retains the right of property it may re-allot the land in
any way it thinks fit.

As the population increases and land becomes less plentiful, the
primitive method of agriculture above alluded to gives place to a less
primitive method, commonly known as "the three-field system," according
to which the cultivators do not migrate periodically from one part of
the communal territory to another, but till always the same fields,
and are obliged to manure the plots which they occupy. The principle of
communal property rarely survives this change, for by long possession
the families acquire a prescriptive right to the portions which they
cultivate, and those who manure their land well naturally object to
exchange it for land which has been held by indolent, improvident
neighbours. In Russia, however, this change has not destroyed the
principle of communal property. Though the three-field system has been
in use for many generations in the central provinces, the communal
principle, with its periodical re-allotment of the land, still remains
intact.

For the student of sociology the past history and actual condition of
the Don Cossacks present many other features equally interesting and
instructive. He may there see, for instance, how an aristocracy can be
created by military promotion, and how serfage may originate and become
a recognised institution without any legislative enactment. If he takes
an interest in peculiar manifestations of religious thought and feeling,
he will find a rich field of investigation in the countless religious
sects; and if he is a collector of quaint old customs, he will not lack
occupation.

One curious custom, which has very recently died out, I may here
mention by way of illustration. As the Cossacks knew very little about
land-surveying, and still less about land-registration, the precise
boundary between two contiguous yurts--as the communal land of a
stanitsa was called--was often a matter of uncertainty and a fruitful
source of disputes. When the boundary was once determined, the following
method of registering it was employed. All the boys of the two stanitsas
were collected and driven in a body like sheep to the intervening
frontier. The whole population then walked along the frontier that had
been agreed upon, and at each landmark a number of boys were soundly
whipped and allowed to run home! This was done in the hope that the
victims would remember, as long as they lived, the spot where