The Russian Peasaht.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13578, 25 April 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Russian Peasaht.

18 THE LAND OF. THE CZAR DOOMED? -

The population of Russia to-day is estimated, in ' round figures at- 147|p00,000 persons. Of-this number 100,000,000 are peasants, and they lag. : so far behind the times in regard to education, manners, customs, and general enlightenment mat they have been compared to the medieval German peasant of the fourteenth century. Indeed, so ignorant, are they that a young man who can read is regarded by them, as a, wonder. They believe in witches, demons, and wood-devils, and live under such conditions that in ordinary times in the Russiau villages 50 per centv of the child)-en die between birth and five years. Truly an awful rate of infant mortality! Is il surprising that people ask, Is Russia doomed? or that the country should have been so soundly beaten in warfare by the enterprising Japs?

As a matter of fact, Russian peasant does not- live—he merely exists. "Nitchevo" ("It is nothing"), lie merely says, when anything happens to him. Nothing matters, nothing could be worse, and "Nitchevo" is liiii panacea for all evils. And yet the Russian-- moujik is really a fine fellow. Ordinarily, Mr JdL. P. Ivehnard tells us in his book, "The Russian Peasant " (Werner Laurie), he is a. splendid, well-built : man, large-limbed, large-headed, and healthy. He is equally unaffected by 20deg, of frost or twenty glasses of vodka.: He is clothed in uncured sheep-skins, and carries in- winter more clothes than the average Englishman could stand up in. . He is unspeakably stupid,. however, and his dream of happiness is to gorge, to sleep as much .as possible through the winter, and dance and sing in. the; summer. But the stranger's first objection to the moujik is that he smells—not because he does not wash himself. As a matter of fact, in every, village there - arer public baths —baaza —and .the peasants wash themselves there unfailing every Saturday in order to be allowed to go to Church on Sunday; for the. Orthodox Church enjoins cleanliness.

The moujik, however,, apparently thinks that he has done all that is required of hiin by the chinch if he washes himself; for, according to Mr Kehnard, you can smell his izba, or hut, long before you .reach.. itl As a .rule there are two rooms to ail izba, a living-room and. on: outhouse, and, the former. is usually clean and white-washed, the lattey is fekrfully dirty. Moreover, his uhcured sheepskins do not- give off the most pleasant of odours, and when, as during the Russian famine of '1906-7, three or four families: combine, and live /in the best hut, pulling down , the others in order to use the timbel-, for fuel and the thatch as forage for horses and cattle, ill will be really understood that the odour of that particular iisba was not generally improved. The. Russian 'peasant i>s, always . poor, and generally in debt. He .ploughs "t ; he land in the same way that his father ploughed' it, and gets as ~ little .for his labour./ in life is how 'to yay thp:;ipk)v©rn;(>r's. i ;^fses ! . If says he cannot pay; lie' is 'floggedoi- perhaps lie Will sell part. of his next year's power of .'Work' (i.e., work for nothing for several months) to raise- a loan; and, of course, he is worse oil than ever the following year

The moujik's festivals to-day are tue sanie as those of a- century agp. Here id a description of one. It will show the extraordinary mummary practised in connection with ..marriage," although, at the same time, the description, eontkifis a very good hint to. bold and daring spinsters in thie leap year of 1908. On Christmas night at dusk the marriageable village girls go out into the streets and meet their young men,' and one says, "What : is your name 7" ... Ths» young mail -answers, "-Foma,!'.' ai.d slie replies, "My husband's name'is Foma." ■Some days later, at the girl's home, relations «are gathered together; t-hoivi comes a knock at tlis door, the starosta and the young man- enter carrying loaves of bread. The etarosta says something like this : "We are German people, come front Turkey. We'are hunters, good fellows. There was a time once in our countrv when we saw strange footprints in the snow, and my friend the prince here saw them, and we thought they might be fox's or marten's footprints, or, it,.mi<*ht be those of a beautiful girl. We we good" fellows are determined not to rest "till we had found the animal. , -We have been in all cities from Germany to Turkey and- have, sought for fox, thin marten, or this princess, apd at . last we have seen the same strange footprints in the inow again* here by. your Court. Ana we bave come. in. Couie k j t us take rtr, the beautiful princess, for w,e see her in front of us—or can it be you would her till she grows a little,, older?"