After⁠[226] a long journey across an uninterrupted flat steppe, slight undulations appear above the horizon on approaching the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and shortly after this appearance the traveller finds himself in a principal necropolis of the ancient Milesian city. Immense cones of earth rise on each side of the road, and ridges of coral rag lying among these sepulchral monuments, give a grand aspect to this singular field of death. On arriving at the extremity of the plateau, the view extends over the whole Bosphorus. On an evening in summer the last rays of the setting sun tint the cliffs on the Asiatic side, and light up the triangular sails of a few fishing boats lazily floating down the current. The outline of the tumuli of Phanagoria becomes distinctly traced on the blue sky, and, as the sheet of water of the straits gradually assumes the sombre colouring of evening, the shadow of Cape Akboroun stretches over the water. These fine effects of light and shade are visible but for a few moments; the sun descends with tropical quickness below the horizon, and the uniform tones of the dark twilight envelop the Bosphorus, its shores, and the solitary barks upon its waters.

Descending from the plateau, the traveller enters the town of Kertch, which is completely Russianized, of new construction, occupying the site of the ancient Greek colony of Panticapæum, once the queen city of the Bosphorus. The straits on which it stands, called the Cimmerian Bosphorus, leading from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azof,⁠[227] and separating Europe from Asia, are about eight miles wide, and in parts so shallow, that they do not admit vessels drawing more than twelve feet of water, although in the time of Peter the Great, at the taking of Azof, corvettes of forty guns could pass through them. Kertch is a corruption of the name Gherséti, which the Turks gave to the fortress erected here by the Genoese, which was called by the geographers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Bospro, Vospro, and Pandico. The Russians took possession of Kertch in 1771, and then 500 or 600 huts surrounded the Turkish fortress, which was circular. This the Russians at first strengthened, but afterwards abandoned, because it was completely commanded from behind.

Yenicáleh, at a few miles distance, was then fortified for the defence of the straits, and Kertch dwindled away, until, in 1821, the Emperor Alexander, appreciating its commercial importance, declared it a port of the empire, and raised it to the rank of a town, with an independent municipality.⁠[228] Since that time Kertch has slowly increased, although it has scarcely now as many inhabitants as it had during the occupation of the Turks; for Peyssonel allowed it, in 1787, from 3000 to 4000 souls. It is now the chief town of a little government, comprising Yenicáleh and about 13,000 acres of land, which form the eastern point of the peninsula; and the whole number of inhabitants in Kertch and Yenicáleh together is only 2800 souls, living in 680 houses.

On the proposition of Prince Woronzof in 1833, the suggestion which Pallas⁠[229] had made forty years before was acted upon, and Kertch was declared the place of general quarantine for the Sea of Azof, and since that time no vessel has been allowed to pass the straits without a clean bill of health obtained here. The object of the Russian government in this measure was to do away with all quarantine establishments in the Azof, which has been effected, and to throw into the hands of natives the carrying trade between the ports of the Azof and Kertch, which has not been found so easy of accomplishment. Kertch has not become, as was expected, the emporium for all the valuable commerce between the Black Sea and eastern Russia; this still remains in the ports of the Azof; and Rostof, notwithstanding the difficulty of reaching it with large vessels, still goes on increasing in importance far more rapidly than Kertch. Of all the ships that frequent the Azof, by far the greater number are content to pass a long quarantine at Kertch, and to ascend the sea to load, although, if Kertch were the emporium, and merchants had large stores there, ships might arrive at the straits, load at once, and be off with their cargoes without any quarantine at all.⁠[230] In accounting for the fact that advantage has not been taken of the great privileges accorded to Kertch, something is doubtless due to the difficulty of changing any established course of trade; and merchants who have laid out capital in establishments at Taganrok and Rostof have, of course, been unwilling to remove to a new town. There are, however, real advantages for commerce at the towns of the Azof, which Kertch does not possess. The trade of that sea is almost entirely confined to exports, and the merchants at the ports on its shores are nearer to the country which supplies them, and to their agents who are scattered over it, and with whom they want to maintain a constant communication, than they would be at Kertch. At present there is no steam communication in the Azof, and the means of transit across it must be very much improved before it will be possible to transfer to its southern extremity the point of rendezvous between the internal and external commerce. And, again, if Kertch should become the emporium of trade, a larger capital would be required for carrying on business there, because stocks would be longer on the road, and more of them would have to be kept in store. The necessity for a larger capital is a great objection to the change, because capital is very scarce in Russia, as in all new or ill-governed countries, so that even that which is required for the tillage of the ground is supplied by foreigners, as will afterwards be explained. It is besides doubtful, if an emporium were established on the Black Sea, whether Kertch is the most eligible place for it. The merchants generally are in favour of Theodosia rather than Kertch, because the anchorage at the former place is better, and the bay of Theodosia does not freeze in winter, like the Bosphorus. A glance at the map will also show, that a railway might be made, or a canal cut across the peninsula of Kertch, which at Theodosia is only forty miles broad, to some point between Arabat and Cape Kazantip, where the Russians landed their stores last autumn for Sevastopol, and then the difficulties of the navigation of the Bosphorus would be avoided, the distance shortened, and the communications would be easier with the western parts of new Russia.

