Paul of Aleppo (1627 – 1669) was a Syrian archdeacon, traveler, and writer. He accompanied his father, Patriarch Makarios III of Antioch, on a journey from Aleppo to Istanbul, Wallachia, Moldavia, Ukraine, and Muscovy in 1652–9. Paul’s journal of the journey provides valuable eyewitness details about the history, geography, culture, folkways, architecture, and religious life of the indigenous population. In Ukraine, their route started with Rashkiv on the Dnister River (10 June 1654): “We departed early the next morning, which was Saturday the tenth of the month Haziran; and came to the bank of the great river Istrus [Dnister], which is the extreme frontier of Moldavia, and the first of the Cossack Country. We passed the stream in boats… On measuring the steps we had yet to take, they computed, that from this town of Rashkobao, which is the first of the Cossack State, to Potiblia [Putyvl], the first frontier town of Muscovy, there is about the distance of eighty great Cossack miles: for in this country they reckon the roads only by a computation of miles; and the mile with them is something above the distance of three hours journey, at the rate of the horse’s trot when drawing their carriages, which is quicker than the pace of our couriers, and is that at which we always travelled, according to their practice. The measured, or Cossack, mile is about five of the small miles of our country [approx. 10km]. These eighty miles are the whole length of the Cossack State, from south to north, as we shall show clearly hereafter…
Every town and village in the country of the Cossacks is full of people, and particularly of small children; and each place can pour forth probably some forty or fifty thousand souls, and more. As to the children, they are more numerous than the blades of grass; and they all know how to read: even the orphans are so instructed; who, as well as the widows, are very many here, their fathers and husbands having been killed in the successive wars. But they have a salutary practice of marrying their children when young; and for this reason they exceed in number the stars of heaven and the sands of the ocean. Near every town or village there is sure to be a large lake, collected from rain water or from the running streams; and it is called Khalistao, or place for collecting fish. In the middle of it is a wooden mound or lock, on which is a heap of twigs covered with hay and straw. Under it are wheels which turn a mill; so that they have water and fish and a mill altogether, and are in want of nothing. These things are found, without fail, in every town or small village. The machinery which they have for the turning of their mills is admirable; for we saw a mill turning by means of a mere handful of water.
As to the names of the Cossacks, they are all taken from the finest and greatest of those of the Saints, both for men and women.
We departed hence on the morning of Wednesday the fourteenth of Haziran; and passed in the midst of orchards without number, and rivers of water on the right and on the left. The different kinds of corn were to be seen of the height of a man’s stature, and spread like an immense sea in length and breadth.
We remarked, that over the door of every church in the Cossack country is an iron collar, similar to those which are placed on the necks of captives. On asking about it, we were told, that every person who came not to church to the morning service, after the tolling of the bell, had this collar placed on his neck for the whole day, and was fixed on the fold of the door so as not to be able to move; and that this was his constant treatment.
It may be remarked, that in these countries of the Cossacks there is no wine: their beverage is barley-water [kvass], boiled and sweet, which is very good. We drank it instead of wine. How could we help ourselves? This sweet barley-water, however, has the advantage of being cool on the stomach, particularly in the summer season. There is also a beverage made with boiled honey [mead]: this is intoxicating. As to the spirit made from oats [beer], which is like the grain of wheat, and is boiled for the purpose, there is a great abundance of it, and it is very cheap.
Nothing surprised us so much as the abundance of their live stock, chiefly their poultry, that is, their fowls and ducks and geese and turkies, which were wandering about the fields and woods, to feed, at a distance from the towns and villages ; and laying their eggs in the copses and thickets, where none take the trouble to seek them, so abundant are they everywhere : for there exists not in this country, nor is known, such a thing as a vulture or an eagle or a lion, at all. It is rare even for a snake to make its appearance ; and over the whole road from Wallachia to the capital of Muscovy we saw but one, which we killed. Besides, they have no poachers among them, nor thieves, nor plunderers.
It may be noted, that we saw in the dwelling-houses of this country not only men, but animals and birds; and we were greatly surprised at the prosperity that showed itself among them. In the house of each of the married men you might count ten children; and most of them had white hair on their heads, so that we used to call them Sheikhs, from their grey appearance. But what increased our surprise the most, was to behold them piled, as it were, with heads above each other, when they came out of their houses to look at us.
What can we say more characteristic of this happy nation, than that during the last two years there have been killed of them in the wars some tens of thousands; captured by the Tartars some thousands; destroyed by the plague more multitudes than have been counted, amidst its ravages among them, and its quick removal of such crowds of them to the heavenly abodes: and yet, with all this, they are like grains of sand, and more numerous than the stars.
As to their cattle and quadrupeds, you may see in each man’s house, by the blessing of God, ten kinds of animals: first, horses; secondly, cows; thirdly, sheep; fourthly, goats, resembling wild deer; fifthly, hogs; sixthly, fowls; seventhly, ducks; eighthly, geese; ninthly, turkies, in great abundance. Some have pigeons, for the tenth kind, in places above the roofs of the houses: others have dogs. What surprised us most were the various kinds of hogs, of different colours and shapes. There were black, white, red, brown, yellow, and blue; besides black spotted with white, blue with red, red with yellow, white spotted with brown, some white spotted with black, and some streaked in various forms. What amusement and laughter we used to have at their young litter! But we never were able to hold one of them at all; for most undoubtedly they have devils in their bellies, and they slip through your hands like quicksilver.
As to the various kinds of grain and plants which they sow and cultivate, they are wonderful and numerous.
