u i; s s i A. 



ture, to impair health, and to engender disease. The 

 Russian nobles if they <!<> nut merit the appellation of 

 gluttons, may be said with much propriety to be great 

 eater-. 



The Russians are also great sleepers. They are ge- 

 nerally early risers, but they almost universally take a 

 tit-stii ;rfter dinner. Some, however, rise very late, and 

 others pass halt' their life in slumber. 



in more early ages, the Russians, high and low, 

 were justly charged with the vice of habitual inebriety. 

 About the middle of the fil'ieenih century, deep cel- 

 lars, filled with strong mead, formed one of the chief 

 manners of showing prodigality, and there many a jo- 

 vial party, as a quaint author says, used " to drink 

 d runic" every day of the week. Towards the com- 

 mencement of the seventeenth century, the ordinary 

 drinks of the Russians were hydromel tmd spirits, and 

 they never quitted the table without being sunk in 

 drunkenness. The example and exertions of Peter the 

 (ireat effected much toward the disappearance of ine- 

 briety among his nobles. The temperance of the pre- 

 sent generation in the use of spirituous or intoxicating 

 liquids is remarkable, and forms one of the most strik- 

 ing and best features in their character. Of late years 

 the young nobles, and more particularly the young of- 

 fleers of the army, have become extremely fond of 

 French wines, and are especially delighted with cham- 

 pagne ; and sometimes at their parties, in the capitals 

 and large towns, a number of bottles is emptied, which 

 might justify the appellation to them of adherents of 

 Bacchus. 



The clergy and the peasantry form a striking con- 

 trast to the nobility, many of them being addicted to 

 inebriation. The mle of vino, or common ardent spi- 

 rits, is a grand source of revenue to the crown, and of 

 disease and death to the population of Russia, which, 

 in these respects, is not singular. The peasantry in 

 the remote villages are generally more temperate, and 

 some of them cannot be persuaded on any occasion to 

 taste spirits. It sometimes happens, that even the 

 physician cannot get a peasant to take a glass of toddy 

 or negus when prescribed for his disease. He will re- 

 peat Bojii volyu, God's will be done ; " but come life, 

 come death, I have never tasted vino, and now I will 

 not commence and commit such a sin." But it is very 

 common for the peasants to pretend to great sobri- 

 ety, and to refuse spirits, in order to gain a good cha- 

 racter, and to require pressing,when the fluid is swal- 

 lowed with avidity. 



The females among the nobles, although they take a 

 cordial dram now and then, are also abstemious with 

 respect to the use of spirits. Many of the lower mer- 

 chants, and also their wives, are given to drunkenness. 

 They consume great quantities of yernpheitch, a tinc- 

 ture of herbs made with the common vino, or ardent spi- 

 rits. The wives of the Russian merchants, whose cir- 

 cumstances permit it, pass their lives in doing little 

 else than ordering the preparation of food, eating and 

 drinking, and repose and sleep. They do not work 

 themselves; they take little or no chargeof their children, 

 whom they commit to the guidance of wet nurses im- 

 mediately after birth ; and as they are surrounded by 

 servants, they contract the most indolent habits. A 

 number of them very frequently meet together and 

 make merry ; and even when alone many of them get 

 intoxicated. They then betake themselves to bed, 

 which is often placed over a lejdnka, or flat part of 

 many ovens, and from the internal beat of spirits, and 



the external heat of stoves, their facet become ex< 

 lively flushed. When a husband return* from hi* af- 

 fairs, and finds his wife thus laid up, in a truly nn- .M**u,r* 



, manner, and while laughing, he addresses her ii 

 the mildest language, " What, my der, thou art 

 tip.-,y;" and she replies in the tone of disease, " No, 

 I have the head-ache ;" and no more U said about the 

 matter. 



Most of the more cultivated and richer merchants, 

 who affect to follow the nobles in the magnificence of 

 their houses, of their equipages, and of their general 

 style of living, have also had the good sense to imitate 

 their moderation as to the use of spirits. Thus, from 

 the whole we have said, it is clear that, contrary to 

 what generally happens with come other vices, drun- 

 kenness seems to be gradually abolished in Russia with 

 the advancement of civilization. 



Clarke, while he wofully degraded the male, unduly 

 extolled the female population of Russia. Lyall, in 

 greater consonance with other authors, for powerful 

 reasons, will net admit this distinction. He has never 

 been able to trace any marked difference between the 

 manners and morals of the sexes in any part of Russia , 

 and is of opinion that it never had more than an ideal 

 existence. Wherever he found polished wives he also 

 found polished husbands, and vice versa ; and he sup- 

 poses that the same vices are common to both sexes. 

 He admits that some families are well educated, and 

 that in them are women of purity and delicacy of cha 

 racter ; but states decisively that chastity cannot be 

 reckoned a prevailing virtue. While he seems pleased 

 with their plausibility and their imposing manners, he 

 reprobates their freedom of speech, which, if not im- 

 moral, is often very filthy. They ar" very sprightly 

 and very gay, for ever dancing and singing, and laugh- 

 ing and talking. They have no delicacy of shape; and 

 their complexions, from the liberal use of rouge, are 

 what they please. Notwithstanding Clarke's opinion 

 to the contrary, Lyall repeatedly alludes to the rareness 

 of beautiful faces and elegant figures among the ladies 

 of Russia. The causes of their general corpulency are 

 assuredly gormandizing and indolence ; and their com- 

 parison of themselves to barrels, though figurative, is 

 very generally justified by truth. The traveller in his 

 progress through Russia, meets with so few handsome 

 and beautiful natives, that he is able to remember them 

 all without any entry being made in his journal. 



The wives of the Russian merchants, besides fre- 

 quently blackening their teeth, use such a superabun- 

 dance of paint, and laid on in so bedaubed a man- 

 ner, that if they wished concealment it is altogether 

 impossible. These ruddy women " waddle along un- 

 der the burden of their pampered, sleek, and shining 

 collops of fat, bedizened with all the magnificence that 

 pearls and lace can bestow.'' The females among the 

 peasantry are generally stunted, clumsy, round-faced, 

 small- featured, and sallow complexioned. The wives 

 ef the clergy may be divided into two classes, those 

 who are rich and those who are poor. The former in 

 their persons and in their manners may be likened to 

 the wives of the richer merchants ; while the latter 

 class, by far the most numerous, as it includes the 

 greatest part of the wives of the pope*, or parochial 

 clergy, are nearly assimilated to the more opulent of 

 the peasantry. As neither the wives of the merchants, 

 of the clergy, nor of the peasantry wear corsets, nature 

 is left to her full liberty of expansion. But, indeed, 

 de gimtibus no* dtspulandum ; for the common women 