Kertch, like all Greek colonies, is charmingly situated. A hill, called the Arm-chair of Mithridates, on the top of which the rock is scooped out in a peculiar way, rises at a short distance from the shore, and gently slopes down to the sea. Around this hill was originally built the old Greek town, and on its sides were once clustered a variety of Greek temples, crowned on the top by the acropolis, which in Greek cities was nothing more than the walls surrounding the sacred spot in which was placed the tutelary deity, upon the safe custody of which the security of the town was supposed to depend. The Turkish fortress below the hill has now been cleared away to make room for a handsome open square surrounded by arcades, from which streets are building in all directions.

I was kindly lodged during my stay here by Mr. Cattley, the English vice-consul, a son of one of the great Russian merchants of St. Petersburg, whom I had met at Sevastopol, and who is now the interpreter to Lord Raglan in the Crimea.

The civil Governor was Prince Herkheolídze, of Georgian extraction; and the military Governor, whose command extends all down the eastern coast of the Black Sea, and includes all the fortresses erected against the Circassians as far as Redout-kalè, was General Budberg, who had been the aide-de-camp of Marshal Diébitch in the first Turkish and Polish wars, and who was lately commissioner to the Emperor in the Principalities.

General Budberg was exceedingly polite, but would not allow me a passage to Redout-kalè, down the eastern coast of the Black Sea, in one of the Government vessels, which then occasionally plied there, although as soon as Prince Woronzof came to the Caucasus he made them start at stated times, and receive passengers at fixed charges, to the great convenience of travellers and merchants. During the ten days I staid in Kertch I spent the time very agreeably in visiting the numberless ancient remains in the neighbourhood, and profiting by the kind hospitality of the society there.

As I was going to visit a country so little known as the Caucasus, having obtained leave to take the road along the line of the Kuban, and across the mountains to Tiflis, I was anxious to obtain every information in my power, and met with many officers at Kertch who had served in various parts of the mountains, and were very obliging in satisfying my curiosity. General Budberg told me of the anthracite which is found in large quantities on the banks of the Don, and which was found to be, he said, better than coal for the steamers. He had just been superintending the experiments which two new English engineers had been making with it, and they found that a ship could be provided with it for one-third time longer than with coal, although it required a different arrangement of some parts of the machinery of the vessels.

I met here several educated Russians, of what I may call the middle classes, and was pleased to find in the unguarded moments of familiar conversation a tone of sound good sense in all their remarks, which I believe fairly represents the general state of feeling through the country.

Giving generally the fruit of my observations among many classes of Russians for several years, I believe they think their government a wise and good one on the whole, although they are not slow to criticise it in its details. They believe that an iron hand is necessary to keep the empire together, and that a great destiny is in store for it, and as long as progress is made, and the Slavonic name upheld, it has always seemed to me, and I think my opinion has been borne out by recent events, that they would be willing to rally round their Government, and make every sacrifice required by it.

Great efforts have been made of late years by the Government to rouse a national feeling in the people, and for this reason almost insurmountable obstacles are placed in the way of Russians either leaving Russia, or having their children educated abroad. As a general rule, to which very few exceptions are allowed, no Russian can be absent from his country between the age of twelve years old and twenty-five, or the whole time during which the character is supposed to be forming; and after the age of twenty-five a medical certificate is necessary in order to obtain permission to travel, and a tax of one hundred silver roubles, or about 16l., is levied during each year of absence as the price of a passport. No Russian can be absent more than five years from his country without ceasing to be a Russian subject, and forfeiting all his property. These rules were a good deal the subject of conversation while I was at Kertch, and they seemed generally approved of, on the grounds that young Russians came back with such very absurd notions after having been to foreign countries, and that, without understanding what was good in them, they aped everything that was bad. It was also observed that the revolution of 1824 originated entirely with the army that had served in Western Europe, which brought home notions of freedom that were impracticable in their native country. A constitution it was said was now impossible in Russia, and so little was the meaning of the term known by the people when they called out for it at the revolution of 1824, that they thought “Constitutia”⁠[231] meant the wife of the Grand Duke Constantine, who resigned his rights to the throne in favour of the late Emperor Nicholas.

