Page:Ancient and modern history of the Russian Empire.pdf/12

12 the 12th and 13th centuries, and there were several Indian Idols.

The Russian alphabet has 36 letters, strongly resembing the ancient Greek; but the language itself is a mixture of the Polish and Sclavenian. The Clergy, at least the more learned, speak the modernn Greek; which, however, cannot be understood by those who know the ancient language in its purity.

ACCOUNT OF THE COSSACKS.

The Cossacks were at first peasants of Poland; but, being grievously oppressed by their landlords, they emigrated to some uncultivated lands on the banks of the Tanais, or Don, where they formed. Being joined by two other large bodies in 1637, they reduced the city of Asoph, but were soon after obliged to give it up to the Turks, though not without previously having laid it in ashes. Having then put themselves under the protection of Russia, they built ther capital Cereaska, on an island in the river Don, but were little other than nominal subjects to that empire, till the time of Peter the Great. In his time they frequently rebelled, but always suffered severely for their presumption: and at last, the Cossacks of the Ukraine also put themselves under the protection of Russia. Besides these, there are also the Yaik or Uralian Cossacks on the banks of the Yaik or Ural in Asia. At the time when the Cossacks first submitted to Russia they possed thirty-nine towns on the banks of the Don,