The inhabitants of the Ukraine are generally well formed and robust. Their address is dignified, their speech concise, their gestures energetic; they have piercing eyes; in this respect resembling the inhabitants of the savannah or the desert. They are excellent equestrians, and faithful and devotedly attached to those who are kind to them; but they are implacable in their hatred, which is occasionally fatal to those on whom it falls. Murders are sometimes committed, robbery very seldom. The common people speak the E-ussic language, which has greater affinity with the Polish than with the Russian; and they profess the schismatic Greco-Russian religion. The nobility are principally Polish.
The Ukraine is the native land of the princes Czetwertynski, lablonowski, Lubomirski, Radziwill, Sanguszko; of Counts Bobr, Borkowski, Branicki, Brzozowski, Chodkiewiez, Esterhazy, Dunin, Czacki, Gizycki, Grocholski, Komar, ICrasicki, Mniszech, Moniuszko, Moszynski, Morsztyn, Leduchowski, Olizar, Ostrowski Orlowski, Potocki, Potulicki Rzewuski, Sobanski, Stecki, Sulatycki, Szalayski, Ulatowski, Wit, as well as of the wealthy families of Abramowicz, Balaban, Baniewski, Choiecki, Czarkowski, Czaykowski, Dzierzek, Goszczynski, Grodecki, Glebocki, Haraburda, larmunda, laroszynski, Turunski, Ilowicki, lelec, Iwanicki, Iwanowski, Karsza, Kormanski, Mankowski, Orlinski, Oskierko, Prazmowski, Proskura, Ruzycki, Woynarowski, Wyszynski, Szaszkiewicz, Urork, Zubr; but more especially of the families of princes lablonowski, Lubomirski, Sanguszko, and counts Branicki, Potocki, and Orlowski. All these nobles possess immense estates in the Ukraine, inhabiting magnificent castles, whose gilded towers and grey lichen-clad walls display their gigantic proportions amid the monotony of the Steppes; dazzling or surprising the traveller as they present themselves to his gaze, withdrawing his thoughts from the present to the past, filling his mind with historical associations, and again leading it forward to an ideal contemplation of the future: of that future, which makes the heart beat with hope or anguish, and which, behind its impenetrable veil, conceals, perhaps, blood-red visions of slaughter, and the roseate dawn of restoration and glory. In these noble palace-like mansions, adorned with the splendour of the east and the elegance of Europe, ancient Polish hospitality has taken refuge; that hospitality elsewhere unequalled, and which even the enthusiastic feelings of a true patriot could hardly define. The customs of the Polish nobles are too well-known to need description. The nobles of the Ukraine are stamped with a peculiar impress. They are unostentatious, though splendid; refined, though blunt; and to these contradictory qualities they unite bravery unsurpassed. In their castles, enchanted as it were, all that flatters the senses, all that cultivates the mind, all that strengthens the body, finds a dwelling; and amid all this, there is a something grand, sombre, and wild, which forces itself upon the imagination, and rivets attention. The same noble personage who charms by his conversation upon Rousseau, Voltaire, or Byron; ox who expatiates upon liberty, will order a domestic to be punished with fifty blows for a trivial offence, will treat without much ceremony a female domestic; and will kill a man in a duel for any slight breach of etiquette. No armies of Germany or France have ever waved their banners in the Ukraine; it has never been in contact 254 DESCRIPTION OP with civilised Europe; and, hence, it has preserved its primitive character. All that locate themselves in the Ukraine, soon become essentially Ukrainian. The Ukrainians are generous, brave, friendly, faithful, neither cunning nor egotistical. When a stranger visits the country, every politeness is shown to him: if he be a person of consequence, he is invited to the different castles on his route, separate apartments are assigned to him, two servants are commanded to do his bidding, a Cossack attends upon him, three horses are at his orders; a purse of gold is placed in his drawer, and his wardrobe receives the attention of appointed female servants.