nd endeavours to keep order. The little girls spin
flax in a primitive way without the aid of a jenny, and the boys,
who are, on the whole, much less industrious, make simple bits of
wicker-work. Formerly--I mean within my own recollection--many of them
used to make rude shoes of plaited bark, called lapty, but these are
being rapidly supplanted by leather boots. These occupations do not
prevent an almost incessant hum of talk, frequent discordant attempts
to sing in chorus, and occasional quarrels requiring the energetic
interference of the old woman who controls the proceedings. To amuse her
noisy flock she sometimes relates to them, for the hundredth time, one
of those wonderful old stories that lose nothing by repetition, and all
listen to her attentively, as if they had never heard the story before.

* The torch (lutchina) has now almost entirely disappeared
and been replaced by the petroleum lamp.

The second Beseda is held in another house by the young people of a
riper age. Here the workers are naturally more staid, less given to
quarrelling, sing more in harmony, and require no one to look after
them. Some people, however, might think that a chaperon or inspector
of some kind would be by no means out of place, for a good deal of
flirtation goes on, and if village scandal is to be trusted, strict
propriety in thought, word, and deed is not always observed. How far
these reports are true I cannot pretend to say, for the presence of
a stranger always acts on the company like the presence of a severe
inspector. In the third Beseda there is always at least strict decorum.
Here the married women work together and talk about their domestic
concerns, enlivening the conversation occasionally by the introduction
of little bits of village scandal.

Such is the ordinary life of the peasants who live by agriculture; but
many of the villagers live occasionally or permanently in the towns.
Probably the majority of the peasants in this region have at some period
of their lives gained a living elsewhere. Many of the absentees spend
yearly a few months at home, whilst others visit their families only
occasionally, and, it may be, at long intervals. In no case, however, do
they sever their connection with their native village. Even the peasant
who becomes a rich merchant and settles permanently with his family
in Moscow or St. Petersburg remains probably a member of the Village
Commune, and pays his share of the taxes