e whole village with her shrieking? And no
further gone than last Sunday--pfu!"

"Listen!" says the old man, sternly cutting short the torrent of
invective. "You must take at least two shares and a half. If you cannot
manage it yourself, you can get some one to help you."

"How can that be? Where am I to get the money to pay a labourer?"
asks the woman, with much wailing and a flood of tears. "Have pity, ye
orthodox, on the poor orphans! God will reward you!" and so on, and so
on.

I need not worry the reader with a further description of these scenes,
which are always very long and sometimes violent. All present are deeply
interested, for the allotment of the land is by far the most important
event in Russian peasant life, and the arrangement cannot be made
without endless talking and discussion. After the number of shares for
each family has been decided, the distribution of the lots gives rise to
new difficulties. The families who have plentifully manured their land
strive to get back their old lots, and the Commune respects their claims
so far as these are consistent with the new arrangement; but often it
happens that it is impossible to conciliate private rights and Communal
interests, and in such cases the former are sacrificed in a way that
would not be tolerated by men of Anglo-Saxon race. This leads, however,
to no serious consequences. The peasants are accustomed to work together
in this way, to make concessions for the Communal welfare, and to bow
unreservedly to the will of the Mir. I know of many instances where
the peasants have set at defiance the authority of the police, of the
provincial governor, and of the central Government itself, but I have
never heard of any instance where the will of the Mir was openly opposed
by one of its members.

In the preceding pages I have repeatedly spoken about "shares of the
Communal land." To prevent misconception I must explain carefully what
this expression means. A share does not mean simply a plot or parcel of
land; on the contrary, it always contains at least four, and may contain
a large number of distinct plots. We have here a new point of difference
between the Russian village and the villages of Western Europe.

Communal land in Russia is of three kinds: the land on which the village
is built, the arable land, and the meadow or hay-field, if the village
is fortunate enough to possess one. On the first of these each family
possesses a house and garden, whi