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650 COXE’Ss TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
into the ground with wooden pegs; thefe trunks are covered with layers of boughs
and the whole is f{trewed over with fand or earth. When the road is new it is re-
markably good ; but as the trunks decay or fink into the ground, and as the fand or
earth is worn away or wafhed off by the rain, it is broken into innumersble holes 3
and the jolting of the carriage over the bare timber can better be conceived than de-
{eribed. In many places the road is a perpetual fucceffion of ridges, and the motion of
the carriage a continual concuflion, much greater than I ever experienced over. the
rougheft pavement.
The villages which occafionally linethis route are extremelly fimilar, cdnfifting ufually
of a fingle ftreet, with wooden cottages ; a few only being diftinguifhed by brick
houfes. The cottages in thefe parts are fuperior to thofe between Tolitzan and
Mofcow : they feemed, indeed, well fuited to a rigorous climate; and although con.
ftructed in the rudeft manner, are comfortable habitations. The fite of each building
is an oblong fquare, inclofed by a high wooden wall, with a penthoufe roof, and ap-
pears on the outfide like a large barn. In one angle of this inclofure ftands the
houfe, fronting the ftreet of the village, with the ftair-cafe on the outfide, and the door
opening underneath the penthoufe roof: it contains one, or at moft two rooms.
I have frequently obferved, that beds are by no means ufual in this country; in-
fomuch that, in all the cottages I entered in Ruffia, I only obferved two, each of
which contained two women at different ends with their clothes on. The family flept
generally upon the benches, on the ground, or over the ftove*; occafionally men,
women, and children, promifcuoufly, without difcrimination of fex or condition, and
frequently almoft in a ftate of nature. In fome cottages I obferved a kind of fhelf,
about fix or feven feet from the ground, carried from one end of the room to the
other; to which were faflened feveral tranfverfe planks, and upon thefe fome of the
family flept with their heads and feet occafionally hanging down, and appearing to us,
who were not accuftomed to fuch places of repofe, as if on the point of falling to the
ground. The number of perfons thus crowded into a fmall fpace, fometimes amount-
ing to twenty, added to the heat of the ftove, rendered the room intolerably warm,
and produced a fuffocating fmell, which nothing but ufe enabled us to fupport. This
inconvenience was {till more difagreeable in the cottages not provided with chimnies,
where the fmoke loaded the atmofphere with additional impurities. If we opened the
lattices to admit frefh air, fuch an influx of cold wind rufhed into the room, that we
preferred the heat and effluvia to the keennefs of the northern blafts.
In the midft of every room hangs from the cieling a veflel of holy water, anda
lamp, lighted on particular occafions. Every houfe is provided with a picture of a
faint coarfely daubed on wood, which frequently refembles more a Calmuc idol than
a human head: to this the people pay the higheft marks of veneration. All the
members of the family, the moment they rofe in the morning, and before they retired
to fleep in the evening, never omitted their adoration to the faint: they crofled them-
felves during feveral minutes upon the fides and forehead, bowed very low, and fome-
times even proftrated themfelves on the ground. Every peafant alfo, on entering the
twenty three feet, and fuppofing the foundation and fides to be only half fo many more as the bridge is
compofed of, and the road to be forty-fix feet wide, here is an expence of two million one hundred thoufand
trees”? Hanway’s Travels, vol. i. p.gz. If we extend this calculation over the whole Ruffian empire,
reaching four thoufand miles in length, and take in the different crofs roads, the*expence of wood muit
be amazing, but the forefts are alfo boundlefs and inexhauftible. ;
* The ftove is a-kind of brick oven ; it occupies almoft a quarter of the room, and is flat at top.
6 room,
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