They were all lodged in vast barns, or wooden barracks. The members of each kourene ate with their attamans at one common table, supplied at the general expense. Their usual food consisted of everything calculated to render men strong and vigorous. But, out of the sitche, they ate whatever they pleased, and did whatever they listed. They were also at full liberty to quit their community whenever they chose; but, whilst in the sitche, they were bound to conform to its regulations and usages. The most ancient of all their laws, and one which was ever enforced with the most extreme rigour, was that enacted for the utter exclusion of women from the sitche. Every woman who might happen to be caught therein was stoned to death, or, occasionally, after receiving one hundred blows from the kanczuk, or short whip, to the thong of which is appended a leaden bullet, she was hung up by the feet; a fire was then lighted under her, so that she was suffocated by the smoke. If, however, as it sometimes chanced, a foreign young girl, altogether innocent, arrived in the sitche, they buried her in the ground up to her neck, a fire was lighted at a few paces before her, and she was shot at from a considerable distance. As the smoke from the fire did not allow of a steady aim being taken at her, the marksman generally managed to miss her; not unfrequently, too, by design. After three shots from the carabine she was released, without being subjected to any further outrage, and escorted outside the limits of the sitche. If she was wounded, she was not fired upon again; but the whole kourene was called together, and the heroine, whose wounds had in the meantime received every possible care and attention, was set at liberty, with the now acquired privilege moreover of selecting from amongst the gallant Zaporogues whomsoever she pleased as her husband. All the Cossacks of the sitche made her a present; by which means her support for life was secured, and she retired with her husband to establish herself in the Ukraine. Even the women carried oiF in their piratical expeditions and retained were not suffered to live in the sitche. The barbarous treatment experienced by several women at their hands sufficed not, however, to deter others from secretly visiting these Flibustiers, and from incurring all the threatened dangers of the attempt, in order to satisfy their inclinations or their curiosity.
As to the pretended secret, or love-charm, of which some of the Zaporogues are by several authors related to have been in possession for attracting the fair sex, it may be considered in the light of a mere fable invented for the lovers of the marvellous, inasmuch as it is notorious that cases of the kind in question form an exception only amongst the generality of mankind, having no sort of relation either with the islets of the Dnieper, or with the banks of the Boh; in point of fact, with no particular spot on the face of the globe.*"
There existed, however, several strange peculiarities amongst the Zaporogues; such, for instance, as a species of duel or single combat with the kanczuh, or loaded whip, before alluded to. The two combatants stripped off their upper garments down to the waist, after the fashion of the English boxers, and grasped each other by the left hand, whilst with the right they mutually dealt most terrific blows with their whips to the sound of military music, or of a kettle-drum, which beat time to their movements. These duels took place THE ZAPAROGUES. 66 in the presence of their companions. He wlio first fell exhausted, or who relinquished the further continuance of the conflict, was declared the vanquished party. Something of the kind existed amongst the ancient Tartaro-Kalmouques. The Zaporogues governed themselves according to the laws of Magdeburg, which passed from Poland into their community.
Although they professed generally the Greek religion, and attended whilst in the sitche the celebration of divine service according to that ritual as there performed by priests sent thither from Kiof, yet they would not listen to sermons or religious exhortations of any kind; and the diversity of faith amongst them was not productive of any serious dispute.
Every Zaporogue Cossack was bound to be provided with a gun, a lance, a pennant, a crooked sabre, and a brace of pistols. His dress consisted of very loose trowsers, a sheep-skin vest confined by a girdle, and a felt bonnet trimmed with fur. Their heads were close shaven, with the exception of a long tuft of hair which hung down over the forehead. Their chief strength as a military force consisted at first in their infantry, armed with long, carabines, so indispensable in their corsair-like expeditions on the Czayki, and of which notice has already been taken: subsequently, however, they were by no means deficient in excellent cavalry.