The Human Race

The Northern Slavonian is, in general, gentle and patient. His sweet toned language caresses the ear and the mind with expressions full of tenderness. He treats his wife and children with the greatest kindness. Like the Arab, he loves a life of wandering and adventure beneath the open sky, and, like the Arab, he can bear the greatest fatigue. On horseback he crosses plains covered with snow, as the Arab crosses the burning sands of the desert. Music has a very moving effect on the Slavonian. It forms a means of translating his tenderness and his melancholy; it responds to the vague and cloudy impressions, to the yearnings, of his swelling heart. The Slavonian peasants cultivate the voice, and men, rough and coarse in many other respects, compose melodies full of sentiment. The auditors press around the singer, like the shepherds of ancient Arcadia, and tears of emotion and pleasure are seen rolling down the unkempt beards of these poor Danubians.

The Slavonians are less sensible to linear than to musical harmony. Thus it is that Russian architecture can do no more than imitate the monuments of France and Italy. On the other hand, the taste for colour attains with them a considerable development, a fact which is evidenced by the colours of their materials and furniture, and the decoration of their apartments. The sense of ornament is to be met with in the lowest villages of Russia, and the peasant who constructs his house with the rough-hewn trunks of trees, does not omit to paint and carve his door, window, and roof.

This explains how the serf, when taken from his plough, is able, after a very short apprenticeship, to reproduce the delicate and artistic work of the Parisian jeweller.

We see, therefore, that the artistic aptitudes of the Slavonian are well developed, and that this race, in order to arrive at excellence in art, only requires the conditions of political liberty and individual independence.

From a moral aspect, the Northern Slavonian obeys, above all, the inclination of his heart, rather than of his reason. Nor must the Russian be looked to for personal initiative, or philosophical or social innovations. He does not possess the instinct of liberty, but he has, in a high degree, sympathy, collective action, and the equalizing tendencies which are its consequences.

This sentimental supremacy is manifested in the Orthodox religion which prevails in Russia, which imposes with authority its decisions, and the precepts of which are addressed less to the reason than to blind faith.

By referring to this feeling of sympathy, we are enabled to furnish an explanation of the facility with which an immense population, with bad police arrangements, bad administration, and without good means of communication, acts collectively, accepting the same faith, and obeying the same law. The minds of all in Russia seem to obey one single will and inspiration.

The Slavonian republics flourished from the sixth to the seventh century, during which time these people were happy, wealthy, and tranquil. Art and science flourished there under the shelter of municipal liberty. But, although well formed for peace, they did not possess the element of centralization which was necessary to enable them to withstand foreign aggression. They at last became a prey to the Mongolians and Germans, who brought with them a feudal form of government, and banished all prosperity by destroying the democratic element of equality. The inhabitants of Novgorod were reduced to an actual state of slavery, and Poland, devoted to deplorable political institutions, became, from that moment, a prey to the anarchy which was to bring about its fall.

Russia took its origin from the submission of the Slavonian populations of the north, to the despotic centralization so powerfully organized by Peter the Great and his successors.

The Slavonians of the South, that is, the inhabitants of Slavonia, Servia, Bulgaria, Carniola, &c., differ sensibly from those of the North. A dry and mountainous country, filled, nevertheless, with sweet odours, a burning sun, a clear sky, and the various products of the soil, have rendered the race of Southern Slavonians dark, wiry, active, warlike, and chivalrous. Few men are stronger, physically or morally, than the Slavonians of the Ottoman Empire.

The deplorable Turkish administration has been unable to change the precious qualifications of this people. Though continually beaten down with the sword, they always rise again; the least hope of independence nerves their hearts. The hospitality of the Southern Slavonians, their language brimming with poetry, and their national songs, all impart to them a fine and beautiful character. It may be safely affirmed that a brilliant civilization will arise among these people as soon as they are released from the Turkish yoke.

We will now shortly consider the principal populations whom we have classed under the Slavonian family.

