omestic civilisation they are
not very far behind the majority of German colonists. Their houses
are indeed small--so small that one of them might almost be put into a
single room of a Mennonite's house; but there is an air of cleanliness
and comfort about them that would do credit to a German housewife.

In spite of all this, these Bulgarians were, I could easily perceive, by
no means delighted with their new home. The cause of their discontent,
so far as I could gather from the few laconic remarks which I
extracted from them, seemed to be this: Trusting to the highly coloured
descriptions furnished by the emigration agents who had induced them to
change the rule of the Sultan for the authority of the Tsar, they
came to Russia with the expectation of finding a fertile and beautiful
Promised Land. Instead of a land flowing with milk and honey, they
received a tract of bare Steppe on which even water could be obtained
only with great difficulty--with no shade to protect them from the heat
of summer and nothing to shelter them from the keen northern blasts that
often sweep over those open plains. As no adequate arrangements had been
made for their reception, they were quartered during the first winter
on the German colonists, who, being quite innocent of any Slavophil
sympathies, were probably not very hospitable to their uninvited
guests. To complete their disappointment, they found that they could not
cultivate the vine, and that their mild, fragrant tobacco, which is for
them a necessary of life, could be obtained only at a very high price.
So disconsolate were they under this cruel disenchantment that, at the
time of my visit, they talked of returning to their old homes in Turkey.

As an example of the less prosperous colonists, I may mention the
Tartar-speaking Greeks in the neighbourhood of Mariupol, on the northern
shore of the Sea of Azof. Their ancestors lived in the Crimea, under
the rule of the Tartar Khans, and emigrated to Russia in the time of
Catherine II., before Crim Tartary was annexed to the Russian Empire.
They have almost entirely forgotten their old language, but have
preserved their old faith. In adopting the Tartar language they have
adopted something of Tartar indolence and apathy, and the natural
consequence is that they are poor and ignorant.

But of all the colonists of this region the least prosperous are the
Jews. The Chosen People are certainly a most intelligent, industrious,
frugal race,