seen. Their clothes are generally made of the richest materials they can afford to procure.

The ancient dress of the women, the reverse of that of the men, was as short and as tight as decency would allow, and it continues much the same among the lower classes to this day. In some respects it resembles the costume of the Highland women, and is as gaudy as possible, and much ornamented. The petticoat is of striped plaid, very scanty in width and length; the jacket is usually of a different colour, and the head is adorned with a white cloth, which is wrapped round it. All, however, who can afford it ornament their dress with gold lace and jewels.

During the season of festivals in Russia, in spite of snow, ice, and severe cold, the wives of the wealthy tradesmen drive about in droskies, with riches upon their persons" enough," as Rodrigo says, "to corrupt a votarist." Their caps are manufactured of matted gold, pearls, and other precious stones: and the richest Turkish and Persian shawls, and most brilliant diamond ear-rings, are often seen. But, however costly the materials, they endeavour, to a certain degree, to preserve the national costume, of which the jacket forms a principal feature. The shawl is worn in a peculiar and very graceful manner; it is thrown over the head-dress, and falls in elegant folds down to the feet.

The ladies of high rank follow the French and English fashions, and wear a profusion of ornaments.

The czar and grandees formerly dressed in the most splendid Asiatic costumes; and, before the days of Peter the Great, the court was said to be the most magnificent in the world. The Earl of Carlisle,

when ambassador in Russia, said that he could see nothing but gold and precious stones in the robes of the czar and his courtiers. Peter the Great, however, forced the higher classes of his subjects to discard their long robes, and to dress after the European fashion; he obliged them also to cut off their beards, which, till his accession to the throne, they had regarded almost with veneration.

Furs constitute a principal article of dress among the upper orders, and the most expensive are the most admired. The lower ranks are of course obliged to content themselves with the skin of any animal they can procure, and envelop their persons in them merely as a defence against the inclemency of the weather.

The manner in which the lower orders clothe their feet and legs indicates great simplicity and antiquity; their shoes are made of the matted bark of trees, and their legs covered with bandages of woollen cloth, bound on with ligatures of the same material, very similar to sandals. These thongs, however, do not, of course, add to the beauty of the ankle, and it is probably in consequence of these numerous bandages (which are, perhaps, necessary to defend the legs and feet from the cold) that many writers remark the large size and clumsy shape of the limbs of the Russian peasants, male and female.

It may not be uninteresting to our readers to add the costume of a people that inhabit a small hamlet in Siberia; the account is taken from the travels of M. l'Abbé Chappe d'Auteroche. "The dress of the women of this tribe" (the Wotiaks), says the writer, "is most singular. They wear a shift of coarse linen,

slit in front like a man's shirt, and hemmed up each side of the opening with thread or worsted of different colours; there is also a little ornament of a triangular figure wrought on the right side of the shift. Their gown is woollen, and bears a great resemblance to the habit of the Jesuits in college; the sleeves of the upper gown are slit in the middle, to give passage to the arms, and the lower part generally hangs down. This gown, which reaches to the legs, is fastened merely by a girdle, curiously wrought. They wear, also, coarse cloth stockings and sandals, like the Russians. Their head-dress is very remarkable: they first wrap their heads in a towel, over which they fasten, with two strings, a kind of helmet, made of the bark of a tree, and ornamented in front with a piece of cloth and with copecs; the helmet is then covered with a handkerchief, wrought with thread or

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worsted of various colours, and edged with a fringe. This head-dress is above a foot high. The hair is

divided into two tresses, which fall down upon the shoulders, with a necklace like that worn by the Tartars."

The Kamtschatkians, though belonging to Russia, have a different dress; and being a very uncivilised people, residing in a wretched, dreary country, destitute of culture, their costume is more fitted for warmth and comfort than for the display of elegance, variety, or taste. They still wear the skins of dogs, deer, sea and land animals, and even the skins of birds. Very often all these are sewn together, forming a tout-ensemble as ugly as it is extraordinary. Their upper garments are made in two ways. Sometimes the skins of which they are formed are of an equal length, at others they are left long behind, like a train, with wide sleeves that reach to the knees, and a hood, which in bad weather they put underneath their caps; there is an opening in this dress just large enough to pass the head through, and round it they sew the skins of dogs' feet, with which to protect their faces in cold weather. The skirts and sleeves of this dress are ornamented with a border of white dog-skins, and others of different colours, sewn together in patterns. They generally wear two coats, the under one with the hair in

wards, the other side dyed with alder, and the outer one with the hair uppermost. For this latter

garment they use black, white, or speckled skins, the hair of which is much esteemed.

This is the upper garment of both men and women; but the latter also wear very wide and short trousers, and a waistcoat tied round the body. Their hats are made of birch, bark, or plaited grass. The women use a white paint, made of rotten wood, and a red paint, made from a sea plant boiled in seal's fat, which they rub over their faces; they also were formerly much addicted to the wearing of perukes, some weighing ten pounds each.

A veil is often thrown over their faces when they go abroad; and though both men and women wrap their feet and legs in bark, both the Cossac and Kamtschatkian petit-maitres, when in their best dress, wear buskins of peculiar elegance; and if an unmarried man appears in them when visiting his friends, it is immediately concluded that he is about paying his addresses to some fur-clad maiden. The sole of these buskins is of white seal-skin, the upper part of fine white leather, made from white dog-skins; and the part which adorns the legs is of dressed leather or dyed seal-skin, beautifully embroidered.

The inhabitants of Kasan, another province of Russia, wear a dress that somewhat resembles that of the Russians. The Tartars who live in Kasan have a woollen jacket, which is bound round the waist with a girdle; over this is a long flowing outer robe. They always have boots on their feet, and they shave their heads, except on one place on the back part, which they cover with a small piece of leather. They wear a cap edged with fur.