Russians.– The Russians form the most important branch of this family. They may be subdivided into Russians properly so called, Rousniaks, and Cossacks.

The Russians, properly so called, inhabit, almost exclusively, the central portion of Russia, and are, moreover, disseminated throughout all the rest of the Russian Empire, the immense extent of which is well known. In the Asiatic and American portions of this vast empire, they form, not the majority, but the ruling section of the population.

Figs. 43 and 44 will convey an idea of the Russian physiognomy in the capital of the empire, St. Petersburg; fig. 43 represents the dress of the townspeople, and the sledge which takes the place of the carriage during the long winters of this latitude; fig. 44 represents the interior of an inn.

43. – TRAFFIC IN ST. PETERSBURG.

In Russian, the term isba is applied to the dwellings of the peasantry, which are almost always constructed of wood. A Russian village usually consists of only one street, lined with isbas, more or less ornamented, according to the taste or fortune of the proprietor. The houses are almost always similar. Figure 45 shows the interior of this house.

44. – A RUSSIAN TAVERN.

In these houses everything is made of wood, except that portion which surrounds a gigantic stove kept alight during the whole winter. The furniture consists of forms placed along the walls, and which serve as beds for the whole family, who in winter however sleep upon the stove.

To the ceiling are suspended the provisions and candles. In the corner of every room is an image of the Virgin Mary. Instruments of labour, cooking utensils, and domestic animals mingle, within the isba, in picturesque disorder.

45. – INTERIOR OF AN ISBA.

The Russian peasant is intelligent, brave, hospitable, affable, and benevolent; but he is wanting in cleanliness, and indulges to excess in malt spirit. He wears a shirt of cotton-stuff, usually red, falling over capacious trousers, which are tucked into heavy boots.

His outer clothing consists of the touloupa, formed of a sheep’s skin with the wool on, and worn with this next the body. His low crowned hat has a broad turned up rim. The hat worn by peasants in the neighbourhood of Moscow is pointed and almost without a rim.

The women wear boots like the men: they also wear the touloupa, with a shawl and kerchief over the head and shoulders. It is only on fête days that this wretched costume gives place to aprons and shawls, of bright colour, and even embroidered in gold and silver. The head-dresses are elegant, and vary in the different provinces.

46. – LIVONIAN PEASANTS.

The pleasures of a Russian peasant are always of a serious character. The quick and sparkling expansion and gaiety of Southern populations are unknown to the inhabitants of these frozen regions.

M. d’Hearyet, who has travelled in the Russian provinces of the Baltic, informs us, that at Riga the houses are comfortable and well appointed; that immense stoves preserve a temperature of 68° or more in vast apartments, guarded from without by double windows and double doors: that persons leaving the house envelop themselves in a fur robe, which leaves no form distinguishable, so that it is difficult to say whether the individual in question is a man or woman: that at night, the bed is small, low, furnished with one or two leathern mattresses and some sheets a little larger than napkins. They live in a hot-house atmosphere, the air of which is not often enough renewed.

47. – TARTAR OF KASAK.

The Cossacks form in Russia rather a military caste than a distinct people. They seem to be descended from the Rousniaks mixed with other people, chiefly Circassians. They frequently have longer faces, more prominent noses, and are of greater height, than the Russians properly so called. Their principal settlement is upon the banks of the lower portion of the Don. They, however, rarely possess a fixed residence, since the Cossacks, spread throughout the entire Russian Empire, act as light cavalry and border troops.

48. – TARTAR OF THE CAUCASUS.

Figures 48 and 49 represent different types, taken from Nature, of Cossacks who live in the Caucasus, along the frontiers which bound the Southern portion of the Russian possessions.

