384 



RUSSIA IN EUEOPE. 



The Great Hussiun villages consist of groups of wretched cabins packed one 

 against another, with no intervening gardens, and even most of the' towns are 

 nothing but confused aggregntes of wooden structures, always at the mercy of the 

 flames. The huts, built of fir, with thatched roofs, and surrounded with heaps of 

 straw and hay, branches and chips, are liable to be set on fire by every chance 

 spark. Fire thus becomes the natural end of the llussian village, which is said to 

 be renewed, on an average, about every seven years. But in the central provinces 



riof. 201.— TCosTKOMA : MoNAsxiiUY or IIypatus. 



this " renovation " is often much more frequent, and there are districts in which 

 one-fourth of the houses have been consumed in a single year. In the towns the 

 only stone buildings arc the Government ofhces, tlie pabices of the nobles, and 

 the churches, nearly all built on a uniform plan, iifu;r tlie regulation type of the 

 8t. Petersburg authorities. These structures lay no cliiim to art, whose life is freodoin, 

 and which perishes in the atmosphere of traditional Kyinb(dism. In the churches 

 art is replaced by a lavish display of gold, m.ubles, enamels, and precious stones. 



