untry are, in fact,
Little Russian rather than Great Russian, and between these two sections
of the population there are profound differences--differences of
language, costume, traditions, popular songs, proverbs, folk-lore,
domestic arrangements, mode of life, and Communal organisation. In these
and other respects the Little Russians, South Russians, Ruthenes,
or Khokhly, as they are variously designated, differ from the Great
Russians of the North, who form the predominant factor in the
Empire, and who have given to that wonderful structure its essential
characteristics. Indeed, if I did not fear to ruffle unnecessarily the
patriotic susceptibilities of my Great Russian friends who have a pet
theory on this subject, I should say that we have here two distinct
nationalities, further apart from each other than the English and the
Scotch. The differences are due, I believe, partly to ethnographical
peculiarities and partly to historic conditions.

As it was the energetic Great Russian empire-builders and not the
half-dreamy, half-astute, sympathetic descendants of the Free Cossacks
that I wanted to study, I soon abandoned my idea of settling in the Holy
City on the Dnieper, and chose Moscow as my point of observation; and
here, during several years, I spent regularly some of the winter months.

The first few weeks of my stay in the ancient capital of the Tsars were
spent in the ordinary manner of intelligent tourists. After mastering
the contents of a guide-book I carefully inspected all the officially
recognised objects of interest--the Kremlin, with its picturesque towers
and six centuries of historical associations; the Cathedrals, containing
the venerated tombs of martyrs, saints, and Tsars; the old churches,
with their quaint, archaic, richly decorated Icons; the "Patriarchs'
Treasury," rich in jewelled ecclesiastical vestments and vessels of
silver and gold; the ancient and the modern palace; the Ethnological
Museum, showing the costumes and physiognomy of all the various races in
the Empire; the archaeological collections, containing many objects that
recall the barbaric splendour of old Muscovy; the picture-gallery, with
Ivanof's gigantic picture, in which patriotic Russian critics discover
occult merits which place it above anything that Western Europe has yet
produced! Of course I climbed up to the top of the tall belfry which
rejoices in the name of "Ivan the Great," and looked down on the "gilded
domes"* of