not so ugly as to answer to the 
descriptions given of them. They disfigure them- 
selves very much by pressing their ears forward 
with the lower rim of their caps, from their 
tenderest infancy : in consequence of this prac- 
tice, their ears protrude from the sides of their 
heads, and front the spectator. Some of those 
who passed us at Nakhtshivan looked fearfully 
wild, appearing in the rude and perhaps primeval 
dress of the first shepherds of the earth. 
Their bodies were almost naked : over their 
shoulders were loosely suspended the undressed 
fleeces of their sheep, fastened with a single loop 
in front. Upon their heads, and about their loins, 
they had a covering of the same nature; and 
upon their feet they wore those sandals of linden- 
bark of which a representation has been given 
as a Fignette to the Tenth Chapter of this 
Volume. A similar costume is sometimes repre- 
sented upon the Grecian terra-cottas, and it is 
also exhibited by the sculpture of Antient 
Greece'. 
Nakhtshivan offers an example of that enter- 
prising commercial spirit which is characteristic 
( 1 ) Among the earthen vases described and published at Naples, 
there is a costume of this kind, upon a male figure, who is delineated 
checking two furious horses. 
