354 EUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



The Pomori, or " People of the Sea," as all the Great Russians of these northern 

 provinces are called, are by far the most numerous element in Archangel and 

 Vologda. Separated by vast intervening spaces from the rest of the family, they 

 have in some respects preserved an extremely pure type, although otherwise 

 affected in a special manner by the development of independent religious sects. 

 Nowhere else h^s the family life acquired a more despotic character. The 

 betrothed calls her future lord oatûdiiickoh, the " fear inspirer," and before the 

 bridal kiss the bridegroom plucks her flowing tresses, and sings her a threatening 

 song : " Under the nuptial couch lies an oaken staff ; to this oaken stafi" is 

 attached a silken whip with three lashes, and when it falls the blood flows." Thus 

 the wretched bride shudders at the prospect of her future thraldom, and with 

 tearful eyes thrice bends the knee before the holy images : "I make the first 

 genuflexion for the most pious Czar ; I make the second for the most pious Czarina ; 

 and the third I make for myself, that the Saviour may take pity on this hapless 

 maiden in her new home." The Czar for whom she prays is, in the popular 

 estimation, far less the ruler than is the "land czar" {zemskiy tzar), who represents 

 all the landed interests, who, in the language of the national songs, " serves the 

 land." Most of the Pomori escaped the hard yoke of serfdom. Scarcely had the 

 Muscovy peasantry been attached to the glebe, when the acquisition of the 

 southern provinces attracted the attention of the nobles, whose thirst of land and 

 slaves found fuller scope in this direction. Thus the pine forests and frozen 

 tundras of the north were happily overlooked, and in 1866 there were no more than 

 476 serfs in the whole government of Archangel. 



Topography. 



Kola, capital of Russian Lapland, had a population of less than 800 at the last 

 census ; yet under a more temperate climate it would be well situated for traflic, 

 and might become a place of some importance. For it stands at the j unction of two 

 rivers, at the head of an estuary running far inland, and continued still farther 

 southwards by a lacustrine depression, which forms a communication between the 

 Gulf of Kandalaksha and the Arctic Ocean. Its position has been accordingly 

 appreciated by traders from the remotest times, and it is mentioned in 1264 as a 

 fishing station and mart frequented by the Novgorod merchants. But its natural 

 advantages failed to attract any large numbers, and it consisted of nothing more 

 than a group of wooden barracks when bombarded and half destroyed by the 

 English during the Crimean war. Its chief industry consists in shark fishing, a 

 pursuit rendered doubly dangerous by the storms of the Frozen Ocean and the 

 shoals of these animals, which at times capsize the boats and devour the crews. 



Kern, on the west side of the White Sea, is the chief trading centre in the 

 Karelian territory. Like Kola, it was an old Novgorod colony, favourably situated 

 at the mouth of a navigable river affording the easiest communication with the 

 Gulf of Bothnia and Scandinavia. But its present importance is largely due to the 

 vicinity of Solovetzkiy, or Solovki Island, and the famous monastery founded here 



