COXE’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.

652

parts at |d. per verft * for each horfe ; and, in compenfation, are exempted fromthe poll-tax, and fupplying recruits: notwithftanding thefe immunities, the pricesthey receive for their horfes is fo inconfiderable that they frequently produce themwith the greateft relu&ance. The inftant a traveller demands a fupply of freffi horfes,the yamlhics affemble in crowds, and frequently wrangle to fuch a degree, as to affordamufement to a perfon who is not impatient to depart. Their fquabbles on this oc-cafion have ftruck all travellers who have given any account of this country. Chan-celer, the firft Englifhtnan who landed at Archangel , and went from thence to Mofcow,could not fail to obferve this circumftance, which equally prevailed at that period asat prelent “ Expreffe commandement was given, that poft-horfes fhould bee gottenfor him and the reft of his company, without any money. Which thing was, of allthe Ruffes in the reft of their journey, fo willingly done, that they began to quarrel,yea, and to fight alfo, in driving and contending which of them fhould put their poft-horfes to the fledde.”

In this defcription, however, Chanceler has made a ludicrous miftake: for the objectof their fquabbles was not to obtain, but to decline, the honour of furnilhing him withhorfes. The fame fcene is often renewed at prefent, and the poft-mafter not unufuallyfettles the intricate conteft by compelling the yamfhics to draw lots. Indeed, as I havebefore remarked, it is abfolutely neceffary for a foreigner, who wifhes to travel withexpedition, not only to provide himfelf with a paffport, but alfo to procure a Ruffianfoldier, who, inftead of attending to the arguments of the peafants, or waiting for theflow mediation of the poft-mafter, fummarily decides the bufinefs by the powerful in-terpofition of his cudgel. The boors, quickly filenced by this dumb mode of argumen-tation J, find no difficulty inadjufting their pretenfions, and the horfes almoft inftantlymake their appearance.

In our route through Ruffia I was furprized at the propenfity of the natives tofinging. Even the peafants who afted in the capacity of coachmen and poftillions,were no fooner mounted than they began to warble an air, and continued it, withoutthe Icaft intermiffion, for feveral hours. But what ftill more aftonifhed me was,that they performed occafionally in parts. I frequently obferved them engaged in akind of mufical dialogue, making reciprocal queftions and refponfes, as if chanting(if I may fo exprefs myfelf) their ordinary converfation. The poftilions Jing from thebeginning to the end of a ftage ; the foldiers Jing during their march ; the countrymenJing amid their moft laborious occupations ; the public-houfes re-echo with their carols jand in a ftill evening I have frequently heard the air vibrate with the notes of the fur-rounding villages.

An ingenious author §, long refident in Ruffia, who turned his attention to theftudy of the national mufic, gives the following information upon this fubjeft. Thegeneral mufic that prevails among the common people in Ruffia, from the Duna tothe Amoor and the Frozen Ocean, confifts in one fpecies of fimple melody, whichadmits of infinite variation, according to the ability of the finger, or the cuftom of thefeveral provinces in this extenfive- empire. The words of th e fongs are moftly inprofe, and often extempore, according to the immediate invention or recolle&ion of

*. Three quarters of a mile. The price however has been fince inereaiSd.

f Hacklnyt’s Voyages, voh i p. 247. f Argumentum baculinum.

$ Staehlin. See his Nacrichten von der Mufik in Rufsland, in Haygold’s Beylagen, vol. ii. p. 60 to65 ; where fpecimens of this air are given.

the