consciousness of belonging to a Culturvolk, and in general possess a
nature much more pliable than the Teutonic.

The Government has recently attempted to accelerate the fusing process
by retracting the privileges granted to the colonists and abolishing
the peculiar administration under which they were placed. These
measures--especially the universal military service--may eventually
diminish the extreme exclusiveness of the Germans; the youths, whilst
serving in the army, will at least learn the Russian language, and may
possibly imbibe something of the Russian spirit. But for the present
this new policy has aroused a strong feeling of hostility and greatly
intensified the spirit of exclusiveness. In the German colonies I have
often overheard complaints about Russian tyranny and uncomplimentary
remarks about the Russian national character.

The Mennonites consider themselves specially aggrieved by the so-called
reforms. They came to Russia in order to escape military service and
with the distinct understanding that they should be exempted from it,
and now they are forced to act contrary to the religious tenets of their
sect. This is the ground of complaint which they put forward in the
petitions addressed to the Government, but they have at the same time
another, and perhaps more important, objection to the proposed changes.
They feel, as several of them admitted to me, that if the barrier which
separates them from the rest of the population were in any way broken
down, they could no longer preserve that stern Puritanical discipline
which at present constitutes their force. Hence, though the Government
was disposed to make important concessions, hundreds of families sold
their property and emigrated to America. The movement, however, did
not become general. At present the Russian Mennonites number, male and
female, about 50,000, divided into 160 colonies and possessing over
800,000 acres of land.

It is quite possible that under the new system of administration the
colonists who profess in common with the Russians the Greek Orthodox
faith may be rapidly Russianised; but I am convinced that the
others will long resist assimilation. Greek orthodoxy and Protestant
sectarianism are so radically different in spirit that their respective
votaries are not likely to intermarry; and without intermarriage it is
impossible that the two nationalities should blend.

As an instance of the ethnological curiosities which the travel