court at that period.

The winter of 1740, in which this event took place, was of unusual
severity. Prince Galitzin's wife having died, the empress forced him to
marry a girl of the lowest birth, agreeing to defray the cost of the
wedding, which proved to be by no means small.

As a preliminary a house was built wholly of ice, and all its furniture,
tables, seats, ornaments, and even the nuptial bedstead, were made of
the same frigid material. In front of the house were placed four cannons
and two mortars of ice, so solid in construction that they were fired
several times without bursting. To make up the wedding procession
persons of all the nations subject to Russia, and of both sexes, were
brought from the several provinces, dressed in their national costumes.

The procession was an extraordinary one. The new-married couple rode on
the back of an elephant, in a huge cage. Of those that followed some
were mounted on camels, some rode in sledges drawn by various beasts,
such as reindeer, oxen, dogs, goats, and hogs. The train, which all
Moscow turned out to witness, embraced more than three hundred persons,
and made its way past the palace of the empress and through all the
principal streets of the city.

The wedding dinner was given in Biren's riding-house, which was
appropriately decorated, and in which each group of the guests were
supplied with food cooked after the manner of their own country. A ball
followed, in which the people of each nation danced their national
dances to their national music. The pith of the joke, in the Russian
appreciation of that day, came at the end, the bride and groom being
conducted to a bed of ice in an icy palace, in which they were forced to
spend the night, guards being stationed at the door to prevent their
getting out before morning.

Though not so gross as Peter's nuptial jests, this was more cruel, and,
in view of the social station of the groom, a far greater indignity.

A Russian state dinner during the reign of Peter the Great, as described
by Dr. Birch, speaking from personal observation, was one in which only
those of the strongest stomach could safely take part. On such
occasions, indeed, the experienced ate their dinners beforehand at
home, knowing well what to expect at the czar's table. Ceremony was
absolutely lacking, and, as two or three hundred persons were usually
invited to a feast set for a hundred, a most undignified scuffling for
seats took place, each hol