the Selski Starosta, or Village Elder, and that all
important Communal affairs are regulated by the Selski Skhod, or Village
Assembly. Further, I was aware that the land in the vicinity of the
village belongs to the Commune, and is distributed periodically among
the members in such a way that every able-bodied peasant possesses a
share sufficient, or nearly sufficient, for his maintenance. Beyond this
elementary information I knew little or nothing.

My first attempt at extending my knowledge was not very successful.
Hoping that my friend Ivan might be able to assist me, and knowing that
the popular name for the Commune is Mir, which means also "the world," I
put to him the direct, simple question, "What is the Mir?"

Ivan was not easily disconcerted, but for once he looked puzzled, and
stared at me vacantly. When I endeavoured to explain to him my question,
he simply knitted his brows and scratched the back of his head. This
latter movement is the Russian peasant's method of accelerating cerebral
action; but in the present instance it had no practical result. In
spite of his efforts, Ivan could not get much further than the "Kak vam
skazat'?" that is to say, "How am I to tell you?"

It was not difficult to perceive that I had adopted an utterly false
method of investigation, and a moment's reflection sufficed to show
me the absurdity of my question. I had asked from an uneducated man a
philosophical definition, instead of extracting from him material in
the form of concrete facts, and constructing therefrom a definition for
myself. These concrete facts Ivan was both able and willing to supply;
and as soon as I adopted a rational mode of questioning, I obtained from
him all I wanted. The information he gave me, together with the results
of much subsequent conversation and reading, I now propose to present to
the reader in my own words.

The peasant family of the old type is, as we have just seen, a kind of
primitive association in which the members have nearly all things in
common. The village may be roughly described as a primitive association
on a larger scale.

Between these two social units there are many points of analogy. In both
there are common interests and common responsibilities. In both there
is a principal personage, who is in a certain sense ruler within and
representative as regards the outside world: in the one case called
Khozain, or Head of the Household, and in the other Starosta, or Village
Eld