________________
AUGUST, 1879.)
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA.
233
p. 89.
to be found.' "-Sainsbury, Colonial Papers, E. I. life of the Russian peasant woman is in many re. vol. I., p. 352.
spects akin to that led by her Hindu sister, some 1697 :-"Tuffoons."-Dampier, vol. II, p. 36. of the anomalies in the position of a wife being
1727 :-"By the beginning of September they the same whether she lives near the Volga or the reacht the Coast of China, where meeting with a Ganges. As a general rule, for instance, she is Tuffoon or a North-east storm, that often blows treated by men with the contempt due to an violently about that Season, they were forced to inferior being. And yet she may be the acknowbear away for Johore."-A. Hamilton, vol. II. ledged chief of a great family community which
numbers among its members many beings of the lordly sex. Old Russian marriage customs were
singularly like those prevalent in India, and oven HINDU AND RUSSIAN PEASANT HOME LIFE. in those of the present day a considerable family (Mr. W. R. S. Ralston in The Academy,
likeness exists between the two groups, the Rus
sian svakha exactly answering to the Hindu Feb. 15th, 1879.)
matrimonial broker. The child marriages of Prof. Monier Williams delivered on 10th Fe
India, also, were known to the Russia of former bruary at the London Institution, a locture on " In- days, but the practice has now fallen into disuse. dian Home Life." Interesting it must have been The nuptial triple walk round the Indian sacred to all who heard it; but it was likely to prove of fire finds its counterpart in the thrice-repeated special interest to any one who was acquainted walk of the Russian wedded pair around a part of with the home life of a Russian village. For, in the church. This is a true survival; whereas the the earlier parts of his lecture, when the professor similarity between the never-parted with triple was describing a Hindu peasant's homestead, and thread of the twice-born Hinda, and the pectoral giving a sketch of the manner in which that pea- cross, never removed from the neck of the bapsant and his family are accustomed to spend each tised moujik, may be an accidental likeness. The day of their lives, it might almost have been sup- utter illiterateness of the Hindu woman finds its posed that he had passed from Asia to Europe, exact parallel in Russian life; just as the kindly and was bringing before the mental eyes of his feeling which exists between the various members hearers a picture of a Rassian moujik's home life. of an Indian family is by no means without its Widely different, of course, in many respects, must Slav counterpart. Such are a few of the points of be the portraits of Slav and Hindu men, and the similarity between the home life of Russian vilaccounts of their respective manners. But if the lager and that Indian life which Prof. Monier direct effects of climate and religion are set aside, Williams brought so vividly before the eyes of his there will still remain a great amount of similarity hearers. If space would permit it, there would between the contrasted remainders. For as be no difficulty in making the likeness much more everything continues in an Indian village almost complete. exactly as it was a thousand years ago, so the old | A correspondent in The Academy, Feb. 22, adds:Aryan form of village life has been preserved in | "Mr. Ralston in his interesting article on Indian Russia, but little altered from what it was long Home Life' has pointed out some curious rebefore Rurik was heard of. It is true that the semblances between the Russiun and Hindu nature-worship of the ancient Slavs has been re- homesteads. It is true,' he says, 'that the terem placed by Christianity. But in the minds of or upper chamber for the women lives now only Russian peasants in remote districts there re- in Russian song, while its Indian counterpart mains a considerable residuum of such supersti- still exists and is as secluded as ever.' But the tions as are closely akin to the beliefs attributed Russian peasant's Icon-corner,' in which the by Prof. Monier Williams to their far away Hindu holy pictures stand, corresponds closely with the cousins. Much more complete, however, is the Hindu rustic's 'God's room.' 'No "anger room," resemblance between the Russian and the Hindu however, has been retained in Slav dwellings homesteads. It is true that the teren or upper for the benefit of inmates affected by a fit of the chamber for the women lives now only in Russian sulks.' It may be doubtful whether the suitors song, while its Indian counterpart still exists and in the Odyssey would have considered the 'umepwov, is as secluded as ever. But the Russian peasant's into which Penelope withdrew from their impor"Icon-corner," in which the holy pictures stand, tunities, as a counterpart of the Indian teren corresponds closely with the Hindu rustic's rather than of the sulk-room. But it can hardly "God's room." No "anger room," however, has admit of a doubt-can it ? that the French been retained in Slav dwellings for the benefit of boudoir is a true survival of the original Aryan inmates affected by a fit of sulks. The ordinary pouting room."
