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

SALT FISH FttOM THE CASPIAN.19o

Persian village, the shops of which are filled exclusively with Persian merchandise. Among these objects I more particularly admired the carpets, which appeared magnificent, the raw silk, and the termo-lama, a species of silk-cashmere, manufactured, they say, only in Persia.

The forms and dress of the Persians do not greatly strike in this country, where the indigenous population is itself Asiatic, and preserves traces of its origin.

T also traversed a city destined solely as a receptacle for the dried and salted fish wThich are sent from the Caspian Sea for the Russian Lents.* The Greek devotees are great consumers of these aquatic mummies. Four months of abstinence among the Muscovites enriches the Mohammedans of Persia and Tar-tary. This city of fishes is situated on the borders of the river: some of the fish are piled upon earth, the remainder lay within the holds of the vessels that brought them. The dead bodies, heaped together in millions, exhale, even in the open air, a disagreeable perfume. Another division forms the city of leather, an article of the first importance at Nijni; as enough is brought there to supply the consumption of all the West of Russia.

Another is the city of furs. The skins of every animal may be seen there, from the sable, the blue fox, and certain bear skins — to obtain a pelisse of which costs twelve thousand francs,—to the common foxes and wolves, which cost nothing. The keepers of the treasures make themselves tents for the night with their merchandise, savage lairs, the aspect of

* There are four Lents in the Greek chureh. — Trans,

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