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make ready 200,000 men and arms by such a time, and he should be very thankful to him, and pray for his health, and so he subscrib'd himself, Thy humble servant, Jocky of Moscua. In this expedition he conquered Casan, a thousand versts down the river Volga, and Astracan (quasi civitas) the imperial city, two thousand versts hence ; took Siberia, three thousand versts distant, and one of the best flowers of the empire. The people loved him very well, for he treated them kindly, but chastised his boyars. He had a staff, with a very sharp spike in the end thereof, which, in discourse, he would strike through his boyars' feet, and if they could bear it without flinching, he would highly prefer them.

"He once sent to Vologda for a colpack of fleas, and, because they could not bring him full measure, he fined them.

"On a festival, he played certain mad pranks, which caused some strangers, viz. Dutch and English women, to laugh; he, taking notice thereof, sent for them all to his palace, and had them stripped stark naked before him in a great room; then he commanded four or five bushels of pease to be thrown down before them, and made them pick them all up, when they had done he gave them some wine, and bade them take heed how they laughed before an emperor again. He sent for a nobleman of Casan, who was called Plesheare, which is bald; and the vayod mistaking (as the Russians say), thought he had sent for an hundred and fifty baldpates, -Polteraste, sounding like his name, signified so many. He, therefore, got together about eighty or ninety, and sent them up speedily, with an excuse that he could find no more in his province, and desired pardon. The emperor seeing so many baldpates, wondered what it meant, and crossed himself: at last, one of the chief delivering the letter, he asked his diack what he wrote to the vayod, who shewed him the copy, by which he found out the mistake, and so, making the baldpates drunk for three days, he sent them home again. Another vayod had taken a goose for a bribe, stuffed full of ducats, and being complained of, he took no notice of him, till, one day, passing through the Poshiarr (an open place like Smithfield, where execution was used to be done), he commanded the hangman to cut off his arms and his legs; and, at every blow, the hangman asked him whether goose was good meat.

"He courted Queen Elizabeth very much to marry her, and was a great friend to the English. Once, upon a suspicion of treason, he fortified Vologda, and drew all his treasure thither, and, as some think, upon extremity, intended his flight for England. This emperor erected the best buildings in all Moscua.

"This Juan Vasilowidg nailed a French ambassador's hat to his head. Sir Jerom Boze, a while after, came as ambassador, and put on his hat, and cocked it before him; at which, he sternly demanded how he durst do so, having heard how he chastised the French ambassador. Sir Jerom answered, he represented a cowardly King of France, but I am the ambassador of the invincible Queen of England, who does not vail her bonnet, nor bare her head, to any prince living; and if any of her ministers shall receive any affront abroad, she is able to revenge her own quarrel. Look you there (quoth Juan Vasilowidg, to his boyars); there is a brave fellow, indeed, that dares do and say thus much for his mistress; which whoreson of you all dare do so much for me, your master? This made them envy Sir Jerom, and persuade the emperor to give him a wild horse to tame; which he did, managing him with such rigour, that the horse grew so tired and tamed, that he fell down dead under him; this being done, he asked his majesty if he had any more wild horses to tame. The emperor afterwards much honoured him, for he loved such a daring fellow as he was, and a mad blade to boot."

Chapter XIII. relates to Alexis Michaelovitch, the Emperor, with whom the author found favour at his court.

"The Czar marries not out of his own dominions, but takes a wife where he pleases, though seldom out of the nobility. When she dies, all the interest of her kindred and relations dies with her. Eliah, the present emperor's father-in-law, was of so mean account, that, within this twenty years, he drew wine to some Englishmen, and his daughter gathered mushrooms, and sold them in the market. The other, which he should have had, was a captain's daughter. The imperial palace is built of stone and brick, except some lodgings wherein his majesty sleeps and eats all the winter; for they esteem wooden rooms far wholesomer than stone; and they have some reason to think so, because their stone rooms, being arched thick, reverberate a dampness when the stove is hot. The emperor lodges three story high. His drink is brague, made of oats. His bread is made of rye, which the Russians esteem a stronger nourishment than wheat. The Czar lies in no sheets, but in his shirts and drawers, under a rich sable coverlid, and one sheet under him. His recreations are hunting and hawking. He keeps above three hundred falconers, and has the best ger-falcons in the world, which are brought from Siberia; he flies at ducks, or other fowl. He hunts the bear, wolf, tiger, fox, or rather baits them at his pleasure.

