550 Original Cerrefpondence from Ruffia.Natural Hiftory. Stanitza is the name given to a fituation newly established, and inhabited by a certain number of these Kofacs. It was in thefe places that the subjects of other provinces of Ruffia, who were forced from their ftations, formerly ftopped in their flight. They immediately took poffeffion of the first huts they found, improved them afterwards, and at length conftructed new ones. The number of thefe eftablishments at prefent exceeds 100. They are built for the most part in a parallel direction with the river, but fometimes alfo perpendicularly to it; always clofe to the bank, or, at the very utmost, at the diftance of only a couple of mufketfhots. These fanitzas look more like large or moderate villages than towns; as being neither furrounded by walls, nor ramparts, nor even pallifades. Some of them, however, are provided with cannons placed near the entrance and the forties. Kalanka, Piatifbenfkaia, and Cimlienfkaia, are reckoned the most confiderable. Every ftanitza forms a parith. The churches are lofty, and take up a large fite, as well for the principal building, as for the fmaller ones contiguous to it, which are of wood, as are the houfes of the place, a fmall number excepted. Notvely withstanding this circumstance, the houfes are good, well-built, convenient, and each of them perfectly infulated from all the reft. The apartments are provided with good chimnies. Several of the houfes have galleries, and such as a e on an elevated fituation have excent cellars. The fitting-rooms are furn:fhed with hangings, and an air of peat efs, and even elegance, prevails thr ghout. Such of the houfcs as have been recently built are much im proved beyond the others; and the Kofacs do not deny that it was in Pruffia they first learnt to know the comforts of handsome habitations, as well as the manner of building them; and that this excited them to have the like. The wall in the most confpicuous part of a chamber is almost all covered over with the pictures of faints; and wealthy perfons are not fparing in the various ornaments that luxury hath invented. Each tanitza is commanded by a chief or Attaman, elected every year, who is always one of their own body. When this officer has the art of rendering himself agreeable, he is frequently continued longer in his dignity; but this is only to be done by a new election, which cannot be difpenfed with. The falary of an attaman is not in every place the fame. Some have 12, others 15, and others to the amount of 35 rubles per annum. The chiefs of the fanitzas on the poft-road have larger appointments, as they have more to do. Neither is their revenue confined to their pay, as they receive numberless prefents, which generally prove a confiderable augmentation to it. The Attaman exercises over all the Kofacs in fubordination to him the highest degree of jurifdiction, terminates all differences that are not of very great importance, and fees to the execution of the orders of the Imperial Court, and those of the governor, who refides at Tfcherkafk. He punishes delinquents either by imprifonment or the corporal infliction of the batogues; in cafes of weighty concern he makes his report to the chancery of Tscherkafk. The Yeffaul is his colleague, or rather the executor of his orders, which it is his duty to make known to the Kofacs. When any Imperial veffels are going down the Don, or if horses are to be provided, he gallops about the whole ftanitza, calling out, that no Kofac is to retire under the penalty of three rubles forfeit; but that every perfon is to hold himself in readiness to do whatfoever he fhall be commanded. Whenever he convokes them together, he gives them all the title of Attamans, in token of the equality that fubfifts among them. When they are affembled, and formed into a circle, the Attaman places himself in the midft, and then the commonalty apportionates the proportion of public work that is to be performed by cach, as they all think proper. At fuch times they fhew him the greatest refpc&t, though, at others, no Original Correspondence from Ruffia.-Natural Hiftory. no perfon takes the trouble to falute him with his cap. The fines and forfeits that fall, remain in common, and are generally drunk out in the stanitznaia. This ftanitz naia, and the taboun, are the two public places in every ftanitza; for it is there that the Attaman causes the inhabitants to be affembled, and, after having impofed filence, propounds to them whatever concerns the public welfare. The flanitznaia is at the fame time a prifon, before which perfons convicted of crimes are punished with the fcourge. The taboun is a place without the ftanitza, not always at the fame distance; and is a place, among others, where they are obliged to lead the horfes they are commanded to furnish. Whenever they are to proceed to a campaign, all the horses of the ftanitza are in like manner brought to this place, where, after they have undergone a strict examination, the beft are chofen out for the expedition. In fome few of the stanitzas they have