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COXE’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 829
cipalities, _ This capital was, about the middle of the thirteenth century, fituated be-
tween the Yaik and Irtifh *; and accordingly the richeft fepulchres are difcovered in
the parts lying between thofe two rivers,
Towards the beginning of the fifteenth century, the power of the Mongols was anni-
hilated in thefe parts, and there feems no other period, but the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, in which they could have collected fuch an immenfe booty as the ornaments-
found in thefe tombs feem to indicate.
A long gallery contains the various dreffes of the inhabitants in the Ruffian empire,
and of many eaftern nations: among which the Chinefe are the moft confiderable. One
apartment is filled with the dreffes, arms, and implements brought from the new-dil-
covered iflands between Afia and America, and from the parts of the continent vifited
by the Ruffian veflels. Some of thefe fpecimens are the fame which are mentioned in
the Journals of the Ruffian Voyages, namely, caps beautifully adorned with long ftream-
ers of hair like ancient helmets ; clothes made with the {kins of fea-otters, of rein-deer,
and of birds painted red, and ornamented with fringes of leather, hair, or finews ; alfo
wooden mafks, reprefenting the heads of large fifh and fea-animals, which the inhabi-
tants occafionally wear at feftivals ft.
In this gallery are various idols, which Pallas procured from the Calmuc or Mongol
hordes roving in Siberia, many of whom are {till plunged in a {tate of the groffeft idola-
try, and follow the religion of the Dalai Lama. Some of thefe deities are delineated.
on canvas; others are of clay, painted or gilt; a few are of bronze, chiefly procured
from Thibet. They are moftly grotefque figures, with many hands and arms, fitting
crofs-legged, and fimilar to thofe worfhipped by many feéts in the Eaft : they are hol-
low, and generally filled with relics and fentences of prayers. Engravings of the moft
remarkable idols are given in Pallas’s Travels }.
The colle&tion of Ruffian coins throws a confiderable light on the early hiftory of this
country. The moft ancient fubftitutes for money were {mall pieces of leather, or of
martens’ fkin; but in their dealings with foreigners, the Ruflians, like the Chinefe,,
exchanged their merchandize for gold and filver in bullion. The firft zra of coining
in Ruflia is unknown; but the art was probably derived from the Tartars) ‘The
coins § are ranged in nine claffes.
1, The firft contains thofe without infcriptions: thefe, which are undoubtedly the
moft ancient, exhibit in one or two inftances a human figure on horfeback, wielding a
fword; but are for the moft part ftamped with the rude reprefentations of certain
animals, which |} denote their Tartarian origin. The cycle or period of computation
employed by the Tartars, was fimilar to that ftill ufed by the Chinefe and Mongols, and
contained twelve years, each fucceflively marked by a different animal: 1.a moule;
* Rubruquis, in his journey to the Khan Magnu, fucceffor of Zinghis Khan, defcribes the laft river he
croffed to be the Yaik, and as he never mentions the Irtifh, it is probable that the feat of the court was
between thefe two rivers:
‘Thefe ornaments are executed with fuch tafe and elegance, as te render it probable that they were exe-
cuted by Europeans, drawn by the liberality of Zinghis Khan and his fucceffors ; and Rubruquis met, at
the court of Magnu, William Boucher, a French goldfmith.
t+ See Ruffian Difcoveries, alfo Cook’s and Vancouver’s Voyages.
+ See Lord Macartney’s Embafly ; Turner’s Embafly.
§ Le Clerc has lately favoured the public with a curious account of the Numifmatic Hiftory of Raffa,
which he has rendered extreniely valuable by engravings of one hundred and feventy-feven of the moft ancient
coins. See Hift. de la Ruff. Ane. vol. ii. p. 527 to 549.
| Sherebatof in Journ, St. Pet. for 1781, part li, ps 15,
2, an
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