ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GYPSIES.

Many of the Gypsies appear to have fled to the mountains of Curdistan, where they are called Kara-Shee, or the Black Race. Their persons, manners, and customs, are described at length by Sir R. K. Porter, who passed through a large encampment of these singular people*. There are many of the Gypsy-tribe at Voronetz, on the river Dont. The Gypsies themselves are perhaps not in the least acquainted with their own origin.

* Porter's Travels in Georgia, Babylonia, &c. Vol. II. p. 528.

† Rees's Encyc. "Woronetz."

181

CHAP.

IV.

CHAPTER V.

V.

Of Siberia.
animals.-

Described in Summer. ·Fertility. Wild ·Magnificent scenery. Mongol sovereigns.

Im

Coronation of the Grand Khan Keyuc at Olougyourt.
Invaded from China and India beyond the Ganges.
mense armies stationed on the Irtish, and battles in the Thir-
teenth Century. -Invasions of Tamerlane, Fourteenth Cen-
tury. -Tombs; Elephants' bones, golden Chess-boards and
men, golden plates &c. found in them. Note on the Con-
quest of Russia by Batou, grandson of Genghis. Tam-
erlane invades Russia.. -His terrible battle with the Khan
of Capschac described.

CHAP. SIBERIA was not known to the Russians till the middle of the sixteenth century. A Russian merchant named Strogonoff had established salt-works in the government of Archangel, and traded with the north-western Siberians, for the valuable furs which they brought to him; and by which he acquired a considerable fortune. The Czar Ivan Vassilivitch II. sent some troops to endeavour to open a commerce with the natives; and one of the chiefs consented to pay an annual tribute of a thousand sables; but that chief being taken prisoner by Kutchum Khan, a descendant of the great Genghis, and

ZOOLOGY.-BOTANY.—MINERALOGY.

sovereign of Sibir, there was no further intercourse till the year 1577, when Timofeyef Yermak, a Don Cossack, being defeated by the Czar's troops, in the province of Cazan, retired eastward with a few thousands of his adherents. He crossed the Ural mountains. He discovered and attacked the Mogul monarch of Sibir, whom he defeated; and Yermak gained a rich booty, in jewels, furs &c. He, after a while, travelled to Moscow, was favourably received by the Czar, and supplied with succours, with which he returned to his companions at Sibir: and in an action with the Moguls, he was drowned, in the year 1584. The conquest was shortly afterwards completed by his suc

cessors.

Siberia is so rich in zoology and botany, that, as Mr. Pennant observes, the discovery of America has scarcely imparted a greater number of objects to the naturalist; the mineralogy is equally fertile and interesting.

In 1621, the first archbishop, whose name was Cyprian, was appointed to reside at Sibir*.

About the middle of the seventeenth century, all Siberia was subjected. No known part of the earth is so cold as that country

"Our infant Winter sinks,

Divested of his grandeur, should our eye,
Astonish'd, shoot into the Frigid Zone.

Wide roams the Russian exile. Nought around
Strikes his sad eye, but deserts lost in snow,
And heavy loaded groves; and solid floods,
That stretch athwart the solitary vast,

Their icy horrors to the frozen main.

* Levesque Histoire de Russie; and Tooke's Hist. of Russia, Vol. I.

183

CHAP.

V.