very celebrated for their trade with the Persians and the kingdom of the great Mogul. Merchandise was brought up the Volga and Cama from Balgaria to Tcherdyn, the ancient commercial town on the Kolva. The Biarmer went with the commodities of southern Asia and their own to Petshora and the frozen ocean, and received in exchange for them furs for the inhabitants of southern Asia. They met there the Scandinavians, who sailed to Biarmeland, i.e. Permia, or Archangel. The ruins of towns that previously existed in that northern region bear testimony to the ancient flourishing state of the inhabitants. Every where in the provinces of Astracan, Casan, Orenburg, Ural, Tobolsk, and elsewhere, where those of Tartar extraction inhabit, are found the traces of ditches and walls of larger and smaller towns, that formerly existed, of castles and encampments, for instance, at Kasinor on the Oka, near Astracan, and higher up at Zarizyn, where there are upon the western side of the Volga the ruins and walls of a large town, perhaps of Saria. Farther, the ruins of the two Balgarian towns, and of the famous city of Majar on Caucasus, are still standing. At Oufa there is a burial ground, in which there is a great number of tomb-stones,and some tombs built of stone. The inhabitants attribute these to a people that dwelt there long before the Russian dominion, and were quite different from the Bashkirs. In the vicinity of Oufa are seen two mosques built of brick, together with many tomb-stones, on which are Arabic inscriptions. There are like wise remains of great walls and strong fortifications (Pallas Reise, vol. 2. p. 10). Finally, considerable ruins of large towns, and numerous sepulchres, have been found at Irtish, near Tobolsk, at Baraba, at the mouth of the river Ural, and especially in the Kirghisian Steppe.

To the east of the Chazarians, the Arabian geographers place the Uzians, whose country, according to Cazwini, lay between the Chazarians (to the west), Chazalgih (to the east), Bulgaria (to the north-west), and Caimal (J). What country this (Caimal) is, I cannot discover; but it ought undoubtedly to be read Kaimak (la), for, although Cazwini has mentioned it once before, he does

not describe it at all. The country of the Kaimakians must have been extensive, as Edrisi (in the 7th part of the 6th climate) says, that "the eastern branch of the river Atel flows out from the region of Carchir, between Kaimakia and the country of the Ghuzians, and divides these from one another;" and, in another place, he says, that " Kaimak has on the south, Bagharghar, to the south-west, Chazalgih, to the west, the Chalachitians, and on the east, the dark sea (the ocean).' It must, therefore, have extended itself from the Volga or Cama towards the east, over the whole of Siberia, as far as the ocean. This amazing extent, however, is considerably diminished, when we consider, that the Arabians had no acquaintance whatever with the northeastern part of Asia, and had never navigated that sea. They assigned, therefore, the place of the sea to the interior of the continent. This is evident also from the account of Yacuti, in the preface to his geographical dictionary, where he says, on the farther side of the country of the Bulgarians the direction of the sea is turned to the east, and between its shore and the remotest country of the Turks, there are countries and mountains that are quite unknown, being desert and unfruitful." The assertion of Cazwini in his introduction, when he speaks of the boundaries of Dailam (Ghilam), that this country is conterminous with Kaimakia, does not seem to accord with this determination of the situation of Kaimakia; but it may be said, on the other hand, that this may be something related according to the authority of an older writer; for an acquaintance with the Arabian geographers shows, that their usual method was, in order to give a more complete account, to copy from their ancient and modern predecessors every thing that occurred to them, whether it belonged to their own times or not. At all events, we may easily suppose, that a number of people (perhaps the present Calmucks) may have, some time or other, been separated from the rest of their tribe and transplanted thither.-But we return to the Uzians.

This people was of Hunnish extraction, like the Turks, the Chazarians, and Turcomans; they probably inhabited first the country of the Calmucks, and thence removed to the mountains between the lesser Bucha

ria and the countries on the farther side of the Oxus. They afterwards, in conjunction with the Chazarians, as we are informed by the Byzantine writers, expelled the Patzinace from the Yaik and the Volga, and stationed themselves in their country. The Uzians are the same as the Chuzi of the Arabians. They were bounded by the Chazarians on the west, by the river Yaik on the east, and extended towards the south (perhaps) as far as the Caspian sea, and on the north-west to Bulgaria. They must have extended far to the north, but how far cannot easily be determined. About the twelfth century they must have either removed from their country between the Volga and the Yaik, or have, at the same time, extended their power as far as the Don, and farther to the west, as, at that time, they were found living there. The Moguls, at length, in the thirteenth century, deprived them of their national existence. Probably, however, they were not entire ly made extinct, for Güldenstedt conceives, that the Ossetians, a small tribe on Mount Caucasus, to the south of the great Kabasda, are the remnant of the Uzians or Polovzians, who fled thither, when they were defeated by the Russians in the year 1110.

