ment.

especially the industrious Greeks: hence very few young trees are seen in their gardens. They also grow flax and tobacco, which, as objects of culture, are unknown to the Tartars of the heaths with proper encouragement, they might probably be induced to cultivate the vine, and attend to the production of silk.On the whole, they are at present unprofitable and unworthy inhabitants of those paradisaical vallies, in which they have always shewn themselves the first and most ready to revolt against the Russian governThese thoughtless people even destroy the forests on the mountains in the most effectual manner, partly by their indiscriminate felling of trees, and partly by their numerous herils of goats. In the last war with Turkey, they were all ordered to dwell at the distance of ten versts from the coast, in order to avoid the danger arising from their acting as spies and traitors: it would, indeed, be for the general good, to remove them cutirely from these vallies, into the interior of the country; at the same time peopling the former with industrious settlers, who would contribute to the prosperity of the empire, by the cultivation of wine, oil, silk, and cotton; which will never be attempted by the present inactive possessors.

In the costume of the Tartars inhabiting the plains there is some variety. Young persons, especi. ally those of noble or wealthy families, dress nearly in the Circassian, Polish, or Kozak fashion, with short, or slit sleeves in the upper garment. The nobility of more advanced age wear, like the common Tartars, unslit sleeves; and ald men suffer the whole beard to

grow; whereas the young and mid. dle-aged have only whiskers. Their legs and feet are dressed either in half-boots of Morocco or other leather, or they use stockings of the same material, especially in the towns; over these are worn slippers, or clogs, for walking abroad; and in dirty weather, a kind of stilt-shoes. Their heads are uniformly shaved, or, at least, the hair is cut away very short, which they cover with a high cap, quilted at the top with cotton, and generally green, being edged with black or grey lamb's skin. This cap is never moved by way of compliment: the clergy and the aged wear under it the fez, or a red, woven calotte.— Those who have performed a pilgrimage to Mecca, are distinguished by a white handkerchief round the edge of their cap, such being the mark of a hadshi. There are also in the Crimea some emirs, who wear the green fillet round their heads. Among the young nobility, however, Circassian caps are the most common head-dress.

The physiognomy of the true Tauridan Tartars bears great resemblance to that of the Turks and Europeans. There are handsome, tall, robust people among them, and few are inclined to corpulency their complexion is rather fair, and they have black or dark brown hair. The boys and youth have mostly a pleasing and delicate countenance; to which circumstance, together with the restraints fmposed on women, may, perhaps, be attributed the odious propensities prevailing here, as well as in Turkey and Persia.

The dress of the Tartar women is very different from that of the Nagays:

Nagays: they are, in general, of low stature, owing, probably, to their confined treatment in early life; though the features are tolerably handsome. Young women wear wide drawers; a shift reaching to their ancles, divided before, and drawn together at the neck; a gown, open in front, made of striped silk, with long sleeves, and adorned with broad trimmings, em broidered with gold. They have also an upper garment of some appropriate colour, with short thick Turkish sleeves, edged with ermine fur, or gold lace. Both girls and married women fasten their gowns with a heavy cincture or girdle, having in front two large buckles, like those made by the Armenians and Jews, of embossed or filigree work, and which were once in fashion among the Russian ladies at Petersburgh and Moscow. Their hair is braided behind in as many loose tresses as it will afford, and is covered either with a small red cap, or fez, especially during childhood, or with a handkerchief crossed under the chin. Their fingers are adorned with rings, and the nails of their hands and feet tinged with Kna, (Lawsonia) which is imported

from Constantinople, and is sometimes mixed with vitriol, to render the colour browner, and more permanent, as it will thus continue about two months. But paint is rarely employed by young females.

