4 LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 



Thanks to serfdom, servants were very numerous 

 and everything could be manufactured at home. 

 The " dievitshia " (maid-servants' room) was crowded 

 with maids, seamstresses, needle-women, washer- 

 women, etc., under the direction of a fat, middle-aged 

 woman named Duniasha. She wore a silk kerchief 

 on her head, and was invariably clothed in a white 

 dressing jacket and a brown skirt with white spots. 

 A regular autocrat, she ruled her little world with a 

 rod of iron ; as soon as her heavy, felt-slippered steps 

 were heard, the maids whispered to each other, 

 " Avdotia Maximo vna ! " conversations ceased, and 

 every one became absorbed in her work. 



Among the male retainers, the first place was held 

 by Petrushka, the valet. Careless and often drunk, 

 he was nevertheless a good fellow ; he was usually 

 to be found asleep behind the screen in the hall. The 

 upper servants, the cook, coachman, and others left 

 their work to be done by their underlings, the scullery 

 boy, postilion, page-boy, etc. In fact, everything 

 followed the routine usual in every Russian household 

 in the time of serfdom. 



Emilia Lvovna directed the children's education ; 

 her personal teaching consisted chiefly in tender 

 indulgence, but it was she who chose the nurses and 

 teachers. As long as the boys were small, their 

 great-aunt Elena Samoilovna looked after them ; 

 afterwards they were handed over to tutors and 

 professors. Ilia Ivanovitch's activities consisted in 

 buying horses at fairs and in studs and in convoying 

 them to Petersburg. These journeys took a long time, 

 by stages and relays of horses. Ilia Ivanovitch took 

 advantage of them to gamble heavily and to enjoy 

 pleasures which the country did not offer. 