"Whensoever he goes forth, the East gate of the inner wall of the City is shut till he returns. He seldom visits any subject; yet the last year he did, but went not in the common way, for the side of a wall was pulled down."

Chapter XIV. describes the emperor's revenues, and touches upon other miscellaneous matter. Chapter XV. treats of the City of Moscow, and contains a summary of the difference in manners between the Russians of that day and the inhabitants of other countries.

"The Russians are a people who differ from all other nations of the world, in most of their actions.

"Their shirt they wear over their drawers, girded under the navel (to which they think a girdle adds strength). None, neither male or female, must go ungirt, for fear of being unblest. They whistle not with their lips (that they count prophane), but through the teeth; a strange way of whistling, indeed. When they spit on any thing to wipe it (as shoes, &c.), they do use an action not unlike sneezing. In cases of admiration or incredulity, instead of a shrug, they wave their heads from one shoulder to another. Their very speech and accent, also, differs from other nations.

" In our clock-dials, the finger moves to the figure; in the Russian, e contra, the figures move to the pointer. One Mr. Holloway, a very ingenious man, contrived the first dial of that fashion; saying, because they acted contrary to all men, it was fitting their work should be made suitable. Because the Roman Catholics kneel at their devotion, they will stand, for they look upon kneeling as an ignoble and barbarous gesture. Because the Polonians shave their beards, they count it sinful to cut them. Because the Tartar abhors swines' flesh, they eat it rather than any other flesh, although its food is most poyano, or unclean, of any beast. They count it a great sin for a Russ to lie with a Dutch woman or English woman; but a venial peccadillo for a Russ woman to prostitute herself to a stranger, for they say her issue will be educated in the true ancient faith, but a Russ gets an uncircumcised child of a stranger. They prefer rye above wheat, and stinking fish above fresh. They count their miles by nineties, and not by hundreds. Their new year's day is the first of September. From the Creation they reckon 7060 and odd years. To things improbable they easily give credit, but hardly believe what is rational and probable.

" In their salutes, they kiss the woman's right cheek. Lands 25 of inheritance are entailed upon the youngest brother.

"They write upon their knees, though a table stand before them. "They sew with the needle towards them, and thrust it forward

with their fore-finger; it should seem they are bad tailors.

"They know not how to eat pease and carrots boiled, but eat them, shells and all, like swine. They do not pick their pease, but pull them up by the roots, and carry them into the market to be sold. "They know not the name of Cornuto; but, of a cuckold, they say, He lies under the bench.

"They will sooner take the word of a man who has a beard, than the oath of one who is beardless.

"The beauty of women they place in their fatness, juxta illud Italicum. ' Dio mi faccia grassa, io mi faro bella.' God make me fat, and I'll make myself beautiful.

"Their painting is no better than that of our chimneys in the summer, viz. red oaker and Spanish white.

"They paint or stain their teeth black, upon the same design that our ladies wear black patches: or, it may be, their teeth being spoiled by mercurial painting, they make a virtue of necessity, and cry up that for an ornament which is really a deformity. Low foreheads and long eyes are in fashion here; to which purpose, they strain them up so hard under their tyres, that they can as ill shut them, as our ladies lift their hands to their heads. They have a secret amongst them, to stain the very balls of their eyes black. Narrow feet and slender waists are atike ugly in their sight.

" A lean woman they account unwholesome; therefore, they, who are inclined to leanness, give themselves over to all manner of epicurism, on purpose to fatten themselves, and lie a-bed all day long, drinking Russian brandy, (which will fatten extremely;) then they sleep, and afterwards drink again, like swine, designed to make bacon. These are their odd customs, which we may justly censure, as the satyrist did the debauched Romans in his time, saying, Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria currunt. And, indeed, to say truth, their madness is so great, that all the hellebore in Anticyra cannot purge it away."

Chapter XVI. gives an account of their judiciary proceedings, and a particular one of their manner of roasting, pinching, carbonadoing, and otherwise torturing their criminals.