The church of Kertch, which formerly stood in the fortress, is a curious specimen of Byzantine architecture, and the date of its erection engraven on one of its columns, viz. the year of the world 6225 (757 A.D.), proves it to be the oldest Byzantine temple now remaining in the Crimea.

The plan of the church is that of a cross with very short transepts, and a cupola rising in the middle, which lights the centre by eight narrow windows. The cupola is supported by four short marble columns of the Corinthian order, and some idea may be formed of the small dimensions of the church, as the distance between these columns is only twelve feet.

The appearance of the whole is mean and gloomy, and resembles the churches which may be seen in various parts of Greece. Under the Justinians and their successors, in the sixth and seventh centuries of the Christian era, architecture had degenerated, and leaving more and more the beautiful models of Greece, had changed into a new style suited to the wants of the Christian ritual, and therefore continually less like the old Greek edifices. This new style, which took its origin at Constantinople, was called the Byzantine style, and all the countries which bordered on the Black Sea adopted it. The cupola was necessary for the church service, as its light being shed on the table of the love feast, or the altar, was considered emblematic of the divine light descending from heaven.

Such was the origin of the Byzantine style, and it was natural that the Crimea, which was so near Constantinople, should be greatly influenced by it, and that the traces of it should be everywhere found throughout the peninsula. There are the remains of such churches at Phanagoria and Taman, and the churches of Kherson, Aithodor, and Aioudágh, in the Crimea, are built in the same style. There were several in Kertch, the remains of which may still be seen.

The marble that was commonly used at this period was white with large grains, striped with blue bands. Dubois supposes that there was a quarry of it near Constantinople, and that it was a great manufactory for church columns and ornaments, which were exported all round the Black Sea, because it is in all the principal ports that traces of churches are found, adorned with this marble. It is not found in buildings erected before the foundation of Constantinople, and the two kinds, then most usual, were the marble of Paros, of which fragments are found belonging to all ages, and a streaked marble of blue, or grey, or white, called “cipolino” by the Italians, the use of which is confined almost exclusively to the Bosphorus.⁠[232]

The ancient name of Kertch was Panticapæum,⁠[233] and it was one of the many Milesian colonies founded in the Black Sea, in the seventh century before Christ. After about half a century of independent existence, it became the centre of a kingdom the political limits of which varied considerably. In its palmiest days the territory extended as far north as the Tanais, while to the west it was bounded on the inland side by the mountains of Theodosia. This fertile and narrow region was the granary of Greece, especially of Athens, which drew annually from it a supply of 400,000 medimni of corn.⁠[234] Although there are no fine buildings, or even fragments left standing, as at Athens and Rome, to attest the ancient magnificence of Panticapæum, heaps of brick and pottery and the foundations of buildings encumber the soil for a considerable distance round the Hill of Mithridates, and show how great was the extent of the ancient city.

The acropolis occupied the summit of the Hill of Mithridates, in shape an irregular polygon, and the ditches and some parts of the walls, the last in the coarse limestone of Kertch, may still be traced. The fortified town touched the acropolis in the form of a long square, of which the acropolis occupied the south-east angle. The wall in its circuit enclosed only the summit and the northern slope of the Hill of Mithridates. The southern side seems never to have been fortified, although there are numerous traces of the foundations of buildings.

It is probable that, in very early times, the bay advanced much further into the land. Not to speak of the groups of tumuli which seem to mark the ancient limits of the water, the alluvial nature of the soil, its low level, which is almost that of the sea, and the absence of all buildings on this space, make it probable that this ground was formerly covered by the water. This was the case with all the other bays of the Bosphorus, and particularly of one to the south of Mount Mithridates, which formed in ancient times a second port, but is now covered with a salt-lake, separated from the sea by a bar of sand, which the waves sometimes overleap in stormy weather.

