Part 519

VIVAT, Fr. A familiar exclamation, which is used not only by the French, but by the Dutch, Germans--it comes from the Latin, and signifies literally, May he live!

VIVE le Roi! Fr. Long live the king!

VIVE la Republique! Fr. Long live the republic!

Qui vive? Fr. A military phrase which is used in challenging--Who comes there?

VIVRE, vivres, Fr. Food, provisions, subsistence. In the Dictionnaire Militaire, vol. iii. page 525, is an interesting account of the manner in which troops were subsisted during the first years of the French monarchy.

VIVRES et leur distribution chez les Turcs, Fr. The kind of provisions, &c. and the manner in which they are distributed among the Turks. The food or provisions for the Turkish soldiery form an immediate part of the military baggage.

The government supplies flour, bread, biscuit, rice, bulgur or peeled barley, butter, mutton, and beef, and grain for the horses, which is almost wholly barley.

The bread is generally moist, not having been leavened, and is almost always ready to mould. On which account the Armenians, who are the bakers, bake every day in ovens that have been constructed under ground for the use of the army. When there is not sufficient time to bake bread, biscuit is distributed among the men.

The ration of bread for each soldier consists of one hundred drams per day, or fifty drams of biscuit, sixty of beef or mutton, twenty-five of butter to bake the peeled barley in, and fifty of rice. The rice is given on Friday every week, on which day they likewise receive a ration of fifty drams of bulgur mixed with butter, as an extraordinary allowance, making a kind of water-gruel.

These provisions are distributed in two different quarters. The meat is given out at the government butchery, where a certain number of Armenians, Greeks, and Jews regularly attend. Each company sends a head cook, who goes with a cart and receives the allowance from a sort of quarter-master serjeant, who is in waiting with a regular return of what is wanted for each oda.

This person is stiled among the Turks Meidan Chiaous. He stands upon a spot of ground which is more elevated than the rest, and receives the allowance due to his district.

The distribution of bread, &c. is made within the precincts of the Tefterdar-Bascy, where the Vekil-karet attends as director or superintendant of stores and provisions, and by whose order they are delivered.

When the allowance is brought to the oda or company, the Vekil-karet, a sort of quarter-master, sees it regularly measured out, and if any portions be deficient, he takes note of the same, in order to have them replaced for the benefit of the company. The remainder is then given to the head cook, who divides it into two meals, one for eleven o’clock in the morning, and the other for seven in the evening.

These two meals consist of boiled or stewed meat, mixed with rice, and seasoned with pepper and salt; water-gruel being regularly made for each man on Friday.

There are six kitchen boys or quateri attached to each oda, by which they are paid a certain subsistence. On solemn occasions, and on festival days, the quateri are dressed in long gowns made of skins, with borders to them; they likewise wear a large knife with an encrusted silver handle, which hangs at their side. They serve up the victuals in two copper vessels, that are laid upon a table covered with a skin, round which seven or eight persons may be seated.

VIVRIERS, Fr. Clerks and other persons employed by the commissary-general, or contractor for stores and provisions.

Mons. Dupré D’Aulnay, in a work entitled Traité des Subsistances Militaires, has suggested the establishment of a regular corps of Vivriers or persons whose sole duty should be to attend to the subsistence of an army, in the field as well as in garrison. His reasoning upon this subject is very acute, full of good sense, and seems calculated to produce that system of economy and wholesome distribution, that, to this day, are so manifestly wanted in all military arrangements.

VIZ, Ind. A small coin; it is also a weight equal to about three pounds; but differs much in value according to place.

VIZARUT, Ind. The office of Vizier.

VIZIER, Ind. Prime minister.

ULANS, Fr. This word is sometimes written Hulans. A certain description of militia among the modern Tartars was so called. They formerly did duty in Poland and Lithuania, and served as light cavalry.

It is not exactly known at what epoch the Tartars first came into Poland and Lithuania. Dlugossus, in his history of Poland, book XI. page 243, relates, that there were troops or companies of Tartars attached to the army which was under the command of Alexander Witholde, grand duke of Lithuania. Heidenstein, in his account of Poland, Rer. Polonic., page 152, makes mention of a corps of Tartars belonging to the army which Stephen Bathori, king of Poland, carried into the field when he fought the Russians. This corps, according to the same author, was headed by one Ulan, who said he was descended from the princes of Tartary.

Although the origin of the word Ulan, as far as it regards the modern militia so called, does not appear to be indisputably ascertained, it is nevertheless well proved, that besides the Tartar chief under Stephen Bathori, the person, who in the reign of Augustus the II. formed the first pulk, or regiment of that description, was not only called Ulan himself, but likewise gave the name to the whole body under his command. This chief is mentioned in the records of the military institution of Poland in 1717. He was then colonel or commandant of the first pulk, or king’s regiment, and there were three captains under him of the same name, viz:--Joseph Ulan, David Ulan, and Cimbey Ulan. In 1744, one of these was captain of a company of Ulans in Bohemia, and was afterwards colonel of a corps of the same description in Poland. He is likewise said to have been descended from the Tartar princes. It is, however, left undecided, whether Ulan be the name of a particular family, or a term given to distinguish some post of honor; or again, whether it barely signify a certain class of turbulent haughty soldiers, such as the Streletz of Russia, or the Janizaries of Constantinople.

If there be any thing which can make us question the authenticity or probability of this account, it is the passage we find in the book already quoted--viz: Dlugossus, where he says liv. XIII. page 403, that in 1467 an ambassador from Tartary had arrived at Petrigkow to announce to king Casimir, that, after the death of Ecziger his son Nordowlad, had ascended the throne of Tartary with the unanimous consent and concurrence of all the princes and Ulans. Quitting the etymology of the word, and leaving the original name to the determination of wise and scientific men, we shall confine our present researches to the modern establishment of the Ulans; which, by the best accounts, we find to have happened in 1717.

It is acknowleged by all writers, that the Ulans are a militia, and not a particular nation or class of people; their origin, in this particular, resembles that of the Cossacks. When Augustus II. in 1717 altered the military establishment of Poland, he formed two regiments of Ulans; one consisting of six hundred men, which had already existed, and was called the king’s pulk, and the other of four hundred men, which was given to the great general of the republic.

Augustus III. on his accession to the throne, took both these regiments into his own immediate pay, and afterwards augmented the establishment by raising several other pulks or corps of this description. The Ulans are mounted on Polish or Tartar horses, and do the same duty that is allotted to hussars; with this essential difference, that they are better armed and accoutred, and that their horses excel those of the hussars in strength and swiftness, although they are mostly of the same size. The Ulans have frequently distinguished themselves on service, particularly in Bohemia.

Their principal weapon is a lance five feet long, at the end of which hangs a silk streamer, that serves to frighten the horse of the Ulan’s opponent, by its fluttering and noise. The lance is suspended on his right side, by means of a belt that is worn across the Ulan’s shoulders, or by a small leather thong which goes round his right arm, the end of the lance resting in a sort of stay that is attached to the stirrup. Before the Ulan takes his aim, he plants his lance upon his foot and throws it with so much dexterity, that he seldom misses his object.

The dress of the Ulan consists of a short jacket, trowsers or pantaloons made like those of the Turks, which reach to the ancle bone, and button above the hips. He wears a belt across his waist. The upper garment is a sort of Turkish robe with small facings, which reaches to the calf of the leg; his head is covered with a Polish cap. The color of the streamer which is fixed to the end of the lance, as well as that of the facings, varies according to the different pulks or regiments which it is meant to distinguish. The Ulan is likewise armed with a sabre, and a brace of pistols which hang from his waistbelt.