IMHO, the couple ARE Cossacks, - and - from what I can distinguish of the medal ribbons - the man appears to be wearing several Czarist/Imperial-Russian medals on his tunic's right breast. The Cross would likely be an Award for Valour. SFAIK, the objects in question are indeed containers of some kind for rifle/carbine ammunition, possibly for the M1870 "Berdan II" or "Berdanka" rifle - or more likely the cavalry carbine version - which continued in Czarist Service through the Russo-Turkish War, even after the issue of the Mosin-Nagant to front-line Infantry units beginning around 1891. In fact it continued to be issued to Reserve Units up-to, - and during WW2. Numbers of surplus Berdan I's & II's were sold-off as hunting arms. According to my copy of "Small Arms Of The World", - a special cartridge was manufactured for use in the Czarist Berdanka cavalry carbine. It consisted of the same cartridge case and bullet used in the Berdan I and Berdan II rifles, but with a lighter powder charge of only 4.5 grams, and was issued in six round pink paper packets. As late as the Cyprus Emergency in the mid-to-late1950's, the British Forces were occasionally still finding [and confiscating] working, and well-used, early [i.e. mid-to-late 19th C], breechloading long-arms during anti-EOKA-terrorist operations in the mountain villages. J.W.
E House <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: ----- Original Message ----- From: "Saragrace Knauf" << Anyone have a clue what the cartridge like things are on some of the men's costume? - http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87_7010__01477_.jpg >> Do you mean the pleats, or the shells? =} I'm pretty sure they are actually wearing amunition--I'd guess this guy is a cossack, known for their military prowess. Those things look like muzzle-loading paper cartridges: http://cartridgecollectors.org/slics2006/whitworth.jpg http://www.horsesoldier.com/catalog/c0034.html or much less likely, cleaner bullets: http://www.fototime.com/F3B7ACC989A3679/orig.jpg They would have been a good 50 years or so out of date at the time of this photo, but still used in areas like this. -E House (Mmm, a handy dandy pocket-sized time machine, like I always wanted!) _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
