CHAP. viii. PROCRASTINATION. 87 



The evident near approach of summer was. the signal for 

 unusual exertions on the part of the peasants. Procrastina- 

 tion seems to be a Kussian national vice. Now when the 

 horses were nearly worn out by long feeding upon bad hay, 

 and when the roads were very heavy by reason of the thaws, 

 the poor animals had to work double time. A quantity of 

 last year's fodder still lay on the flat land on the other side 

 of the Petchora, which, if left, would inevitably be swept 

 away when the frozen river broke up ; the cattle had 

 now to be taken across the ice and housed in a place of 

 safety, there to wait until the floods subsided on these flat 

 stretches, and the new rich pasture had begun to spring up. 

 The women and children had also to be transported across, 

 to look after the cattle ; whilst the men went down the river 

 to fish, leaving Ust-Zylma as deserted for three months as a 

 winter village in the Parnassus. 



OLD RUSSIAN SILVKR CROSS. 



