The Russian empire, its people, institutions and resources

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Author's Preface

The Author of this Work has devoted his attention for many years to the study of rural institutions, or, in other words, the different relations of the peasant class to the cultivation of the land, their families, the landowners, their Communes, and the State. He has endeavoured to study the life of the lower classes of the people by direct personal observation ; and, in pursuance of this object, he received a commission from the Prussian Government to prosecute his investigations through all the provinces of the Monarchy, and to draw up a detailed report on the state of the peasantry, which might serve as a basis for future legislation. For this purpose he travelled, from 1830 to 1838, throughout Prussia, as well as a large part of the neighbouring countries.

On examining closely the rural institutions of Western Germany, the Author found some peculiarities not in character with the common features of German life. From the sixth to the twelfth century these countries, although originally German, were inhabited by a Slavonic population which afterwards disappeared, or be-

AUTHOR S PREFACE.

came Germanized, and he was thus naturally led to attribute the origin of such anomalous features to these extinct Slavonic races and their institutions. It therefore became necessary, in the prosecution of his inquiries, to subject the popular life and institutions of these races to a more comprehensive examination, — a branch of study which he has never been satisfied to pursue merely from books and historical documents, vnthout the important aid of close and direct observation of the life of the people : a subsequent study of books facilitated, but did not form the basis of, his information and opinions. He felt a strong desire to visit those countries which have always been, and still are, inhabited by Slavonic peoples, and where the national institutions have grown up intact and independent.

In those parts of Prussia still peopled by Slaavs, the Kasubs, Masurs, Upper Silesians, and Poles, the original rural institutions have not been preserved in their integrity: so many German elements have been intermingled with them, that it is frequently impossible to decide what is German and what Slavonic. The southern parts of the Austrian monarchy, with Servia, Bulgaria, and above all Russia, could therefore alone engage his attention.

But an investigation of this kind was attended vdth great difficulties, and could only be undertaken vidth the special sanction of the respective Governments. The Author found in the Russian Government the greatest readiness to assist him in his inquiries; and the Emperor not only ordered him to be recommended to the protection of all the authorities, but to have access to

AUTHOR S PREFACE. XI

the public archives for all the information necessary for his work.

Having at St. Petersburg made the preparations necessary for so important a journey, the Author took his departure from Moscow in the Spring of 1843. He travelled first to the north, traversed a part of the immense region of forests, and then returning to the Volga, penetrated eastward as far as Kazan, and southward to Saratof, visiting the rich corn districts of Penza, Tambof, Voronezh, and Kharkof, and then traversed the Steppes by Ekaterinoslaf to Kertch in the Crimea. Thence he made a short excursion into the southern countries of the Caucasus, at the conclusion of which he travelled over the Crimea, and, proceeding along the coast, arrived at Odessa. He then traversed Podoha and Volhvnia, reached Kief, and, passing through the Governments of Tchernigof, Orel, and Tula, returned to Moscow in the month of November.

The following Work contains a portion of his observations on Russia, the impressions he received, and the materials which he collected.

In the investigations to which I invite the Reader's attention in this Work, we must bear in mind the fact, that the rural institutions of every people have a peculiar basis of nationality, and can only be rendered intelligible when the importance of this fact is clearly understood. DiflPerences and peculiarities are perceptible in all nations, but they are peculiarly prominent in the two great families of the Germanic and Romanic races.

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which have also much in common, with many resemblances and analogies. A manifold intermixture of manners, languages, and interests, and a mutual assimilation of national life, have prevailed among them for a thousand years ; and these circumstances, together with their common Church and the dissemination of the Roman law, have produced and established these similarities. This fusion is also stamped upon the languages ; all have words expressing one and the same thing : for instance the sense attached to the words Gemeinde or Commune, — Pdchter, iarmer, /ermier, indicates essentially the same social and legislative relations in each language, and is understood alike in all.

It is otherwise among the Slavonic peoples. The Poles and Bohemians have for centuries been influenced by German manners and ideas ; their legislation has assumed the same character as that of the other nations of the West, and the original Slavonic institutions have been considerably modified ; but with regard to the Slavonic peoples who have either had no contact with the ideas and civilization of the other European nations, as the Servians, Bosnians, Bulgarians, or those with whom this contact has only taken place in modern times, and so that the higher classes alone have appropriated this civilization without sensibly modifying the social and legislative basis of the rural institutions, as among the Russians, the case is entirely different.

