Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/294

 When they are about to go into an engagement, they place more reliance in their numbers, and the amount of forces with which they may be able to encounter the enemy, than in the strength of their soldiers, or any degree of discipline in their army. They fight much more comfortably at a distance than hand to hand, and therefore their principal aim is to circumvent the enemy, and attack him in the rear. They have a great many trumpeters, and when they blow their trumpets all together, as is the custom of the country, and play in unison, you hear a remarkable and most uncommon kind of melody. They have also another sort of musical instrument, which in the common language they call szurnu. When they use this, they will by some means blow it for an hour more or less, apparently without any respiration or inhalation of air. They first fill their cheeks with air, and then being trained to draw in their breath at the same time through the nostrils, they are said to pour out the voice through the tube without any cessation.

They all use the same kind of dress and body-gear; they wear oblong tunics without folds and with rather tight sleeves, almost in the Hungarian style, in which the Christians have buttons to fasten the breast on the right side; but Tartars, who wear a similar garment, have the buttons on the left side. They wear boots of a colour approaching to red, and rather short, so as not to reach the knees—the soles are protected with iron nails. They nearly all have shirts ornamented round the neck with various colours, fastened with necklaces, or with silver or copper-gilt beads, with clasps added for ornament's sake.

They never gird in the belly, but they gird the thighs, and then fasten the girdle as low as their middle to give prominence to the belly. Moreover, the Italians and Spaniards, nay, even the Germans, have now accustomed themselves to the same habit.

Both young men and boys are alike accustomed to meet