SUPERSTITION AS TO PIGEONS.

79

is almost incredible; and the operations of cuting off heads, plucking, cleaning, and preparing the whole feathered tribe, were going on with the utmost rapidity in all directions. So tender are the consciences of the Moscovites, that they will not eat pigeons, because they consider these birds the emblem of the Holy Ghost; yet they do not, on the other hand, scruple to pluck geese alive; and we actually witnessed some barbarians thus employed in the open market,a very convincing proof, were one required, that superstition tends as little to make men humane, as it does to render them moral. With all this diabolical cruelty, they seem to pique themselves on being extremely devout; for an effigy of one of the persons of the Trinity is to be seen, with a lamp burning before it, at every stall, in the midst of all this slaughter and butchery. Nothing, in reality, can be more abominably indecent, or, rather, impious; and one would almost imagine it was devised for the very purpose of bringing into contempt the religion they profess. As to the veneration they pretend to entertain for pigeons, they should, in order to preserve consistency, extend it to lamb, and abstain altogether from eating the flesh of that animal; because it is one of those emblems under which Christ is typified.

One place of traffic, where old clothes are the

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:

THE KNOUT.

staple commodity, is particularly resorted to on Sundays, when this Rag-fair may be seen thronged with buyers and sellers, settling their bargains with more bustle and noise than decorum. The market where cattle are sold is contiguous to the city, and this is also the spot where the sanguinary punishment of the knout is inflicted. Here we observed the scaffold, on which the miserable criminals are tied up, which is a sloping piece of wood, about six feet in height. On the top there is a hollow for the head of the culprit to rest in it is also scooped on each side for the hands; and there are rings to which both head and hands are fastened. The knout is nearly six feet in length, and every blow takes off the skin. In cases of murder, besides undergoing this punishment, the culprit has part of his nostrils cut out, and is branded with a red hot iron, and sent off to Siberia. Formerly, with the view of extorting confessions, it was the practice to tie a rope round the culprit, and tow him up and down quickly, within a few inches of the ground. This might, with propriety, be termed a refinement of cruelty, and had the effect of dislocating the shoulders. A number of anecdotes were related to us at this place, respecting persons who had undergone this dreadful punishment, the horrid shrieks and

ence.

groans of some, and the astonishing fortitude exemplified by others, almost exceeding belief. Many have actually been known to call upon the executioner to put them out of existOne anecdote is related of a murderer, who, being offered some milk by his wife, refused it, as it was a day set apart for fasting! Another is told of a lady, who, having seen her servant more than once in an attitude of prayer, and bowing before a church, suspected, from this excessive show of devotion, so contrary to his former demeanour, that he had been guilty of some crime, when it turned out he robbed the house. In truth, the lower orders here appear to consider that bowing to images, and making the sign of the cross, are adequate substitutes for all morality, and the positive fulfilment of every religious duty, to the utter perversion of all reason, and the confounding

* The hardihood and physical insensibility of the Russian almost exceeds credibility. It is related that a malefactor, who had been stretched five days on the wheel, on any thing being given him to drink, expressed a wish that before his death he might have a convivial meeting with his comrades. Others who have been hung by the ribs on iron hooks, lived above three days, and only expressed a desire to have their thirst quenched. One of them, who had lived in this situation a day and a half, being told by some one of his vicious courses, exclaimed, "Fellow, if I had now the power to extricate myself from this situation, my vengeance should be exercised upon you; and I only regret that you did not perish by my hands!”

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EXTENT OF MOSCOW.

every distinction between the principles of right and wrong. We may surely, therefore, without any breach of charity, observe, that there must be "something rotten in the state of Denmark," and grossly erroneous in the church which connives at, if it does not expressly encourage, a moral laxity, not only contrary to the fundamental laws of Revelation itself, but in direct opposition both to conscience and to reason.

The ground, within the barriers of Moscow, amounts to 16,120,800 square fathoms (seven feet to the fathom). A valuation of the city was lately made, and found to amount to 169,231,290 rubles, on which the taxes raised amount to one half per cent. About one third of the whole population may be considered as nobility; and most of the foreigners are Germans. During winter, it is supposed the number of residents exceeds those at every other period by 40,000.* There are several of our countrymen

*The following calculations may be interesting :Births.- Males, 1821; females, 1616. Total, 3437. Deaths. Males grown, 960; females, 828. Total, 1797. Male children, 1403; females, 1263. Total, 2666.

Died from accident.- Killed, 7; drowned, 32. Murdered.-Killed, 5; throats cut, 2; strangled, 5 :—suicides:-shot themselves, 2; poisoned, 1; cut throat, 1; hanged themselves, 8.

From a series of computations on the comparative product

INVASION OF THE FRENCH.

83

here, who are chiefly engaged in mercantile pursuits. During the invasion of the French, who took possession of their houses, such was their hatred of every thing that had the stamp of coming from England, that on the proprietors returning, after the decampment of the enemy, they found that English books had been stabbed through with bayonets, and others torn to pieces.

It may be added, that the greatest degree of cold, at Moscow, is 35° of Reaumur below freezing.

of births in proportion to marriages in Europe, a member of the French Institute lays it down, that while the south of France or Portugal average 5.3 children to each marriage, the north of France or south of England will not exceed 4.4; and the farther north the proportion of children diminishes.