of a different colour, which reaches down below the knee, chap.
and is fattened round the waift with a faih or girdle ; th e . U' ,
fleeves of this upper garment are in warm weather tied
behind the ihoulders; a fabre is a neceffary part of their
drefs as a mark of nobility. In fummer, the robe, fee. is
of filk ; in winter, of cloth, velvet, or fluff, edged with fur.
They wear fur-caps or bonnets, and buikins of yellow leather,
the heels of which are plaited with iron or fteel. The drefs
of the ladies is a fimple polonaife, or long robe, edged with
fur.
The Poles, in their features, look, cuftoms, drefs, and
general appearance, refemble Afiatics rather than Europeans;
and they are unqueflionably defcended fromTartar anceftors.
A German hiftorian *, well verfed in the antiquity of nations,
remarks, that the manner in which the Poles wear their
hair is, perhaps, one of the moft antient tokens of their origin.
So early as the fifth century fome nations, who were
comprehended under the name of Scythians, had the fame
cuftom. For Prifcus Rhaetor, who accompanied Maximus
in his embafly from Theodofius II. to the court of Attila,
defcribes a Scythian lord, whofe head was ihaved in a circular
form +, a mode perfe&ly analogous to the prefent
faihion in Poland.
Before we quitted this part of Poland, we vilited the celebrated
falt-mines of Wielitika, which are fituated within
eight miles of Cracow. Thefe mines are excavated in a ridge
of hills at the Northern extremity of the chain which joins
to the Carpathian mountains : they take their appellation
from the fmall village of Wielitika; but are fometimes
called in foreign countries the mines of Cracow, from
their vicinity to that city.
* Mafcow, f Capite in. rotundum rafo.
Y 2 Upon