the liquor sold under the name of quass is a weak spirit mixed with raspberries. Mr. Barrow, as well as Dr. Lyall, asserts that the Russian peasantry are rather temperate, that is, they do not indulge in excesses of drunkenness, and that many of them could not be induced to taste spirits.

The Russians have also a good kind of beer called pivo, which is in common use and resembles the German beer. Among the better classes, English porter is esteemed a luxury. Various sorts of drink are vended by men through the streets of St. Petersburg, amongst which is one called Sbitena or Sbetin, a favourite with the populace. It is made of honey and hot water, and it is customary to mix pepper with it, and to drink it hot with the addition of boiling milk. The taste of this liquor is agreeable, but it is not intoxicating if taken merely by itself.*

Mead, the ancient and favourite drink of all the northern nations, is as much in request in Russia as quass. It is manufactured in great perfection, and is usually of two kinds, white and red. To make the first, says Tooke, two poods of white honey are mixed in five ankers of clear river or soft water, and boiled and skimmed till nearly an anker is boiled away. The liquor is then strained through a fine sieve or piece of linen into a broad open vessel, and mixed with a couple of spoonfuls of beer lees, and a pound of white bread, kalatsch. After it has stood in the vessel, in a moderately warm place, and fermented for thirty-six hours, it is poured through another sieve or piece of linen into a cask, in which has been previously put a pound of small shred isinglass for clarifying it.

For red mead, to one pood of honey they add eight vedros of water, and reduce them by boiling to six vedros. When cold, the juice of about half a chetvert of pressed or bruised cranberries, strained through a sieve is mixed with it. A small portion of yeast is then applied, and a roll of clean sand with about four ringlets of isinglass or the albumen of eggs is thrown into the vessel to clear or fine the liquor. Cinnamon, cloves, ginger, mace, and other spices are infused. It is placed in a cool cellar, and, after standing there for some weeks, it is either bottled for use or drawn from the cask direct. When properly made and preserved, it is considered by many as equal in strength and flavour to Tokay. Clarke met some Cossack mead thirty years old, which tasted like Madeira.

Strawberries, raspberries, and cherries, are often used in the making of mead, and, in most cases, the stones or seed of the latter are bruised

Granville's St. Petersburgh, vol. ii. p. 422.

and put in along with the fruit; and these, with the aromatics usually employed, are thought to improve the flavour and quality.

The honey of which the metheglin is made in such abundance, is of the best kind, and forms a considerable article in the trade of the empire. The great bulk of it is drawn from the bee-hives reared in the Oka, on the Don, in Little and White Russia, in the Polish provinces, and in the western tracts of the southern Ural. Independent of the internal consumption, the export to foreign countries is considerable, and amounts in value, on an average, to from 6 to 10,000 rubles in the year.

There are many tribes in Russia who scarcely follow any other employment than that of rearing bees. Pallas and Tooke tell us, that among the Bashkirs are individuals who possess, besides their bee-gardens, some hundreds, nay some thousands of wild bee-hives in the forests, and obtain annually from 40 to 100 poods of honey. The hives are formed in the hardest and strongest trees, upwards of five fathoms from the ground, by excavating the trunk, and closing the aperture with a board perforated with small holes for the bees to enter. The greatest enemies to their labours are bears, who fre quently make terrible havoc among the hives. To defeat the purposes of this animal, the peasant is often obliged to have recourse to some curious contrivances, of which the following appear the most singular :

Knives are placed in such parts of the tree where the bees are situated, that the bear in climbing or coming down, may encounter death almost at every step; some, however, have been cunning enough to elude this contrivance altogether, by removing the knives with their paws. A block of wood is sometimes suspended before the entrance to the hive, which, as often as the bear attempts to remove it, falls back and hits him on the head, when he becomes so enraged, that he is frequently precipitated to the bottom, on spikes prepared to receive him. Boards are often suspended from a neighbouring branch, like scales, and so fastened to the tree where the animal climbs, that when he gets upon the platform and attempts to rifle the hive, he finds himself in a moment separated from the object of his search, and swinging in the air, with the prospect of a descent upon spikes below, threatening instant death. Others, again, cut the trunks into blocks, which they hollow and close at both ends, leaving an opening on the side for the bees: this plan is generally found to prove more than a match for the ingenuity of the luxurious brute. Another method of destroying this formidable enemy to honey, is, by putting strong spirits into the honey-combs in the trees, and the bear,

ravenous of the honey, and unmindful of the flavour of the spirits, takes so much that he soon becomes intoxicated, and falls an easy prey to his destroyers.

To the industry displayed by the Russians of the southern province, in the rearing of bees and preservation of honey, much praise is due; and were these labours imitated by our own countrymen, the money transmitted from Great Britain to other nations for honey, which is said to be not less than £240,000 annually, might be saved.

The other liquors most common in Russia, besides those already mentioned, are made from fruit of various sorts, such as apples, pears, plums, currants, cherries, gooseberries, raspberries, bilberries, cranberries, &c., and the juice of the birch tree. The preparation of these varies in different places, and is generally regulated according to the judgment or taste of the persons who conduct the process. Tooke observes, that in making cherry-wine, about five or more vedros of the ripe fruit are crushed in a tub, until the stones are broken; and that to each vedro, one and an half or two pounds of honey and a pint of good brandy or wine are added, with a little yeast to make it ferment. When it has properly cleared itself of the yeast, it is poured into kegs or bottles and placed in a cool cellar.