Thus in ancient times the hill of Panticapæum was bounded on three sides by the sea. The principal faubourg extended from the mole, the remains of which are still visible, along the sea-shore to the foot of the mountain, and as far as the southern port. In the midst of the immense heaps of ruins which cover the surrounding country, may be traced the principal streets which ended at the gates of the town, and among them one of the most distinct is that leading from the port to the acropolis, entering it at what seems to have been its only gate. This is probably the gate that is seen on the coins of the king, T. J. Reskóuporis, because it is not placed in the middle of the wall of the polygon, and the same peculiarity may be observed on the coins. The street after entering the acropolis, ascended the hill by a zigzag, until it reached the peak at the top called the Arm-chair of Mithridates. The base of the peak is hidden under a mass of ruins, and the whole rock has been carefully hewn. This is especially the case on the western side, where a niche is excavated, eight feet wide with steps leading up to it, and evidently intended for a statue, and this is the work which has given rise to the name of the “Arm-chair” of Mithridates. This “Arm-chair” is evidently only part of an ancient edifice in which it was included, the form of which may be traced by the foundations of the walls.

This edifice had probably a religious destination, as in the excavations which M. Scassi made at the foot of the rock, he discovered a fine torso of a colossal statue of Cybele in white marble, which forms one of the chief ornaments of the museum. There are also friezes and cornices which came from the same spot. The head of Cybele is found on the coins of some of the kings,⁠[235] although not on those of the town of Panticapæum, and Cybele is the same divinity as Astarte, or the Eastern Venus.

The interior of the acropolis, which was 200 yards square, allowed plenty of room for the erection of two sanctuaries, one to Cybele and the other to Ceres, and still left space for the lodgings of the priests, and the garrison, and for a palace for Mithridates the Great, who came here to die. The acropolis of Athens had not more available room than that of Panticapæum. The plateau of the Hill enclosed in the walls of the town was also ornamented with palaces and perhaps temples, for several peaks of rock have been sculptured like the Arm-chair of Mithridates, and the inscriptions and medals of Panticapæum show that there was the worship of several other divinities besides Cybele and Ceres.

There are no signs of aqueducts in the acropolis, but the lower town was probably supplied with water from two springs at the bottom of the valley, which now furnish the two principal fountains of Kertch. One is within the old fortifications, and has been repaired by the Turks with the fragments of ancient marbles, on one of which is an inscription, showing it to have belonged to a monument which Sauromates III. raised to his father Mithridates Eupator (A.D. 162).

The principal gate of the town was turned towards the interior of the peninsula in the centre of the western wall. It led to Nymphæum and Theodosia, and the place is easily recognized by the interruption of the deep ditch which ran along it. At 240 yards from the gate the road which led to Theodosia reached an allée of tumuli ranged several rows deep on each side in an irregular manner, and continuing for two-thirds of a mile. This long series of tombs seems to date in great measure from the foundation of the town by the Milesians. At a later period the dwellings of the dead became more extended, and occupied the range of hills in continuation of Mount Mithridates for six or seven miles in length, and here are found the tombs of the kings. Tumuli are also found on the other side of the low plain to the north, where they form three grand groups, the best known of which is near the modern quarantine. The gate to the north of the Theodosian gate led to the Greek city of Dia, near Kamishboroun, and the road crossed the hill through a gentle dip. Along it were the tombs of the poorer inhabitants, who buried their urns and cinders around a coral-rag peak, 245 feet above the level of the bay.

Such is a short sketch of the Milesian Panticapæum. Afterwards, as the bay became filled up, and the low ground between the mountain and the sea increased, the population descended and left the old site of the town, until in the fourth century, soon after Kertch became converted to Christianity, its Kings disappeared, and barbarous hordes destroyed all the cities of the Bosphorus. The population then became very much reduced, and the Panticapæum of the Eastern empire was a decayed and unimportant town.

As soon as there was space enough on the sea-shore, the inhabitants fortified themselves there; and the Milesian acropolis, on the summit of the mountain, with its temples and palaces, has ever since served as a cemetery. This was proved by the excavations which were made for building a mortuary chapel for Mr. Stempkovsky, who wished to be buried on the highest point. To the depth of eight or ten feet were found broken Etruscan pottery, fragments of marble, and building stones with inscriptions. In the midst of this new soil were a number of tombs, irregularly placed one on the other, containing stone coffins made of thin layers of Kertch limestone, filled simply with bones, which proved them to be Christian.

The Greeks never allowed the dead to be placed near the temples of the Gods, as their contact was considered pollution. Even close to the Arm-chair of Mithridates was found a sarcophagus, like those of Inkerman and Tepekerman, 7½ feet long and 1½ feet broad, and the eastern end, that of the head, cut in the shape of a semicircle. The tomb was covered with a great slab, and approached by five steps cut in the southern side of the rock. The Arm-chair itself was perhaps the apse of a little Christian chapel.

