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SCENERY.--EAGLES.

some good eggs and milk. We were too much accustomed to hard fare to be fastidious, and though the woman of the house at first refused us the carpets on which we had cast longing eyes, as they lay piled up in a heap four feet high, yet her son speedily secured her reluctant consent by making her understand that she would be a gainer by any accommodation she afforded us.

We resumed our course before day-light, only too happy to awake outside the walls of the lazaretto. The road to Kishnau passes through the villages of Hoorhahalbena and Mooshalee, which divide the journey into three stages of eighteen, nineteen, and twenty-one versts respectively, each occupying about three hours. The country is, for the most part, a wild uncultivated waste, either flat or gently undulating, but here and there it is varied by woods which, at this season, were richly dyed with autumnal tints, and almost carpeted with an abundant, low, bright-crimson shrub, that contrasted beautifully with the yellow, red, and purple hues of the surrounding foliage; while the fragrant herbs that covered the ground over which we drove yielded their grateful odors as our horses bruised them under foot. In more than one place large flights of crows and a few royal

eagles were enjoying their aërial life, or condescending to dispute the possession of a carcase with some half-wild and famished dogs, reminding us of the Jewish proverb, "Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together." In the east, vultures, crows, and dogs, often fight over their noisome prey; nor is it uncommon to see a flotilla of dead bodies on the Ganges surmounted by carrion birds, looking, at a distance, like children on a raft.

The first view of Kishnau from the summit of a neighbouring hill, is imposing; and the prospect of a comfortable inn led us to see everything couleur de rose. The extent of the town, its churches with their green painted domes, and its new white buildings, all seemed to confer on it an air of respectability superior to that of any place we had visited since leaving Hungary.

Just outside the gates, are ruins of one of the walls erected by Trajan, which extended as far as the ancient Chersonesus. Remains of another are found between the Black Sea and Reni, near Galatz; and a third may be traced from Reni to Taraspol.

After passing the barrière and driving over a series of broad, sandy roads, skirted with straggling dwellings on either side, we were

surprised to find that we were in the middle of the town, when we fancied ourselves as yet in the suburbs. Kishnau looks better at a distance than on a near inspection. None of the streets are paved, nor are the houses in general close together, but separated by their respective enclosures. The shops are few and shabby in exterior; yet the population is rapidly increasing, and has risen during the last forty years from a very small number to its present amount, between thirty and forty thousand.

Our hopes of obtaining good accommodation were sadly disappointed when we drove to the door of what is said to be the best hotel in Bessarabia, and saw nothing but a low shabby building ill adapted for the reception of travellers. Each comfortless room contained a sofa, a table, a chair, and abundance of dirt, which amply furnished the otherwise empty apartment. It was with difficulty that we succeeded in procuring a leather pillow and a quilt too greasy for use, while our application for sheets was replied to by a look of surprise and an intimation that nothing of the kind belonged to the establishment. The master seemed very indifferent to his guests, and was evidently engaged in some more thriving business than that of an innkeeper. Bad as was the accommo

dation, we determined to spend the Sunday here; and as the sole cause of our visit was the order of the authorities at Liova that we should present ourselves to the governor of the chief town of the province, we waited on him immediately, and were informed that he was asleep. On a second occasion we were detained three hours and a half, and then told that we might go; that the general was indisposed! The only apparent object attained by the Russian government in compelling us to make this long détour was the enforcement of a payment of five rubles for a new passport; an accession to their treasury which might be secured without sending travellers a journey of two days out of their course.

This is one of the few towns where we found gipsies with a settled residence. Many of these degraded people dwell in little wooden huts, carrying on the trades of tinkers, basket-makers, and the like; while others traverse the country, dealing in horses. Their women are better looking than the native Russians, but disfigure themselves with a multitude of worthless trinkets.

All the business of Kishnau is transacted by Jews, ten thousand of whom are said to reside here. They consider themselves less

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kindly treated under the present, than under the late, emperor, who liberated them from the necessity, now re-imposed, of furnishing recruits. We did not ascertain how the Hebrew soldiers perform their duties in Russia; but it is recorded of their brethren in Turkey, whom Selim formed into regiments, that when he ordered forty thousand of them to invade Austria, they petitioned for a guard to escort them across an intermediate tract of country, said to be infested by marauders! The petition succeeded in convincing the sultan that the Moslim faith would gain little from the Hebrew sword, and his Jewish regiments were disbanded. If Scripture did not lead us to look for a marked degeneracy of character among the descendants of Israel, it would appear singularly strange that a people who have preserved nearly all their other national peculiarities, should so completely have lost that ferocity and courage which characterized them in the days of Joshua, the Maccabees, and Josephus.