ble clouds; but we submitted,
powerless to protest. Alexandra, with all her clothes on, seemed not to
feel the heat. She administered a merciless yet gentle massage to every
limb with her birch rods,--what would it have been like if she had
used nettles, the peasants' delight?--and rescued us from utter
collapse just in time by a douche of ice-cold water. We huddled on all
the warm clothing we owned, were driven home, plied with boiling tea,
and put to bed for two hours. At the end of that time we felt made over,
physically, and ready to beg for another birching. But we were warned
not to expose ourselves to cold for at least twenty-four hours, although
we had often seen peasants, fresh from their bath, birch besom in hand,
in the wintry streets of the two capitals.

We visited the peasants in their cottages, and found them very reluctant
to sell anything except towel crash. All other linen which they wove
they needed for themselves, and it looked as even and strong as iron.
Here in the south the rope-and-moss-plugged log house stood flat on the
ground, and was thatched with straw, which was secured by a ladder-like
arrangement of poles along the gable ends. Three tiny windows, with
tinier panes, relieved the street front of the house. The entrance was
on the side, from the small farmyard, littered with farming implements,
chickens, and manure, and inclosed with the usual fence of wattled
branches. From the small ante-room designed to keep out the winter cold,
the store-room opened at the rear, and the living-room at the front. The
left hand corner of the living-room, as one entered, was occupied by the
oven, made of stones and clay, and whitewashed. In it the cooking was
done by placing the pots among the glowing wood coals. The bread was
baked when the coals had been raked out. Later still, when desired, the
owners took their steam bath, more resembling a roasting, inside it, and
the old people kept their aged bones warm by sleeping on top of it,
close to the low ceiling. Round three sides of the room ran a broad
bench, which served for furniture and beds. In the right-hand corner,
opposite the door,--the "great corner" of honor,--was the case of
images, in front of which stood the rough table whereon meals were
eaten. This was convenient, since the images were saluted, at the
beginning and end of meals, with the sign of the cross and a murmured
prayer. The case contained the sacred picture wherewith the young couple