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226 REGNARD’S JOURNEY TO LAPLAND.
covered. I do not believe there is any nation in the world more fruitful: one finds
in the fame box filled with ftraw, and in the fame cradle, four or five children of the
fame mother, who are fo black and hideous, that they appear like little crows ina
nett.
The tribute which the Jews of Cracow pay to the republic amounts to twenty thou-
fand crowns; they give befides this, three hundred ducats annually to the King,
two hundred to the Queen, a hundred to the Prince, and a number of other lefler
expences to which they are daily fubject. There are fome cities in Germany, where
they are not permitted to refide ; and when there bulinefs calls them to thefe places,
they give one ducat for the firft night they fleep in the city, two for the fecond, and
three for the third.
This is alfo the cafe at Warfaw, where they are not permitted to refide, except
during the fitting of the diets; but there is no kind of rafcality, which they do not
practife; and when any one is found at another time, the fcholars are let loofe upor
them, and have aright over their perfons ; fo that, it is eafy to imagine, what kind of
treatment they will receive from thefe gentlemen.
We went to pay our refpects to the Palatine of Cracow, the firft of the kingdom,
called Viclipofky, grand chancellor of the crown, and brother-in-law of the King.- We
had letters to deliver to him from the ambaflador, and others for the lady of the
grand-chancellor, from the Queen, and from the Marquis of Arquien his father.
This nobleman requefted us to dine with him: a number of excellent fifh were on the
tabie, but the greater part in oil, as it was Saturday ; and here it may be obferved,
that the Poles do not relifh oil unlefs it be very ftrong, and they fay, when it is fweet,
as we prefer it, it has no fmell. The equerry isat the end of the table with a large
fpoon, by which every-body is ferved; it is neceflary to have a knife and fork in
one’s pocket, elle one may very probably be obliged to make ufe of one’s fingers.
The grand-chancellor has a very handfome daughter, about thirteen or fourteen years
of age, and two boys fomewhat younger.
This nobleman had the goodnefs to fend us a chariot to go to the falt-mines of
Viclifka, which are a good league diftant from Cracow. It was to this place we went
to admire the effects of nature in her different productions. In the middle of the
{quare of the city, one fees a fhed under which, one no fooner enters, than a large
wheel is obferved, which horfes are turning, and which is employed to raife the {tones
which are drawn fromthe mine. Near this wheel, there is a hole dug as wide as a very
large pit, and covered wholly over with large pieces of wood, fixed the one to the other,
It was by this aperture, that we defcended to that abyfs ; but before fetting out on this
journey, they clothed us with a kind of furplice. They moved a great number of ropes
and girths, which were fixed to the great cable, the one after the other. Five or fix
- men made preparations to go down with us, and lighted a number of lamps, while
others furrounded the mouth of the hole, and began to fing that paflage of the Paffion,
where thefe words are, Expiravit Jefus, and {till continued in the moft frightful tone,
the De profundis. 1 confefs, that at this time, my whole blood freezed; all the prepa-
rations for this living interment appeared to me fo horrible, that I wifhed to be a great
way off from the place where I was; but matters had gone too far; I was obliged to
bury myfelf alive in this grave. One of our guides placed himfelf at the end of the
cable, with a lamp in his hand ; I then placed myfelf on my girth above his head; one
of the miners placed himfelf above me; my comrade was above him, and another was
over his head, with a lamp in his hand, and another above him; fo that there were
more than a dozen of us, one above another, fixed to the cable, like {trings of beads,
2 in
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