Travels Through Several Provinces of the Russian Empire 1808

Travels Through Several Provinces of the Russian Empire: With an Historical Account of the Zaporog Cossacks, and of Bessarabia, Moldavia, Wallachia and the Crimea
By Pierce Balthasar Campenhausen, Freiherr von Pierce Balthasar Campenhausen
Published by Printed for Richard Phillips, by J.G. Barnard, 1808

The external appearance of the Wallachians, forms a
singular contrast with the state of degradation in which
they live. Their manly countenance, the axe which is suspended
from their girdle, the sheepskin, which is thrown
across the left shoulder, and fastened on the breast, reminds
one of the old Roman attire; the buskins which they
wear, all serve to give an. idea that the Wallachians are a
poor but warlike people, also one is indignant to find so
pinch weakness and pusillanimity, under such a bold and
dignified exterior. But although the oppression, under
which they have so long laboured, has degraded their cha-
lacter, it has not been capahle of obliterating those external
traces of energy and independence with which nature
has impressed them. ,