ermining the choice is
in both cases the same. Prudent domestic administrators are not to
be tempted by showy horses or beautiful brides; what they seek is not
beauty, but physical strength and capacity for work. When the youth
reaches the age of eighteen he is informed that he ought to marry at
once, and as soon as he gives his consent negotiations are opened with
the parents of some eligible young person. In the larger villages the
negotiations are sometimes facilitated by certain old women called
svakhi, who occupy themselves specially with this kind of mediation; but
very often the affair is arranged directly by, or through the agency of,
some common friend of the two houses.

Care must of course be taken that there is no legal obstacle, and
these obstacles are not always easily avoided in a small village, the
inhabitants of which have been long in the habit of intermarrying.
According to Russian ecclesiastical law, not only is marriage between
first-cousins illegal, but affinity is considered as equivalent to
consanguinity--that is to say a mother-in-law and a sister-in-law are
regarded as a mother and a sister--and even the fictitious relationship
created by standing together at the baptismal font as godfather and
godmother is legally recognised, and may constitute a bar to matrimony.
If all the preliminary negotiations are successful, the marriage takes
place, and the bridegroom brings his bride home to the house of which
he is a member. She brings nothing with her as a dowry except her
trousseau, but she brings a pair of good strong arms, and thereby
enriches her adopted family. Of course it happens occasionally--for
human nature is everywhere essentially the same--that a young peasant
falls in love with one of his former playmates, and brings his little
romance to a happy conclusion at the altar; but such cases are very
rare, and as a rule it may be said that the marriages of the Russian
peasantry are arranged under the influence of economic rather than
sentimental considerations.

The custom of living in large families has many economic advantages. We
all know the edifying fable of the dying man who showed to his sons by
means of a piece of wicker-work the advantages of living together and
assisting each other. In ordinary times the necessary expenses of a
large household of ten members are considerably less than the combined
expenses of two households comprising five members each, and when a
"black day" com