of labour, have the same rights as the sons born in lawful wedlock.  The married daughter, on the contrary—­being regarded as belonging to her husband’s family—­and the son who has previously separated himself from the household, are excluded from the succession.  Strictly speaking, the succession or inheritance is confined to the wearing apparel and any little personal effects of a deceased member.  The house and all that it contains belong to the little household community; and, consequently, when it is broken up, by the death of the Khozain or other cause, the members do not inherit, but merely appropriate individually what they had hitherto possessed collectively.  Thus there is properly no inheritance or succession, but simply liquidation and distribution of the property among the members.  The written law of inheritance founded on the conception of personal property, is quite unknown to the peasantry, and quite inapplicable to their mode of life.  In this way a large and most important section of the Code remains a dead letter for about four-fifths of the population.

This predominance of practical economic considerations is exemplified also by the way in which marriages are arranged in these large families.  In the primitive system of agriculture usually practised in Russia, the natural labour-unit—­if I may use such a term—­comprises a man, a woman, and a horse.  As soon, therefore, as a boy becomes an able-bodied labourer he ought to be provided with the two accessories necessary for the completion of the labour-unit.  To procure a horse, either by purchase or by rearing a foal, is the duty of the Head of the House; to procure a wife for the youth is the duty of “the female Big One” (Bolshukha).  And the chief consideration in determining the choice is in both cases the same.  Prudent domestic administrators are not to be tempted by showy horses or beautiful brides; what they seek is not beauty, but physical strength and capacity for work.  When the youth reaches the age of eighteen he is informed that he ought to marry at once, and as soon as he gives his consent negotiations are opened with the parents of some eligible young person.  In the larger villages the negotiations are sometimes facilitated by certain old women called svakhi, who occupy themselves specially with this kind of mediation; but very often the affair is arranged directly by, or through the agency of, some common friend of the two houses.

Care must of course be taken that there is no legal obstacle, and these obstacles are not always easily avoided in a small village, the inhabitants of which have been long in the habit of intermarrying.  According to Russian ecclesiastical law, not only is marriage between first-cousins illegal, but affinity is considered as equivalent to consanguinity—­that is to say a mother-in-law and a sister-in-law are regarded as a mother and a sister—­and even the fictitious relationship created by standing together at the baptismal font as godfather and godmother is