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

than many houses; they are hung with straw mattings, which give them the picturesque appearance of oriental tents or Chinese junks.

The trade of plasterer is important in a city the interior of whose houses is a prey to swarms of vermin, and the exterior spoilt in appearance every winter. The manner in which the Russian plasterers perform their work is curious. There are only three months in the year during which they can work outside the houses ; the number of artificers is therefore considerable, and they are found at the corner of every street. These men, suspended at the peril of their life on little planks attached to a long hanging cord, seem to support themselves like insects against the edifices which they rewhiten.

In the provinces they whitewash the towns through which the emperor may have to pass: is this an honour rendered to the sovereign, or do they seek to deceive him as regards the wretchedness of the land ? In general the Russians carry about their persons a disagreeable odour, which is perceptible at a considerable distance. The higher classes smell of musk, the common people of cabbage, mixed with exhalations of onions and old greasy perfumed leather. These scents never vary.

It may be supposed from this, that the thirty thousand subjects of the emperor who enter his palace on the 1st of January, to offer him their felicitations, and the six or seven thousand that we shall see to-morrow pressing into the interior of the palace of Peterhoff, in honour of their empress, must leave on their passage a formidable perfume.

Among all the women of the lower orders whom I

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