【节选】德·波普兰《描述乌克兰》de Beauplan 《A Description of Ukraine》

 The Housarts are Lancers, and all of them Gentlemen of considerable Estates, as far as 50000 Livers a Year ； are excellently mounted, the worst of their Horses worth 200 Ducats, being all Turkish Horses brought from Caramania, a Province in Anatolia. Every one of them serves with five Horses, for in a Company of a hundred Lancers, there are but twenty Masters, who all march in the Front, being File-leaders ; and the four other Ranks are their Servants each in his File. Their Lances are nineteen foot long, the Spear hollow, the rest of so lid Wood. At the point of their Lances they wear a Streamer or Flag red and white, or blue and green, or black and white, but always of two Colours, sous or five Ells long, which, I suppose, is to fright the Enemies Horses, for when they have couch'd their Lances, running with all the swiftness their Horses heels can carry them, these Streamers twirle about, and discompose the Enemies Horses they are to charge. They are arm'd Back and Breast, Arms, Head, &c. By their side they have only their Scimiter, a Palache under the left Thigh ; and on the right side of the pomel of the Saddle is fastned a long Sword, broad at hand, and tapering downwards with a square Point, which is to run a Man thro as he lies on the Ground if he is not yet dead ; and therefore this Sword is five foot long, and has a round Pomel that they may the better thrust against the Ground to pierce the Coat of Mail ; the Palache is to cut flesh, and the Scimiter to hack and hew the Coats of Mail. They also carry Battel-axes weighing at least fix Pounds made like our square Pick-axes, well temper'd, with a long Handle to strike upon the Helmet, and Enemys Armour, which they pierce with these Instruments

As their Armour and manner of waging War seems to us very different from ours,we will let you fee by what follows, that their Banquets and their Behaviour at them, is different from what is us'd by most Nations in the World. For the Lords who value themselves most upon this particular, the People that are very rich, and those that are in a medium, treat very splendidly accordingly to their ability j and I can with truth affirm, that their common Meals do much exceed pur Feasts in all points, by which sensible Men judg what they do when they debauch and make extraordinary Treats. The Great Lords of the Kingdom, and other Officers of the Crown, upon leisure days, when they are excus'd from going to the Senate, and hold the Diet at Warsaw, have made Entertainments that have cost 50, and even 60000 Livres, a very great Expence, considering what is ferv'd in, and how it is ferv'd. For it is not there as in those Countrys, where Amber, Musk, Pearls, and costly dres sing arise to prodigious Sums. All that is ferv'd here is very ordinary and coarsely drest, but in prodigious quantities, tho it be but for a small occasion. But the wast their Servants and Family make, as shall be shown hereafter, is what enhances the Charge. Now that you may guess at the value of the whole by a small Sample, I must inform you upon my own knowledg, that very often (according to the Bills of the Expence which I have seen) there has been one only Article which mention'd 100 Crowns in Glasses only, and they were not curious ones, but only a Penny a piece. When they begin, they are generally only four or five Lords Senators, and sometimes the Embassadors that are at Court join with them, which is but a small number for so great an Expence, as we have spoke of, but increas'd by the number of their Gentlemen Followers, to the number of twelve or 15, who are all bid welcome, and in all make seventy or eighty Persons, who all sit down to a Table, made of three Tables put end to end, and near 1 00 Foot in length, generally cover'd with three fine large Table