86 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



be nursed and borne with patiently. So had it borne 

 with him for twenty-nine years, wavering between the 

 duty of teaching him the lesson of a little self-reliance, 

 by hard experience, and a reluctance to resort to ex- 

 tremes. Beginning with that year (1890), however, the 

 moujik who failed to pay his taxes was to be flogged. 

 From twenty to thirty stripes might be administered, 

 and a fine of five kopecks added with every stroke. 



Every mile of the way from Moscow the baleful 

 effects of vodka drinking had thrust itself into our 

 notice, and we asked our hosts why the Russian priests, 

 like the priests of other countries, didn't exert them- 

 selves in the cause of temperance. The mass of the 

 Russian population are swayed by the sentiments of 

 devotion to the Church and its precepts. Two days 

 out of every week, the whole of the seven weeks of 

 Lent, three weeks in June, from the beginning of 

 November till Christmas, or about seven months out 

 of the twelve, the ignorant and reverential moujik 

 starves his long-suffering stomach at the bidding of the 

 Church. During all that time he denies himself even 

 eggs and milk, nor deems the condition of his spiritual 

 well-being hard. But though the Church would re- 

 buke him for swallowing a glass of milk in fast time, it 

 says not a word against, but rather encourages, the 

 swallowing of an inordinate quantity of the fiery and 

 biting vodka. 



" Why this state of affairs ? " we asked. 



The devotion of the answer was almost pathetic. 

 " It is bad for the people to drink vodka ; but what 

 would the Czar do without the taxes on its consump- 

 tion ? " they replied. 



