Page:Morgan Philips Price - Siberia (1912).djvu/136

98 of everyday life. The Siberian peasant's little picture-gallery on the walls of his log house betokened to me a quiet and contented conception of the world in which he lived.

When I had got settled, I went out into the village street and wandered about. There was evidently something going on that evening, for small groups of peasant girls of all ages could be seen sitting or standing in front of some of the houses singing little catches of songs, the words of which I could not comprehend. Every now and then they were joined by a few more, and before long they became the nucleus of a small crowd. They were singing little ditties evidently well known to them; one of their number began the first words of each verse, and the rest followed in two distinct harmonies. I was surprised to find that these simple peasants should have developed, quite naturally and without training, the capacity for singing their native songs in harmony, and I doubt very much if in any southern English village a similar phenomenon could be observed. Indeed the harmony was remarkably good, although the voices often tended to be harsh. The tunes also were pleasing to the ear. Their little wandering motifs in the major key denoted peaceful and contented minds, and were the reflections of the life and existence of those who rendered them. This was the evening of one of the many religious holidays which abound throughout the Russian Empire. The adult peasants, typical representatives of a northern race, were celebrating the holiday by sitting on their doorsteps and eating nuts, while some of them were getting drunk. But the younger generation were doing what I had not seen before,