Cazwini gives the following description of the country of the Uzians: "The country of the Uzians lies to the west of the country of Alodcosh

(A), is widely extended, and has a cultivated country near it on the east, north and west. It possesses mountains that are difficult to ascend, upon which there are great fortresses. There flows down to them (from the north) from the mountain Morghan (one of the Ural mountains) a river, in which is frequently found great quantities of gold dust, and from whose bottom is often drawn the lapis lazuli (blue Sapphire). In the woods there is a great deal of pure gold (or more properly, many beavers*), and foxes as yellow as gold. From these the kings of this country derive their furs, which are very costly; and they allow no one to export them to any other country, but punish most severely, upon discovery, those who are found to have done so secretly." Thus far Cazwini. Edrisi (in the eight part

of the fifth climate) says nearly the same, but is more copious. He speaks, among other things, of the places Hyam and Giagan, situated upon the navigable river Rudha, which came from the east. He farther adds, that there were in the woods many beavers with beautiful skins and fine hair, which were very dear, and that many of them were caught and carried to the countries of Roum and Armenia (over the Caspian sea).

According to the situation given to the country of the Uzians,it cannot be doubted but that they dwelt (nearly where the Bashkirs are now found, namely, in the government of Orenburg) about the river Balaya, between the Kama, Volga, and Ural, in the southern part of the Ural chain of mountains; which district is now described as equally abounding in woods, metals, and fish, as the Arabians have represented the land of the old Uzians. This appears to be confirmed by this remarkable circumstance, that Edrisi (in the seventh part of the seventh climate) speaks of a country called Basgiret, which extended itself far to the north, and was separated from Uzia by the lofty snow covered mountain Morghan (or, as he calls it, Morghar), a branch of the Ural chain, before mentioned. He adds, that in the remotest part of Basgiret there are two towns, Masira and Casira, small places which merchants seldom visit, for no one dares to

go to them, for the inhabitants kill all strangers. These two towns lie upon

a river which flows into the Atel.

To the east of the Uzians are placed, race of men called Alodcosh, who, as by the Arabian geographers, another Cazwini reports, were a kind of Turks (of the Turkish or Tartar branch), with broad faces, large heads, small eyes, and thick hair. Their country is wide and broad, and possesses many advantages, and abundant means of subsistence. It is bounded on the

west by the country of the Uzians. They have a vast number of four-footand great abundance of milk and honed animals (horses, cows, and sheep), has often a difficulty in finding people ey; and when a man kills a sheep, he to eat it. Their principal food is horse flesh, and their principal beverage

mare's milk.

Kirghisians, who now inhabit this steppe to the east of the river Ural, a Nomadic race, who probably knew as little of agriculture as these do. The ancient inhabitants lived principally upon horse flesh, the Kirghisians live on sheep, but the favourite beverage of both the ancient and modern inhabitants is mare's milk, or, as the Tartars call it, kumis, a much esteemed drink, which is made of sour, boiled and unboiled, mare's milk. It is, when it becomes sour, so nourishing and pleasant to the taste, and also so spirituous, that it not only serves for nourishment, and promotes a healthy and fresh appearance and a good constitution, but it also intoxicates, when taken in too great profusion. This steppe is described by Russian travellers as a vast, open and dry plain, with extensive sands, very little fruitful land, and still less wood. It is deficient in good water, but possesses a great number of brackish lakes. The land, therefore, is not cultivated at all, but horses, horned cattle, sheep, and in some places, camels, are in great abundance. One difficulty, however, yet remains, which cannot casily be removed. Both Cazwini and Edrisi make mention of a large sea, called Tehama, which was 250 miles in circumference, the water of which was of a deep green colour, but fragrant and pleasant to drink. In this sea there were many flat fishes, which the Turks (Tartars) relished much, because they considered them as the best means of exciting desire. This sea lay in the southern part of the country, but neither in the Kirghisian steppe itself, or on its borders, do we find in our maps a sea 250 miles in circumference (which, in our measure, make 83 miles, about 415 English miles), but only some inconsiderable brackish lakes, of different sizes. We must here then leave undetermined the situation of this sea.

To the east of Alodcos, or, as this country is generally considered as a subdivision of Uzia, to the east of the Uzians, there wandered in Tartary and Siberia many hordes, such as the Alchazalgi, Altaghazghaz, Charchir, Kaimakia, &c. with whom the Arabians must undoubtedly have been acquainted; partly because many of those hordes were Mahommedans, partly because some of them carried on trade with Siberia, and others, as the Bucharians at present, with India

and China, by which communication the Arabians received commodities from those remote countries. There is scarcely any doubt, but that some of those tribes were, during the middle age, to the trade of eastern and northern Asia, what the Armenians then were, and now are, for that of the northern by way of the Caspian Sea. But let us return to the north, and particularly to Bulgaria.

