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P L A T E IX.
A TCHEREMHISIAN WOMAN.
T H E people, called Tcheremhisi, inhabit part of the governments of
Kazan, Nizney, Novogorod, and Orenburg. Their origin is from
the Finns, although their language is now perfectly distinct. They
formerly led a pastoral life, but have since imitated their Russian
conquerors, and cultivate the land. The character of these people
for bravery is not equal to the Russians, nor are their women
so handsome, so full of vivacity, or so vain ; they are not, however,
ill-made. The men are laborious, but slow. They possess neither
literature, nor even wr i t ing; all their history is traditional, and even
the division of time by months and years is unknown to them. They
never live in towns, but their villages consist of about thirty houses,
constructed entirely of wood. In winter, when the works of agriculture
cannot be carried on, the men employ themselves in hunting,
and the women in spinning, and working on the different parts of their
dress, which they embroider with wool, dyed by themselves of different
colours. I t is the custom among these people to purchase their wives,
and the common price is from thirty to fifty roubles (about ten pounds),
though sometimes an hundred have been given; nor do they always
confine themselves to one wife. And as the women are obliged to work,
it is not uncommon for a father, who can afford it, to purchase wives
for his sons, when they are no more than six years old; but the girls
must not be above fifteen.
We shall give a description of their dress in the next Plate, which
exhibits the back of the same female.
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