the finger ; perhaps an antient legend, the hiftory of an enormous giant, a defcriptionof a beautiful girl, a dialogue between a lover and his miftrefs, or the account of a mur-der, Sometimes they are merely letters and fyllables taken from an old accidence,,metrically arranged, and adapted to this general air. Thefe words are chiefly ufed bymothers in finging to their children ; while the boors perform their national dance tothe fame tune, accompanied with inftrumental mufic. The fubjedl of the fong alfo fre-quently alludes to the adventures of the finger, or to his prefent fituation; and thepeafants adapt the topics of their common difcourfe and their difputes with each other, tothis general air; which, altogether, forms an extraordinary effect,, and led me to con-jecture, that they chanted their ordinary converfation.
Chap, X. — Novogorod. — Antiquity, Power, Grandeur, Independence, Decline, Subjection
and Downfall.—Prefent State.—Cathedral of St. Sophia.—Early Introduction of Paint-ing into Rujfia.—Price of Proviftons.—Incidents of the Journey to Peterfburgh.
9
At Bronitza we crofied the Mafia upon a raft eompofed of feven or eight trees rudelyjoined together, which fcarcely afforded room for the carriage and two horfes. Wethen continued our route, through a level country, to the banks of the Volkovetz, orlittle Volkof, which we palfed in a ferry ; and, after mounting a gentle rife, defcendedinto the open marfhy plain of pafture, which reaches, without interruption, to the wallsof Novogorod. That town, at a fmall diftance, exhibited a mod magnificent appear-ance, and, from the great number of churches and convents, which on every fide pre-fented themfelves to view, announced our approach to a confiderable city; but ourexpectations were by no means realized.
No place ever filled me with more melancholy ideas of fallen grandeur, than Novo-gorod. It is one of the moft ancient cities in Ruffia ; and was formerly called Great'Novogorod, to diftinguifh it from other Ruffian towns of a fimilar appellation *. Ac-cording to Neftor, the earlieft of the Ruffian hiftorians, it was built at the fame timewith Kiof, in the middle of the fifth century, by a Sclavonian horde, who iffued fromthe banks of the Volga. Its antiquity is proved by a paffage in the Gothic hiftorian,Jornandes, in which it is called Civitas Nova, or New Town f. We have little infightinto its hiftory before the ninth century, when Ruric, the firft Great-duke of Ruffia,made it the metropolis of his vaft dominions. The year fubfequent to his death, in 879,.the feat of government was removed, under his fon Igor then an infant, to Kiof; andNovogorod continued above a century under the jurifdi&ion of governors nominatedby the Great Dukes. At length, in 970, Svatoflaf, the fon of Igor, created his thirdfon Vlodimir Duke of Novogorod : Vlodimir, fucceeding his father in the throne ofRuffia, ceded the town to his fon Yaroflaf; who, in 1036, granted to the inhabitantsconfiderable privileges, that laid the foundation of their liberty. From this period No-vogorod was for a long time governed by its own Dukes: thefe Sovereigns were at firftiubordinate to the Great Dukes, who refided at Kiof and Volodimir; but afterwards,as the town increafed in population and wealth, gradually ufurped an abfolute inde-pendency J.
* Nifhnei Novogorod, and Novogorod Severlkoi.
ft Sclavini a Civitate Nova- et Sclavino Rumunenfi, et lacu qui appellatur Mufianus, &c. The lake isthe Ilmen, and the Civitas Nova, Novogorod. S. R. G. Vol. v, p. 383.
J S. R. G. Vol, v. p. 397.
But