EUSSIANS. 
191 
only motives touched on. In every ship of war, and in every regiment, 
there is a fiscal or authorized spy, a man of respectable rank, whose 
letters must not b® opened, but at the risk of the great knout ; and he 
is required by express statute to give monthly reports of the behaviour 
of the officers and privates. Such regulations we cannot think well 
adapted to improve the morals of the people, yet we believe they have 
been improved by the care, assiduity, and example of some of their late 
sovereigns. Certain it is, the vice of drunkenness was so universally 
prevalent among them, that Peter I. was obliged to restrain it by very 
severe edicts, which, however, have notprodsiced much effect. There 
were in the city of Moscow no fewer than 4000 brandy shops, in 
which the inhabitants used to sot away their time in drinking strong 
liquors and smoking tobacco. This last practice became so dangerous 
among persons in the most beastly state of intoxication, that a very 
severe law was made to prevent the pernicious ccisequences, other- 
wise the whole city might have been consumed by fire. The nobility 
were heretofore very powerful, each commanding a great number of 
vassals, whom they ruled viith the most despotic and barbarous 
authority ; but their possessions have been gradually circumscribed, 
and their power transferred in a great measure to the czar, on whom 
they are now wholly dependent. .The Russian nobles formerly wore 
long beards, and long robes w’ith straight sleeves dangling down to 
their ankles ; their collars and shirts were generally wrought with 
silk of different colours ; in lieu of hats, they covered their heads with 
furred caps ; and, instead of shoes, wore red or yellow leathern 
buskins. 
The dress of the women nearly resembled that of the other sex ; 
with this difference, that their garments were more loose, their caps 
fantastical, and their shirt-sleeves three or four ells in length, gathered 
up iu folds from the shoulder to the fore-arm. But now the French 
fashions prevail among the superior ranks throughout all Muscovy. 
The common people in this country are generally tall, healthy, 
and robust, patient of cold and hunger, inured to hardships, and 
remarkably capable of bearing the most sudden transitions from the 
extremes of hot or cold weather. Nothing is more customary than to 
see a Russian, who is over-heated, and sweating at every pore, strip 
himself naked, and plunge into a river ; nay, when their pores are a^il 
opened in the hot bath, to which they have daily recourse, they ei- 
ther practise this immersion, or subject themselves to a discharge of 
some pailfuls of cold water. This is the custom of both men and 
women, who enter the baths promiscuously, and appear uncovered to 
each other without scruple or hesitation. A Russian will subsist for 
many days upon a little oatmeal and water, and even raw roots ; an 
onion is a regale ; but the food they generally use in their journeys 
is a kind of rye bread cut into small square pieces, and dried again 
in the oven ; these, when they are hungry, they soak in water, and eat 
as a very comfortable repast. Both sexes are remarkably healthy 
and robust, and accustom themselves to sleep every day after dinner. 
The Russian women are remarkably fair, comely, strong, and well 
shaped, obedient to their lordly husbands, and patient under 
