ul life preserved
Customs by ages sanctified,
Strictly the Carnival observed,
Ate Russian pancakes at Shrovetide,
Twice in the year to fast were bound,
Of whirligigs were very fond,
Of Christmas carols, song and dance;
When people with long countenance
On Trinity Sunday yawned at prayer,
Three tears they dropt with humble mein
Upon a bunch of lovage green;
_Kvass_ needful was to them as air;
On guests their servants used to wait
By rank as settled by the State.(27)

[Note 27: The foregoing stanza requires explanation. Russian
pancakes or "blinni" are consumed vigorously by the lower
orders during the Carnival. At other times it is difficult
to procure them, at any rate in the large towns.

The Russian peasants are childishly fond of whirligigs, which
are also much in vogue during the Carnival.

"Christmas Carols" is not an exact equivalent for the Russian
phrase. "Podbliudni pessni," are literally "dish songs," or
songs used with dishes (of water) during the "sviatki" or Holy
Nights, which extend from Christmas to Twelfth Night, for
purposes of divination. Reference will again be made to this
superstitious practice, which is not confined to Russia. See Note 52.

"Song and dance," the well-known "khorovod," in which the dance
proceeds to vocal music.

"Lovage," the _Levisticum officinalis_, is a hardy plant growing
very far north, though an inhabitant of our own kitchen gardens.
The passage containing the reference to the three tears and
Trinity Sunday was at first deemed irreligious by the Russian
censors, and consequently expunged.

_Kvass_ is of various sorts: there is the common _kvass_ of
fermented rye used by the peasantry, and the more expensive
_kvass_ of the restaurants, iced and flavoured with various fruits.

The final two lines refer to the "Tchin," or Russian social
hierarchy. There are fourteen grades in the Tchin assigning
relative rank and precedence to the members of the various
departments of the State, civil, military, naval, court,
scientific and educational. The military and naval grades from
the 14th up to the 7th confer personal nobility only, whilst
above the 7th hereditary rank is acquired. In the remaining
departments, civil or otherwise, personal nobility is only
attained with the 9th grade, hereditary with the 4th.]

XXXVI

Thus age approached, the common doom,
And death before the husband wide
Opened the portals of the tomb
And a new diadem supplied.(28)
Just before dinn