strange reveries, and frequently causes such whimsical conduct as to give the individual who has partaken of it the appearance of insanity, with all the wildness of intoxication. We learn from Aristotle, that the honey gathered in the plains around Trebisond had the same maddening quality, and he attributes this effect to the bees collecting it from the flowers of the box-trees; that it had also a purgative quality, and was almost an infallible remedy against epilepsy. He adds that it deprives those who eat it of their senses, and in this manner it operated on the army of Xenophon, when on his retreat through Asia Minor. The superstition of the country attributes to Merissa, or Mereime (Mary) the mother of God, the protection of bees, and the people say, that the thunder in its wrath would have exterminated them all, but that this holy woman concealed one of them in her sleeve, by which means the species was preserved. In commemoration of this event, a festival is held in September, on which occasion the Circassians regale themselves with viands and beverages prepared with honey.

The honey of this country is indebted, for its very superior quality and flavour, to the wild thyme and other aromatic flowers of the mountains upon which the bees feed, and it forms a most important article in the husbandry and domestic economy of a Circassian. Clarified honey, bleached in the sun till it is quite white, is a common substitute for sugar, while the honey of the comb is not only a constant article at table, but is used in almost every sort of cookery. From the walnut-tree a good description of sugar is obtained, which is considered a valuable remedy for diseases of the lungs and general debility. The mode of procuring it in the Caucasus is the same as that practised in the Crimea.

The Circassians make a kind of half-fermented liquor denominated fada or fada-chusch, that is white fada, but in Tartar, braga. Brandy they call arka or fada fitza, signifying black fada. Mead they term fada flesch or red fada: braga is very common and brandy little in consumption. Another drink called tuschag-tgo, made of water in which grape-juice boiled and concocted, is in use among the Circassians, but is more common with the Persians as a renovator, or cooling sherbet. Here the respectable people have bowls of silver or gold weighing from 300 to 500 ducats, out of which they drink on all occasions of ceremony in the name of God, of the saints, or of their deceased relatives and friends, relating the most remarkable occurrences of their lives with their heads uncovered, evincing all possible veneration and respect.

Though the Circassians are rather an abstemious people, yet they

sometimes fall into excesses in drinking, especially at their religious ceremonies, one of the principal of which consists in sacrificing a hegoat on the death of a friend. Having killed the animal, the skin with the head and bones is placed on a cross at the top of a long pole erected perpendicularly, in view of the relatives and friends of the deceased. The flesh of the goat is then boiled, roasted and eaten, after which the men pay certain marks of adoration before the skin, when the women withdraw, and the men regale themselves amply with aqua vitæ or such other intoxicating beverage as is most easily procured. Unhappily, these religious funeral-rites seldom terminate without desperate and fatal consequences. This ceremony of the Circassians is not unlike the circumpotatio, or funeral feast of antiquity, so frequent among the ancient Greeks and Romans, which in like manner was productive of disastrous effects: hence Solon at Athens and the Decemviri at Rome endeavoured to prevent the practice altogether, thinking it improper that mirth and drunkenness should accompany the grief and distress occasioned by the demise of friends.

In that part of Tartary near the source of the Kuma and Podkumka, has lately been discovered a mineral spring of an acid taste, strongly intoxicating and losing little of its inebriating qualities by removal to any distance: of this water, the Circassians occasionally avail themselves; and which is said to resemble the Ballston waters of North America.

Siberia, which includes all the northern parts of Asiatic Russia, is so thinly inhabited and has so little intercourse with the civilized world, little respecting it is known either as regards its manufacture or agricultural produce. In many parts of this extensive region, spirits are extracted from such fruits and grain as the country affords, but the principal supply is drawn from Russia. At a distillery on the river Uk, wrought some years since, there were 106 coppers, 28 coolers, and 6 stills. To every cooler was reckoned 10 chetverts of rye-malt, with a fifth or seventh part of oats or barley. The coppers were so proportioned, that they were commonly filled out of one cooler and held 42 vedros. The worts were usually drawn from the mashtun, and the fermentation was completed in four days. From 30 to 40,000 chetverts of corn were the annual consumption; and from each chetvert three or four vedros of common brandy were obtained. In another establishment, about sixty versts north of the city of Irkulsk, the annual quantity of brandy made amounted to 60,000 ankers. But a few districts of this immense territory, three-fourths • Klaproth's Travels, p. 277.

† Billing's Account N. Parts of Russia, 4to.

of which lie in the same latitude as Norway and Lapland, yield grain sufficient for the ordinary consumption of the population, the beverages are mostly drawn from the different species of vaccinium or berries that abound; of these, the cranberry, bilberry, raspberry, strawberry, gooseberry, &c. are the principal; from the prunus fruticosa, which grows plentifully, an agreeable wine is made. From the Heracleum panacea and the Heracleum Sibericum, a saccharine matter is obtained, which being subjected to distillation, affords a strong liquor, and though not very palatable, is in request in Kamtschatka. The birch yields a sap that is converted by some of the mountain tribes into an intoxicating liquor by fermentation, after the manner of the Norwegians. The trade with Siberia being a monopoly of Russian merchants, the brandy, wine, and other liquors transported thither, form a profitable part of their traffic.

