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

THE TARTAR MOSQUE.51

that the Christians have free permission to enter the Mohammedan sanctuary.

The mosque is a small and mean edifice, and the men there allowed to worship God and the prophet, have a wretched, timid, dirty, and poverty-stricken appearance. They come to prostrate themselves in this temple every Friday, upon a filthy piece of woollen mat, which each carries with him. Their graceful Asiatic garments are become rags ; their own condition is abject: they live as much apart as possible from the population which surrounds them. In seeing these beggars in appearance, creeping in the midst of actual Russia, it is difficult to realise the idea of the tyranny which their fathers exercised over the Muscovites.

The unfortunate sons of conquerors trade at Moscow in the provisions and the merchandise of Asia, and adhere as much as possible to the practice of their religion, avoiding the use of wines and strong liquors, and shutting up their women, or at least veiling them, in order to shield them from the eyes of other men ; a precaution which is, however, little needed, for the Mongol race present but few attractions. High cheek bones, flat noses, small sunken black eyes, frizzled hair, a brown and oily skin, a low stature, an appearance of filth and squalor, — sueh were the characteristics which I remarked in the men of this degenerate race, and in the small number of women of whose features I could obtain a glimpse.

May it not be said that divine justice, so incomprehensible when viewed in the fate of individuals, becomes brightly visible when mirrored in the destiny of nations ? The life of every man is a drama, played D 5