seen the muzzles of cannon fixed there. In the middle of
the field stood the house of the inspector of weights and
measures, and the cabins of the shop atamans, and around a
rather large space were shops in which goods were stored.
These shops were in general wretched structures made of
oak planks, which Hortitsa furnished in abundance, fas-
tened together with twigs and reeds. The cabins, not ex-
cepting that of the inspector, were mere huts, for only the
roofs were raised above the ground. The roofs were black
and smoked; for when there was fire in the cabin the smoke
found exit, not only through the smoke-hole, but through
every cranny in the roof, and one might suppose that it was
not a cabin at all, but a pile of branches and reeds covering
a tar-pit. No daylight entered these cabins; therefore a
fire of pitch pine and oak chips was kept up. The shops, a
few dozen in number, were divided into camp-shops which
belonged to individual camps, and those of strangers in
which during time of peace Tartars and Wallachians traded,
-the first in skins, Eastern fabrics, arms, and every kind of
booty; the second, chiefly in wine. But the shops for
strangers were rarely occupied, since in that wild nest trade
was changed most frequently to robbery, from which neither
the inspectors nor the shop atamans could restrain the
crowds.

Among the shops stood also thirty-eight camp-drinking
shops; and before them always lay, on the sweepings, shav-
ings, oak-sticks, and heaps of horse-manure, Zaporojians,
half dead from drinking, - some sunk in a stony sleep;
others with foam in their mouths, in convulsions or delirium-
tremens; others half drunk, howling Cossack songs, spitting,
striking, kissing, cursing Cossack fate or weeping over Cos-
sack sorrow, walking upon the heads and breasts of those
lying around. Only during expeditions against the Tartars
or the upper country was sobriety enforced, and at such
times those who took part in an expedition were punished
with death for drunkenness. But in ordinary times, and
especially in the bazaar, all were drunk,--the inspector, the
camp ataman, the buyers, and the sellers. The sour smell
of unrectified spirits, mixed with the odor of tar, fish,
smoke, and horse-hides, filled the air of the whole place,
which in general, by the variety of its shops, reminded one
of some little Turkish or Tartar town. Everything was
for sale that at any time had been seized as plunder in
the Crimea, Wallachia, or on the shores of Anatolia,-