SPORT IN THE CRIMEA. 



you rarely come in without finding one of the 

 little grey shards clinging to your dress, spat upon 

 you by some careless passer-by, or sent adrift from 

 some balcony overhead. 



Beside these crops, you come across long strips 

 of water melons, the principal food of the Malo 

 Russ in the summer, and one of the chief sources 

 of the Asiatic cholera sometimes so prevalent here. 

 But for the most part the land is untilled left to 

 its wild-flowers and weeds. 



The peasant of the Crimea makes but a sorry 

 agriculturist. The Malo Russ is a lazy, good- 

 natured ne'er-do-weel ; his days being more than 

 half ' prasniks ' (saints' days), he devotes the 

 holy half to getting drunk on vodka, the other half 

 to recovering from the effects of the day before. 

 One day you may see him in long boots and a 

 red shirt, with his arms round another big-bearded 

 moujik's neck in the drinking den, or husband and 

 wife, on the broad of their backs, dead drunk, on 

 the highway. The day after you'll find him in a 

 moralizing mood, seated on his doorstep, smoking 

 the eternal papiros, or nibbling sunflower seeds. 



Russians have told me that there are more 

 holy days than calendar days in the year. To be 

 holy a day need not be a saint's day a birthday 

 in the Emperor's family is quite enough to make 

 a ' prasnik.' Of the actual Church fetes then; 

 are 128. 



