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God requires purity of heart. They who worship him muft "worship hun in Spirit and truth." When we pray we should not do it with the voice only, "but with the understanding alto;" for God giveth audience to the devout prayers of the filent, who commune with their own hearts and are still.”

Chrift, of whofe divine miffion we are perfectly perfuaded, hath affured us in the ftrongeft terms, whatever we afk in his name it fhall be granted: that our prayers fhall be moft graciously accepted, and our petitions be complied with, as far as they are confiftent with our felicity. In that we aík and receive not, 'tis because we afk amifs. For God is ever more ready to hear than we to offer up our pray ers to the throne of grace. Prayer is the chief tribute that he expects from us frail and dependent mortals. This moft certainly we ought to pay to fo beneficent a being, under all the various exigencies of life. Befides, when prayer is properly directed, it makes the heart ferene, and abftracts it from terreftrial things; it purifieth from vice, elevates to Heaven, and expands it for the reception of what is truly good. For as the fun affords light to the body, fo prayer is the light of the foul. But if mankind are vain mockers, not caring to preferve, but extinguish that light, how great muft their intellectual darkness be.

As this article is already confiderably extended, we fhall defer our farther remarks for a future Review.

Ruffia: Or, a compleat Hiftorical Account of all the
Nations which compofe that Empire.
(Contiued from page 32)

The domeftic manners of the various provinces of this immenfe empire are detailed in this entertaining publication with an exactness which fufficiently ftamps authenticity on the narrative. The matrimonial and funeral ceremonies are particularly ftriking. We will begin with those of the Ingrians, one of the Nunifh nations.

"When a man is inclined to marry, he buys himself a girl, and celebrates his nuptials. All the way to the church they are ac companied by two women in veils, who fiog as they go compofitions, if one may call them fo, totally deftitute of common fenfe. No looner is the marriage ceremony performed, than the husband begins to treat his wife with the utmost feverity, and thencefor ward keeps her under ftrict difcipline; though not always with the greatest attention to justice. She is often beaten for the laults of her children, and fometimes for those of the domeftics.

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The dead are buried by the priest of the profeffion to which they belong; but thefe fuperftitious people return to the grave under covert of the night, and having taken up the fod, depofit eatables for their departed friend, which they renew during a fortnight or three weeks. Dogs and other animals easily scratch up these victuals and devour them, while the good folks that placed them there believe they were confumed by the deceased. Their general opinion is, that they continue to live in the fub terranean world in the fame manner as they did on the furface of the earth; and that the grave is little more than a change of habitation: for which reafon they bury their money, that they may have it to use in the world to come. They fpeak to their deceased friends, and go to their tomb for that purpose; but at the fame time are much afraid of them. Some gentlemen, not long ago, furprised a woman in the environs of St. Peterburg in this act, and heard her without being perceived. She was telling her de ceafed hufband, that a fortnight after his deceafe fhe married again; that to appease his manes, and to prevent his doing her any injury for it, fhe had approached his grave, upon which he had laid her felf flat, crying grievously, and making bitter lamen:ations and at length the concluded by faying, with many tragical geftures, 66 Behold, thou art dead. Alas! alas! But be not angry with

me that I have married this lad much younger than thee, Alas! alas! I will not take the lefs care of thy fon, thy little darling. "Alas! &c."

"Among their holy places there is one upon the road to Riga, at the distance of about ten verfts from Petersburg. It is formed by a large lime-tree, whofe branches are interwoven with thofe of the foreft that are nearest to it, and forms a delightful natural bower. Peter the Great was charmed with this lovely fpot, and ufed frequently to ftop at it."

Of the Tfcheremiffes our author observes,

"In earlier times this people led a paftoral life; but by degrees they imitated the Ruffians, and have begun to plough the earth, and cultivate their fields; becaufe the land they occupy being much smaller than what they formerly poffeffed, they are no longer able to draw a maintenance from their flocks alone.

