[1] See endnote to "Old Portraits," in this volume.--TRANSLATOR.
[2] The Vigil-service (consisting of Vespers and Matins, or Compline and
Matins) may be celebrated in unconsecrated buildings, and the devout not
infrequently have it, as well as prayer-services, at home.--TRANSLATOR.
[3] Meaning the odour of the oil which must be used in preparing food,
instead of butter, during the numerous fasts.--TRANSLATOR.
[4] The custom of thus dressing up as bears, clowns, and so forth, and
visiting all the houses in the neighbourhood, is still kept up in rustic
localities. St. Vasíly's (Basil's) day falls on January 1.--TRANSLATOR.
[5] An arshín is twenty-eight inches.--TRANSLATOR
[6] A park for popular resort in the suburbs of Moscow.--TRANSLATOR
[7] Incorrectly written for Poltáva.--TRANSLATOR
[8] The fatter the coachman, the more stylish he is. If he is not fat
naturally, he adds cushions under his coat.--TRANSLATOR.
[9] That is, to the Trinity monastery of the first class founded by St.
Sergius in 1340. It is situated about forty miles from Moscow, and is
the most famous monastery in the country next to the Catacombs Monastery
at Kíeff.--TRANSLATOR.
[10] Pronounced _Aryól_.--TRANSLATOR.
[11] Such a sledge, drawn by the national team of three horses, will
hold five or six persons closely packed.--TRANSLATOR.
[12] The word he used, _mytárstvo_, has a peculiar meaning. It refers
specifically to the experiences of the soul when it leaves the body.
According to the teaching of divers ancient fathers of the church, the
soul, as soon as it leaves the body, is confronted by accusing demons,
who arraign it with all the sins, great and small, which it has
committed during its earthly career. If its good deeds, alms, prayers,
and so forth (added to the grace of God), offset the evil, the demons
are forced to renounce their claims. These demons assault the soul in
relays, each "trial," "suffering," or "tribulation" being a _mytárstvo_.
One ancient authority enumerates twenty such trials. The soul is
accompanied and defended in its trials by angels, who plead its cause.
Eventually, they conduct it into the presence of God, who then assigns
to it a temporary abode of bliss or woe until the day of judgment. The
derivation of this curious and utterly untranslatable word is as
follows: _Mytár_ means a publican or tax-gatherer. As the publicans,
under the Roman sway over the Jews, indulged in various sorts of
violence, abuses, and inhuman conduct, calling every one to strict
account, and even stationing themselves at the city gates to intercept
all who came and went, _mytárstvo_ represents, in general, the taxing or
testing of the soul, which must pay a ransom before it is released from
its trials and preliminary tribulations.--TRANSLATOR.
[13] A folk-tale narrates how the Tzar Arkhídei obtained his beauteous
bride by the aid of seven brothers called "The Seven Semyóns," who were
his peasants. The bride was distant a ten years' journey; but each of
the brothers had a different "trade," by the combined means of which
they were enabled to overcome time and space and get the bride for their
master.--TRANSLATOR.
[14] The word used in Russian indicates not only that he was a
hereditary noble, but that his nobility was ancient--a matter of some
moment in a country where nobility, both personal and hereditary, can be
won in the service of the state.--TRANSLATOR.
[15] The change to _thou_ is made to express disrespect.--TRANSLATOR.
[16] A simple card-game.--TRANSLATOR.
[17] The word used is _popadyá_, the feminine form of _pop(e)_, or
priest. _Svyashtchénnik_ is, however, more commonly used for priest.
--TRANSLATOR.
[18] June 29 (O. S.), July 12 (N. S.).--TRANSLATOR.
[19] In former days the sons of priests generally became priests. It is
still so, in a measure.--TRANSLATOR.
[20] Therefore, there would be no one to maintain his widow and
daughters, unless some young man could be found to marry one of the
daughters, be ordained, take the parish, and assume the support of the
family.--TRANSLATOR.
[21] Parish priests (the White Clergy) must marry before they are
ordained sub-deacon, and are not allowed to remarry in the Holy Catholic
Church of the East.--TRANSLATOR.
