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106
Spring Scenes in Samara. 108
in their distress without doing all in our power to help is a
ghastly impertinence.
At Easter time the orthodox go to church on the evening
before " Long Friday," and the service continues until
after midnight on Easter Eve. That night the mushiks
believe that the dead stir, that they can even hear them
moving about and talking in their graves, if they lie with
ears pressed to the ground. So they take food and vodka
into the graveyards for the use of their buried relatives, and
even in the terrible need of the famine this rite was not
altogether neglected.
Easter morn rose fine and clear; all about us was heard the
customary greeting, " Ghristos voskresje," with its reply and a
kiss. For forty days this formula is used, not only when
friends meet, but at the head of letters of all kinds, in business
and on all occasions of importance, even in the collection of
debts ! Among the educated, this and other church ceremonies
are so neglected that the mushiks regard them as having a
peculiar religion of their own.
At evening the company separated; some returned to their
posts, others remained a few days longer at the farm.
With the break-up of the winter, all communication on the
steppes is interrupted, because of the swollen streams, fed by
the melting snow. We had, in consequence, to wait a fortnight
for our letters.
It was time to begin the year’s agriculture, but no mushiks
were seen in the fields, except one or two who were working for
a kulack. The others had neither seed for sowing nor horses
for ploughing. There was seed in the public storehouses of
the Government, about one-third of what was needed, but when
the peasants sent to inquire of the authorities, they received no
reply. Despairing, they appealed to the Count for aid. But
he could at first do nothing, having no means; fortunately,
however, he received considerable remittances from Countess
Tolstoi in Moscow, who sent on money collected in America
and other places. At once he got horses and seed, and by
working night and day, two hundred of the most needy were
helped to sow their holdings. Large numbers left their homes
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