In fact the social and legislative relations of the Slavonic nations who have not been affected by European culture differ so entirely, both in their first principles and their development, from those of other nations, that

AUTHOR S PREFACE. XIH

we have often in our language no terms fitted clearly to designate them. The ordinary and legislative meaning of the word Gemeinde, for instance, is in all European languages so clear and uniform, that it may be used in each without fear of being misunderstood. But how different is the meaning of the old Slavonic or Russian Commune! With the former nations this indicates an aggregate of individuals, whom chance has brought together, and whose relations have been regulated by government and legislation, as well as by the manners and customs of the people ; whereas among the latter it was \ originally a simple extension of the patriarchal family, | which it still represents, with a chief or father at its head, i and based upon a community of property. -—-"^

In the case of those Slavonic peoples who have remained uninfluenced by modern civilization, such as the Servians, Bulgarians, etc., this is so evident, that Ranke and Cyprian Robert, in their works on the Servians and Slaavs, have not failed to remark it. In Russia it is not so evident : from an early time this country formed a political unity, having received at a remote period institutions from Constantinople, and even through German (Varangian) influences. Since the sixteenth century, when it threw off the Mongol yoke, it has come into direct contact with Western Europe, and has striven for a hundred and forty years to attain modern civilization. The higher classes have been educated and trained, and all the political institutions have been formed, upon the European model. Legislation has not only assumed the character, but even the forms, of other European States, the consequences of which however have been

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manifested only among the higher classes of the people :■ foreign civilization has not penetrated to the manners and customs of the lower classes ; family institutions, and those of the Communes and agriculture, have remained intact ; legislation and the Government administration have had little or no influence upon them.

But this virant of homogeneity in the culture of the higher and lower classes has rendered the attainment of a knowledge of the national institutions extremely difficult even by the former. Accustomed to foreign languages and manners, and basing their education upon foreign jurisprudence and institutions, they have been accustomed to regard all their native institutions from a foreign point of view, and have sought to frame the latter upon the model of the former. More recently indeed national sentiments have begun to manifest themselves, and here as elsewhere Russian learned men are now devoting themselves to an earnest investigation of the origin and true nature of the social state of their fatherland;* but the foreign civiUzation and cultivated language of the higher classes, which have impressed upon Russian words indicative of native institutions a bor. rowed meaning, interpose innumerable obstacles.

When I say that even learned Russians, born in the country, have no longer a knowledge of its real condition and institutions,! — that they have not yet been

* Some learned Germans may claim the honour of having given the first impulse in this direction. Men like Schlotzer, Miiller Ewers Georgi, Storch, etc., and in our day Reutz, have been the teachers of the younger Russian learned men, and have inspired them with a love of national institutions, and an ardour for investigating them.

t A remarkable instance of this was presented in the case of Alex-

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able to impart to their language the power of rendering that condition intelligible, — that their poets are only now beginning to understand and describe their national and family life, with its manners and peculiarities, — this must, of course, be asserted in a much higher degree of the foreigners who have written on Russia. Whoever would travel in Russia, earnestly study the condition of the country, and observe its national life with unprejudiced eyes, must first of all forget everything he has read in other countries upon the subject.

Having passed little more than a year in Russia, I cannot pretend to understand the national life and condition of the country in all their bearings ; but I am at least assured by the conviction of having entered upon my investigation unprejudiced and with the profound veneration and love I have always felt for everything genuine, natural, and simple, in the life of nations. More than twenty years of travel have sharpened my observation to this kind of study ; and I therefore hope in this Work to have not only communicated much that was wholly unknown, but to some extent to have indicated a new mode of studying Russian life. I would however expressly disclaim any pretension to have given complete information. My book contains studies : it is not a critical work, and cannot be supposed free from inaccuracies ; but I hope to have indicated those points upon which any one must specially fix his attention who un-

ander Tiirgenief. With a perfectly European cosmopolitan education, possessed of the deepest and most glowing love of his country, and a great knowledge of its external history, he knew little of the genuine national life.