As several of the chief towns are made depôts for the articles necessary to supply the country, and the mode of their conveyance from place to place being curious, a description of it cannot fail to be interesting. In transporting goods from the magazines of Yakut to Ochotsk, from twenty to thirty thousand horses are annually employed, and instead of using wagons or carts, the packages are generally thrown across the backs of the animals. In the article of rye-flour, a single horse will carry six poods, which are packed in leathern bags called sumas; one of these is suspended on each side: in this manner they are very convenient for carriage and bid defiance to every sort of weather. The sumas are made of green ox-hides stripped of the hair into which the flour is forced when they are damp, and the surface when dry is as hard as stone. The flour then, for about half an inch thick, becomes deeply incrusted on the skin, and in this way the contents are preserved in the most perfect state through the whole winter and will remain so for almost any length of time. The horses engaged in this labour are managed by the Yakuts, who have an extraordinary influence over them, one man superintending from twenty to thirty with the utmost ease and indifference. When on the journey, should

the driver stop at any time, such is the docility of those horses, that they will not proceed without him, and although permitted to feed indiscriminately in pastures during the night, they are collected in the morning by the halloos of their keepers; should any of them be at so great a distance as not to hear him, mounted on one of them, he is soon carried within the hearing of another, which, immediately on hearing his voice, begins to neigh. This serves as a signal to all the rest, after which they are immediately seen galloping towards him as if sensible of approaching a friend.

In the province of Yakoutsk, koumiss is in much repute and of good quality; the process is similar to that observed in Tartary. The people are very expert in the management of their milk and butter, which are carried in bags called simmire, and made of horsehides. Their butter is chiefly made while travelling, the new milk or cream being mixed with a little sour; the agitation during a journey of a few hours produces butter and butter-milk. The natives of Yakoutsk lead a pastoral life in a country abounding with fine meadows which are well stocked with horses and horned cattle. Their best koumiss is prepared from mares' milk, and is made in large tubs of birch-bark where the mother on which the fermentation is produced, is contained, and, being always esteemed in proportion to its age, it is preserved with the greatest care, and is bequeathed as a legacy from father to son.*

Of Siberia, it may be generally remarked, that agriculture, from the misgovernment of its rulers, is retarded by the encouragement given to the hunting of foxes and sables, both for the sake of the personal comfort of their countrymen whose garments they line, as well as for their own private emoluments. The blessings of civilisation might, with a little attention, be productive of the happiest effects, and eradicate, in a great measure, that unfortunate passion for ardent spirits, which seems to be the ruling propensity of the inhabitants of this portion of the Russian empire. Many, however, are found to be sober and industrious, and were their minds cultivated in proportion to the range of their intellect, they might become an enlightened community. If the habits which agriculture necessarily begets were more generally extended, their introduction would be attended by the most beneficial results. It is satisfactory to find that within these few years back, wheat, rye, barley, and all sorts of vegetables, are becoming plentiful; and in many parts of this extensive country yield more than a sufficient supply for the inhabitants. Civilisation is on the advance, and even in the interior of Siberia, towns constructed according to the conceits of modern architecture, are now found, anticipating, as it were, the progress of commerce and the effects of nature. The wines and other luxuries of Europe are carried thither and sold at a very moderate price, and society in those places is sometimes found of a polite and agreeable nature.

In Kamtschatka, the most eastern district of the Russian empire, a spirit resembling brandy is distilled from a sweet grass, called by the natives slatkaia trava; by others, sloka trava; in botany, spondi

* Dobell's Travels, vol. i. p. 343.

lium foliole pinnatifide. When this plant has attained its full growth, it is about six feet high, and is covered with a white down, not unlike hoar frost. It is, in taste, as sweet as sugar, but is extremely fiery, ardent, and pungent. The stock is hollow, and consists of three or four joints with large leaves issuing from each. When the principal stem, which is tuberous, runs to seed; it is very tender and palatable when stripped of the rind, and denominated pootchkee. The stalks of the leaves are also hollow, but the juice is so inflammatory that great care is taken in eating them that they shall not touch the lips, for if they should, an immediate blister would be the consequence. Before the country was subjected to the Russians, this grass was employed as a principal ingredient in the cookery of the Kamtschatdales, but has since been chiefly appropriated to the making of brandy. When prepared and dried, it is purchased by the government at the rate of from three to four rubles the pood. It is gathered and made ready for the distilleries in the following manner :-" The stalks being cut, and the downy substance scraped from the surface, they are placed in small heaps till they begin to heat and smell. When dry, they are put into sacks of matting, where they remain for a few days, and become gradually covered with a saccharine powder, which exudes from the hollow of the stalk. Only one quarter of a pound of the powder is obtained from thirty-six pounds of the plant in this state. The women, who conduct the business, find it necessary to defend their hands with gloves, while they are scraping the stalks, the rinds being of a quality so acrid as to lacerate any part it might touch. The spirit is drawn from the plant in this state by the following process :-Bundles of it are steeped in hot water, and the fermentation is promoted in a small vessel with berries of the gimolost; or of the golubitsa; care being taken to close the mouth of the vessel, and to keep it in a warm place whilst the fermentation continues, which is often so violent as to agitate the vessel which contains the fluid, and occasions a considerable noise. When the first liquor is drawn off, more hot water is poured on, and a second fermentation ensues in the same manner. Both liquors and herbs are then put into a copper still, and the spirit is drawn off in the usual way. The liquor thus prepared, is called by the natives raka. According to Steller, the spirit distilled from this plant, when unscraped, is very pernicious to health, and produces sudden nervous disorders.*

Lesseps says, that those who drink of it are sure to be extremely agitated during the night, and to experience on the next day melan