z_ is more familiar. Like the
Bashkirs, nomads of the Mongolian-Tartar race, perhaps the least
civilized of those inhabiting the steppes.

20 26. _rhetoric._ In what sense used here? Is this use correct?

21 5. _Sarepta._ Locate this town; it is on a small river that empties
into the Volga. "The point of the reference to this particular town is
that it was a colony of industrious Germans, having been founded in
1764 or 1765 by the Moravian Brothers."--BALDWIN.

22 11. Temba. The Jemba.

22 28. Kichinskoi. Notice the vividness of the character portrait
that follows; compare it with the portraitures of Zebek and Oubacha
previously given.

23 1. surveillant. Here used for watchman or spy. What derivatives
have we from this French expression?

23 34. Christmas arrived. Another division point in the analysis.

24 5. Astrachan. Also spelled _Astrakhan_. The name of a large and
somewhat barren district comprising more than 90,000 square miles of
territory in southeastern Europe; its capital city, having the same
name, is situated on the Volga near its mouth.

24 26. at the rate of 300 miles a day. By no means an incredible
speed; in Russia such sledge flights are not uncommon. Compare what De
Quincey has to say of the glory of motion in _The English
Mail-Coach_,--"running at the least twelve miles an hour."

25 26. malignant counsels. What is the full effect of this epithet?

26 10. valedictory vengeance. Note again the force of the epithet.

26 28. aggravate. What is the literal significance of this word? As
synonymous with what words is it often incorrectly used?

28 11. For now began to unroll. Does this paragraph constitute a
digression, or is it a useful amplification of the narrative? Does De
Quincey exaggerate when he terms these experiences of the Tartars "the
most awful series of calamities anywhere recorded"?

28 14. sudden inroads. "The inroads of the Huns into Europe extended
from the third century into the fifth; those of the Avars from the
sixth century to the eighth or ninth; the first great conquests of the
Mongol Tartars were by Genghis-Khan, the founder of a Mongol empire
which stretched, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, from
China to Poland."--MASSON.

28 18. volleying lightning. Compare p. 2, l. 1, where De Quincey uses
a somewhat similar phrase. Why is the phrase varied, do you suppose?

28 21. the French retreat. It would be interesting to compare the
incidents and figures of