AMONG THE DON COSSACKS 27 



we were sitting and talking on various topics of interest 

 to the peasants, and my husband asked one of them 

 the reason why nearly every peasant even those who 

 were quite young have a second and sometimes a 

 third wife. The answer came: "Child-birth and the 

 complications that often followed." These were, in 

 nearly every case, the cause of death. And no wonder ! 

 Whenever a woman gave birth to a child, especially if 

 it happened during the summer months during har- 

 vest, when every hand was needed in the field as soon 

 as she had received first aid from an elderly woman 

 neighbor or some quack a doctor was miles away and 

 time too precious for anyone to drive for him she was 

 not only left alone, but expected to take full charge 

 of all the burdens of the most primitive peasant house- 

 hold. And it should be remembered that during the 

 harvest there are two or three extra men hired to help 

 gather in the crops, and that these are additional 

 mouths for her to feed. Naturally at times the strain 

 would be too great and she would die. Several times 

 I was astonished to find a woman who had given birth 

 to a child a day or two previously at the family wash 

 tub, or cooking the dinner, or kneading the family 

 supply of coarse black bread, a task Which alone would 

 tax the strength of any man. So much for the legend 

 about the easy child-birth of the peasant woman ! 



Once a young peasant, married only two years, and 

 known as quite a model husband, stepped in, and dur- 

 ing our conversation asked me: 



