ETHNOLOGY OF THE PRESENT DAY. 105 



the young people of both sexes, \vho flavor them with jokes, sometimes of a 

 rather practical nature. A game of forfeits, or a dance to simple music, usu- 

 ally closes the Avhole affair. The older people amuse themselves meanwhile 

 with card playing, droughts, or chess. The two latter games are in universal 

 favor. Russian comitry people not unfrequently practise, as ii pastime, 

 jumping on a board and bone-playing, in the manner represented in pi. 

 11, at figs. 1 and 2. Skating, sledge riding, and sliding down the ice-course, 

 are, in winter, next to dancing, the principal recreations. The peculiar 

 structure called the ice-course, or gliding-hill, is represented in j)l- ^^^fig- 1- 

 The Russian national dance, which is pantomimic in its character, and in 

 which the woman at one time approaches the man and then retires from him, 

 is represented at fig. 3. At the entertainments of people of rank in the 

 principal cities of Russia, great abundance and luxury prevail, regulated by a 

 refined taste. The wealth is displayed chiefly by the number of servants and 

 hy the abundance and splendor of the tables, at which, moreover, there are no 

 rules of precedence, the most distinguished persons often sitting in the midst 

 of unimportant characters. Good wines, chiefly champagne, are provided in 

 abundance. 



The Russians are accustomed, from childhood, to frequent bathing ; even 

 the poor Russian peasant bathes at least once in the week, or oftener. As 

 each house has its bath room, the bath is not refused even to the beggar, still 

 less to the s^uest. It is a sino-ular circumstance, that both sexes, at least 

 among the poorer classes of the people, bathe promiscuously. [PI. 11, fig. 3, 

 a Russian public vapor bath.) 



Petty thefts are not unfrequent in Russia : highway robberies and bur- 

 glaries, on the contrary, are almost unknown there. A Russian, moreover, 

 will not steal household utensils, in his own country ; such articles are invio- 

 lable with him, and he lays hold of other things to which he may have taken a 

 fancy. Hoftman, in speaking of the pilferings of the Russians, says : " My 

 love for the Russian nation, which I have no desire to conceal, need not pre- 

 vent me from mentionin']i; some tliino;s which cannot be reckoned amona; those 

 worthy of admiration. Where, however, so much kindness, such a ground- 

 work of true moral feeling exists, as is the case with these unsophisticated 

 men, it cannot be difiicult also to extirpate these remaining blemishes, even to 

 their last vestiges. The most certain known means of protection against a- 

 thief within doors, is to take him into your own service. From that moment 

 you are certain not only to be robbed no more by your new domestic, but to 

 possess in him also the best guard against all other thieves, as it becomes with 

 him a po'mt d'honneur to repress all pilfering, by reason of which suspicion 

 might fall upon himself; the opinion being held by the man of the common 

 ranks of life, that he may perhaps steal certain articles of trifling value from 

 strangers, without on that account being considered directly dishonest ; but to> 

 defraud his own master, according to his idea of the matter, is a heinous- and 

 inexcusable sin." 



The Russians of the lowest classes are accustomed to simple fare. 

 Buckwheat groats, and, among the inhabitants of Little Russia, millet 

 groats, are frequently eaten : sour krout, pickled beets, onions, cucumbers, 



ICONOGRAPHIC ENCYCLGP.^^DIA. VOL. lU. 22 337 



