book {he had on a blue garment without fleeves, which defcended
. . , ' . to the ankles, and was tied round the waift with a red falh ;
ihe wore a white piece of linen wrapped round her head
like a turban, ear-rings, and necklace of variegated beads ;
her fhoes were faftened with blue firings, which were alfo
bound round the ankles, in order to keep up the coarfe linen
wrappers which ferved for ftockings.
Auguft 27. Our route the next morning, from Zarateih
to Viaftna, lay through a continuity of foreft, occafionally
relieved by the intervention of paftures and corn-fields.
When we reflected that we were in the 55th degree of
northern latitude, we were furprized at the forwardnefs of
the harveft : the wheat and barley were already carried in,
and the peafants were employed in cutting the oats and
millet. Since our departure from Smoleniko the weather
had proved remarkably cold, and the wind had the keennefs
of a November blaft: the peafants were all clothed in their
fheepikins, or winter dreffes.
At a fmall diftance from Viafma we pa-fied the rivulet of
the fame name, navigable only for rafts, which defcend its
ftream into the Dnieper: we then mounted a fmall eminence,
on the top whereof fiands the town, making a magnificent
appearance with the domes and fpires of feveral
churches riling above the trees. Viafma fpreads, in a broken
disjointed manner, over a large extent of ground : its buildings
are moftly of wood, a few hQufes of brick excepted,
which had lately been erecfted by the munificence of the em-
prefs. Part of the principal ftreet is formed, like the
Ruffian roads, of the trunks of trees laid crofs-ways, and
part is boarded with planks like the floor of a room. It
contains above twenty churches, an aftoniihing number for
a place but thinly inhabited. The churches in thefe fmall
towns
towns and villages are moftly ornamented with a cupola and CI*AP>
feveral domes: the outfide walls are either white-walhed o r '— .— 1
painted red, and the cupolas or domes are generally of a
different colour from the other parts. At fome diftance the
number of fpires and domes riling above the trees, which
conceal the contiguous hovels from view, would lead a traveller
unacquainted with the country to expedt a large city
in a place, where perhaps, upon nearer infpedtion, he will
only find a colledtion of wooden huts.
At Viafma was concluded, in 1634, the treaty of perpetual
peace between Ladiflaus IV. king of Poland, and Michael
Feodorovitch : by this treaty Michael confirmed the
ceffion of Smoleniko, Severia, and Tchernichef, which had
been yielded to the Poles at the truce of Develina; while
Ladiflaus renounced the title of Tzar, and acknowledged
Michael as the rightful fovereign of Ruffia *. On this occa-
fion both monarchs relinquilhed what they did not poffefs ;
and wifely facrificed imaginary pretenfions to the attainment
of a fubftantial peace.
The Ruffian peafants appeared in general a large coarfe
hardy race, and of great bodily ftrength. Their drefs is a
round hat or cap with a very high crown, a coarfe robe o f
drugget (or in winter of iheep-ikin with the wool turned^
inwards) reaching below the knee, and bound round the
waift by, a falh, trowfers of linen almoft as thick as fack-
cloth, a woollen or flannel cloth wrapped round the- leg in-
ftead of ftockings; fandals woven from ftrips of a pliant
bark, and faftened by firings of the fame materials, which
are afterwards twined round the leg, and ferve as garters
to the woollen or flannel wrappers. In warm weather the
* Lengnich,-Hiit. Pol. p. 167.
peafants