34 
THE COSSACKS. 
plait down their backs ; but with this difference from the Russian 
girl, — instead of a bunch of ribbons at the termination of the 
plait, the handkerchief, with which the head is bound, twists round 
the braid nearly to its end, something in the manner of the Cor¬ 
sican caps. 
Count Platoff, in his wish to bring the manners of Western 
Europe with its arts and sciences to the banks of the almost 
Asiatic Don, is even desirous that the ladies of the Cossack 
noblesse (if I may use that term) should adopt the thorough 
European dress. So far he has gained his point, that numbers 
of their children wear it; and on high festival days, the silken 
night-cap and fillet-kerchief of the maturer personages, receives, 
what they think, the British decoration of an artificial flower ; 
or, perhaps, takes the bolder turn of a Parisian turban. As the 
innovation has begun, it may be regretted it did not commence 
at a different part of the figure, the bosom and waist; and had it 
stopped there, the change would have been sufficient. The 
adoption of the French corset, by preserving the shape in its due 
proportions, would have effected every thing, (if elegance and 
simplicity be the object of fashion,) to show a fine form to the 
best advantage, in its truly becoming national costume. 
During my stay in this country I visited General Leveshky at his 
seat, as we would call it in England ; and the reputation of its pic¬ 
turesque beauties fell far short of the reality. It is situated about 
five miles on the road towards Old Tcherkask, on a slope of the 
long line of high ground which borders the north* western ex¬ 
tremity of the great plain, and thence runs forward towards St 
Demetry, and the shore of the Azoff Sea. The view from the 
house is as noble as it is extensive. On the left, New Tcherkask 
presents itself on an elevated site, overlooking the whole country. 
