Page:Lippincotts Monthly Magazine-21.pdf/518

1878.] common among the peasantry: "With God, across the sea; without Him, not even to the threshold." The maxim attributed to Ivan the Terrible's famous confessor, Father Sylvester, "Fear not the threats of the great, but rather the tears of the poor," is a very noble one, worthy to have formed the text of one of Burke's orations or Latimer's sermons; and there is not a little sly humor in "A good name lies in the meadow, but a bad name runs along the road." This latter axiom was expressed even more vividly by a veteran mauvais sujet of my acquaintance in the West of England, who was wont to say, in allusion to his own sinister reputation, "Ye see, zur, a baad karackter be a deal better nor a good karackter; for a good karackter takes a power o' maintainin', but a baad karackter, he maintains hissel'!"

The Russian proverbs treating of parental and domestic affection are very touching and beautiful, strikingly illustrating the primitive, patriarchal, almost paternal, character of the old Sclavonic rule, the spirit of which still survives in the czar's popular title of "father." Of this kind are—"He who honors his parents shall endure for ever," "A father's blessing can neither be drowned in water nor consumed by fire," "A mother's prayer will draw one up from the depths of the sea," "A brother is a great treasure, which thou wilt not easily exhaust."

No survey of Russian proverbs would be complete without some notice of their satirical sayings, which are very numerous and remarkable for their poignant truthfulness. "The dog barks, but the wind carries it away," is a just and biting sarcasm upon the ephemeral nature of slander, conceived in the true spirit of that sturdy old baron who replied to the threat of excommunication by inscribing above his castle-gate, "They have said: what said they? Let them say." Of equal truth, and even greater quaintness, are the following sayings, levelled at gossips and scandal-mongers: "The tongue reaches as far as Kief," "Tell a thing to a hen (woman) and the whole street will know it," "Through heedless words the head falls off," "Public rumor is like a wave of the sea," "A word is not a sparrow, for, once ﬂown, you can never catch it again."

The same caustic terseness stamps such proverbs as "Bad words come from bad birds," "Every little frog is great in his own bog," "Disease comes in by hundred-weights, and goes out by ounces," "An old friend is worth two new ones," "Don't carry your own loaf into another man's monastery," "Ask a pig to dinner, and he will put his feet on the table." "Water runs not beneath a resting stone" is the exact converse of our "A rolling stone gathers no moss." "When the thunder does not roll the peasant does not cross himself," conveys, in a new and picturesque form, the idea expressed in the old English rhyme of "The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be," etc. "Be praised not for your ancestors, but for your virtues," echoes the sturdy independence of the motto formerly assumed by a self-made millionaire, "Lords are proud of their descent: I am proud of my ascent." The popular quatrain,

is a half-bitter, half-pathetic suggestion of the cruel neglect (now happily at an end for ever) under which the common people of Russia have suffered so long. But more quaintly humorous, as well as more thoroughly national than all, is a proverb whose popularity among the mujiks shows that they are not wholly ignorant of their own strength: "When fish are scarce, even a crab is a fish: when men are scarce, even Thomas [the peasant] is a gentleman."

SCANDAL.

" You know what a wretched place this Echoville is for gossip and slander. During the two years that I have lived here I have heard stories that literally made my blood boil with indignation, for they were about people who,