Married women cut off their hair obliquely over their eyes, and leave two locks also cut transversely, hanging down their checks; they likewise bind a long narrow strip of cloth round the head, within the ends of which they confine the rest of the hair, and turn it up from behind, braiding it in two large tresses. Like the Persians, they die their hair of a reddish brown with kna. Their under garment is more open below, but in other respects similar to that of the unmarried, as are their upper dress and girdle. They paint their faces red with cochineal, or other drugs, and white with an oxyd of tin, called aklyk, which they carefully prepare over a dung fire, in small earthen pipkins. They also dye the white of the eye blue, with a finely pulverized preparation of copper (Masetash) brought from Constantinople ; and, by a particular process, change the colour of their eye-brows and hair to a shining 3 E 2 black,

colour of the skin.

and

black, which is retained for several months. At weddings, or on other solemn occasions, the wealthy farther ornament their faces with flowers of gold leaf; colour their hands and feet as far as the wrist and ancle, of an orange hue, with kna, and destroy all the hairs on the body with a mixture of orpiment and lime.

The women, both married and single, wear yellow half boots or stockings of Morocco leather (TerJuk), or socks; for walking they use red slippers with thick soles, and in dirty weather, put on stilt shoes, like the Circassian females. Abroad they wear a kind of undress gown (Feredshé) of a loose texture, manufactured by themselves of white wool, and called Chirka; next they wrap several coloured Turkish or white cotton handkerchiefs round their head, which they tie under the chin, and over all this throw a white Jinen cloth, reaching half way down the arms, drawing it over the face with the right hand, so that their black eyes alone are visible. Independently of this mummery, they evade, as much as possible, the company of men; and, when they accidentally meet a man in the streets, a false modesty enjoins the woman to avert her face, or turn towards the wall.

The nobility and the priesthood are highly respected among the Crimean Tartars; and, in former times, were often able to make a formida ble resistance to the khan, and even

no

to affect his deposition. The khan was always chosen from the family of the Ghireis: I am, however, by means convinced, that they sprang from a direct descendant of Tshingis-khan. From this family, (of which there is no male branch now remaining in the Crimea, though there are several in the Turkish empire) were also uniformly chosen the Kalga-sultan, and Nuraddinsultan, who are the persons next in rank to the khan. The Tshobanghirei are the only descendants of a collateral branch of the Ghireis in Crim Tartary; who, at the request made by one of the former khans to the sultan of Constantinople, were excluded from the right of succession, which was formerly granted to their own family.

*

The food of the Crimean Tartars is rather artificial for so unpolished a nation. When the higher classes give entertainments, numerous simple and made dishes are set out, beside a desert of fruit. Among the most esteemed delicacies, are forcedmeat balls, wrapped in green vine or sorrel leaves, and called sarma; various fruits, as cucumbers, quinces, or apples, filled with minced meat, dolma; stuffed cucumbers, dishes of melons, badilshan, and hibiscus esculentus, or bamia, prepared in various ways with spices or saffron; all of which are served up with rice; also pelaw, or rice, boiled in meat broth till it becomes dry; fat mutton and lamb, both boiled, and roasted, &c. &c. Colt's flesh

Hesh is likewise considered as a dainty, but horse flesh is more commonly eaten by the Nagays, who are still attached to their ancient custom. The Tartars rarely kill horned cattle; mutton and goat's flesh constitute the food of the com mon people, especially in the country, together with preparations of milk and eggs butter (which they churn and preserve in the dry stomachs of oxen); a kind of pelaw, made either of dried or bruised unripe wheat, and which they call bulgur; and lastly, their bread is generally composed of mixed grain.* Their ordinary beverage is made by triturating and dissolving cheese in water; the former of which is called yasma, being prepared from coagu lated milk, or yugurt; but the fashionable intoxicating drink is an ill tasted and very strong beer, or busa, brewed of ground millet. Many persons also drink a spirituous liquor, arraki, which the Tartar mountaineers distil from various kinds of fruit, particularly plums. It is also extracted from sloes, dog berries, elder berries, and wild grapes, but never from the common cherry. They likewise boil the expressed juice of apples and pears into a kind of marmalade, bekmess, of the consistence of a syrup, or that of grapes into nardenk, as it is called; the latter preparation is a favourite delicacy, and eagerly purchased by the Tartars of the Steppes: hence great quantities of it are imported in deal casks from Anatolia, at a very cheap rate, for the purpose of converting into braudy.