ftill ftarchini, who are people that have formerly ferved in campaigns as colonels of the Kofacs, and, after having returned home, take the chief command of one of thefe ftanitzas, and have an Attaman under them. Thefe colonels are appointed by the commander of all the Kofacs of the Don, the Attaman in chief at Ticherkafk; but they receive no pay except when in actual fervice. It No merchants or traders are to be met with among the Kofacs, who alfo pride themselves on the profoundest ignorance. Nor can one fee a fingle perfon, even among the moft diftinguished, even the fighteft tincture of knowledge either in the fciences or the arts. is the laborious Maloruffians, who live amongst them, that do the principal of their work, partly for a fixed falary, and partly instead of the tribute they are forced to pay the chiefs in quality of ferfs. It is of them likewife that the Kofacs purchase their strong liquors, they being prohibited to diftill them. It can only be attributed to the neg ligence and floth of the Kofacs, that they know not how to value the excellence of their lands, and leave them without cultivation. An extent of country, containing 600 verfts in length, and whole exceffive breadth has not yet been afcertained; a country to which the bountiful Parent of mankind hath granted, in every part,, the moft fertile foil; fituated moreover in a 551 northern latitude from 52 to 46 degrees, where they might, from the advantage of its pofition, cultivate in abundance every production of the warmer climates; fuch a country is quite a defart for the greatest part, and wearies the eye with continued fterility. Agricul ture is never followed but from the moft urgent neceflity; and no more corn is fown than they must confume in the courfe of the year; fo that, if the harveft fhould at any time happen to fail, they_neceffarily fuffer a univerfal dearth. The gardens, perceptible here and there, produce the most delicious fruits, the latest of which are in full maturity as foon as the month of Auguft begins. But the Kofacs prefer damfons to all other fruits, because they can fill their carts with them without farther trouble. Tfcherkask, the capital of all the fe people, borders on the Don to the north and weft; towards the fouth it is washed by the Vaftiefka, a river that takes its rise five versts from the town, and proceeds to fall into the Don near the fpot where was formerly the fort of St. Ann. On the western fide it extends almost as far as the river Axai, which the Kofacs alfo call Donetz. This town pretends to fcarce more than a century of antiquity. It was on returning from the unfortunate campaign of Aftrachan, that the building of it was undertaken. It arrived not all ac once at that pitch of greatnefs which enables it at prefent to difpute prece dence with other confiderable towns of Ruffia; but, like them, Tfcherkask has augmented by degrees. The inundations it experiences, efpecially in fpring, are very great, and reach to the diftance of ten verfts inland. What is worfe is, that the great floods, having no determinate time for afluaging, continue fometimes to the beginning of July, and even to the end of that month, and confequently render the town unwhole fome. The houses where the inundations are most prevalent are built upon piles; and it often happens, that there is no communication from one of thefe houfes to another, excepting by boats, as the very bridges are often carried away. The fortifications of the town are conftructed of timber, and have nothing very dreadful in their appearance. Here are fome KalmucKofacs who have embraced the Greek religion, and connect themselves very frequently in marriage with the real Kofacs. 552 Specimen of Etymological Sagacity. Kofacs. This latter nation obtains its falt from the lakes of Monotski in the steppe of Kuban; but, for securing it from the attacks of the Tartars, they are obliged to attend it in troops, under arms and on horfeback, and with the moft vigilant precautions. This falt is formed on the furface of the water like flakes of ice. In time of peace, it fells for 10 or 15 copeeks the pood; and, in time of war, from 50 copeeks to a ruble. Tfcherkafk is no longer the mart of commerce with the Turks fince the fortrefs of St. Demetrius has taken it to itfelf. From Tfcherkafk it is but 15 verfis to the flanitza of Akai, 15 veits farther to the fortrefs of Dimitri (Dimitri Roftofski, or St. Demetrius of Rostof), and beyond this Azof is but 30 verfts. I met on the way hither, efpecially ou the fit half of it, a great number of houfes inhabited by Kofacs. When a number of thefe are together, they are called ftani. The fortrefs of St. Dimitri Roftofski, fituated on a ficep fhore of the Don, independently of its garri fon, commanded by a major-general, is inhabited, as well as its fuburbs, not only by Kofacs, and fome Ruffians, but likewife contains a number of Greek families, drawn hither for the fake of commerce. Great improvements have for feveral years been carrying on in Azof and its fortifications, it being a place of vaft importance to the trade