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

BEAUTIFUL FEMALE PEASANTS.261

are singularly supple, easily maintain a balance that is to us astonishing; they exhibit much grace, boldness, and agility, in this exercise.

I have purposely stopped in several villages to observe the girls and young men thus amuse themselves together; and I have at last seen some female faces perfectly beautiful. Their complexion is of a delicate whiteness ; their colour is, so to speak, under the skin, which is transparent and exquisitively smooth. Their teeth are brilliantly white; and—rarely seen beauty ! — their mouths are perfectly formed copies of the antique ; their eyes, generally blue, have nevertheless the oriental cast of expression, with also that unquiet and furtive glance natural to the Slavonians, who can in general look sideways, and even behind, without turning their heads. Their whole appearance possesses a great charm; but, whether from a caprice of nature, or the effects of costume, these beauties are much less often seen united in the women than in the men. Among a hundred female peasants we perhaps meet with one really beautiful, whilst the great majority of the men are remarkable for the form of their heads, and the gracefulness of their features. Among- the old men there are faces with rosy cheeks and silver hair and beard, of which it may be said that time has imparted of dignity more than it has taken of youth. There are heads that would be more beautiful iir pictures than any thing that I have seen of Rubens' or Titian's, but I have never observed an elderly female face worthy of being painted.

I sometimes see a regularly Grecian profile united with features of so extreme a delicacy that the