[22] A sourish, non-intoxicating beverage, prepared by putting water on
rye meal or the crusts of sour black rye bread and allowing it to
ferment.--TRANSLATOR.
[23] One of the ancient religious ballads sung by the "wandering
cripples." Joseph (son of Jacob) is called by this appellation, and also
a "tzarévitch," or king's son. For a brief account of these ballads see:
"The Epic Songs of Russia" (Introduction), and Chapter I in "A Survey of
Russian Literature" (I. F. Hapgood). This particular ballad is mentioned
on page 22 of the last-named book.--TRANSLATOR.
(N.B. This note is placed here because there is no other book in English
where any information whatever can be had concerning these ballads or
this ballad.--I.F.H.)
[24] Ecclesiastics are regarded as plebeians by the gentry or nobles in
Russia.--TRANSLATOR.
[25] In the Catholic Church of the East the communion is received
fasting. A little to one side of the priest stands a cleric holding a
platter of blessed bread, cut in small bits, and a porringer of warm
water and wine, which (besides their symbolical significance) are taken
by each communicant after the Holy Elements, in order that there may be
something interposed between the sacrament and ordinary
food.--TRANSLATOR.
[26] That is, the particle of bread dipped in the wine, which is
placed in the mouth by the priest with the sacramental spoon.
--TRANSLATOR.
[27] Turgénieff labelled this story and "A Reckless Character,"
"Fragments from My Own Memoirs and Those of Other People." In a
foot-note he begs the reader not to mistake the "I" for the author's own
personality, as it was adopted merely for convenience of
narration.--TRANSLATOR.
[28] The Russian expression is: "A black cat had run between
them."--TRANSLATOR.
[29] In Russia a partial second story, over the centre, or the centre
and ends of the main story, is called thus.--TRANSLATOR.
[30] In Russian houses the "hall" is a combined ball-room, music-room,
play-room, and exercising-ground; not the entrance hall.--TRANSLATOR.
[31] We should call such a watch a "turnip."--TRANSLATOR.
[32] The author is slightly sarcastic in the name he has chosen for this
family, which is derived from _telyéga_, a peasant-cart.--TRANSLATOR.
[33] St. Petersburg.--TRANSLATOR.
[34] Both these are bad omens, according to superstitious
Russians.--TRANSLATOR.
[35] Priests and monks in Russia wear their hair and beards long to
resemble the pictures of Christ. Missionaries in foreign lands are
permitted to conform to the custom of the country and cut it
short.--TRANSLATOR.
[36] "Had been educated on copper coins" is the Russian expression. That
is, had received a cheap education.--TRANSLATOR.
[37] The nickname generally applied by the Little Russians to the Great
Russians.--TRANSLATOR.
[38] The racing-drozhky is frequently used in the country. It consists
of a plank, without springs, mounted on four small wheels of equal size.
The driver sits flat on the plank, which may or may not be
upholstered.--TRANSLATOR.
[39] The baptismal cross.--TRANSLATOR.
[40] The bath-besom is made of birch-twigs with the leaves attached, and
is soaked in hot water (or in beer) to keep it soft. The massage
administered with the besom is delightful. The peasants often use besoms
of nettles, as a luxury. The shredded linden bark is used as a
sponge.--TRANSLATOR.
[41] The great manoeuvre plain, near which the Moscow garrison is
lodged, in the vicinity of Petróvsky Park and Palace. Here the disaster
took place during the coronation festivities of the present
Emperor.--TRANSLATOR.
[42] It is very rarely that a bishop performs the marriage ceremony. All
bishops are monks; and monks are not supposed to perform ceremonies
connected with the things which they have renounced. The exceptions are
when monks are appointed parish priests (as in some of the American
parishes, for instance), and, therefore, must fulfil the obligations of
a married parish priest; or when the chaplain-monk on war-ships is
called upon, at times, to minister to scattered Orthodox, in a port
which has no settled priest.--TRANSLATOR.
[43] The Order of St. George, with its black and orange ribbon, must be
won by great personal bravery--like the Victoria Cross.--TRANSLATOR.
[44] Head of the Secret Service under Alexander I.--TRANSLATOR.