of the Black Sea. The reduction of the Krimea to the Ruffian government now renders its confequence ftill greater. In digging the foundation of one of the batteries, a cannon was dug up with a Genoefe infcription upon it. M. Gmelin mentions this town of Azof as being in the year 1769 fo defiitute of habitable houtes, that the officers, as well as the foldiers, were reduced to encamp in tents, or to build barracks of rushes; which in thefe parts are ufed alfo for fuel. I have met with a worthy countryman here, Capt. P. juft returned from the Krim, who has given me a complete account of that peninfula, which, as it is now fo much the fubject of converfation, and especially as no author has hitherto given even a tolerable defcription of it, I fhall digeft and arrange for the fubject of my next communication In the mean time 1 fend you, for one of your miscellaneous plates, an exact fac úmile of a brats com* that one of his fordiers found among the rubbith thrown up in making a foundation for see plate 11. fig. 14. 10. you. a new bastion. But as the plafter caft I herewith transmit has not brought of fome of the parts which are sharp and plain upon the coin, I must supply that little imperfection by a fhort defcription for the affiftance of your engraver. Of the right hand of the figure only the thumb appears; that which the hand contains is a mound furmounted by a cross, to which mound and hand your artist muft give a little relief. On the left breaft is the figure of a man on horfeback, with fome animal under the horfe's belly; this is sharper on the con, and might be taken for St. George and the dragon. The letters round the head, which are much blunted in the cast, on the coin are plainly, on one fide, ONIVSTINI, and on the other, ANVSPPAVG; out of which one easily makes Juftinianus, pater patrie, aug. What bufinefs the ON has at the beginning I cannot tell. On the reverfe is a great M, for what purpose I know not. The word on the left-hand fide is ANNO, the letters ftanding one under another down the limb of the large letተ M е CON XII The top of the crown muft also be a little helped loke in the right ear, and the whole of by the engraver, as well as the pendithe vifage. The great M is rounded off as it appears on the caft. You and your correfpondents will oblige me much by an explanation in your Magazine; or, if you fhew it to my good and amiable friend, the rev. Mr. Southgate, the curate of St. Giles's in the Fields, I think no part of it will efcape his perfpicacity and intelligence. Yours, &c. M. M. M. MR. URBAN, July 4. SEND you a curious fpecimen of more to the praife of the learned writer, etymological fagacity: but what is is his candid acknowledgement of the miftake into which his pathon for etymology had betrayed him. Many of his Brother-antiquaries may poflibly excel him in accuracy and acuteness of conjecture; but few have the ingenuoufnefs to confefs an error before it is detected, or even to acknowledge it when it is fairly pointed out. The occation of the first letter, which I fend you was fimply this: a gentleman cafling Conjectural Meaning of the Word Auca. safting his eye over fome antient rentals, formerly belonging to an abbey in the west of England, met with the word auca, and, not knowing its exact fignification, applied to his Anti quarian neighbour for an explanation of it; who, conceiving the meaning to lie deeper than the furface, digged for it in the precious mine of etymology, and turned up Gothic and Saxon ground to find the treasure. What that treasure proved at last to be, will appear from the fecond letter: and the Antiquary would be well rewarded for his pains, if he could always bring his meagre enquiries to fo fubftantial a conclufion. Yours, &c. HELLUO. Rev. Sir, Sept. 14, 1774. Perhaps auca may be from the Gothic auktigards, hortus, «й; a word probably derived from axkan, Sax. eacan, Inland. auka, augere [fee Ifland. Dict. in Hickes's Gr.]; alluding to the increafe of a cultivated garden or plantation. This derivation indeed changes ther into k; but in this compound word it but little alters the found. If this be admitted, we may account for the fignification of auktgans, a husbandman; being the fame with aukith-gains, he that increaseth or cultivateth (the ground], the aukith being changed in rapid fpeak ing into aukt, and the gains into fans. In like manner auktigards fhould mean the fame as aukipbs-gards, a cultivated yard, i. e. a garden or orchard; as it really does, according to Junius, in the word auktigards, the tb being changed into t, and the s dropped. But note, this derivation, being not authorized by Junius (as the meaning of the word itfelf is), but founded upon my own conjecture, who may mittake the Gothic participle, must not be depended on. From hence, however, it is plain the Saxons had (as Junius obferves in his Gothicum Gloffarium, p. 75) their word orcýrd, orce rd, or more properly oregeard, borius, the hort-yard, or, as in modern English, orchard, This laft needs not the authority of Junius, who gives fome examples to confirm it, but feems to