"In their exterior, the Tfcheremiffes are a fort of mean between the Tartars and the Ruffians: but the men have neither the vivacity nor the determined character of the Ruffians; and their women are much inferior to those of Ruffia, as well in regard to comeliness, as in gaiety of temper, and vanity of drefs; though otherwife the Tfcheremiffian women are tolerably well made.

"What the Tfcheremiffes want in alertnefs they make up for in industry. They are headstrong and fufpicious, like all other unpolished people. They have no calculation of time, either by VOL. XI.

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years or months; and are totally deftitute of all tradition concerning their ancestors.

"Thefe people never dwell in towns. Each village is compofed of about thirty houfes at the utmoft; which, in like manner with thofe of the Ruffians, has a fort of provoft, called Sotnik, an under provost, or Defatnik; inftead of both which, fome villages have. only a Staroft, or elder, whom they chufe from among themselves. It is his bufinefs, befides labouring like his brethren, to hear complaints, adjust differences, and inflict punishments.

"The farm confifts of a hut of only one room for the family, a few tables and out-houfes in the yard, none of which are contiguous, and feveral fittle magazines built each on a perpendicular bank, which ferve them alfo for chambers in the fummer feafon. All these buildings are of wood, forming a fquare, the area of which between the different huts is all open. Their rooms for winter are built at the height of about four or five feet over a cet. lar, to which you afcend by a few clumsey steps, under a covering of planks. Each room contains, befides the oven, a hearth for culinary purposes, and a broad bench for the family to fleep on. Sometimes the kitchen is in the dwelling-houfe, and then it is called the Black Room, which in truth it is from the smoke, which has no vent by means of a chimney. The doors of their rooms are very low; and instead of a window a hole is made of about a foot and a half. fquare, covered with bladders or linen, to anfwer the purposes of glafs. Their houfhold goods refemble thofe of

the Ruffian villagers.

"All the Ticheremiffes are husbandmen in the style of the Ruffian peafants. The pagans ftill abhor pork; and it is only a very few of fuch as have been baptized that are able to conquer this prejudice. In winter they follow hunting.

"This people are neither enterprifing nor fkilful, and confe quently are poor. If any one poffeffes thirty horses, as many horned cattle, and about forty fheep, he is a great man amongst them.

"The women are employed in fewing, in making linen, and embroidering their linen garments with wool of their own dying. The Tfcheremiffes are totally regardless of cleanliness in their cloaths as well as in their victuals. The pagans eat indifferently the flesh of horses, bears, and all forts of birds; and in case of neceffity, even of carnivorous animals; but they will never touch any animal that died by fickness or accident. They understand the management of bees, both wild and domeftic, exceedingly well; and are very fond of fishing. They never meddle with 'weaving, though the Ruffian peafants fucceed fo well in that employment. Their impofts confift in a capitation tax according to the number of males in each diftrict, in recruits, and in the relay. of herfes they are obliged to furnish. Some Tfcheremiffran villages in the diftrict of Koungour pay their tribute in the furs of

martens.

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"The drefs of the men is nearly like that of the Ruffians, excepting that they comb their hair from the crown of the head ftrait down, and then cut it all round nearly close to the head. The collar, wristbands, and bofom of their fhirts, are embroidered with coloured worted. Their coat is of a coarfe Ruffian cloth, made of black wool, and has a cape behind like that of our English furtout, and an opening in the fkirts on each fide. The drefs of the married women is the fame as that of the girls, only better worked. They wear trouzers; and instead of stockings wrap their legs in linen rags; * their shoes are made of the bark of trees, cut into stripes, and matted. In the fummer feason they wear nothing over their fhift; which is not put into the trouzers, but hangs over them all round. This fhift is close at the neck and the wrift, cut into fhape, and comes down to the knees. The neck, the wristbands, and all the feams, are covered with a whimsical embroidery of different coloured worsted; a large buckle holds it together at the bofom, and a girdle round the waift. When they would be more dreffed than ordinary, they put over this fhift a habit like a morning gown, made of various-coloured cloths, and tolerably fine; to this latter they generally give an edging of bea ver. Their caps are very high, and in the shape of a cone; they call them fchourki, and make them of the bark of birch, covered with skin or linen, adorned with glafs beads, little white fhells, and fmall filver money. From this cap a ribbon three inches broad, called fchirkama, garnished in the fame manner as the cap, falls down the back. Some wear a broad ribbon on the forehead, covered with pieces of money and glafs beads, instead of the Jcbourk, and this kind of head-drefs is called ofchpou. The Tfcheremiffian women of the provinces of Cufa and Viaitk commonly wear a number of rings, thimbles, and all forts of rattling pendants, at their girdles, which ornaments reach down to the joint of the knee behind and as fhe walks, thus curiously adorned, her trappings make a noife which offends the ears."

