V IS IT ING THE POOR PEASANTS 59 



the cue if any doubt existed as to the peasant's 

 statement, and in such case we all visited the barn, 

 uncovered the meal barrel or untied the bag string 

 that we might see for ourselves what remained 

 to tide the family over to the next distribution. 

 In every case, save one, we found the pitiful story 

 only too true. 



The condition of these people was deplorably 

 miserable. In their earthen-covered hovels of 

 two rooms lived families of from ten to forty 

 human beings beside cattle of the ordinary kind. 

 Entering one house in which lived forty people, an 

 aged father and mother, nine sons with their wives 

 and children, I was met just within the door by 

 two cows. Opening the door leading into the 

 other room a third cow challenged my progress in 

 that direction. She had been called into the 

 parlour for milking. "Where do these forty 

 sleep? " I inquired of the Count. The ready reply, 

 applicable to all such peasant dwellings, was, ' ' In 

 winter on the brick enclosure of the oven (which 

 they call a stove) , on bunks or shelves and on the 

 floor; in summer, in the barn or with the cows in 

 the outer room.' This family, the Count in- 

 formed me, had never asked for nor re- 