The enormous quantity of tumuli round Kertch form one of the distinguishing features of the place—many of them have been opened, and unfortunately without sufficient care. The tumulus on the shores of the Bosphorus is essentially Milesian. This is also remarkable on the Asiatic side, where the towns of the Sindes have no monuments of this kind, while Phanogoria, Kepos, and Kimmericum, which are known Milesian colonies, are surrounded by them. The same is the case on the European shore where Panticapæum, Myrmékium, Porthmium, Nymphæum, Milesian towns, are distinguishable from a distance by the multitude of their tumuli, while the other Kimmericum, now Opouk, and Kherson, colonies of Heraclea, and consequently Dorian, have none. The same is the case with the towns of the Tauri; except the residence of Skilouros near Simpherópol, which has a few tumuli near its walls.

It would be curious to inquire what is the reason of the tumulus being peculiar to the Ionic race. Does it arise from their differing with the Dorians in their religious ideas respecting the dead? and are the same facts observable in Greece and other Greek colonies? Must we go back for an explanation to the origin of the Greek nation, of the Ionians from the Pelasgians, and of the Dorians from the Hellenes?

The group of tumuli near the Theodosian gate⁠[236] are the most ancient, as is proved both by the nature of the objects found in them, and by their worn appearance. Mr. Blaremberg was the first to excavate them in 1824; and he has left in the museum of Kertch a list of the articles which he found in four, which had not been previously opened.

The head was generally surrounded by leaves of beaten gold, of which it was the custom to make a crown; and the following is a list of the articles found in one tomb, which he calls, without any good reason, that of the wife of King Eúmeles.

1. A bust of Isis in terra cotta.

2. Two doves in terra cotta.

3. A fragment of a Serapis in plaster.

4. A fragment of a large necklace in carbonated silver, finished by two heads of lions.

5. Ornaments in a vitreous paste imitating glass.

6. Fragments in oxided iron.

7. Two medals in bronze of King Eúmeles (died B.C. 304), having on one side a head of Apollo, and on the reverse a Priapus before a branch of myrtle.

8. A pair of golden bracelets, beautifully worked.

9. Two golden ear-rings, with small cupids, ornamented with precious stones.

10. Two golden rings, with convex green stones.

11. A golden ring, with an engraved stone of Minerva, very fine.

12. A golden pin, with a stone, on which is a butterfly.

13. A silver pin, with an engraved stone, with a head.

14. Four chalcedony ear-drops, and some leaves in beaten gold.

The tumuli near the quarantine are clearly less ancient than those on the road to Theodosia. They are less worn by time, of more colossal dimensions, and their interior construction, and the objects contained in them, show a more advanced state of civilisation. These tumuli were also crossed by a public road, which branched off on the right to Myrmékium, and on the left to Porthmium. The greater number contain vaults built of masonry, instead of excavations in the limestone, and their floor is on the same level as the ground outside. The arch of the ceiling is formed by each row of stones projecting more than the one below, until they almost touch at the top; and there are several tombs in the same tumulus. On cutting through one, on the new road to Yenicáleh, three tombs were found. The two first were those of men, as was proved by two swords and a lance which were found in them, and in the third was a skeleton of a woman, crowned with leaves of golden laurel.

There were also the following golden ornaments, which evidently belonged to a lady of high rank. Ear-rings two inches long; a necklace in filigree an inch broad, with ornaments below like the points of lances; two fibulæ, four inches long, worked with beads; a large bulla, like the fastening of a belt, with a head of Mercury upon it. Besides these, there were many plates of gold, which had fallen from the dress, now disappeared, on which were embossed vine-leaves and bunches of grapes; pearls of gold, with little tubes, separated by small enameled flowers, composed necklaces of various patterns. There were two rings, one very massive, with a stone having a head upon it, and the other with a stone cut into the shape of a lion couchant; and there was another representing two owls. By the side of the body was a gold coin of Philip of Macedon, a metal mirror, a clay vase two feet high, and a shallow covered vessel a foot and a half in diameter. At the same time another discovery was made by chance; by the side of the third tomb a fourth was found, in which were two large Etruscan urns, and one amphora about the head of the dead, who was crowned with a crown of golden laurel; with it were two necklaces, a pair of precious ear-rings, and a coin, all of gold.

It is interesting to find, on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, the same vases which in Italy are called Etruscan, from the place in which they were first found. They were soon known, however, not to be peculiar to Etruria, and Magna Græcia was discovered to be a still more prolific mine of them. Further researches established the fact, that wherever Greece had carried her civilisation and her colonies, these vases were found, and that there was not a spot within those limits, even as far as the banks of the Kuban and the Sea of Azof, which did not possess this kind of pottery, manufactured on the spot.