Finns.– The Finns form small scattered populations which extend from the Baltic sea to the east of the Obi. The Finns are regarded as the remains of people once far more numerous, who have been conquered, repressed, carried off, or driven back by Slavonians, Turks, and Mongolians. They lead the life of hunters and husbandmen, rather than that of warriors and nomads. Reddish, or, frequently red hair, a scanty beard, a complexion marked with red patches, bluish or grey eyes, sunken cheeks, prominent cheek-bones, a large occiput, and an angular frame possessing less beauty than that of the Europeans and Arameans, have been regarded as the original characteristics of the Finns: but in a large number of these people these characteristics are more or less modified. Among them are distinguished the Ostiaks, the Vogouls, the Finns of Siberia, the Finns of Eastern Russia, and the Finns of the Baltic.

The Finns of Siberia form two groups; one in the South, the other in the North.

49. – TARTAR OF THE CAUCASUS.

The former is composed of certain people known under the names of the Teleouts, Sagaïs, and Kachintz, whose language bears some general affinity to Turkish dialects; these give themselves up to hunting, fishing, and agriculture, and are subject to the Russian Empire.

The Northern group is formed of two people: the Ostiaks and the Vogouls who have retained Finnish dialects.

50. – RUSSIAN NORTH-SEA PILOT.

The Vogouls form only a very insignificant population dwelling east of the Oural, and have undergone such mixture with the Turks and Mongolians as to have adopted to a great extent their characteristics.

The Ostiaks who dwell upon the banks of the Obi appear to have preserved in much greater perfection the characteristics of the Finns. They are a people devoted to hunting and fishing, with red hair, very uncivilized, and partly idolatrous.

Madame Eva Felinska, during an exile in Siberia, inspected, as far as possible, the Ostiak huts. These habitations were so foul, and gave forth such putrid miasmas, that, notwithstanding her curiosity, this lady was unable to remain in them more than a minute.

The Ostiaks cover their skins with a layer of rancid fat, over which they wear a reindeer skin. They eat uncooked fish or game, this being their ordinary food. But from time to time they go with large buckets of bark to Berezer, where they collect, and devour as delicacies, the refuse of the kitchens. Fig. 51 represents an Ostiak hut.

The Finns of Eastern Russia comprise the Baskirs, the Teptiars, and the Metscheriaks of the Southern Oural: three small peoples who speak Turkish dialects mingled with Finnish words, and who exist in very much the same way. The Baskirs are the most numerous; they are engaged in rearing horses and bees. Like the Cossacks they furnish bodies of cavalry to the Russian army.

The Finns of the Volga comprise the Tchouvachians, Tcheremissians and Moadueinites, who likewise speak dialects interspersed with Turkish words: a short time since they turned their attention to husbandry.

Certain populations scattered through the governments of Perm, Vologda, Orenburg, and Viatka, are the remains of a people of some consideration, formerly independent, civilized, and commercial, whom the Russians subdued, and to a large extent absorbed: these are the Permians.

The Finns of the Baltic, or Finns properly so called, have been long under the rule of Teutonic nations, and have generally preserved the characteristics of the family we have described above. Among them are distinguished the Livonians, Esthonians, Ischorians, Kyrials, Ymes or Finlanders, and Quaines, who are respectively the remains of the ancient inhabitants of Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, Finland, and Carelia, where they are now mixed with the Slavonians and Teutons. During the last century the Quaines pushed forward to the extremity of Norwegian Lapland, of which they at present form the principal population.

51. – OSTIAK HUT.

Bulgarians, Servians, and Bosniaks or inhabitants of Flavinia. – In order to describe these, we need do no more than refer to the general facts which have been stated above with reference to the Southern Slavonians. We will merely borrow a few descriptions and illustrations from the work of M. George Perrot, a French writer, “Voyage chez les Slaves du Sud,” published in 1870, and well known on account of the excellent history it contains of his travels in Asia Minor.

52. – ISIGANE OF VOAKOVAR.

M. George Perrot travelled through Slavonia, Croatia, Bosnia, and the strip of territory recently cleared to serve as a frontier to the Mussulman possessions, and which bears the name of Military Confines.

