ctate of traditional
wisdom. As soon as it is possible to plough they begin to prepare the
land for the summer grain, and this labour occupies them probably till
the end of May. Then comes the work of carting out manure and preparing
the fallow field for the winter grain, which will last probably till
about St. Peter's Day (June 29th), when the hay-making generally begins.
After the hay-making comes the harvest, by far the busiest time of the
year. From the middle of July--especially from St. Elijah's Day (July
20th), when the saint is usually heard rumbling along the heavens in his
chariot of fire*--until the end of August, the peasant may work day and
night, and yet he will find that he has barely time to get all his
work done. In little more than a month he has to reap and stack his
grain--rye, oats, and whatever else he may have sown either in spring or
in the preceding autumn--and to sow the winter grain for next year.
To add to his troubles, it sometimes happens that the rye and the
oats ripen almost simultaneously, and his position is then still more
difficult.

* It is thus that the peasants explain the thunder, which is
often heard at that season.

Whether the seasons favour him or not, the peasant has at this time
a hard task, for he can rarely afford to hire the requisite number
of labourers, and has generally the assistance merely of his wife
and family; but he can at this season work for a short time at high
pressure, for he has the prospect of soon obtaining a good rest and
an abundance of food. About the end of September the field labour is
finished, and on the first day of October the harvest festival begins--a
joyous season, during which the parish fetes are commonly celebrated.

To celebrate a parish fete in true orthodox fashion it is necessary
to prepare beforehand a large quantity of braga--a kind of home-brewed
small beer--and to bake a plentiful supply of piroghi or meat pies. Oil,
too, has to be procured, and vodka (rye spirit) in goodly quantity.
At the same time the big room of the izba, as the peasant's house is
called, has to be cleared, the floor washed, and the table and benches
scrubbed. The evening before the fete, while the piroghi are being
baked, a little lamp burns before the Icon in the corner of the room,
and perhaps one or two guests from a distance arrive in order that they
may have on the morrow a full day's enjoyment.

On the morning of the fete the proceedings beg