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dertakes to describe the present social condition of Russia, or who may occupy a position enabling him to develope it upon truly national principles. All I desire is that enlightened and philanthropic men may examine the results of my observations, which I would more particularly impress upon the attention of the Russian Government. Let the opinions here stated be accepted or rejected, my object will have been attained, if my Work excites an earnest interest in the subjects of which it treats, and gives a new impulse to social progress. ^In order to make good my positions, I will here indicate some of the results of my observations. In their origin and development the other nations of Europe are feudal, whereas Russia is a patriarchal state. A crowd of consequences flow from this simple fact, which is almost sufRcient of itself to explain the whole social and political condition of Russia.

The family is the national microcosm : in it reigns a perfect equality of rights ; so long as it remains united, the father is the head of the family ; on his death the eldest son succeeds, and has the entire disposal of all the property, and assigns arbitrarily the part which reverts to each member. The Commune is the family enlarged. The land belongs to the family or commune ; each individual has only a claim to usufruct, to which all persons born in the Commune have an equal right. The land therefore is equally divided among all who live upon it, to be temporarily occupied by them. No right of inheritance exists in the children to the share of their father • each son claims an equal share with the rest, by vii-tue of his individual right as a member of the Commune.

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The Commune has its paternal relation in the Ancient, or Starosta, to whom implicit obedience is shown.

According to the traditional conviction of the people, Russia belongs to the Nation, divided into Communes, as to a single family, under its chief or father, the Czar, who has the disposal of everything, and to whom implicit obedience is shown. The Russian people cannot imagine any limitation of the power of the Czar. " How can a father's authority be limited, otherwise than by the Divine law ?" say that class who constitute the heart of the nation at the present day, as they did 230 years ago on the accession of the Romanof Dynasty. All attempts to restrict the power of the Czar made then or subsequently proved utterly abortive, before this deep traditional belief of the people. The political position therefore of the Czar in relation to the Russian Nation is quite different from that of every other monarch ; but as Emperor of the Russian Monarchy, his position is the same as that of other sovereigns.

As every Russian belongs to a Commune, and all the\ members are entitled to equal shares in the land, there are no hora. proletarians in Russia.

In aU the other countries of Europe the originators of social revolution rise up in rebellion against wealth and property. Destruction of the right of inheritance, and an equal division of the land, are their shibboleth ! In Russia such a revolution is impossible, as this Utopia of the European revolutionists already exists here, fully incorporated with the national life.

There is a large class of politicians in Europe who are anxious to obliterate every organic difference between

VOL. I. b

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town and country, to destroy the mediaeval institutions of guilds, trades, etc., and to disseminate universal freedom of industry. From the earliest times this state of things has existed in Russia, but it has destroyed all internal progress, and the Government has striven to counteract it by legislation, by creating and giving privileges to towns, by establishing guilds and incorporated trades, and has exerted itself, hitherto vidth little success, to create a real middle class.

The nobility, an element which probably did not belong originally to the Slavonic race, was not numerous before the time of Peter I. It has always ovred its influence and importance more to the confidence of the sovereign than to its position in the nation. Peter I. created an official nobility, which has almost driven the old hereditary aristocracy into the background.* The course is free to all, and any man of the people may, on certain conditions and by service, acquire personal and afterwards hereditary nobility. This however has been found in practice by no means a thing to be admired, and the want of an efficient rural nobility is unquestionable.

Of late years Russia has made remarkable progress in the modern system of manufactures, and a large number of the nobles have engaged in them. Moscow, the centre of industrial activity, has been transformed, from the residence of the nobility, into a manufacturing town:

* In all other, and even constitutional, countries the rank of noble is acquired by tbe favour of the Prince. In autocratical Eussia the Emperor does not confer this rank of his own accord, but it is acquired by service and the law ; and still there is no vrorse nobihty than this. «

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it is very doubtful whether the result can be considered altogether advantageous. The wages of labour, partly in consequence of this circumstance, have risen immensely in Russia j and, in fact, taking everything into consideration, there is no country where they are so high. At the same time the price of the raw produce of the land in the interior, distant from the European markets and without means of communication, is very low.

As wages are so high, it is evident that agriculture must be the least remunerative of all employments, and the rent of the land, if cultivated by hired labourers, would cease altogether. The consequence is that agriculture in all its branches is prosecuted without energy, and retrogrades instead of advancing. This would be still more the case if in many districts serfage did not come to its aid. Manufacturing industry is consequently one of the greatest obstacles to the abolition of serfage, which however cannot be much longer delayed in Russia.

