Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/87

 made of plain silk upon the seams, round the hem and waist, and almost everywhere. In these they are extremely well satisfied with themselves, and despise our plain thin shirts. Their head-dresses are tower-shaped, very comical, and covered with hats of platted straw and lined with linen, just as the peasant children with us make hats of green rushes. The part which with us is broad below, and meets the head, they wear wide above, and top-shaped, in a manner more suitable for catching the sun and rain than for any other purpose. These hats stand about one and a half or two Prague ells above their heads. They have also glass beads round the neck and in the ears, and ear-rings hanging from the ears to the shoulders, like a variegated rosary; and in these they are just as satisfied with themselves as if they were queens of Bulgaria, and walk as grandly amongst strange people.

Of this Bulgarian nation it is related that, when divers nations changed their abodes, either voluntarily, or driven from their homes by other nations, it migrated from the Scythian river, called the Volga, to these parts. Thus these Bulgarians are so called, quasi Vulgarians, or Vulharians, from the river Volga. They established themselves in the mountains called Hæmus, and between the city of Sophia and Philippopolis, in places naturally strong and defensible, where they lived, and for a considerable time paid no regard to the power of the Greek emperors. They captured in battle and put to death Baldwin the Elder, count of Flanders, who ruled the Empire of Constantinople; but not being able to withstand and resist the Turkish power, were overcome, and obliged to endure the miserable and heavy