In consequence of their tempe rate, simple, and careless mode of living; the warm clothing which they wear throughout the summer'; and the little fatigue they undergo, the Tartars are subject to few diseases; and are, in general, exempt from the severe intermittent and bilious remittent fevers, which com monly attack and prove fatal to fo reigners and new settlers in the Crimea. Many natives arrive at a vigorous old age; nor do any disorders prevail among them, except the itch, arising from sloth or infec tion, and the rheumatic complaints; the latter may be attributed to their apartments being too much exposed to the current of air, having wooden lattices instead of windows, and large open chimnies. The chambers of the opulent are furnished with elevated divans, but those of the common people are supplied with mattresses and cushions stuffed with cotton, and which are disposed on the floor around the room, close to the walls; they are used both as seats and couches, and are infested with fleas, bugs, and other vermin. The true leprosy, which the UralKozaks term the Crimean disease, never occurs in Crim Tartary.

Character, Habits, and Manners of the Maroons, from Dallas' History of that People.

T is not to be doubted that the cli

ca, which is seldom less than ten degrees cooler than the low lands of the island, the mode of life of the 3E 3 inhabitants

inhabitants, the constant exercise of their limbs in ascending and descending, and their custom of exploring the vast mountains and precipices of the interior of the country, in pursuit of the wild boar, contri. bute to produce the strength and symmetry in which the Maroons of Trelawny-Town, and AccompongTown, who were the same race of men, far excelled the other negroes of every description in the island. In character, language, and manners, they nearly resembled those negroes, on the estates of the planters, that were descended from the same race of Africans, but displayed a striking distinction in their personal appearance, being blacker, taller, and in every respect handsomer; for such of them as had remained in slavery, had intermixed with Eboe negroes, and others, imported from countries to the southward of the coast of Africa, people of yellow complexions, with compressed features, and thick lips, who were in every respect inferior to themselves. In their person and carriage, the Maroons were erect and lofty, indicating a consciousness of superiority; vigour appeared upon their muscles, and their motions displayed agility. Their eyes were quick, wild, and fiery, the white of them appearing a little reddened; owing, perhaps, to the greenness of the wood they burned in their houses, with the smoke of which they must have been affected. They possessed most, if not all of the senses in a superior degree. They were accustomed, from habit, to discover, in the woods, objects which white people, of the best sight, could not distinguish; and their hearing was to wonderfully quick, that it enabled them to elude the most active pur

suers; they were seldom surprised. They communicated with one another by means of horns; and when these could scarcely be heard by other people, they distinguished the orders that the sounds conveyed. It is very remarkable, that the Maroons had a particular call upon the horn for each individual, by which he was summoned from a distance as easily as he would have been spoken to by name, had he been near. It appears wonderful, at first, that a single horn should be able to express such a number of names; but, on reflection, it is not more wonderful than the variety of changes of which a dozen bells are susceptible, or the multiplicity of words that are formed by the combination of twenty-six letters. Allowing that the horn admits a less variation of tones than the chimes of twelve bells, it has a greater advantage in one respect for conveying particular ideas, from being capable of varying the duration of sound, which bells are not; so that, besides numerical combination of monotonous notes, it can adopt all the modulation of concatenated measure, and the poetical feet might be so associated as to transmit a great variety of ideas. But to return to the Maroons :-It has been said that their sense of smelling is obtuse, and their taste depraved. With respect to the former, I have heard, on the contrary, that their scent is extremely prompt, and that they have been known to trace parties of runaway negroes to a great distance, by the smell of their firewood; and as to the latter, they are, like other negroes, fond of savory dishes, jirked hog, and ringtail pigeons, delicacies unknown to an European table, but which a Quin himself

would