they had
received their unmerited castigation.* The device, I have been assured,
was generally very effective, but it was not always quite successful.
Whether from the castigation not being sufficiently severe, or from
some other defect in the method, it sometimes happened that disputes
afterwards arose, and the whipped boys, now grown up to manhood, gave
conflicting testimony. When such a case occurred the following expedient
was adopted. One of the oldest inhabitants was chosen as arbiter, and
made to swear on the Scriptures that he would act honestly to the best
of his knowledge; then taking an Icon in his hand, he walked along what
he believed to be the old frontier. Whether he made mistakes or not, his
decision was accepted by both parties and regarded as final. This custom
existed in some stanitsas down to the year 1850, when the boundaries
were clearly determined by Government officials.

* A custom of this kind, I am told, existed not very long
ago in England and is still spoken of as "the beating of the
bounds."

CHAPTER XVI

FOREIGN COLONISTS ON THE STEPPE

The Steppe--Variety of Races, Languages, and Religions--The German
Colonists--In What Sense the Russians are an Imitative
People--The Mennonites--Climate and Arboriculture--Bulgarian
Colonists--Tartar-Speaking Greeks--Jewish
Agriculturists--Russification--A Circassian Scotchman--Numerical
Strength of the Foreign Element.

In European Russia the struggle between agriculture and nomadic
barbarism is now a thing of the past, and the fertile Steppe, which was
for centuries a battle-ground of the Aryan and Turanian races, has been
incorporated into the dominions of the Tsar. The nomadic tribes have
been partly driven out and partly pacified and parked in "reserves,"
and the territory which they so long and so stubbornly defended is now
studded with peaceful villages and tilled by laborious agriculturists.

In traversing this region the ordinary tourist will find little to
interest him. He will see nothing which he can possibly dignify by the
name of scenery, and he may journey on for many days without having
any occasion to make an entry in his note-book. If he should happen,
however, to be an ethnologist and linguist, he may find occupation, for
he will here meet with fragments of many different races and a variety
of foreign tongues.

This ethnological variety is the result of a policy inaugurated by
Catherine II. So long as th