"The accused cannot be condemned, although a thousand witnesses come in against him, except he confesses the fact; and, to this end, they want not torments to extort confessions; for, first, they put them upon the strappado; if this does not, they, secondly, whip them; and, herein, their hangmen are very exquisite: for it is said, at six or seven lashes, they are able to kill a man. Sometimes, the confederate will fee the enemy to execute such a piece of his office, to prevent farther mischief.

"They can strike to an hair's breadth, and, with a sharp kind of iron, pierce through the very ribs; they will slice down a man's back like a chine of pork; and, when that's done, they will salt the raw place, bind his hands and legs, and, putting a cowlstaff through them, hold him over the fire, and carbonadoe him. If he persists (for may be the party has nothing to confess), they let him loose, and the hangman sets his shoulders, and lets him rest twenty days, till he be almost well, and then repeats the former torments, and, perhaps, pull out a rib or two with a pair of hot pincers; if all this will not do (for some will outstand all these tortures), they will then shave the crown of his head, and drop cold water upon the bare place, which some, that have felt, acknowledge to be the quintessence of all torments; for every drop strikes like a dart to the very heart. All this is done where the hangman is not bribed, for he will then cut deep. I have seen some whose backs have been scarified like the bark of a tree, which afterwards were healed, but they could never wear out the scars and marks thereof.

"The punishment of coiners is to melt some of the coin, and pour it down their throat. Neque enim lex justior ulla est, quam necis artifices arte perire sua."

Chapters XVII. and XVIII. relate to Siberia, but do not say any thing worth extracting, of that vast unknown province, as the author terms it. 'Having fetched this compass,' the Doctor thinks fit to touch upon Tartary, which is the subject of Chap. XIX. The Tartarian rebuke of the Russians, for idolatry, is particularly good.

"They break the noses of their children being new born; saying, it is a foolish thing to wear a nose, that stands in a man's sight. They are ali Mahometans, and laugh at the Russians for worshipping a painted piece of board, and say, it is better to worship the sun, because he has a glorious body, does the world much good, and none can injure him as they may a wooden idol. 'Your Gods (say they to the Russes), in a short time grow blind, (i. e. obliterate;) and then you throw them into the river with a copeak or two, and a piece of olibanum tied up in a string, and so commit them to the Volgian stream, which runs into the Caspian sea, and we take them up, and broil a piece of horseflesh upon them. What is that for a God, which is no better than a gridiron, and cannot resist the hands of them that destroy it? Most rationally spoken. Moscovitæ non possunt respondere argumento."

Chapter XX. wanders to Poland. The diseases of the Poles, especially the horrid disorder termed Plica Polonica, is discussed in XXI., with divers other subjects.

Chapter XXII. turns back to the Court of Russia, and gives a further account of the Czar, and a sketch of his ministers, with anecdotes of them, which are continued through Chapters XXIII., XXIV., and XXV. The minister Vaslogki is said to have been a favourer of the English, and to have complained of our bills of mortality as being in the way of our trade. He takes a view of them that could hardly be expected from any one but the minister of an absolute monarch.

"He is the only patron the English have. Being solicited to admit of English goods, he produced the London bill of mortality, wherein very few died of the plague; notwithstanding (said he), how do we know but the goods may be brought out of some of the infected houses, and one spark of fire will kindle a whole sack of charcoal. It is a strange custom to publish your infirmities. Beggars, indeed, expose their ulcers to raise commiseration, and to get relief. But they who proclaim the pest, give a caveat against all commerce of them, as men set up lights to keep ships off their coasts."

The account of the Czar's country residence, and behaviour there, presents a curious picture.

"Every year, towards the latter end of May, the Czar goes three miles out of Mosco, to an house of pleasure, called Obrasauksky: in English, Transfiguration, being dedicated to the Transfiguration in the Mount. And, according to that, Master, it is good for us to be here, let us make three tabernacles;' so, the emperor has most magnificent tents, his own is made of cloth of gold, lined with sables. His Czaritsa's with cloth of silver, lined with ermines. The princes, according to their degree. His and Czaritsa's, with those of his eleven children, and five sisters, stand in a circle with the church tent in the