The _izbá_, or hut, always has a _dvor_ or courtyard, access to which is
gained through double gates as well as through a postern. Often the hut
is raised by a flight of steps from the level of the courtyard.
The _izbá_ may have a cooling room in which to rest, so as to avoid the
sudden change of air from the heated inner room; it is also a living
room in the summer. Outside the _dvor_ against the fence there is a
bench (_lávka_), on which the family sits in the summer. The hut is made
of logs, the fence of boards.
Between the rafters and the sloped roof is the loft (_cherdák_), into
which a ladder leads.
Inside the hut is that essential and central feature of Russian peasant
life, the stove, which occupies one side of a wall. In front against it
three long implements stand, the poker, broom and shovel. The oven rests
on a brick or tile foundation, about eighteen inches high, with a
semicircular hollow space below. The top of the stove is used for a
sleeping bench (_poláty_) for the old folk or the honoured guest. In
larger houses there may be a _lezhán’ka_ or heating stove, used as a
sleeping sofa.
The bath-house is separate from the hut, and contains a flight of steps
for different degrees of heat, obtained from white-hot stones on which
water is flung. This is only found in better-class houses. In villages
there is a general bath-house to which the peasants go once a week.
Every corner in the _izbá_ has its particular name. There is the _great
corner_, where the Ikon stands, the _upper corner_ near the door, and
the _stove corner_ opposite to the doors of the stove.
The fence is made of boards or sticks or stumps.
Long thin laths are stuck on to an iron spike, and lit; a pail of water
is placed below into which the cinders fall; these lamps must be renewed
as they burn down, and the charred ends swept up.
Up to very recent times, patriarchal usages obtained through Russia, and
married sons resided in the father’s house.
This particular story portrays some of the personifications and
allegorizings of the common acts of life; all of which have their
appropriate blessing or grace. There are a number of tales of the curse
attendant on the neglect of these duties, e.g. _The Devil in the
Dough-pan_.
An example of the invocations is given in a note to _The Midnight
Dance_.
_Duke._ i.e. a translation of _voyevodá_, which is again a translation
of the High-German _Herzog_, which again is derived from the Latin
_Dux_, meaning the leader of an army, not a mere title.
_Egóri Khrábry._ Egori the Brave. Is the Russian counterpart for St.
George the Dragon-slayer.
_Elijah the Prophet and St. Nicholas._ Perún was the God of Thunder in
pagan Slavdom, and his attributes have been transferred to Elijah who is
represented as driven up to Heaven in a fiery chariot darting fiery
rays, drawn by four winged horses, and surrounded by clouds and flames;
a tale which copied the biblical account of Elijah’s end. On earth the
noise of the wheels is called thunder. In Nóvgorod there were one or two
churches to St. Elijah of the Drought, and St. Elijah of the Rain, to be
consulted as occasion required. The name-days of these saints are
December 6th and July 20th.
_Hawk._ The hawk is one of the most common references in Russian
folk-lore, and the reference to the clear-eyed hawk is one of the
strongest metaphors. The crow is equally common, but is generally used
as a malign being. In Russian folk-tale there is nothing incongruous in
a man having as his sons a boy, a crow and a hawk or an eagle: or as in
‘_Márya Morévna_,’ where the marriage of Iván with a beautiful princess
and of his two sisters with the eagle and the crow are all of them
equally plausible.
_Ídolishche._ One of the symbols of paganism in the early ballads of
Russia. He is generally represented as a gluttonous monster; but in the
ballad of the Realms of Copper, Silver, and Gold his name has been given
too as a goblin. Goblins are very rare in Russian folk-lore; fairies
seem to be non-existent.
_Ilyá Múromets._ Ilyá Múromets is one of the heroes of the Kíev cycle;
he derives his strength from mystical sources of Mother Earth, and his
great feat is the slaying of the Nightingale Robber. He is intermediate
between the ‘_elder bogatyri_,’ the earth-born Tirans, and the human
champions of the legendary Court of Vladímir. He is always of popular
origin and, as such, at variance with the semi-Scandinavian Court.
_Iván Vasíl’evich._ The Tsar Iván Vasíl’evich is a very popular figure
in the Russian ballads; there are two of this name: Iván III. 1462–1505,
and Iván the Terrible, 1533–1584. Both were very energetic rulers who
enlarged the domain of Moscow and curbed the power of the territorial
nobility.