From the earliest times there has existed in many parts of the Empire a system of manufacturing industry, based upon the Communal institutions, and forming a kind of national manufacturing association. This in fact represents what the St. Simonist theories have dreamt of as the model upon which the social reform of Europe is to be effected. Hitherto the Government, from partiality to the modern manufacturing system, has paid far too little attention to these national associative manufactories.

Russia, in her internal development, has the promise of a great future destiny. The political unity of the cduntry seems to have been intended by nature, which

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has divided it into four colossal departments, not separately possessing the conditions of complete independ* ence, and only capable when united of constituting a powerful and independent State. The north is covered with forests, one continuous tract of which is larger than the whole of Spain. Then comes a district of moderate fertility, extending from the Ural to Smolensk, covering an area of 380,000 square miles, and containing a population of more than sixteen millions of inhabitants, exhibiting the most extensive and varied kinds of industrial activity, but the very existence of which depends entirely upon the forests of the north, and the districts of the south, or the region of the so-called black soil, which in fertility and extent has scarcely its equal in the world : the tract of humus is twice as large as the whole of France, and crops of wheat have succeeded each other for a century upon the same land, without the application of manure. This is rarely used anywhere ; in many places the land is not even ploughed, but is merely scratched as a preparation for the seed. Straw and manure are used as fuel, there being no forests.

To the south and south-east commence the immense Steppes, which have been overrun for thousands of years by nomadic tribes with their flocks and herds. These districts however are for the most part fertile, and are gradually being brought into cultivation by colonists from the interior, whose settlements form oases in the surrounding desert. If these countries which border the Black Sea should ever be wooded and sufficiently peopled, they would be among the most flourishing in Europe.

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This gigantic Empire, equal in extent to the rest of Europe, and bathed by four seas, is inhabited by a completely homogeneous, healthy, and robust race of men. The Russians are divided into two branches — the Great Russians and Little Russians ; but in dialect these do not differ so much as Low Germans from High Germans. The thirty-four millions of Great Russians constitute the most numerous, compact, and homogeneous national mass in Europe. Between these races there is not the slightest trace of jealousy or desire for separation, but they have a feeling of national and religious unity, which is found in no other country. The Little Russians present only a slight contrast to the Great Russians, but they have at the same time a strong feeling of the unity of Russia.

The higher classes in this country have received for a century past a European cultivation, which is neither of native origin nor of national character. In this respect therefore two different peoples may be said to exist in Russia. There is at present however a strong desire for intellectual improvement among the lower classes, caused by the extension of industrial activity; and it will be one of the greatest tasks of the Government to give the right direction to these tendencies and desires. The national Church can alone undertake this duty ; but the clergy themselves require a more practical education to qualify them for the task ; and exertions have only recently been made, at the suggestion of the Government, to supply this defect.

When I declare the political unity and indivisibility of Russia to be a necessity of nature, I would at the same

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time maintain that she cannot without injury to hersell be a conquering Power. She was obHged to make conquests until she had thereby acquired a state of internal unity and independence, and a compact external position. Without the coasts of the Baltic and Black Seas she could never have become a compact, self-contained, and externally powerful State. But every additional conquest has only proved a burden rather than an advantage to her. If it were consistent with her national dignity, it would be better to abandon all such conquests. But every village which should be conquered now would be a mere increase to her burden and diminution of her strength. Russia requires more than a century to develope her internal resources. Of what use to her would be a million of subjects in a conquered country, on whom she could not rely, and who would require to be watched by a large army, whilst by the development of her internal resources she could gain in a few years ten million faithful and homogeneous subjects ?

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

CHAPTEE I.

Page Leaving Berlia for St. Petersburg. — Differences of Temperature. — Breaking up of the Ice on tlie Neva. — Holy Week. — Churcli Music in Russia. — Easter. — Grand Parade before tbe Winter Palace. — ^Leave St. Petersburg. — Tbe Forest Institute at Listziuo. — Novgorod. — Vuishni Volotohok. — Torzbok. — Leather Manufactories. — Tver. — Communal Organization. — ^Villages. — The Ishortzki. — Habitations of the Peasantry. — Enclosures. — National Costume. — Manners . 1

Chapter II

Moscow compared with St. Petersburg. — The Great Russians. — National Importance of Moscow. — Influence of Peter I. — Aspect of the City. — Architecture of the Streets and Churches. — The Kremlin. — Ivan Vasilievitoh. — The Kitaigorod. — Kussian Shopkeepers. — Position of Women. — Population of Moscow. — Change in its Character. — Houses of the Nobles. — Domestic ' Servauts. — Manufacturing Labourers. — Moscow a Centre of Industry. — Formation of a Citizen Class. — German Corporations and Russian Association. — Russian Artisans. — No Proletarians. — The Dvornik.— The Duboshnik.— The Plotnik ... 25

XXIV CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE III.