Among the plants which grow in the deserts, near the banks of the Volga, the dwarf almond tree (amygdalus mana) is the most plentiful. Its fruit is called babovnick, or Calmuck walnuts. Some landed proprietors collect this fruit, and extract from it an oil which, though bitter, is very agreeable in salads. Its taste somewhat resembles that of peach kernels, and a spirituous liquor is also distilled from it.* These are the principal drinks made and used by the Russians.

A *

In some of the southern parts of the empire the vine is cultivated; and wine is made, but not to such extent as to supply the popular demand. Dr. Clarke observed, that the wild vine flourished at Woronetz, which lies in the 54th degree of North latitude; while it is well known that the vineyards of Europe terminate many degrees nearer to the equator. The most important vineyards are those of Astracan, which, at one time, were cultivated at the expense of the crown, but are now principally in the possession of private individuals. These vineyards are 135 in number, 21 of which still belong to the state. Vines were first brought into that region from Persia, by an Austrian monk, in the early part of the seventeenth century; and their culture having been found to succeed, the Czar Ivan Vassilie

Pallas's Travels.

vitsh, in the year 1613, caused them to be planted about the city. Peter the Great also encouraged their cultivation; and the grapes became so excellent in his time, that they were exported to St. Petersburgh for the use of the imperial table, and for such of the nobility as could afford to purchase them, a practice still carried on to advantage. Great caution is observed in the carriage of those grapes; they are packed in red millet, in wooden cases, to prevent bruises on the road. A pood of them costs between two and three rubles on the spot. In the vineyards above mentioned, white and red wines of a superior description are produced, which some compare to the Lacryma Christi of Germany, the Vin de grave, or the Champague of Burgundy. In making wine, the grapes are put into canvas bags, trodden with the feet in troughs, and afterwards squeezed in wooden presses. Pallas found in the cellars of the proprietor of two villages near Astracan, 14,000 vedros of wine, ready for sale, kept in very large casks: some of these were near 20 years old, the produce of the Hungarian grape. The wines here contain a considerable portion of brandy, and no description is sold until it is three years old. A good sort of wine is made from grapes without stones, called Kyshmis. Here are annually pressed from 4 to 5,000 eimers of wine, and the oldest casks are always filled from those succeeding in the order of time. In some of the vineyards, the bunches of grapes are so luxuriant, that they measure from two to three spans in length and mills are erected for conveying water through the plantations.

In the government of Astracan, brandy of an excellent kind is distilled in considerable quantities, with which they preserve their wines, as well as supply the numerous kabaks and caravansaries. At Sarepta, on the Volga, distilleries of spirits and breweries of beer have been established by a Moravian colony, who settled there some years ago. They brew also a description of beer from the water melons which there abound; it is regularly hopped like other beer: a marmalade is prepared from this fruit, which is used as a substitute for sirup of treacle, and it is supposed that a tolerable wine might be made from it, were the process undertaken. The Cossacks, particularly those of the Don, cultivate the vine, but not in such abundance as to permit its being distilled into brandy. The grapes are said to be good, and were they not pulled too soon, the wine manufactured from them would, in the opinion of Dr. Clarke, surpass all others in the world. The Don wines consist of white and red; and were the French practice in making them followed, from the rich and generous nature of the fruit, they could not fail to maintain the good opinion given of them by the Doctor.

The practice of burying the vine during winter is injurious; but this the Cossacks are obliged to do, to save it from the severe frosts of the country. A similar practice, as mentioned by Strabo, was observed from the most remote antiquity, in the country near the Bosphorus.* In 1772, the whole produce of the vineyards of the Don did not exceed from 70 to 80 hogsheads, of 40 eimers each; but the increase since that period has been considerable.† A number of German vintners have been encouraged to settle on the banks of this river, which has influenced others to establish breweries in the neighbouring districts. The vineyards of Count Platoff are remarkable for their extent and excellence, as well as for the various sorts of delicious wines which they produce; some of them, when not adulterated, are equal to the light French wines. These wines are in general pleasant, and effervesce like champagne, but have more the flavour of burgundy. It is a practice among the Russians in summer to serve along with their wine a plate of ice, a piece of which is put into each glass, when the wine is about to be drunk. The best Don wine is made near Tcherkask, and it is usually manufactured from grapes not quite ripe, which some conjecture to be the cause of all wines exhibiting effervescence. Klaproth mentions a kind of champagne called Symlianskii, which is distributed over all Russia, a great favourite, and commonly bearing the name of Donsky vino. It is, however, frequently injured by the intermixture of potash, which causes it often to produce headache and disorders of the stomach.‡ The wine made on the banks of the Terek, of the Volga, near Saratov, in Ekaterinoslav, and in the Taurida, are good; and were its sale not injured by the importation of Greek and Moldavian wines, it might he turned to great advantage. The Caucasian Tartars, although they profess the Mahometan faith, drink wine publicly, which they render very inebriating, by hanging the unripe heads of poppies in the casks while fermentation is going on.§ The mountains inhabited by these people are very fertile, and the vines grow so luxuriantly, and climb to such a height about the trees, that in many places the inhabitants find great difficulty in gathering the grapes.

The wines of the Crimea rank so highly, that they are in demand even in the remote governments of the empire; and at St. Petersburgh, they are in such repute, that there is a chartered company for the management of the sales of these wines, supported by the emperor

Geogr. Lib. viii.

† Pallas's Travels, 4to. vol. ii.

Klaproth's Travels in the Caucasus and Georgia, 1807-8, p. 85. 8 Tooke.