ndeed a free table is kept, and all who call to congratulate
are expected to partake of the hospitality. Not to do so is regarded
in the light of an insult.

On Easter Sunday only gentlemen pay visits of congratulation; ladies
remain at home for that day to receive and entertain visitors.
Presents are dispensed to domestic and other servants. A good drink
is as indispensable to the feast among the peasant class as a good
feed, and they neither deny themselves the one nor the other, their
potations lasting for several days.

To the Western mind the continual kissing and giving of eggs on
the streets appear strangely out of keeping with the solemnity
of the hour. To see a couple of bearded men hugging and kissing
each other and each other's wives on the public streets, with the
salutation, "_Christos vozkress_," is indeed peculiar. But use
and wont justify this, and it would be a breach of courtesy to
withhold the lips and cheeks, and would be regarded as indicating
indifference to the great feast of the Church. Present-giving,
although on somewhat similar lines to our Christmas greetings,
is a much heavier tax on a Russian household than Christmas gifts
are with us. In the ordinary house in St. Petersburg, the master,
on gaining his breakfast-room, is saluted by his domestic servant
with "_Prazdnik_ (holiday), _Christos vozkress_," which involves a
new dress for the female, or a money equivalent. Then the _dvorniks_,
or house-porters, resplendent in clean white aprons, make their
appearance, giving the usual salutation, and one or two roubles
must be given. They have scarcely vanished when a couple of
chimney-sweepers put in an appearance, necessitating another appeal
to the purse; postmen follow, and in their rear come the juvenile
representatives of your butcher, greengrocer, etc., all bent upon
testing your liberality. You go to church and the doorkeeper gravely
says, "_Christos vozkress_," while he of the cloak-room echoes
the sentiment to the impoverishment of one's exchequer. But this
seeming mendicancy is not confined to these classes, for even the
reverend fathers and brethren walk in the same footsteps unblushingly.
Either on foot or by carriage they call upon the well-to-do of
their church, give the usual salutation, "_Christos vozkress_,"
and the kiss, partake of the general hospitality, and get their
gratuity or "_Na Chai_," as it is called, and retire. They are
scarcely gone when the "_Staroste_," or elde