The number of these vases found at Kertch is small, but many were broken when the tombs were first opened, and fragments of them are scattered in great quantities all over the ruins of the town. The late Empress possessed two at Petersburg. General Potier and Prince Volkhonsky each had one, and a fourth was sold by Count de Betencourt for 160l. The Chevalier Gamba, in his Atlas, gives a drawing of one found at Kertch. There is a fine series in the museum there, and many private persons in the Crimea and Odessa possess others.

The following is a short account of the form and destination of these vases:—⁠[237]

In the East manners and customs have always remained in a singular degree unchanged, and this remark applies to all the objects of exterior life, and even to the vases. Each form had its particular destination, and, when manners do not change, forms likewise remain the same.

The Greeks partook with the East of this stability and uniformity in their vases. This may be observed from one end of Greece to the other, and both the fine and coarse vases of Italy are precisely on the same model as those of the Greek islands and Panticapæum.

They may be divided into two categories—profane and sacred. First, those for domestic use, or ornaments and offerings, as the kados, cups, bowls, viols, and lacrymatories; and secondly, the sacred or funeral vases, which formed a distinct kind. The latter are always of the shape of an urn with two handles, more or less large. The forms of all the vases are Greek, and, with few exceptions, they are ornamented with designs upon them.

Of the profane vases, or those for common use, the kados was that one used for drawing water; and for this all the people of the East, and the Greeks, had a peculiar form, varying in different countries according as the pitcher was carried on the head or the shoulder. Rebecca carried it on her shoulder when she met the servant of Abraham near the fountain of Charan.⁠[238]

The Greeks gave to this vase the name of kados; and with them it had three handles, of which the one in the middle served to hold it while water was poured out into smaller vessels, and the other two were to balance it upon the head. The kados of the Tatars of the Crimea has two handles, because they carry it on the head, like the Greeks. The Georgian kados is very broad below, and has only one handle, being carried on the shoulder. The Armenians use tinned copper vessels ornamented with designs.

The funeral vases, wide below, with narrow necks, nine to fifteen inches high, are found in the tombs, always with two handles, and two compositions painted on them, one on each side, differing both in execution and the style of the subject. On comparing them with those found in Italy, they will be seen to be precisely similar, even to the singular difference in the two compositions which ornament them. The one is always some scene in private or public life; and the design is elegant and the execution very careful. The other is a coarse sketch, hastily done in a rough way, and an eternal repetition of the same personages, with some variations in the pose, the number of figures, and the emblems which accompany them.

The personages in the long cloaks are the initiated during some scene of the mysteries of Ceres Thesmophora, as may be seen by comparing them with the relief on the altar of that goddess, found in the acropolis of Panticapæum, where the whole scene is precisely the same. These vases placed in the tombs must, therefore, be regarded as a kind of certificate of baptism, to prove that the dead had been initiated into such or such a grade of the mysteries. As the principal object of these mysteries was to teach, that there was an Almighty Divinity, punishing vice and recompensing virtue, the presence of these vases would be a proof of their faith in this doctrine, by which they hoped to reap eternal happiness after death. Some of the scenes relate to the mysteries of Bacchus, as well as Ceres, and the two have an intimate relation with each other, as they both come from the mysteries of Isis and Osiris. The essential elements in the mysteries of Ceres are the ample cloak, or pallium, without sleeves, descending to the feet, and was the same as was used in the mysteries of Eleusis. The initiated, on the vases, have the head bare, and with some the hair is bound by a narrow white fillet, which seems worn only by those of superior rank. This fillet has a little ornament in front, which may be the leaf persea, or the little serpent knouphis, the good demon so often seen on the images of Isis and Osiris. The crown of laurel and myrtle belongs only to an important personage, perhaps an hierophant. There is also a white stick held in the right hand, and sometimes the strigillum, or scraper. There is also an altar in the form of a truncated pyramid, and a large branch, and sacred cakes, placenta, oval, round, triangular, or square, placed in baskets, which were not to be seen by profane eyes. They were generally marked by one of four mystic signs: 1st, — or ꖌ; 2nd, +, or ⁜, or + +; 3rd, Ϲ, or Ͽ 4th, ☉ —. These scenes were so completely considered, merely as a general emblem, that on some vases the figures can hardly be made out; and the whole care of the artist was devoted to the scenes of life on the other side of the vase. The subjects chosen go far to prove that they were manufactured at Panticapæum, for the griffin, which was the emblem of Panticapæum, constantly appears, and various details of Scythian costume. On one there is a warrior with the Scythian cap; in front the crest of his horse; behind him the griffin. On another is a Scythian on horseback, in his costume, covered with little plates of gold, fighting the griffin. On a third the griffin follows in a procession by torchlight, and carries on its back a personage with a sacred emblem. On another is the history of the Amazons, evidently a Panticapæan subject; for the Sauromatæ, governed by women, were in daily contact with the Bosphorians; and the Amazons on the vase wear a complete Caucasian dress, the bachelik, or covering for the head, worn still universally in the Caucasus, of precisely the same form; the narrow trousers, the Tcherkess coat, the little morocco shoes, without soles,—in short, the whole Scythian costume is represented on this vase in the dress of the Amazons, but elegant and coquette, as it would be, if adopted by women. In the Hamilton vases of Naples⁠[239] there is likewise one scene of three Amazons fighting three griffins, which may, perhaps, have come from the Bosphorus.

