The poor have no access to the prince, but only to the counsellors themselves; and indeed that is very difficult. Ocolnick holds the place of a prætor or judge appointed by the prince, otherwise the chief counsellor, who is always near the prince's person, is so called. Nedelsnick is the post of those who summon men to justice, seize malefactors and cast them into prison; and these are reckoned amongst the nobility.

Labourers work six days in the week for their master, but the seventh day is allowed for their private work. They have some fields and meadows of their own allowed them by their masters, from which they derive their livelihood: all the rest is their master's. They are, moreover, in a very wretched condition, for their goods are exposed to plunder from the nobility and soldiery, who call them Christians and black rascals by way of insult.

A nobleman, however poor he might be, would think it ignominious and disgraceful to labour with his own hands; but he does not think it disgraceful to pick up from the ground and eat the rind or peeling of fruits that have been thrown away by us and our servants, especially the skins of melons, garlic, and onions; but whenever occasion offers, they drink as immoderately as they eat sparingly. They are nearly all slow to anger, but proud in their poverty, whose irksome companion they consider slavery. They wear oblong dresses and white peaked hats of felt (of which we see coarse mantles made) rough from the shop.

The halls of their houses are indeed large and lofty enough, but the doors are so low, that in entering, one must stoop and bend one's self.

They who live by manual labour and work for hire, receive a deng and a half as one day's pay; a mechanic receives two dengs, but these do not work very industriously unless they are well beaten. I have heard some servants complain that they had not received their fair amount of beating from

their masters. They think that they have displeased their master, and that it is a sign of his anger if they are not beaten.

Of entering another Man's House.

In all houses and dwellings they have the images of saints, either painted or cast, placed in some honourable position : and when any one goes to see another, as he enters the house, he immediately takes his hat off and looks round to see where the image is, and when he sees it he signs himself three times with the cross, and bowing his head says, "O Lord, have mercy." He then salutes the host with these words, "God give health." They then shake hands, kiss each other, and bow, and then each looks at the other, to see if he have any more bowing to do, and thus bowing their heads three or four times alternately, and paying their respects to each other, they by some means come to an understanding. They then seat themselves, and after their business is settled, the guest walks straight into the middle of the dwelling, with his face turned towards the image, and again signing himself three times with the cross, bows his head and repeats the former words. At length when they have saluted each other with the above-mentioned words, he departs. If he be a man of some authority, the host follows him to the steps, but if he be of a superior position in life, he accompanies him further, due respect being observed for the rank of each person. They are wonderfully ceremonious, for no man of small fortune is permitted to ride within the gate of the house of one of higher rank. The poor and obscure classes also find access difficult even to the common nobles, who walk out but seldom in public, in order that they may retain greater authority thereby, and have more respect paid to them. Likewise no nobleman who is

moderately rich walks on foot so far as the fourth or fifth house from his own without his horse being led in attendance. In winter time, however, when they cannot use their horses without danger on account of the ice, for they are unshod, or on occasions when they may have to go to the prince's palace, or to the temples of the saints, they generally leave their horses at home. Gentlemen always sit within their own houses, and seldom or never transact business walking. They used to wonder extremely when they saw us walking in our hotels, and frequently transacting business while we were walking.

The prince has post stations in all parts of his dominions, with a regular number of horses at the different places, so that when the royal courier is sent anywhere, he may immediately have a horse without delay; and the courier has authority to choose any horse he pleases. When I was making a rapid journey from Great Novogorod to Moscow, the post-master, who in their language is called jamschnick, would have sometimes thirty and occasionally forty or fifty horses brought out to me the first thing in the morning, when there was no need of more than twelve. Each of my people, therefore, took the horse which he thought would best suit him, and when they were tired we constantly changed them on reaching another inn on the road (they call their inns jama), but kept the same saddle and bridle. Every one is at liberty to ride at full speed, and if his horse happen to fall, or can go on no longer, he may take another with impunity from the first house he comes to, or from any one he may chance to meet, the prince's courier alone excepted. If, however, a horse be exhausted and left on the road, the jamschnick requires restoration; and it is customary to give another to him from whom it was taken, or to pay a price according to the length of the journey. Six dengs are generally reckoned for from ten to twenty wersts.'

1 The werst is equal to 11663 English yards, or somewhat less than two-thirds of an English mile.

On one occasion, a servant of mine rode on such post horses from Novogorod to Moscow, a distance of six hundred wersts, that is, a hundred and twenty German miles, in seventy-two hours, which is the more remarkable, because they are small ponies, and far less carefully tended than ours, and yet such is the work that they will perform.

Of their Money.

They have four kinds of silver money, that of Moscow, of Novogorod, of Tver, and of Plescow. The money of Moscow is not round, but oblong, and of a sort of oval form, called a deng. It has different impressions, the old deng having on one side the figure of a rose, and the later one the figure of a man sitting on horseback; both of these have an inscription on the reverse. A hundred of them go to one Hungarian gold piece; six dengs make an altin; twenty a grifna; one hundred a poltin; and two hundred a ruble.

There are new coins now struck, with characters on both sides, forty of which are worth one ruble.

The coin of Tver has an inscription on both sides, and is of the same value as that of Moscow.

The coin of Novogorod has on one side the figure of the prince sitting on his throne, and a man opposite him making his obeisance; on the other it has an inscription, and is worth twice as much as that of Moscow. Moreover, the grifna of Novogorod is worth fourteen rubles, and the ruble of Novogorod two hundred and twenty-two dengs.

The coin of Plescow has the head of an ox crowned, and an inscription on the other side. They have also a copper coin called polani; sixty of these are worth one deng of Moscow.

They have no gold money, nor do they themselves coin any, but mostly use Hungarian, and occasionally Rhenish money. They often change their valuation of these coins, especially when a foreigner wishes to purchase anything with gold, for then they immediately depreciate its value; but if any one is about to go anywhere on a journey and wants gold, they then raise the price again.

They use the rubles of Riga on account of its proximity, one of which is worth two of those of Moscow.

The money of Moscow is of pure and good silver, although that is also adulterated now. Yet I never heard of any one being reprehended for this misdemeanour. Nearly all the goldsmiths of Moscow coin money; and when any one brings masses of pure silver and asks for money for them, they weigh both the money and the silver and balance it equally. There is a small fixed price above the equal weight to be paid to the goldsmiths, who otherwise charge but little for their labour. Some have written' that in some very few spots in this country there is an abundance of silver, and that the prince forbids its exportation. The truth is that the country contains no silver, except (as I have said) what is imported; but the prince may rather be said to guard against than to forbid its exportation, and to that effect orders his subjects to barter their commodities, and to give and receive some articles in exchange for others, such as skins (in which they abound), or anything else of the kind, so as to keep their gold and silver in the province. It is scarcely a hundred years since the silver money which they used was principally of their own coining. When silver was first introduced into the province, they used to cast little oblong pieces of silver without any impression or inscription, of the value of one ruble, not one of which is now to be seen. Money was also coined in the principality of Galicia; but as that had no constant value,

1 Myechov, in his Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis (Tractatus ii, lib. 2), says, "Estque terra dives argento et custodia undique clausa."