BLACK SEA COAST. 63 



want of tli at agricultural wealth which Russia 

 ought to possess. It seems the greater pity, since 

 the moujik is such a frugal, hard-living man, and 

 barring vodka and ' prasniks ' might do wonders. 



O JO 



He can turn his hand to anything, is always cheer- 

 ful, and almost his only glaring vice is drunkenness. 

 A peasant family here, I am assured, will live in 

 what is to them comfort, food and clothes and all 

 included, for from eighteen to twenty roubles a 

 head, i.e. from 2/. to 2/. 5**., per annum. But 

 then we must bear in mind that meat is a thing 



D 



a Russian peasant rarely eats. In spring black 

 bread and an onion ; in summer black bread and 

 arboose (water-melon) ; in winter black bread and 

 cabbage soup, with a dry fish now and again as a 

 bonne louche, suffice for his simple wants. Then, 

 too, his liquor is infinitely cheaper than that of our 

 beer-drinking peasantry. For three copecks (about 

 a penny) he can get nearly half an English tumbler 

 of the abominable neat rye spirit, in which he de- 

 lights, and some of them will even drink spirits of 

 wine and petroleum, which, I presume, is even 

 cheaper than vodka. 



The proprietor of the oil-wells at Tchcerilek, 

 Mr. Peters since, I regret to say, dead has him- 

 self told me that some men working on his estate 

 thought as little of tossing off a ' stakan ' (small 

 tumbler) of petroleum as I would of drinking the 

 like quantity of Bass. In addition to these things, 



