COSSACKS. 
63 
the ice, and moving the head from side to side just as the seals are 
accustomed to do. By this stratagem the Greenlander moves towards 
the unsuspecting seal, and kills him with a spear. 
The Greenlanders angle with lines made of whalebone, cut very 
small, by means of which they succeed w'onderfully. 
The Greenland canoe, like that used in Nova Zembla and Hud- 
son’s Bay, is about three fathoms in length, pointed at both ends, and 
three-quarters of a yard in breadth. It is composed of thin rafts 
fastened together with the sinews of animals. It is covered with 
dressed seal-skins both above and below, in such a manner that only 
a circular hole is left in the middle, large enough to admit the body 
of one man. Into this the Greenlander thrusts himself up to the 
waist, and fastens the skin so tight about him, that no water can 
enter. Thus secured, and armed with a paddle broad at both ends, 
he will venture out to sea in the most stormy weather, to catch seals 
and sea-fowl ; and if he is overset, he can easily raise himself by 
means of his paddle. A Greenlander, in one of these canoes, which 
was brought with him to Copenhagen, outstripped- a pinnace of six- 
teen oars, manned with choice mariners. 
The kone-boat is made of the same materials, but more durable; 
and so large, that it will contain fifty persons with all their tackling, 
baggage, and provisions. She is fitted with a mast, with a triangular 
sail made of the membranes and entrails of seals,, and is managed 
without the help of bracings and hawlings. The kones are flat-bot- 
lomed, and sometimes sixty feet in length. The nrien think it beneath 
them to take notice of them, and therefore they are left to the con- 
duct of the women, who indeed -are obliged to do all the drudgery, 
including even the building and repairing of their houses, while the 
men employ themselves wholly in preparing their hunting implements 
and fishing tackle. 
Cossacks. 
Thi^ is a name given the people inhabiting the banks of the rivers 
Dnieper and Don, near the Black Sea, and borders of Turkey. The 
word implies irregular troops of horse. These people are divided 
into European and Asiatic Cossacks. The first consist of the Zapo- 
rogs, who dwell below the cataract of the Dnieper, some on the side 
next to Russia, and others on the opposite side of that river ; the 
Upper and Low er Cossacks, the Bielgorod Cossacks, and a part of 
the Don Cossacks. The Asiatic Cossacks are composed of the 
rest of the Don Cossacks, the Grebin Cossacks, the Yaik Cossacks, 
and the Western Cossacks, who retiring from those that inhabited the 
south borders of Siberia, under Yaneki Khan, settled upon the Wolga, 
and are dependent upon Russia. The Cossacks have been known by 
that name ever since A. D. 948. They dwelt upon Mount Caucasus, 
in the place now called Cabardy ; and were reduced to the Russian 
dominion by prince Mastiflau in the year 1021. Many Russians, Poles, 
and others, who could not live at home, have at different times been 
admitted among the Cossacks ; but the latter, abstracted from these 
fugitives, must have been an ancient and well-governed nation. 