This people inhabited, to the north of Chazaria, the country near the river Don, where it approaches so nearly to the Volga, that many, as well Byzantine as Arabian writers, have considered the southern part of it as the western branch of the Volga, and thence along the Volga, as long as it takes a western direction, until the river Belaya; for there was situated their capital, Bulgar, upon the left bank of the Volga. So early as the fifth century the Bulgarians began to make incursions into the Roman empire, and on the north side of the Danube and the Black Sea so harrassed the Slavi, that these were compelled to remove farther north to the Dnieper and the Vistula. At last, in the year 679 and 680, they took possession of the country from the Black Sea to Pannonia, or the present Bulgaria; but there remained, notwithstanding, a part of them in their native country, that continued to form a state, although it was much weakened by emigrations, and in consequence oppressed by the Russians, until one of Genghischan's successors, Chan Bathi, who, in the middle of the thirteenth century, in conjunction with several tribes, settled, upon the river Ural, a horde, called by the Tartars" the great," by the Russians," the golden,' subdued the kingdom of the Bulgarians, and erected in its stead those of Casan and Astracan.

" I

"The country of the Bulgarians," says Cazwini "is extensive. The evening begins in winter at half-past three o'clock among the Bulgarians and Russians." Alhanchali says, testify that the days in their country are in winter hardly of sufficient length to afford time for four solemn prayers and the attendant ceremonies. The inhabited places of the Bulgarian land are conterminous with Roum. They are a numerous people; their city is called Bulgar, a large city, which I do not mean to describe, that I may

not be accused of violating truth." He says, nevertheless, in the introduction, that Bulgar was a small town, which had few possessions, but had been celebrated because it was the capital, and likewise the place for loading and casting anchor (in the Volga), for those kingdoms; but the Russians had plundered it in the year 358, together with Atel and Samandar (in the country of the Chazarians), which had greatly diminished its prosperity. Edrisi (in the sixth part of the seventh climate) mentions another town, Babun, which was well fortified, lay upon the summit of a hill, was well built, and had abundance of the necessaries of life; and adds, that to the north of Bulgaria was the mountain Kokaia, beyond which neither man nor beast could live on account of the cold. This mountain Kokaia, in the northern Ural chain between Russia and Siberia, says he in another place (in the ninth part of the fifth climate), was that which surrounded Yajouge and Majougi. Yacuti describes the city Bulgar in the following manner: "It lies in longitude 90° 5', and in latitude 49° 30′, on the shore of the sea Pontus (the Black Sea), is built of pine tree, and has its wall of oak. It is surrounded by Turks. Between this town and Constantinople are two months' journey, and these people make war with those of Constantinople. The length of the day is twenty hours, and of the night four. It is very cold; in summer and winter the ground is covered with snow. It is said, that they are the posterity of those who believed in Hud, and withdrew to the north, where they settled. Teeth are found in the ground which resemble elephants' teeth, and are as white as ivory." Ibn Haucal remarks, that the Bulgarians are a powerful and numerous people, for the most part Christians, and have the same language as the Chazarians, which resembles that of the Turks, and is understood by no others.

We learn from Pallas's Travels in Southern Russia, that there are not far from Simbirsk, on the left side of the Volga, large and magnificent remains of the capital of the Bulgarians, Bulgar or Bicchimova, consisting of towers, mosques, houses, monuments, all of quarry stone and brick. That it must have been a very considerable ity, may be concluded from the nu

merous ruins of large buildings which are found there. It is likewise very evident that it must have been a staple town for different kinds of merchandize, and a place of resort for merchants from very remote places, for the monuments indicate that the persons there buried were from provinces to the south of the Caspian Sea. The oldest tombs must have lain there for nearly 1150 years, the latest more than 400. The same may be confirmed by the number of silver coins with Cufic and Arabic inscriptions, which is found there. In the same country, at Tschermtschew, close by a small river, which falls into the Volga, may be seen the yet more ruinous remains of the considerable city Bulymer, first Bulgarian, and afterwards Tartarian, in whose site now stands the small town of Biljærsk.