53. – SLAVONIAN PEASANT.

M. George Perrot first of all gives us some types of the inhabitants of Slavonia, which we shall reproduce here. Figure 54 represents a peasant from the neighbourhood of Essek, a town of Slavonia.

54. – A PEASANT OF ESSEK.

While halting at the borough of Vouka, situated a few leagues from Essek, M. George Perrot thus describes the peasants of these parts.

“The majority of the men around us have hair which is blond or of different shades of chestnut. Although much burnt by the sun, they are not generally so dark as the Magyars. Many of the women, who are tall and slender, are really beautiful. Their eyes especially, which are bright and sparkling, and sometimes blue, though more frequently of a dark grey, are charming. The lower portion of their face is less agreeable; the chin is usually prominent, and the lips are rather thick.

“Their costume recalls that met with in the East. The men wear a slouch hat of black felt with the edges turned up, a linen shirt, and full trousers down to the ankle; this in hot weather, when they are in working order, forms the whole dress. One or two loungers, who joined us, were more completely dressed than this.

“They wore large boots of thick leather, and over the shirt a waistcoat of blue cloth, adorned in front, with white metal buttons, and behind, with embroidery in yellow or white. On another occasion, when we were on the boat, we saw some men who, in addition to this, wore, over the waistcoat, a short cape or half-cloak, which did not fall lower than the waist, and of which, as a rule, the sleeves were allowed to hang loose. In winter, they add to these, warm robes of sheepskin or large mantles, which put me in mind of the rough overcoats worn by our waggoners.

“As to the women, they make me think of the Albanians of Attica. This fine September afternoon, they are wearing a long chemise, embroidered with eyelet holes and coloured patterns; this chemise, which leaves the neck very open, would reach to the ground, but in order to permit of freer movement in the fields or at home, it is hitched up, and supported by a coloured girdle, wound two or three times round the body; being thus held up, the chemise forms elegant and symmetrical folds, falling in front as low as the ankle, while behind, it extends to about half way down the calf of the leg. Over the head is thrown, in various fashions, a kerchief, which is usually white, but which on festive occasions is embroidered with silver and gold; the ends of this fall down the back, or over the bosom, as may suit the taste of the wearer. When the best dress is donned, a cloth apron, the colour and pattern of which bear a resemblance to the carpets which I have met with in Servia and Bosnia, hangs down to the knees; over the chemise is worn a species of waistcoat without sleeves, and ornamented with gold or silver embroidery. In winter, they guard against the cold by wearing over all a thick overcoat of sheepskin. All the garments worn by the women are worked by their own hands and busy fingers, during the long winter evenings.”

55. – HERDSMEN OF THE MILITARY CONFINES.

M. George Perrot remained for rather a long period in the provinces now called the Military Confines or Frontiers, and he describes the miserable state in which the Slavonian peasantry exist there, where they are obliged to live side by side with wild hordes of Mussulman soldiers or pandours.

Figure 55 shows peasants of these districts returning from pasture.

56. – WOMAN OF THE MILITARY CONFINES.

Figure 56 is given by the author as a type of the Slavonian women who inhabit the Military frontiers.

Let us quote a few more of this traveller’s impressions.

“What struck me in all the villages of the Confines through which I passed, were the guard stations, before which loitered, or slept beside their guns, suspended on the wall, five or six Gränzer. In summer, they wear merely their trousers and shirt of coarse white cloth, and sometimes a sort of brown jacket with red facings, which they also wear for field work. In winter they are seen enveloped in their large hooded cloaks of red cloth; and, thus equipped and armed, guard their flocks on the moors. The state furnishes them, for exercise and service, with guns similar to those used by regiments of the line; but when not on duty, many of them prefer long guns of Albanian manufacture or shape, with swallow-tailed stocks. These guns are transmitted from father to son for several generations. Besides these, they wear in their girdles, one or two pistols, and a kind of dagger with a bone handle inlaid with coral or glass. In this guise they have rather the appearance of Bosniak bachibozouks, than of civilized subjects of His Majesty Francis Joseph, constitutional Emperor of Austria, and King of Hungary. Their uniform, consisting of a blue trouser fitting close to the leg, and a vest of black or white wool, is only produced on field days, or in war.