Three classes of tombs must still be mentioned—those of the poor, the catacombs, and the tombs of the kings. On going out of the gate leading to Dia, along the mountain of Mithridates, there is an eminence, which a gentleman began to excavate. His labours, however, seemed to end in the solid rock, below a mass of amphoræ, which contained the cinders of the poor population. At last he remarked a sepulchral slab, and, lifting it up, found the entrance to a funeral cavern. This was built with an Egyptian roof,⁠[240] and had been despoiled of everything precious, but was still most interesting, from a suite of small pictures drawn on the wall below the commencement of the roof, about a foot high, representing the war of the cranes and the pigmies. In one place there is seen a pigmy, armed with lance and shield, struggling against a crane; in another place he is overthrown by his desperate adversary; in another he is attacking him by the tail, and the crane is turning round to punish him; in another he is running away, or defending himself with his hands and feet against the terrible pecks of his enemy; while another pigmy is wrestling with a crane, and succeeds in vanquishing it by pressing its neck. The roof was ornamented with garlands and arabesques to suit the pictures, and at the end of the cavern are two peacocks drinking from the same vase,⁠[241] and a winged genius, with a basket of flowers in his hand, is over the entrance door. Unfortunately, soon after this tomb was discovered, it was completely defaced by visitors.

The catacombs are among the tumuli on the road to Theodosia, and are deep excavations 15 or 20 feet deep, 7 or 8 feet long, and 2½ feet broad, and, on descending and entering by an arched door, large subterranean chambers are found, cut in the white calcareous clay, with niches all around for the bodies. Some remains of coffins are to be found, and the whole is probably a Christian work.

The last group of tumuli to be mentioned are those of the kings, at what was called the Golden Mountain. After following the old road to Theodosia for two miles, Mount Mithridates is seen to offer a passage across it by a narrow valley. The mountain rises again directly, and continues in a north-west direction to the Sea of Azof. This continuation is called the Golden Mountain. An enormous tumulus, which rises above the road, where it passes between the hills, seems to announce a more powerful race than that which raised the tombs of the plain. On the crest of the mountain, at 323 feet above the level of the sea, rises the tumulus, in the form of a cone, 100 feet high and 150 feet in diameter, different from those of the neighbourhood, because it is walled from top to bottom like a Cyclopean monument. It is cased on its exterior, like the Pyramids, with large blocks of Kertch stone, cubes of three or four feet, placed without cement or mortar. This monument, almost unique of its kind from its size, was a tomb, and from all times had been the object of a number of mysterious legends. The Tatar, Turk, and more ancient traditions, spoke of immense treasures hidden in this tomb, which was known by the name of Altun Obo, or the Golden Mountain. It was even added that, on each feast of St. John, a virgin was seen on the summit of the tumulus, waiting for him whom she had chosen to share with her the treasures of the Cyclopean monument. It may be observed that there is the same style of legend from the north to the south of Europe, and this of the Golden Mountain is similar to that, which the Tatars relate of the Kisiltach rock, the Lithuanians of the golden table buried in the swamps of Vokroi, and the Rughians of the stone of the Virgin at Stubenkammer.⁠[242] The tradition existed that there was an entrance to the tomb, which the Tatars had often tried to find, without success. It was not until 1832 that Mr. Kareiche carefully sought for it, and employed thirty-five men for fifteen days in attacking the tumulus from the south-west. At last he had the good fortune to find the entrance to a gallery, by which he penetrated without obstacle to the centre of the tumulus. The gallery was constructed of layers of worked stone, without cement, and was 60 feet long, 10 feet high—taking in the Egyptian roof, and three or four feet broad. Arrived at the end, M. Kareiche found himself on the edge of a precipice which opened before him. He saw with astonishment that the centre of the tomb was formed of a circular tower 25 feet high and 20 feet in diameter. The floor of this construction was 10 feet below the floor of the gallery, and the vaulted roof was composed of four rows of advancing stones.