overlook the root of the word, deriving it from Auktgans, which I take to be of itfelf a derivative from aukan, augere, to increase, as above. Thefe letters were nor, as tome may conjecture, made for the purpofe of expofing Antiquarian lore. They were really written from one learned man to another in the most Serious humour: and the originals are in the Editor's hands. EDIT. 553 With refpect to the Saxon word geard, as the in the beginning and end of words had nearly the found of y (as in gaze, or gear, gate, or yate; day, pronounced day, or day); it answers to the English, gird, girl, girth, or yard, in the fenfe wherein the latter means an inclofure; the grounds fo inclofed being anciently girt about by a cord (or perhaps the thong cut out of a bullock's hide, as Carthage, &c. whence fome des rive a bide of land); and the Greek word exos (whence our fain of thread, and perhaps the British word yfgenn, the fkin or hide of a beaft), meant the fame, viz. a cord or rope, by which Jands were meafured and allotted to the feveral claimants by the antient Egyp tians, from whom the Greeks borrowed the word [and by whom it is faid to have been afterwards used to denote the diftance of a double parafang, or 60 furlongs]. And this alfo expreffes the true fenfe of the Hebrew an [bebel], which fignifies a cord, an allotment, or the bounds of an inclofure; and is, I think, always ufed to exprefs the portion people, the Ifraelites, as their inheritance. which God peculiarly referved for his Thus, Pfal. cv. 11, Conny San funiculum hæreditatis veftra, the lot of your inheritance; and the word accurs in the fame fenfe, Deuteronomy, xxxii. e, and elfewhere paffim ; being fometimes called the lor of their inheritance, and fometimes of his own, as during the theocracy, or in allufion thereto, it might be properly faid to be. But you will think I have rainbled too far beyond the bounds of a girth or yard, when applied to a garden or orchard, and extended it to a kingdom; whereas my bulinefs was to fhew, that the word auca, without the addition of gard or yard, might mean bortus: and how far this appears probable on the whole must now be left to your judgement, it being high time to conclude this long epiftle Yours, &c. from [Shortly after, the learned Etymologist difcovered his mistake, and fent the following ingenuous retractation to his correfpondent.] Rev. Sir, Sept. 23, 1774. In a late long epiftle, troubled you with my conje&ures on the meaning of the word auca; in which, as you gave me no light from the context of the tentence wherein you found it, but left me to wander at large, I might easily take a wrong path, as I have fince found I re a 554 True Meaning of the Word Auca.-Letter of Mr. Henry. ally did; but am now convinced, that, Had Itime, I might here add fome obvations on the above words, “quarum quælibet hida continet in fe fexies viginti acras terræ," which are very material to another fubject on which I have been puzzling myself, viz. the various cftimates of knights' fees, hides, carucates, virgates, bovata or oxgangs, and ferlings of land, mentioned in Domesday Book, and elsewhere; their variations in different counties and different ages; their cuftomary tale of acres; rejection of waste; allowance of marshes in proportion to dry ground, &c. &c. But being obliged by this poft to write on particular bufinefs to a friend in London (a Devonian now made a king, I mean the new Norroy King of Arms), I muft stop fhort, and fubfcribe myself, Sir, your moft obedient and obliged humble fervant. C. W. Original Letter from the Rev. MATT. HENRY to Mr. WALROND, on bis removing from the Diffenting Congregation at Ottery St. Mary's to that at Exeter. Hackney, Jan. 31, 1712-13. Dear and Hond Sir, HAVE many reafons to remember you with respect, and do and hall. Your ferinon on "I magnify my office," if there were nothing elfe, would oblige me to do it. I was much affected laft week with the account Mr. Tozer of Exeter gave me of the excellent Mr. Troffe, and his tranflation hence *. Sic mibi contingere! Your cafe and mine thus far agree, that we have had no occation given us by our old friends to leave them; but there is a great deal of difference between going but 10 miles from them, and going 140 t. I was always clear in the lawfulness of minifters' remove, and, in many cafes, the expediency and duty of it. I have been very often concerned in the remove of minifters, and fay I could do it with the better grace becaule I fhould never be in any temptation to remove myfelf; and long adhered in this, and refufed many invita tions to London. I know not how this came to overpower me. The congregation at Chefter was much of the rank of yours where you are. I confidered going or staying was either well or ill according to the inward governing priaciple; endeavoured therefore, by the grace of God, that this should be right, * Of whom fee Calamy's "Continuation of the Account of ejected Minifters." + Mr. Henry was fir fettled at Chester, and afterwards removed to Hackney, where he died. His life was written by a Mr. Tong. whether |