Page:Ossendowski - The Shadow of the Gloomy East.djvu/76

60 The combat lasts long; it is contested with great stubbornness, and often ends with maiming and killing, as some peasant with a piece of lead or iron hidden in his gigantic fist dashes the skull of his opponent to pieces.

Such battles on the ice give some of the fighters the opportunity to reveal their natural abilities, uncommon strength of fists, courage, endurance, and even strategical talents, as victory must be won upon the entire front.

Let us remember the history of Russia. During the times of the independent existence of Free Cities like Novgorod or Pskov, before the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the inhabitants of towns resolved all political disputes by a combat of fists, fought out between the adherents of one or the other of the political parties.

On a lesser scale this habit has existed until our times.

Such combats, however, are not always the romantic echo of ages gone by. Sometimes they become a struggle for existence.

The Tartars and the Russians, the older inhabitants or the recent orthodox and sectarian colonists settled by the Government in Siberia, often settle their personal, tribal, or religious quarrels with the collective force of fists.

Another relic of olden times, to be exact of nomadic times, is the so-called "yamshchina." This is a huge organisation of peasants of Siberian descent, thirsting