COXe's TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. '

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into the ground with wooden pegs^ thefe trunks are covered with layers of boughsand the whole is ftrewed over with fand or earth. When the road is new it is re-markably good ; but as the trunks decay or fink into the ground, and as the fand orearth is worn away or wafhed oft’ by the rain, it is broken into innumerable holes ;and the jolting of the carriage over the bare timber can better be conceived than de-icribed. In many places the road is a perpetual fucceffion of ridges, and the motion ofthe carriage a continual concuffion, much greater than I ever experienced over therougheft pavement.

The villages which occafionally linethis route are extremelly fimilar, confiding ufuallyof a Angle ftreet, with wooden cottages •, a few only being diftinguifhed by brickhoufes. The cottages in thefe parts are. fuperior to thofe between Tolitzan andMofcow : they feerned, indeed, well fuited to a rigorous climate; and although cornltrudted in the rudeft manner, are comfortable habitations. The fite of each buildingis an oblong fquare, inclofed by a high wooden wall, with a penthoufe roof, and ap-pears on the outfide like a large barn. In one angle of this inclofure ftands thehoufe, fronting the ftreet of the village, with the ftair-cafe on the outfide, and the dooropening underneath the penthoufe roof: it contains one, or at moll two rooms.

I have frequently obferved, that beds are by no means ufual in this country; in-fomuch that, in all the cottages I entered in Ruffia, I only obferved two, each ofwhich contained two women at different ends with their clothes on. The family fleptgenerally upon the benches, on the ground, or over the ftove * ; occafionally men,women, and children, promifcuoufly, without difcrimination of fex or condition, andfrequently almoft in a ftate of nature. In fome cottages I obferved a kind of Ihelf,about fix or feven feet from the ground, carried from one end of the room to theother; to which were faftened feveral tranfverfe planks, and upon thefe fome of thefamily flept with their heads and feet occafionally hanging down, and appearing to us,who were not accuftomed to fuch places of repofe, as if on the point of falling to theground. The number of perfons thus crowded into a fmall fpace, fometimes amount-ing to twenty, added to the heat of the ftove, rendered the room intolerably warm,and produced afuft'ocating fmell, which nothing but ule enabled us to fupport. Thisinconvenience was ftill more difagreeable in the cottages not provided with chimnies,where the frnoke loaded the atmofphere with additional impurities. If we opened thelattices to admit frelh air, fuch an influx of cold wind njftied into the room, that wepreferred the heat and effluvia to the keennefs of the northern blafts.

In the midft of every room hangs from the cieling a vefi'el of holy water, and alamp, lighted on particular occafions. Every houfe is provided with a picture of afaint coarfely daubed on wood, which frequently refembles more a Calmuc idol thana human head : to this the people pay the higheft marks of veneration. All themembers of the family, the moment they rofe in the morning, and before they retiredto fleep in the evening, never omitted their adoration to the faint: they crofted them*felve&.during feveral minutes upon the ftdes and forehead, bowed very low, and fome-times even proftrated themfelves on the ground. Every peafant alfo, on entering the

twenty three feet, and fuppofing the foundation and tides to be only half fo many more as the bridge iscompofed of, and the road to be forty-fix feet wide, here is an expence of two million one hundred thoufandtrees.” Hanway’s Travels, vol i. p. 92. If we extend this calculation over the whole Ruffian emp ire >reaching four thoufand miles in length, and take in the different crofs roads, the expence of wood muftbe amazing, but the forefts are alfo bpundlefs and inexhauftible

* The ftove is a kind of brick oven j it occupies almoft a quarter of the room, and is flat at top.

6 room?