Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

COSTUME OF ТПЕ PEASANTRY.245

flat at the top, but fitting very closely round the head; it resembles a mushroom ; a peacock's feather is sometimes twisted round the band;, and when the men wear a hat, the same ornament is also adopted. Instead of boots they most commonly have plats of reeds, woven by the peasants themselves, and worn as leggings fastened with packthread laces. They look better in sculpture than on the living man. Some ancient statues prove the antiquity of the attire.

The female peasants are rarely to be seen.* ДУе met ten men for one woman. Such as I have noticed wear a dress that indicates a total absence of female vanity. It consists of a species of dressing-gown, very wide and loose, which fastens round the neck and reaches to the ground. A large apron of the same length, fastened across the shoulders by two short straps, completes their rustic and ungainly costume. They nearly all go barefoot; the wealthier wear the clumsy boots I have already described. Indian handkerchiefs or other pieces of stuff are bound closely round the head. The real national e female head-dress is only worn on holydays. It is the same as that of the ladies of the court; a species, namely, of shako, open at the top, or rather a very lofty diadem, embroidered with precious stones when worn by the ladies, and with flowers in gold or silver thread when on the heads of the peasants. This crown has an imposing effect, and resembles no other kind of head-dress, unless it be the tower of the goddess Cybele.

The peasant women are not the only Russian

* But little more than a hundred years ago the Russian women never went abroad.