3-021-462 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Crimea Revisited: the Tartar Shepherd, 1869. 'The Tartar shepherd...began talking in his own language to our Artist, and though not a word of his speech was intelligible...but when our artist went on to pronounce the word "Anliski," [English]...the astonishment of the Tartar was ludicrously displayed. Repeating the word "'Anliski!" with a long-drawn "Ha-a-ah!" which almost exhausted his breath, he stared at the amused traveller with an expression of bewildered surprise, which showed that our friend was the first Englishman or Scotchman he had ever seen in his life; for he must have been a mere child at the time of the siege of Sebastopol...He may have been led to think of an "Anliski" as a species of devil, who could be fought with, and could probably be killed, unlike the supernatural fiends described by his religion, but whose malice and ingenuity for evil were more than human. It would be interesting to learn the thoughts of this young Tartar, and to study the popular traditions already formed among the South Russian peasantry concerning those great military transactions in which the British Army bore its part [ie the Crimean War]. But our Artist, having "caught a Tartar," was obliged to be content with sketching his figure'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.