[45] That is, living too long.--TRANSLATOR.
[46] _Sukhóy_, dry; _Sukhíkh_, genitive plural (proper names are
declinable), meaning, "one of the Sukhóys."--TRANSLATOR.
[47] The third from the top in the Table of Ranks instituted by Peter
the Great.--TRANSLATOR.
[48] Corresponding, in a measure, to an American State.--TRANSLATOR.
[49] The Great Russians' scornful nickname for a Little
Russian.--TRANSLATOR.
[50] Each coachman has his own pair or tróika of horses to attend to,
and has nothing to do with any other horses which may be in the
stable.--TRANSLATOR.
[51] Yákoff (James) Daniel Bruce, a Russian engineer, of Scottish
extraction, born in Moscow, 1670, became Grand Master of the Artillery
in 1711, and died in 1735.--TRANSLATOR.
[52] The great cathedral in commemoration of the Russian triumph in
the war of 1812, which was begun in 1837, and completed in 1883.
--TRANSLATOR.
[53] _Nyémetz_, "the dumb one," meaning any one unable to speak Russian
(hence, any foreigner), is the specific word for a German.--TRANSLATOR.
[54] Short for Nízhni Nóvgorod.--TRANSLATOR.
[55] The famous letter from the heroine, Tatyána, to the hero, Evgény
Onyégin, in Pushkin's celebrated poem. The music to the opera of the
same name, which has this poem for its basis, is by Tchaikóvsky.
--TRANSLATOR.
[56] Advertisements of theatres, concerts, and amusements in general,
are not published in the daily papers, but in an _affiche_, printed
every morning, for which a separate subscription is necessary.
--TRANSLATOR.
[57] M. E. Saltikóff wrote his famous satires under the name of
Shtchedrín.--TRANSLATOR.
[58] The Little Russians (among other peculiarities of pronunciation
attached to their dialect) use the guttural instead of the clear
_i_.--TRANSLATOR.
[59] A bishop or priest in the Russian Church is not supposed to speak
loudly, no matter how fine a voice he may possess. The deacon, on the
contrary, or the proto-deacon (attached to a cathedral) is supposed to
have a huge voice, and, especially at certain points, to roar at the top
of his lungs. He sometimes cracks his voice--which is what the
sympathetic neighbour was hinting at here.--TRANSLATOR.
[60] An image, or holy picture, is _óbraz_; the adjective "cultured" is
derived from the same word in its sense of pattern, model--_obrazóvanny_.
--TRANSLATOR.
[61] Ostróvsky's comedies of life in the merchant class are irresistibly
amusing, talented, and true to nature.--TRANSLATOR.
[62] Turgénieff probably means Grúsha (another form for the diminutive
of Agrippína, in Russian Agrafénya). The play is "Live as You
Can."--TRANSLATOR.
[63] A full gown gathered into a narrow band just under the armpits and
suspended over the shoulders by straps of the same.--TRANSLATOR.
[64] The eighth from the top in the Table of Ranks won by service to the
state, which Peter the Great instituted. A sufficiently high grade in
that table confers hereditary nobility; the lower grades carry only
personal nobility.--TRANSLATOR.
[65] The long Tatár coat, with large sleeves, and flaring, bias
skirts.---TRANSLATOR.
[66] See note on page 24.--TRANSLATOR.
[67] Diminutives of Yákoff, implying great affection.--TRANSLATOR.
[68] Mikhaíl Stasiulévitch.--TRANSLATOR.
[69] The favourite decoration in rustic architecture.--TRANSLATOR.
[70] These lines do not rhyme in the original.--TRANSLATOR.
[71] "The white-handed man" would be the literal
translation.--TRANSLATOR.
[72] The pretty name for what we call mullein.--TRANSLATOR.
[73] That is, made without meat.--TRANSLATOR.
[74] The ideal bearing in church is described as standing "like a
candle"; that is, very straight and motionless.--TRANSLATOR.
[75] Strips of grass left as boundaries between the tilled fields
allotted to different peasants.--TRANSLATOR.
[76] The affectionate diminutive.--TRANSLATOR.