Thus far did the certain acquaintance of the Arabians with the countries of the north reach. Thus far they frequently came themselves, and could therefore see and hear of whatever was most remarkable in the countries which they travelled through; but they seldom or never went farther; this is affirmed by Ibn Haucal, and sufficiently proved from the accounts of the countries to the north of Bulgaria, which are more or less imperfect and fabulous on account of their distance. It is seen, however, from the embassy of Ibn Fodelan to the Slavonian country in the tenth century, during which, as we shall afterwards see, he lived among the Russians some time, that Ibn Haucal's confession holds good only with regard to the more ancient times, probably before the Varegians came to the government of Russia in the ninth century, into which they gradually introduced Scandinavian hospitality and loyalty. For although the southern people seldom or never went into the Russian country before the time of the Varegians, for fear of being killed by the barbarous inhabitants, they nevertheless carried on trade with them, as is confirmed by Ibn Haucal, who says, that "the Chazarians bring honey and wax from the borders of Rus.'

The city of Bulgar, however, whose situation on the Volga, below the mouths of the Kama and Belaya, was admirably adapted for trade, was the residence of a great number of Ara

of trade.

bians and Persians from Southern Asia, as the monuments show, and likewise undoubtedly of many Armenians, who are, perhaps more than the Jews, born to be merchants and agents In this city were stored up the goods, which were brought from very remote countries of the north and the south, and even from Siberia. With regard to the articles of trade, it is not necessary here particularly to enumerate them, as that has in part been already done by Cazwini and the above-mentioned writers, and they were at that time in a great measure the same as they are at present, although those that are brought from Scandinavia and that part of Russia which borders on the sea, are carried by a different mode of conveyance, almost entirely by sea, to the Levant

and the Black Sea.

(To be continued.)

OBSERVATIONS ON THE PROVENÇAL LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, BY A. W. SCHLEGEL.

WE give our readers some extracts from a Memoir of the learned A. W. Schle

gel on the Provençal Language and Literature, written on occasion of M. Raynouard's very interesting work, now publishing, on the same subject. We are glad to introduce them, not only in reference to this work, which we have much pleasure in thus announcing, but for that character of simple, judicious, and manly criticism, by which all the writings of M. Schlegel are distinguished.

"The labours of M. Raynouard are destined to fill up a great hiatus in the literary history of the middle ages. The Troubadours were in every one's mouth, but nothing was known of them. What was said could scarcely be otherwise than vague or false. But in a little time, the men of letters who may undertake to treat this subject, so important in respect to the origin of modern poetry, will be left without excuse, if they do no better than their predecessors.

"For some time past, the exertions of respectable writers have not been wanting to clear up the antiquities of the French language and literature. But if some of them, like M. de Sainte-Palaye, have seriously occupied themselves with the Provençal literature before M. Raynouard, no one at least has communicated to the public the results of his studies. Such a long neglect is the more surprising, as this literature must in

terest not only the learned of France, but those of Spain and Italy, since many celebrated Troubadours were born in their country, and since the Provençal poetry, the first could not fail to have great influence on the to develope itself, and much diffused abroad, formation of the Spanish and Italian poetry. The Provençal dialect appears to have been spoken heretofore in some parts of Upper Italy. It exists at this day as a living tongue, excepting the inevitable alteration of so many centuries, in Catalonia, in the kingdom of Valencia, and in the Balearic Isles, as well

as in the south of France.

clear this uncultivated ground. The task "M. Raynouard has begun the first to which he has undertaken singly, is of such extent and difficulty, that one would have said it was sufficient to occupy a society or scholars for a considerable number of years. But he does not come new to the undertaking; what he gives to the public is matured by long study all his materials are readyand with the activity he bestows on his work, we may hope to see it increase rapidly, and soon to be in possession of the whole, exhibiting a complete course of Provençal litera

ture.

*

"The pieces we have before us serve as the Introduction. In the first, the author traces the Romance dialect to its origin, bringing together such scattered indications as are left of it. In the second, he seizes language at the very moment, as it were, of a more regular formation, and analyses its most ancient monuments extant. Lastly, in the Grammar he developes the inflexions, the rules, the idioms of the language, such as it was spoken and written in its most flourishing epoch, that is to say, in the twelfth and thirteenth century.

The second volume of this Collection, under the title of Monuments of the Romance Language, will contain the most ancient companied with a translation and notes. In original texts, both in verse and prose, acthe third, which is at this moment in the press, and will appear along with the second, will be collected the amatory poetry of the Troubadours. In the first half of the fourth, the sirventes and the tenzons-generally, the satirical, political, moral, and religious pieces. The second part of this volume will contain the various readings, the lives of the poets, such as they are found in the manuscripts, and some pieces which the Editor did not think fit to rank under the preceding heads. In the fifth, a comparative view of the languages of Latin Europe, and other philological researches, will serve as the Introduction to a Glossary of the Romance language, reserved to the last volumes.

"The erudition of M. Raynouard is as extensive as it is solid. But what is far more admirable still, is the luminous criticism, the truly philosophic method which he

*The first Volume.