TCHUDOVO AND THE PRISTAV. 33 



intend the safe conduct of the Cossack rider, Paishkoff, 

 through his district. For two days his precious time 

 had been taken up riding ahead of Paishkoff, from vil- 

 lage to village, arranging for his food, even cooking it 

 himself, and seeing that everything was done for his 

 comfort. Such things as these were more important 

 in the eyes of some one in St. Petersburg than 

 the affairs of his district, and it would be as much 

 as the pristav's official head was worth to neglect 

 them. 



While he believed paternal government was the best 

 for the Russians, he cited his own case as an instance 

 of its faults. The people of his district came to him 

 like children to a father, and for a father to listen to the 

 grievances and adjust the differences of 50,000 children 

 was a physical impossibility. They came to him about 

 everything. The peasants are required by law to in- 

 sure their houses. If a peasant neglected or refused 

 to do this the starosta of the mir would send him a 

 complaint. If there was trouble about the taxes it 

 was the same. Forest fires were a stock nuisance that 

 kept him riding like a Cossack from one part of the 

 district to another. 



Murders were one of the common crimes among the 

 moujiks. These he had to investigate and report on. 

 Domestic troubles were common. The young men, 

 who married at eighteen or nineteen, would be taken 

 away for soldiers at twenty-one. The young grass- 

 widows left behind would behave scandalously, and 

 the parents of the absent husbands would complain to 

 him, expecting him to set matters right by putting 

 them in prison. Ten men couldn't do the work he 