Page

Leave Moscow. — Starlings' Nests. — Peasant Costumes. — The Monastery of Troitza Lavra. — Professor Golubinski. — Belfiy. — Uspenski Cathedral. — Tombs of the Czars and Princes. — Church of the Trinity. — Curious Pictures. — Legends of Pictures of Christ. — The Doctrine of Purgatory. — St. Sophia and her Daughters. — Church. Treasure. — Pearls. — The Monk's Cell. — Eussian Monks. — The Eefectory. — The Hospital. — Library. — Old Slavonic Musical Signs. — ^Eussian Miniatures. — School for the Poor. — Theological Academy. — Beggars. — Pereslavl. — Stone and "Wooden Churches.— Monastery of St. Nikita. — Lake Pleshtobesvo. — Monument of Ivan. — ViUages of Yaroslaf. — Eostof — Garden ViUages 70

CHAPTEE IV.

Yaroslaf. — Eussian Inn, Caravansary, and Hotel. — The Samovar. — The Governor and his Wife. — Eussian Devotion. — Enormous Sturgeon. — M. Kamovitch.— Communal Meeting. — ^Description / of an Estate. — Interior of a Peasant's House. — A Peasant Fa- ,' mUy. — A Modern Farm. — Velikoye Selo. — Serfdom. — The No- '■ bles. — Linen Manufactory. — Division of tbe Land. — Nobles audi Serfs. — Count Eisselef — Legal Tribunals. — Tailors. — Eussianj Division of the Land in the Communes. — Obrok. — Tiaglo. — ^In-| crease of Population. — Importance of tbe Communal Institu-j tions. — St. Simonism. — Eesemblances and Contrasts with Eus-j' sian Social Condition. — Agriculture. — Village Pope. — ^Eibinsk. — ^Its Commercial Importance. — The Burlaki. — Eetum to Ya-' roslaf

CHAPTEE V.

Observations on the Government of Yaroslaf —Eace.— Manufactures.— Agriculture.— Large Estates. — Manufacturing Communes.— European Manufacturing System.— Effects of its Introduction.— Statistics .—Deficiency of Corn.— Supply of Labour. —Travelling Artisans.— Artisan Communities.- Contractors.— EetaU Trading.— Fairs.— Salaries of Officials in the Town of Yaroslaf , <g

CONTENTS. XXV

CHAPTER VI.

Departure for Vologda. — Samovar Manufactory at Danilof. — Vologda. — Excursion to Kubensk. — Village Constitution. — Model Farm of the Appanage Peasants. — Leare Vologda. — Principle of Old Russian Colonization. — Forest E«gion. — The Yemstchik and Lis Horses. — Russian Popular Songs. — Totma. — Appearance of the Villages. — Statistics. — Agriculture and Cattle-breeding. — School Education. — Road to Ustiugy— Aspect and interior of the Town. — The Northern Night. — Water Excursion to>/ Troitza. — Visit to the Starosta at Pestovo. — Costumes. — Whitsuntide at the Monastery of Troitza. — Saints Ivan and Stephan. — The Syranes. — Polovnik Law 177

CHAPTEE VII.

Yurievetz. — ^Appanage Village cf Diakonski. — People's School. — ) Artisan School. — Peasants' Houses. — Arrival at Nizhni Novgorod. — The Governor. — Imperial Palace. — The Guhanie. — Popular Amusements and Songs. — Russian Costumes. — ^Abundance of Pearls. — A Provincial Theatre. — Superstition. — Excursion to Arzamas. — Visit to a Convent. — Native Artists. — Manufactures. — Village of Vizena and its Association of Shoemakers. — ^Village and Taxing Arrangements. — Return to Nizhni Novgorod. — Visit to the Prisons. — Benevolence to the Prisoners. — The Burlaks J . 220

CHAPTER VIII.

