return to the ranks of their own kouren thus resuming their rights as Free Cossacks.
"The election of a new koshovoy ataman then proceeded under conditions which made the acceptance of this high honour as humiliating as possible for the successful candidate. The kouren from which the ataman was to be chosen ha\ang first been decided upon, an individual member was next singled out by the noisy shouts of his adherents. Ten of the most insolent and intoxicated elders of the general assembly were usually deputed to announce to the new chieftain the honour conferred upon liim. It was no false modesty that often caused the responsibilities of this high position to be declined. Like Csesar, etiquette demanded that the newly elected koshovoy should at least twice refuse the dangerous distinction offered him. It was only after being knocked half senseless by the back slapping and rough congratulations of his electors that he might properly consent to be dragged beneath the red horsetail standard where the final indignity connected with his installation awaited him. The oldest Cossacks present, gathering up handfuls of mud from the river bank, proceeded in turn to smear with this filth the beard and face of their newly-chosen leader. In this condition he was obhged — though now enjoying the dignity of remaining covered before the uncapped assembly — to make a long speech thanking his comrades for the honours literally thrust upon him.
As additional safeguard to the democratic institutions of the Zaporogians, it was further decreed (by laws none the less binding because only part of the unwritten traditions of the community) that except during an active campaign the kosliovoy ataman should exercise no real authority in the sitch. When, however, war had once been declared, even his most despotic commands were implicitly obeyed.
In ordinary times the administration of the affairs of the Zaporogian sitch lay in the hands of a council of subordinate atamans elected by the different kourens. These were generally selected from among the most popular members of the community and only kept themselves in office by exercising arts of the basest flattery and slavish generosity. No ataman might receive any pay, except the privilege of renting stalls to the Jews and other traders venturesome enough to establish themselves among the Zaporogians. Commerce was held in so little esteem that nearly all human rights were denied these despised shopkeepers. Any moment might see their stock in trade looted before their eyes, yet the high prices which after some successful raid the Cossacks were liable to toss to the "peddlers" rather than demean themselves by bargaining, always attracted a motley crowd of vendors willing to submit to all the humiliations which might be heaped upon them in return for the rich profits to be gained.
Although these periods of iron discipline and the relaxations of ensuing debauch were characteristic of the life of the sitch^ contemporary' writers give the Zaporogians credit for certain homely ^'irtues. They were always honest with each other. Convicted thieves were treated with cruel severity: lashed to a post in the centre of the camp, if they or their friends were unable to make restitution at the end of a period of three days, they might be beaten to death by their ^actims. The murderer of a comrade was chained to his victim's corpse and buried alive in the same grave. But besides these cruel laws bom of the necessities of eariy times, there grew up a more civilized code based upon the celebrated medieval "Institutes of Magdeburg," — regulations which were applied in the merchants* quarters of the Pohsh towns.
A custom of the sitch doubtless growing out of the dangers constantly threatening the first garrisons and the state of constant watchfulness and alarm in which they were forced to live, has gained no little attention from contemporarj^ writers. This was the law rigorously excluding women, under pain of death, from the community of the Zaporogians. If a Zaporogian desired to take up the burdens and pleasures of family life he returned to the Cossack settlements, while his name was inexorably erased from the rolls of the Free Company. From the accounts of this custom many ludicrous errors have arisen. Some writers have described the
Zaporogians as a kind of monkish militia, constantly at war with the infidels in the defense of Christianity. Others have described them as a religious order of chivalry with vows of chastity resembling those taken by the Knights oi the Sword, who ruled in Lithuania.