At length M. Kareiche perceived that he could descend into the tomb by stones placed at distances in the side, and was hastening to reap the treasures promised in the legend, when to his stupefaction he perceived that the tomb was empty. On the ground was a large square stone, on which a sarcophagus might have been deposited, and half way up the wall was a large empty niche. He searched in vain to penetrate further, supposing that the tower was only a well to arrive at other hidden caverns: nothing indicated any passage, or any loose stone, and it is still an enigma what was the object of this expensive and magnificent monument, the rival of the pyramids. The tower is not in the centre of the tumulus, and it is possible that there may be other interior chambers. The distance between the interior tower and the exterior Cyclopean wall is filled with fragments of stone from the fine quarries in the neighbourhood.⁠[243]

The modern Greek legend made this the tomb of Mithridates, although it is well known that he was buried at Sinope, and Souvorof, deceived by this account, is said to have made a pilgrimage to this tumulus as the tomb of the great king, and to have knelt and shed tears here.

This tumulus is placed exactly at the spot where the two branches of the long rampart meet, which extends from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azof. It is visible, extending from the foot of the tumulus to the gorge of Katerles, which opens in a second range of hills parallel to the Golden Mountain and Mount Mithridates, and the peaks above it are covered with ruins. To the south the rampart is quite effaced, where the road to Theodosia crosses it, but beyond it its zigzags are seen as far as the White Cape, where it of course terminates.

This rampart was probably the ancient boundary of the territory of Panticapæum, and the primitive kingdom of the Bosphorus, before the conquest of Nymphæum and Theodosia, which were added to the kingdom, the first in B.C. 410, and the second about B.C. 390.

Within the rampart, at 150 paces to the east, near Kertch, there is another monument of the same kind as the other, but unfinished. It consists of a circular esplanade, 500 paces round and 166 in diameter, with an exterior covering of Cyclopean masonry, built of worked stones, 3 feet long and high. There are five layers of these; but it seems to have been the intention of the builders to raise a monument like the one before mentioned. Perhaps a revolution, or the death of the prince who was building his own monument, like the kings of Egypt, caused the works to be abandoned. Several ranges of enormous stones between this and the first monument indicate ancient walls of houses, and adjoining these are traces of ancient gardens, while on the slope of the mountain, in the midst of the ruins near the Khouter Scassi, there is a fine well in good preservation, cased with wrought stone and full of water. This seems extraordinary in the midst of a country now so dry, desert, and devoid of wood; but proves that in the time of Panticapæum the general aspect of the land was very different, since country houses and trees existed where there are now only wild rocks.

The view from the summit of the hill, and still more so from the top of the tumulus, is magnificent, and extends as far as the rock of Opouk, the ancient Kimmericum, which is 24 miles distant. To the north it extends over several pretty country houses, situated at the foot of the mountain. That of M. de Scassi is a real Italian villa, surrounded by gardens and orchards, where the proprietor has planted 30,000 plants of vines and more than 2000 fruit-trees, which he imported from France. There is in the park the ash and the elm, and the red pine of the Caucasus. There are several small tumuli around; but a detailed description must now be given of the great discovery of all, which was made by accident.

There is a spur of the Golden Mountain running south, called by the Tatars Kouloba,⁠[244] or the hill of cinders, beyond the ancient rampart, and four miles from Kertch. Near it is a tumulus 165 feet in diameter, and some soldiers, carrying away stones from it, discovered an interior construction. They soon arrived at a vestibule, 6 feet square, turned to the north, covered by an Egyptian roof of three rows of stones, which they were obliged to remove in order to penetrate further, because this roof was supported by beams reduced to dust. At the end of the vestibule was a door, 8 feet 10 inches high and 5 feet 9 inches wide, closed half way up by large wrought stones, and above by those of the common size. Large pieces of wood formed the covering, but the beams were reduced to dust, and the stones which closed the entrance supported the upper part, which threatened soon to fall. This difficulty was soon removed, and two savans, Mr. Dubrux and Dr. Lang, were commissioned by the governor to enter alone and take an inventory of the contents. An immense crowd besieged the approaches, which were guarded by soldiers, while the commissioners entered the funeral dwelling of one who had evidently been an important personage.