Excerpt from The Cabinet Cyclopaedia, Vol. 1: Russia The character of this people. Was such as the uncer tainty and peril of their habits were calculated to pro duce. They were courageous and reckless of life; cruel and rapacious prompt to secure, by any means, the con quest that was necessary to their wants; but, as their excursions were undertaken from meaner motives than aggrandisement or ambition, being chiefly to make pro vision for their immediate necessities, or to procure resources for a future supply, their intervals of repose were passed in supineness and indolence. They were hospitable to the excess of that virtue. It was a law amongst them that a poor man might steal from his rich neighbour the means of entertaining his guest. The debasing usages of the east respecting the treatment of females they carried with them into the north. Women were considered as drudges and slaves. Polygamy was allowed and the power of the husband asserted beyond the grave. Widows were consumed at the funeral pile. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.