Europe. That the language of the people
differs entirely from that of the rest of
Spain, is certain; that it is not identical
with any other European dialect, is asserted
by modern scholars, though it is said to have
some similarity to the Welsh ; yet that it has
"continued without great alteration since the
confusion at Babel," will probably meet with
few believers. Heylyn himself says that he
"will not stand to prove" such an opinion ;
but he thinks it is the original language of
Spain. He says that many of the customs of
the people are very peculiar. "They account
themselves free from taxes and contributions
to the Kings of Spaine, yeelding them
obedience with their bodies, but not with their
purses. [Very peculiar indeed to an Englishman!]
And when any of the Spanish
Kings in their progresses come to the
frontiers of this countrey, hee bareth one
of his legs, and in that manner entereth
into it. There he is met by the lords and
gentlemen there dwelling, who proffer him
some few small brasse pieces (maravidis they
call them, whereof six hundred goe to a
crown) in a leatherne bag, hanged at the end
of a lance; but withall they tell him that hee
must not take them. This ceremony
performed, they all attend the King in his journey;
and this I learned from a gentleman
who hath spent some time in this country."
Even now, the people of Biscay have the
privilege of managing their own taxation,
and are exempt from many fiscal
impositions borne by the rest of Spain, while
they enjoy a degree of liberty unknown in
other parts of the peninsula. Heylyn tells
another story of these people, still more
strange than the former. We have all read
of the unaccountable objection entertained by
several men to the sight of very innocent
things—cats, dogs, cocks, apples, a new moon,
&c.; some even being ungallant enough to
feel horror-struck at the presence of ladies.
But here is a whole people of orthodox
Europe, in whose eyes the sight of a Bishop
is as an abomination. So, at least, says our
High Church Peter: "They admit no Bishops
to come amongst them; and when Fernand
the Catholique came in progresse hither,
accompanied, amongst others, by the Bishop
of Pampelune, the people arose in armes,
drave back the Bishop, and, gathering all
the dust on which they thought he had
trodden, flung it into the sea." The same
state of feeling still exists in Biscay:
Bishops are illegal, and the Pope is not
regarded.

Let us now turn our attention towards
Russia. In the days of Peter Heylyn, Russia
was not the giant power it now is, or at any
rate was only an infant Hercules, scarcely
recognised by the more mature states of
Europe. The country was then commonly
called Muscovy; and the monarch, the Great
Duke, or Emperor,— the latter title being
first confirmed by Peter the Great. Of the
people, Heylyn says that "they are exceedingly
given to drinke, insomuch that all
heady and intoxicating drinkes are by statute
prohibited, and two or three dayes only in a
yeare allowed them to be drunke in." The
English public has lately been told that the
national love of spirits is now encouraged
for the sake of the revenue derived from
its indulgence; so that the morality of
Russian paternal government has gained nothing
from the progress of time. Here, however,
is a characteristic which still exists in its
full force, as European nations, at this very
moment, have but too much reason to know:
"In matters of warre, the people are
indifferently able, as being almost in continuall
broyles with their neighbours." An anecdote
touching a very peculiar taste on the part of
the Russian women, makes us think that
they would form good wives for certain
members of our own lower orders, with
whom they would have no cause to
complain of neglect, or indifference to their
happiness. "It is the fashion of these women,"
says Peter, "to love that husband best which
beateth them most, and to thinke themselves
neither loved nor regarded, unlesse they be
two or three times a day well-favoredly
swadled. The author of the Treasury of
Times telleth a story of a German shoemaker,
who, travelling into this country, and here
marrying a widdow, used her with all the
kindnesse that a woman could (as he thought)
desire: yet did not shee seeme contented.
At last, learning where the fault was, and
that his not beating her was the cause of her
pensiveness, he tooke such a vaine [i.e.
humour] in cudgelling her sides, that in the
ende the hangman was faine to break his
necke for his labour. ... It is the custome
over all Muscovie, that a maid in time
of wooing sends to that suiter whom she
chooseth for her husband such a whip,
curiously by herself wrought, in token of
her subjection unto him." Speaking of
the Great Duke, our geographer
mentions a circumstance which shows the
semi-religious, or Papal, character assumed
by the monarchs of Russia. "Hee is
apparelled," says Heylyn, "like a King
and a Bishop: wearing with his royall
vestment a miter and a crosier's staffe." His
power in those days was no less despotic
than now; for a certain Turkish bashaw used
to say "that his master and the Muscovite were
the most absolute princes in the world." His
revenues, however, have doubtless increased :
in Heylyn's time they amounted, after defraying
his household charges, to three millions
of rubles. But the empire even then was
"vast," as Heylyn himself says; and a great
European power was gradually developing
itself, despite of snow and northern cold.
Touching this last matter, by the way, we
must not forget a joke which will remind
the reader of one of the most surprising
incidents in that book of marvellous