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Updated: June 10, 2025
In the third century of the Christian era, it was celebrated for its commerce, and it became one of the favorite capitals of the all-conquering Tartars. Russia, being now in possession of all the upper waters of the Volga, decided to extend their dominions down the river to the Caspian.
On the 7th of December we passed between two terrible rocks, when the guide sent entreating me to pray to God: we sang accordingly with a loud voice, the credo and other hymns, and by the grace of God we got through in safety. After this the Tartars entreated me to write papers for them; but I offered to teach them words to carry in their hearts, whereby their souls should be saved.
After we had passed this desert we came into a country pretty well inhabited that is to say, we found towns and castles, settled by the Czar with garrisons of stationary soldiers, to protect the caravans and defend the country against the Tartars, who would otherwise make it very dangerous travelling; and his czarish majesty has given such strict orders for the well guarding the caravans, that, if there are any Tartars heard of in the country, detachments of the garrison are always sent to see the travellers safe from station to station.
They had large wrappers thrown round them; but left their faces uncovered. Their household goods consisted of tents, handsome rugs, iron pots, copper coins, etc. The Tartars are mostly of the Mahomedan religion. The permanent Tartars have very peculiar dwellings, which may be called enormous mole-hills.
All the people of the immense dominions who acknowledge the authority of the great khan, whether Christians, or Jews, Mahometans, Tartars, or Pagans, are bound, on this anniversary, to pray solemnly to their Gods for the life, safety, prosperity, and health of the great khan.
By this time it was nearly midnight. The deep gloom again threw its protecting shadows over the raft. The Tartars were there, going to and fro near the river. They could not be seen, but they could be heard. The fires of the outposts burned brightly. In the meantime it had become necessary to steer more carefully among the blocks of ice.
And by this striking link of the cultus of the dead the ancient Etruscans were connected with the present inhabitants of Northern Asia, the Finns, Laplanders, Tartars, Mongols, and Chinese, who have no temples or places of special honour for their idols, but assemble once a year or oftener at the graves of their ancestors to worship the dead.
Jasdi is a great city on the confines of Persia, which carries on a great trade, and has many manufactures of silk. Chiaman is a kingdom on the frontiers of Persia to the east, which is subject to the Tartars. In the veins of the mountains, the stones commonly called turquoises are found, and other valuable jewels.
After we were out of this desert and had travelled two days, we came to Janezay, a Muscovite city or station, on the great river Janezay, which, they told us there, parted Europe from Asia. All the country between the river Oby and the river Janezay is as entirely pagan, and the people as barbarous, as the remotest of the Tartars.
So he takes his bow and arrows, and, getting on horseback, he rides away from our rear directly, as it were, back to Nertzinskay; after this, he takes a great circuit about, and comes to the army of the Tartars, as if he had been sent express to tell them a long story, that the people who had burnt their Cham-Chi-Thaungu were gone to Sibeilka, with a caravan of miscreants, as he called them; that is to say, Christians; and that they were resolved to burn the god Seal Isarg, belonging to the Tonguses.
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