Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

144THE DROWSKA.

cloth. The folds of this robe, which has no collar, but is c;it close to the neck, form an ample drapery, drawn together ro;ind the loins by a brightly coloured silken or woollen girdle. The boots are large, and take the form of the foot. On the legs the high leather falls down, or is doubled back over itself, in not ungraceful folds.

The singular form of the drowska is well known; imitations, more or less exact, are to be seen every where. It is the lowest and smallest carriage imaginable, being almost hid by the two or three persons that it carries. It consists of a stuffed seat, protected by four splash-boards of polished leather. This seat is supported on four extremely low wheels, by four little springs, and is placed lengthwise. The driver sits before, his feet almost touching the hocks of his horses, and close behind, astride the seat, his masters are jammed together, for two men sometimes mount the same drowska. I have not seen how the women manage. To these singular vehicles, small as they are, one, two, and sometimes three horses are attached. The shaft horse has his head fixed in a large and raised semi-circle of wood, which gives the idea of a moving triumphal arch. It is not a collar, for the neck of the horse is far below the wood ; it is rather a hoop, through which the animal seems to be proudly passing. The different parts of the harness are wrell adapted to correspond with this not ungraceful hoop, a bell attached to which announces the approach of the drowska.

In observing this lowest of all equipages gliding swiftly between two lines of the lowest built of all