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

CHARACTEK OF THE RUSSIANS.179

ferred pure, good milk is every where to be obtained. This elegant beverage served up in barns, I say barns for politeness-sake, reminds me of the chocolate of the Spaniards. It forms one of the thousand contrasts with which the traveller is struck at every step he takes among these two people, equally singular, though in many of their ways as different as the climates they inhabit.

I have often said that the Russian people have a sentiment of the picturesque : among the groups of men and animals that surrounded me in this interior of a Russian farm house, a painter would have found subjects for several charming pictures.

The red or blue shirt of the peasants is buttoned over the collar bone, and drawn close round the loins by a girdle, above which it lies in antique folds, and below forms an open tunic that falls over the pantaloon. The long Persian robe, often left open, which, when the men do not work, partly covers this blouse, the hair worn long and parted on the forehead, but shaved close behind rather higher than the nape, so as to discover all the strength of the neck —does not this form an original and graceful picture ? The wild yet, at the same time, gentle expression of the Russian peasants also possesses grace: their elegant forms, their suppleness, their broad shoulders, the sweet smile of their mouth, the mixture of tenderness and ferocity which is discernible in their wild and melancholy look, render their general appearance as diiferent from that of our labourers as the land they cultivate differs from the rest of Europe. Every thing is new here for a stranger. The natives possess a certain charm which can be felt though not expressed: i 6