the southern and southeastern frontier, the
most celebrated were the Zaporovians* of the Dnieper, and the Cossacks
of the Don.

* The name "Zaporovians," by which they are known in the
West, is a corruption of the Russian word Zaporozhtsi, which
means "Those who live beyond the rapids."

The Zaporovian Commonwealth has been compared sometimes to ancient
Sparta, and sometimes to the mediaeval Military Orders, but it had
in reality quite a different character. In Sparta the nobles kept in
subjection a large population of slaves, and were themselves constantly
under the severe discipline of the magistrates. These Cossacks of the
Dnieper, on the contrary, lived by fishing, hunting, and marauding,
and knew nothing of discipline, except in time of war. Amongst all
the inhabitants of the Setch--so the fortified camp was called--there
reigned the most perfect equality. The common saying, "Bear patiently,
Cossack; you will one day be Ataman!" was often realised; for every year
the office-bearers laid down the insignia of office in presence of the
general assembly, and after thanking the brotherhood for the honour they
had enjoyed, retired to their former position of common Cossack. At the
election which followed this ceremony any member could be chosen chief
of his kuren, or company, and any chief of a kuren could be chosen
Ataman.

The comparison of these bold Borderers with the mediaeval Military
Orders is scarcely less forced. They call themselves, indeed, Lytsars--a
corruption of the Russian word Ritsar, which is in its turn a corruption
of the German Ritter--talked of knightly honour (lytsarskaya tchest'),
and sometimes proclaimed themselves the champions of Greek Orthodoxy
against the Roman Catholicism of the Poles and the Mahometanism of the
Tartars; but religion occupied in their minds a very secondary place.
Their great object in life was the acquisition of booty. To attain this
object they lived in intermittent warfare with the Tartars, lifted their
cattle, pillaged their aouls, swept the Black Sea in flotillas of small
boats, and occasionally sacked important coast towns, such as Varna
and Sinope. When Tartar booty could not be easily obtained, they turned
their attention to the Slavonic populations; and when hard pressed by
Christian potentates, they did not hesitate to put themselves under the
protection of the Sultan.

The Cossacks of the Don, of the Volga, and of the Ural had a somewhat
differe