Hunting in Many Lands 



The bear has been called in folk-lore the 

 moujik's brother, and it must be conceded that 

 there are outward points of resemblance, es- 

 pecially when each is clad in winter attire; 

 moreover the moujik, when all is snow and ice, 

 fast approximates the hibernating qualities of 

 the bear. One strong point of difference is 

 the accentuated segregative character of the 

 former, who always live in long cabin villages.* 



But it is rather of the wolf's habits and do- 

 mestic economy that I wish to speak — of him 

 who has always been the dreaded and accursed 

 enemy of the Russian peasant. In the question 

 of government the wolf follows very closely the 

 system of the country, which is pre-eminently 

 patriarchal — the fundamental principle of the 

 mir. A family of wolves may vary in number 

 from six to twenty, and contain two to four 

 generations, usually two or three, yet there is 

 always one chief and one wife — in other words, 

 never more than one female with young ones. 

 When larger packs have been seen together 

 it was probably the temporary marshaling of 

 their forces for some desperate raid or the pre- 



* The bear is caricatured in Russian publications as a humorous, 

 light-hearted, joking creature, conversing and making common sport 

 with the golden-hearted moujik, his so-called brother. 