Nizhni Novgorod. — Visit to a Church of the Yedinovertzi. — ^Russian Sects. — The Morelstohiki, Skoptzi, Khlistovstchina, Bezslovestnie, and Subotniki. — Sects arising from the Schism tmder the Patriarch Nikon. — The Starovertzi, their Character and Importance. — ^Religious Discussion in the Kremlin. — Three Sections of Old Believers.— Their Doctrines and Worship. — Their Hospital at Moscow. — Sects since Peter I. — The Molokane and their Doctrines. — The Dukhobortzi and their Doctrines. — Visit to them on the Malotchnaya. — Village of Terpenie . . . 246 VOL. I. C

XXVI CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE IX.

Page

Leave Nizhni.— Second Visit to the Camp.— Caiitoniat Children.— The Maahina on the Volga.— Kosmodemiansk. — Toheremiss Village.— Tcheremiss Farmstead.— People of the Toheremiss.- Dress. — Dwellings. — Institutions. — Character. — Eeligious Customs and Ideas. — Exiles on their way to Siberia. — Colonization in Siberia. — The Grold-washings. — The Tchuvash. — Characteristics, Eehgion and Superstition. — Arrival at Kazan . . . 302

CHAPTEE X.

Kazan. — Conflagration in 1842. — State-Councillor Von Fuchs. — Migration of Vermin. — The University. — Eussian Switzerland. — The Tatars. — Divine Service of the Tatars. — House of two Tatar Merchants. — Household Arrangements. — Dress. — Physical Conformation of the Tatars. — Intellectual Faculties. — Character and Mode of Life. — Capacity for Civilization, and Political Importance. — Their Conversion to Christianity. — Punishment of the Knout. — Its Abolition. — Productions of the Soil. — Climate. —Tatar Village of Yepan Ashino. — Position of Women. — ^Village Arrangements . . 317

CHAPTEE XI. '

L

Leave Kazan. — Peasant Houses. — Herr Von Pirch. — National Character. — Agriculture. — Euins of Bolghari. — M. Molostof — Farming Arrangements. — Simbirsk. — La^g|!.^ Villages. — Tchuvash Village. — Isthmus of the Volga. — Wihi^^: — Chain Trade. Samara. — The Mordvins. — Kurgani. — Padovka.— Fuel. — Bashku^s. — Nikolaievsk. — Colonization. — Kushum. — Eussian Eeception. — Selzomayania. — German Colonies. — Division of the Land. — Orlovskoi.— Katharinenstadt. — Grain Trade.— LittleEussians. Salt in the Yelton Lake. — A Cossack. — Government of Saratof. — Former Inhabitants. — New Colonization. — Eobber Hordes. —

/ Increase of the Population,— Agriculture. — Fishing.-<Population ■ • . 33)

CONTENTS. XXVU

CHAPTEE XII.

Page

Penza. — Serf Barber. — Solevka.— ^atar Village of Musalin. — Tatars bound to Military Duty. — Landowners and Serfs. — Eus- \ sian Law Covirts. — Tatar and Russian Villages. — Russian Peasant Houses and Costumes. — Tambof. — Old Walls. — Transition to the South Russian Character. — Kozlof. — Lipetsk. — The Odnodvortzi and Petty Nobility. — Breeding Horses on the Bitiug. — Carpet Manufactory. — The Stud at Paddi. — The Rostopshin Stud. — Grenovna. — Stud of the Countess Orlof. — Arabians. — Extraordinary Hospitality. — ^Voronezh. — The Governor-Geneal. — Remarks on Siberia. — The Government of Tambof. — Means of Communication .... . . 363

CHAPTER XIII.

Departure from Voronezh. — Difference in the Country and People. — Eharkof. — Influence of 1812 upon the Nobility and the Provincial Towns. — Streets of Eharkof. — Social Life. — Ciiltivatiou of Grain. — Division of Villages. — Character of the Peasantry. — University of Kharkof. — Archbishop Inokenti. — Gymnasium. — Military Colony of Tchuguyef. — Government of Kharkof. — Little and Great Russian Colonization. — Situation, Soil, and Climate. — Agriculture. — Houses. — Dress and Food. — Marriage Ceremonies. — Popular Songs and Dances. — Departure from Kharkof. — Ekaterinoslaf. — Palace and Parks of Potemkin. — Cloth Manufactories. — Serfage . . 392