The fairs of Russia, both in tlieir origin and signification, differ mateterially from those of Germany. The latter originated chiefly in privileges granted during the middle ages at certain seasons to certain tO"Nviis. In the interior of Russia commercial privileges and corporation lights were never known, and the congregating of merchants upon particular spots was the result of accident rather than design. Pilgrimages on certain holidays to the graves of saints, or to some religious picture of more than ordinary sanctity, had the natural consequence of draAving large numbers together, and merchants were induced, by the hope of gain, to attach themselves to the pious multitude, till at last a fair organized itself, and growing more and more important every year, led at last to an entire obhvion of its original cause. Such was the origin of the fairs of Romni, Makarieff, Kursk, Kharkoff, &c.
The most ancient and celebrated of all the Russian fairs is that of Novgorod, or, as it is still called by the Russian merchants, the " Makarieff fair," after the name of the place where it originated. The next in importance, till very lately, was that of the Root Desei't, held near Kursk, in whose vicinity a miraculous picture of tlie Virgin was said to have been discovered in 1300, on the root of a tree, where, in consequence, a hermitage and a convent were erected, and where afterwards a yearly pilgrimage led to the organisation of a yearly fair. The number of strangers at Kursk is still greater than at any other fair, except that of Novgorod, but with respect to the business transacted there, the fair of Romni has of late years equalled, and that of Kharkoff has surpassed the fanof Kursk. For Siberia, the most important fair is that of L'bit.
Couiideiing the business transacted at these five fairs, their relative importance might be expressed thus Novgoro(i,= 8. At Novgorod, in four weeks, goods to the amount of 120,000,000 nibles will sometimes change hands.
Like all the fairs of Little Russia, the Kliarkoff fair opens with the sale of horses, that arrive in great numbers from the taboons of the steppe, from the studs of the crown and of the rich nobles, and from the Cossack settlements about the Black Sea and the Caucasus. Most of these animals are of an ordinary description, and are sold at very low prices; but there are
614 THE WINTER FAIR AT KIIARKOFF.
always a few specimens of superior beauty, for which from two to ten thousand rubles are demanded. Nay, at one inn, while I was there, a merchant had hired a private room for the express use of his horse, which lie treated with much greater care than he did his own person, feeling perhaps how worthless an individual he was himself, in comparison with a steed which he hoped to dispose of for no less than 18,000 rubles, a simi, by-the-by, for which, at the same fair, he might have purchased a whole taboon of 300 gallopers. There were said to be 6000 horses at the fair. Most of them were bought for the north of Russia, but some also for Poland, Austria, and Moldavia.
About the end of December the horses have been disposed of, and things begin to assume an appearance of briskness within the town, for the horse fair is held in the suburbs. Strange merchants are seen to arrive, and freely to distribute alms, by way of securing the goodwill of the saints. Bokharlans and Persians in their silken vestments, portly Armenians, warlike Circassians, together with Poles and Cossacks, are seen lounging about the streets, for the more distant traders are always those who arrive first.
The business done at the fair is all wholesale, and therefore few but merchants trouble themselves about it. The nobility of the neighbouring provinces show themselves but rarely at Kharkoff during the fair, and to this it may be owing that so vast a confluence leads to the opening of no extraordinary places of amusement, such as theatres, concerts, &c. The Russian merchant knows, in point of fact, but of two amusements, — making money, and diinking tea. AU the day long he chaffers, and in the evening his favourite recreation is to promote perspiration by copious Hbatlons of tea.
The houses of public entertainment, numerous as they are, are all crowded, as may well be supposed, when it is remembered, that independently of the merchants themselves, some 15,000 drivers, and perhaps 80,000 horses, have been required to convey the various articles of merchandise in sledges to the fair, and wiU afterwards be put in requisition to convey the purchased commodities to their several places of destination.