416 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



by J. Uaziuio^ 



TWO DANCERS, LITTLE RUSSIA. 



[Moscow. 



crossing themselves repeatedly. Thus do they 

 give thanks to God for the good things en- 

 joyed. The guests then say to their host, 

 " Spasibo za klileb za sol" ("Thanks for 

 bread and salt") the customary acknowledg- 

 ment of hospitality in Eussia. The host 

 responds, "Do not be displeased. Sit down 

 once more for good luck." All comply with 

 this request, as an expression of their friendli- 

 ness and goodwill. The vodka is handed 

 round again, and in all probability the feast 

 will be supplemented by an intemperate 

 carouse. The Russian misses no opportunity 

 to drink deep and drown trouble in the flow- 

 ing bowl. 



The use of tobacco is universal in Russia. 

 Both sexes smoke. No public, and hardly 

 any private, dining- or drawing-room is free 

 from tobacco. Ladies, when travelling, will 

 draw from pocket or satchel a little cigarette- 

 case, and have no scruple in asking the first 

 male stranger they meet to " oblige them with 

 a light." Princess Gagarine, however, denies 

 this; she says, "It is generally thought that 

 in Russia all women smoke. As a matter of 

 fact very few do, and those few are nearly all 

 middle-aged. Their generation thought it was 

 the thing to smoke. In the 'seventies the writings of Tolstoi, Tourgueuiev, Dostoievsky, who 

 were then at their best, produced some quite unexpected changes in society." 



In spite of the stories of Russian ferocity and inhumanity, repeated and generally believed 

 for more than half a century, no people are more humane than the Northern Slavs, and 

 none are more generously hospitable. A stranger is entertained with pleasure, and all is 

 done to make him feel one of the homely family circle. The beggar, the benighted traveller, 

 the fugitive from the tyranny of a too oppressive master all are made equally free of what 

 the household has to offer. 



The Russians are a religious people. The Orthodox Greek Church is the State Church; 

 but dissenters from its teaching, as well as Roman Catholics, Mohammedans, Buddhists, and 

 others, are tolerated to a certain limited extent. Religion is supposed to be absolutely free. 

 The Czar is the political head of the National Church, and membership of that Church is 

 accordingly almost identical with nationality. Hence the public observance of rites and 

 ceremonies by Russians of all classes. That people may not be prevented from performing 

 their devotions by having to walk too far, there are little chapels open, like shops, at the street 

 corners, oftun facing one another in the same street. In Moscow these open chapels are more 

 numerous than beer-houses and gin-palaces in London. In addition to the chapels there are 

 icons, put up in nearly every wall, over many doors, in the bazaars, the exchange, every public 

 office, and almost every shop. These are beset with worshippers nearly every hour from 

 morning till night. Moscow is an exceptionally pious place, as the Russians there, more purely 

 Slavonic than the inhabitants of St. Petersburg, are more pious than Russians elsewhere. 



In Russia marriage does not disqualify a man for the office of priest. It is true that a 

 stringent law of the Greek Church forbids a priest to marry. A man oannot legally take 

 unto himself a wife after he has been admitted to clerical orders, but a married man is as 

 eligible for ordination as an unmarried man. 



