The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-03-01
HUMAN HIeeRNATIoN IN RUSSIA.
rhe Poorer Peasants sleep All Winter
Like the Bears.


rhe Poorer Peasants sleep All winter
Like the Bears.
It has been recently brought 10
light that the Russian peasant, in GER
tain districts, suffers from chronic
state of famine, which occurs annually
and is more or less severe, according
to circumstances. In the official re-
port given by the Bureau OF Statistics
Of the Department of Pskov, some in
toresting facts are brought out, which
seem to show 10 what extent mau
adapts himself to diverse external
conditions in tho struggle for exist
ence.
In those districts suffering from q
lack of crops, which has become al.
most q chronic state, the inhabitants
have elaborated method for adapting
themselves to the want OF provisions
which is perhaps unknown in other
parts OF the civilized world. This
means is called in Russia 'leika,
signifying lying down or state OF re-
pose. II is in fact kind of hiberna'
ton, as will be seen from the descrip-
ton which has been given.
In those cases where the head OF tho
family sees, toward the end of autumn,
that by normal consumption OF his
supply of wheat il will not last him
until the end of the agricultural year.
he makes arrangements to diminish
the ration as much as possible; but
knowing that in this case it will be
difficult to preserve the functions at
their normal height and to maintain
the health and especially the physical
force necessary for the work of the
spring, he and his family plunge
themselves into the "leika," which
means that everybody simply goes to
bed, lying down upon the fiat stove,
according to the proverbial Russian
custom, or in the warmest corners,
during four or five months. He gets
up only TO replenish the stove, or to
eat piece of black bread dipped in
water. The peasant tries to move as
little rs possible aud sleep as much as
| he can. Stretched out upon the stove,
he preserves the most complete i'm
mobility. His only care during the
long winter is to expend as little as
| possible of his animal heat, and for
that reason he tries to eat and drink
' less, move less, and to diminish in
fact the vitality of the body. Each
superhrous movement is translated
into a corresponding diminution OF
energy, which in turn increases the
apr cite and obliges him to exceed the
minimum of his rations; this minimum
being regulated by the Quantity of
provision that will carry him over un-
! til the next harvest. Thus instinct
commands him to sleep as much as
possible. Obscurity and silence reign
in the hut, where in the warmest
places, either singly or crowded to-
gether, the members of the family
pass the state of Information
During the course Of the famine
of this year, the press has several
times noted cases of this kind, but up
to the present ii ne it has been gem
orally unknown that the lejka was not
a temporary or accidental affair, but a
regular system elaborated by series
of generations of peasants, who are
accustomed to consider the half-ration
rs the rule, sufficiency as an unat.
tainable ideal, and hunger as an in.
convenience to which he can 'adapt'
himself by the winters sleep. Ii
would be interesting to obtain further
details as to this state of hibernation
as, aside from the moral question in
volved, it is of interest from physio
logical and psychological point OF view.