“But what is it that these sentinels are guarding? This is just what I have never been able to understand. No enemy, from Belgrade to Sissek, was threatening; and these villages are exposed to no more disorder than those of the neighbouring provinces, where they dispense with all this armed exhibition. This, therefore, is another of the useless and erroneous consequences of the military régime: here are hands taken day after day from their labour in the fields, and with no greater advantage than that of acquiring the habits of idleness and drunkenness, usually contracted during the period of barrack-room inactivity.”

In Fig. 57 we represent one of the military stations of the Confines, with the guards belonging to it, called Gränzers.

57. – GRÄNZERS AND THEIR GUARD-HOUSE.

“All those who have lived for some time among the Gränzers, have been struck with their indolent apathy, their careless and continued idleness. For whose sake should they exhaust themselves with work? Under the rules of their community, their wives and children are almost beyond want. As regards themselves, to-morrow they may be torn from their orchards and fields, to encounter death in Italy, or on some other frontier; would it not be madness to expose themselves to privation and fatigue in view of a future upon which they have no means of reckoning? Besides this, does their property, which they can neither render as valuable as they wish, nor sell or bequeath as they may think proper, belong to them sufficiently to give them any pleasure or profit in its improvement? They have maxims which accurately indicate their character; ‘Go late to the field and return early, so as to avoid the dew; – if God does not aid, what is the use of working?’ Being accustomed to rely only, as they say, ‘Upon God and the Emperor,’ they refuse to recognize the advantages to be gained from any modern invention, better tools, or more advanced methods of cultivation. ‘Thus I found it, and thus I will leave it,’ is a saying of which they often make use in speaking of their patrimonial domain.

58. – TSIGANE PRISONER.

“The only thing which, in spite of all the shackles which enchain and benumb their limbs, would have been able to arouse their minds and impart to them some desire for progress, is instruction. But ignorance is profound in the Military Confines; the regimental schools that exist are very insufficient both in number and quality; in certain districts, especially in Southern Croatia, the villages are so distant from one another, that the children, who do not dwell in the borough where the school is, are unable, without difficulty, to go there at any time. Besides, why should the government do much as regards instruction? It is clear, that, if the people of the Confines were better taught, they would be less resigned to their hard lot. If it rested entirely with the government, the schoolmaster would be entirely banished from these parts.

“Upon the banks of the Danube and of the Save, where the Confines abut upon the river, which is continually traversed by packet-boats, travellers, and merchandize, the people of the frontiers have nevertheless daily communication with the inhabitants of the neighbouring provinces, and even with strangers. This contact somewhat opens their minds and suggests new ideas; but it is chiefly in Southern Croatia, in the districts called Banal and Karlstadt, that the characteristic features of the Gränzer are most frequent and striking. There commences, south-east of Karlstadt, what is termed the dry-frontier; this is no longer a water-course such as the Danube or Save, but a line purely conventional, forming the boundary between Austria and Turkey.

“Surprises and hand to hand combats were recently matters of frequent occurrence upon this frontier, which is more difficult to define and to preserve; at the commencement of this century, certain forts, and other places, such as Zettin, which the Turks assaulted in 1809 and 1813, were still the subject of dispute. Here, moreover, the Frontier territory is no longer from fifteen to twenty kilometres, but from five to six myriametres broad; the people subject to the military régime, here, therefore, form a more homogeneous and compact mass. Cases of armed brigandage, and assassinations, which were very common in the whole of this country, are now becoming rarer; but theft is the crime which requires most frequent punishment. The ancestors of the Gränzers lived chiefly by plunder, and such habits are not removed in a day.”