This  then  is  the  usual  style  of  Russian  marriages
amongst  the  peasantry,  the  difference  being  only  that  in
ordinary  cases,  where  the  lady  takes  no  interest  in  the
persons  marrying,  the  ceremony  is  performed  in  the
lower  regions  of  the  house,  and  the  bride  may  not  be  so
elegantly  attired  as  was  our  Macha.  That  Macha  was
well  mariied  according  to  Russian  ideas  I  have  no  doubt,
but  would  it  not  have  been  better  had  she  married  the
man  who  would  have  served  six  years  to  have  her?'*

Easter  customs  in  Russia  are  very  pretty,  this  day


490-


RUSSIAN  NIHILISM  AND


EXILE  LIFE  IN  SIBERIA.  491

oeing  observed  like  Christmas  or  New  Year  is  with  us.
Easter  eggs,  which,  however,  are  not  colored,  are  used
Ui  a  variety  of  ways  to  encourage  courtship.  "  Catching
butterflies  "  is  a  peculiar  sport  of  Easter,  which  consists
in  young  men  of  tlie  villages  going  about  on  snow-shoes,
with  nets,  crying  out,  "who'll  be  my  buttei'fly ;"  the
(dea  is  that  the  girl  who  is  first  seen  in  a  doorway  by  one
who  carries  the  net  and  who  smiles  upon  him,  will  be-
come his  wife.