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The Votjaks bargain for their wives, and those who retain their paganism have as many as they can purchase: however it is not very common for them to take two or more at a time. The negociation of a marriage is called yerafchou, and the price that is paid for the wife yer doun, which is, for the most part, between five and fifteen rubles; and the dowry of the bride is always in praportion to the fum fhe cofts her husband. Intereft is the only thing that determines them to marry, and then decides their choice; yet they never marry their fons under ten years of age, nor their daughters till they are fifteen.

On bringing the yerdoun to his father in-law, the young man takes back his bride, who is delivered, to him covered with a veil.

Haybands are often ufed for this purpofe, when they go on horfeback in the winter. But the linen rags are their common wear; and are tied on, to keep them from unwrapping, by a rush, or piece of packthread, paffed feveral times round the calf of the leg. "On

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On his retnrn home, he finds guefts affembled in his father's house, to whom the bride is prefented, after having been previously taken afide into another room, and cloathed in the dress of a married woman, who, whilft the tor-kart, or priest, makes the oblation of a cup of beer to the gods, fits in the door-way upon a piece of cloth, laid there for that purpofe: the object of the offering is to procure bread, riches, and children, to the new-married couple, who drink of the beer bleffed by the prieft, which act may be called the facerdotal benediction of the nuptials. This done, one of the bride-maids prefents beer or mead to all the guests, and the bride kneels down before every one of them till he has drank off his goblet: then they eat and drink as much as they are able, and dance till the young people are put to bed.

"Some weeks after the wedding, the bride's father comes to examine into the house-keeping, and brings the remainder of the dowry; or, instead of it, fome pieces of houfhold stuff, and takes back his daughter, whom he keeps from her husband two or three months, and fometimes even a whole year. During all this time fhe dreffes like a virgin, and is employed at work fometimes for her parents, and at others for herself. At the end of the determined fpace, the hufband comes to demand his wife, who fhews as much repugnance at following him as the did on the day of her marriage; the fame crying at taking leave of her parents, and the fame reluctance at going to bed: however, the foon fuffers herself to be perfuaded, and eafily admits of confolation. The friends of the family are again regaled, and make even greater merriment than they did on the day of the marriage. The wedding of a widow is conducted with much lefs ceremony.

"Among the Ticheremiffes, and indeed amongst all the people who thus buy their wives, it often happens that a lover who is poor, or has been refufed for any other caufe, carries off his miftrefs by force; but the Votiaks put this expedient into practice moft frequently of any of them. The manner in which this gal lant expedition is conducted is as follows; the young hero comes by night, accompanied with feveral other determined champions, to furprife the girl in bed, whom they put upon a horse, and then all ride off as fast as they can gallop. If it happens that the rape is immediately difcovered, and the ravifher taken, he may expect to lofe his fweetheart, and to receive a hearty drubbing to boot. It is not uncommon for a young Votiak to carry off from the fields a young woman whom he never knew before. No fooner is he arrived at a place of fafety than he haftens to confummation, in the prefence of feveral witneffes, at once to fecure the poffeffion of his lady, and to obtain a wife at lefs expence; for the parents, not. withstanding this accident, will not let him have her for nothing. They generally endeavour to difcover the place whither their daughter is carried, and accommodate matters as well as they can with their obtruded fon-in-law; but nothing of this kind ever hinders the ordinary feftivities of the nuptiale,

"The

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