Book VI.
Muscovy.
——
Sect. I.
Potiblia.—Imadikina.—Tartar Captives.
We took our departure from Potiblia on the morning of the aforesaid Monday the twenty-fourth day of Tamôz. The whole body of troops in garrison marched fore us, in grand procession; and we were conducted by them and the principal officers of the Voivode to a considerable distance from the town, until our Lord the Patriarch stopped them; then they came all of them, and kissed his crosier and his right hand, and returned. And now the Pristabos took the lead; and in his carriage was placed the cross and spear, forming the crosier; for it is only in country of the Cossacks that it is the custom for the prelate always to carry it in his hand. We travelled about twenty versts, or four great miles, through an immense forest, very much on the ascent, and passed a number of villages and lakes; until we came in the evening to a small town, by name Imadikina, having a church by the road-side, dedicated to St. Nicolas. Outside this town we passed the night.
I will here remark, that from Potiblia, to Moscow the capital, the ascent is very great; for we never ceased climbing, by night and by day, over large hills: at the same time our path was beset by a thick forest of trees, which, by its density, concealed from us the sun and sky; and every day we came among a different kind of plantation. One day we saw nothing but the ملول; another, we were surrounded by the (حور) poplar, both of the wild and the Persian kind all of an equal size and at equal distances, as though it were a grove formed by some noble artist. Another day we found ourselves in the midst of tall (ارز) pines; the next, our view was bounded on all sides by the (شوح) fir, which resembles the pine, and of which they make the masts of ships: it is a singularly beautiful tree.
As to the steepness and narrowness of these roads, God Almighty alone
