2-798-557 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Annual migration of a Tartar family, 1844. Group of Tatars on horseback travelling through the Crimean Peninsula: '...a Tartar household pursuing their precipitous way down the side of a torrent valley, on their march to Christmas quarters in the genial neighbourhood of Balaklava... Few more picturesque sights could be imagined than those which the incidents of such a journey would furnish. The bivouac of a party of the travellers at night, is said to present a picture of barbarous interest. They are described as crouching in wild groups round wood fires, busily engaged in cooking their kukurutz, and, ever and anon, breaking the general silence by loud vociferations of joy, vengeance, or disaster'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol V.