Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-18
PROVERBS OF RUSSIA.

Not many foreigners have the opportunl-
ties of knowing these people, and mere
tourists are apt to come away with wrong
impressions. Weshall endeavor in short
article to glance at the peasantry as they
are described in their own proverbs, which
hold the picture up to life.
One popularity of Russian peasant life
is the joint family system, according to
which the members of a family share
common heritance and live together. This
system prevailed in parts of England in
Anglo Saxon times, but it is not favorable
to individual exertion, and it leads to fam.
lily quarrels. They find that stwo bears
cannot live in one den." The wife, par
ticularly suffers from it.
The father-in-law grumbles at her,
The mother-in-law abuses her,
The brother-in law mocks her
The sister-in-law does her mischief
The husband is jealous
Sisters-in-law are nettles.
While some Russian ladies' belong to the
class of strong-minded women, and are ad.
vocates OF woman's rights, the peasantry
IN their proverbs recognize the distinct
sphere of women.
II you be cock, crow;
Ii hen, lay eggs.
Do not trust the wind in the fields,
Nor woman with too much liberty.
The proverbs of Russia, like those of In
dia, though treating women with contempt,
yet recognize their power in the domestic
circle. :" She stoops to conquer"
The wife, without beating the husband, rules him
by her temper
The husband is the head, the wife the soul OF the
house.
Bachelors are not in high repute.
bachelor is goose without water.
A man without wife is like man in winter Nth.
out fur bonnet,
A man under petticoat government, or,
as the Germans say, under the slipper"
is thus painted
A crab is not fish among fishes,
bat is not bid among birds,
So hen-pecked husband is not man among men.
The cheapness OF brandy has done i'm
mense mischief among the peasantry. In
collection of 10000 Russian proverbs
which I have, 500 relate to drunkenness
and its effects The soldiers, who are re-
cruited from the ranks of the peasantry,
carry the village drinking habits with
them, and this trait appears in various
strongly hrased proverbs. The peasants
have suffered not only from drinking, but
bad landlords, who have spent their money
in the dissipation of great cities, leaving
the peasantry in the hands of grinding
agents, who were generally Germans
The landlords court has wide entrance, but mar
row exit;
i. e., it is easy to get into his debt, but
difficult to get out of it.
Praise not HE crop until it is stacked,
Praise not the landlord until he is dead.
The usurer in Russia as in India, is a
scourge to the peasant. "In the other
world, says the proverb, "usurers have
to count red-het coins with bare hands,"
But the worst plague to the peasant is
the Tchinovnik, or official, as the Russian
bureaucracy are noted for their gross op-
preston and bribe-taking propensities.
The Tchinovnik only takes up his pen,
The peasants pray and birds trembe.
To defend yourself against thief take a stick,
To defend yourself against Tchinovnik take a
rouble.
Fear not the law, but the Judge;
Judge is like a carpenter what he wants he
caryes.
Go before God with justice,
Bsfore the Judge with money.
The Raskolniks, or Dissenters of Russia,
amount probably to 5000, 600, and are an
interesting class. Some express their de-
testation of the Greek Church thus:
He who fears God does not go to church
The church is not in beams, but in ribs;
i. e., not in the building, but in living
members. They agree with the old Tartar
saying:
Songs and dances are Satan's daughters.
And they 90 further than the teetotalers,
denouncing tobacco, tea and coffee:
The smoker is brother to dog.
Tea, the Chinese arrow, has pierced the Russian
heart
Thunder Stays the coffee drinker.
The peasants hold the Jews in great abb
horrence on account of their usury and
oppression.
A tame wolf, baptized jew anda reconeilsd enemy
of equal value.
When you baptize Jew keep him under water
i. e., drown him, or he will turn renegade.
A Russian can be cheated only by gypsy,
gypsy by Jew,
A Jew by Greek,
And Greek by the devil
One Jew is equal in cheating to two Greeks,
One Greek to two Armeniaus.
We conclude this brief sketch with two
proverbs that contain valuable moral
With God go over the sea,
Without God 60 not over the threshold
Against forming distant plans
His thoughts are over the mountains
But death is behind his shoulder.