industry, in the Great
Exhibition; and very good specimens they are, too. Russia is not such
a pleasant country, in some respects, as any of those I have been
telling you of; for in the winter the frost is so severe that many of
the poor Russians die from cold. The rich wrap themselves up in warm
furs, and ride in fur-lined sledges, instead of the usual carriages;
but the poor people are forced to continue working out of doors at
their various employments, being very careful, however, to cover their
legs, hands, and head with fur, lest they should be bitten with the
frost, which sometimes seizes those parts and turns them white. Though
many of the poor women stand for hours together, washing their linen
in holes cut in the ice, without getting frozen, yet it often happens
that coachmen and other servants have been frozen to death in the
streets at night, while waiting for their masters.

At the end of every year, the Russians keep a long fast, and as soon
as it is over, lay in their store of winter's provisions, at a market
held once a-year on the river Neva, which is then frozen over. I
should like you to see this market, it is so full of gaiety and
singularity, while the high piles of frozen provisions look so
picturesque along the ice. The Russians are remarkable for their
cheerfulness and contentment, and are so fond of singing, that they
are always enjoying a song when at work. Russian songs are very
different from ours, and sound rather odd to us.

The food of the common people is black rye bread, sometimes, by way
of treat, stuffed with onions, carrots, or green corn, and seasoned
with sweet oil. They use eggs, salt fish, bacon, and mushrooms, of
which last they have a great plenty. The men are ordinarily dressed in
loose trousers; short coats of sheep-skin, tied with a sash round
their waists, and folds of flannel, fastened round with pack-thread,
on their legs, for stockings. The women are dressed just as oddly, in
short gowns, and with their hair plaited and hanging down their backs,
if they are unmarried; or a cap and cotton kerchief round their heads,
if they are married. The peasants' houses are built of wood, and have
one or two rooms only; they are miserably furnished, with no beds, as
the family sleep on benches in summer, while nearly one-fourth of the
principal apartment is filled by an enormous stove, or rather oven,
upon which they sleep in winter; for the smoke of which, there is no
chimney beyon