ed the custom as to methods of
tillage, fixed the dates for sowing and reaping, voted upon the
admission of new families into the village, and in general transacted
what was then regarded as the public business of the community. In all
essential respects this village assembly or _mark-mote_ would seem to
have resembled the town-meetings of New England.

Such was the mark-community of the ancient Teutons, as we gather partly
from hints afforded by Tacitus and partly from the comparative study of
English, German, and Scandinavian institutions. In Russia and in
Hindustan we find the same primitive form of social organization
existing with very little change at the present day. Alike in Hindu and
in Russian village-communities we find the group of habitations, each
despotically ruled by a _pater-familias;_ we find the pasture-land
owned and enjoyed in common; and we find the arable land divided into
separate lots, which are cultivated according to minute regulations
established by the community. But in India the occasional redistribution
of lots survives only in a few localities, and as a mere tradition in
others; the arable mark has become private property, as well as the
homesteads. In Russia, on the other hand, re-allotments occur at
irregular intervals averaging something like fifteen years. In India the
local government is carried on in some places by a Council of Village
Elders, and in other places by a Headman whose office is sometimes
described as hereditary, but is more probably elective, the choice being
confined, as in the case of the old Teutonic kingship, to the members of
a particular family. In the Russian village, on the other hand, the
government is conducted by an assembly at which every head of a
household is expected to be present and vote on all matters of public
concern. This assembly elects the Village Elder, or chief executive
officer, the tax-collector, the watchman, and the communal herd-boy; it
directs the allotment of the arable land; and in general matters of
local legislation its power is as great as that of the New England
town-meeting,--in some respects perhaps even greater, since the precise
extent of its powers has never been determined by legislation, and
(according to Mr. Wallace) "there is no means of appealing against its
decisions." To those who are in the habit of regarding Russia simply as
a despotically-governed country, such a statement may seem surprising.
To those who, because th