ST. PETERSBURG. 21 



wife, — and was assessed taxes proportionately. His 

 taxes amounted to about fifteen rubles a year and 

 whatever share of public work the assembly of the 

 mir assessed him. When all the family were at home 

 they numbered nine persons. The good wife prided 

 herself immensely on having been a domestic in the 

 family of " noble-born " people before her marriage. 

 She and her husband ; their eldest daughter and her 

 husband ; the mother, an ancient dame ; two sons ; a 

 younger daughter, and a two-year-old embryo moujik, 

 who took a tremendous fancy to the author, owing to 

 the bestowal of a lump of sugar on our first acquaint- 

 ance, all occupied two stuffy little rooms up-stairs. 



The greater part of the space was taken up by a 

 monster tiled stove, on the top of which, our hostess 

 informed us, the entire family slept in the winter. It 

 was difficult to see how so many people could manage 

 it, unless some of them slept two deep ; but the woman 

 said there was plenty of room. The chief room was 

 about ten feet square. In it was a bed, an old lounge, 

 a table, three chairs, a chest of drawers, two large brass 

 samovars, four ikons or holy pictures, before one of 

 which was a cup with oil and taper. The ikons are 

 heirlooms in the families of the Russian peasantry, as 

 also are the samovars. These are the most precious 

 of the moujiks' household gods. There is a saying 

 among them, " If your house is on fire, save the ikon 

 and samovar first, then the children." More children 

 will come, they say, but if the ikon and the samovar 

 are lost, the saints will be angiy about the ikon, and a 

 samovar costs many rubles. 



The household cradle was a curiosity. The roof of 



