and scatter corn and grain over the sleepers.
Perhaps in token that if they praise the Lord,
"the earth will bring forth her increase, and God,
even our own God, will give us His blessing."
In some places, too, there is a play or mystery
performed by marionettes, portraying the
principal events of the life of Christ. This custom
must be very old, and in Russia it has degenerated
into an amusement for children. But the
Oriental traveller will remember the fierce
fanatical excitement which is aroused by a similar
exhibition among the Sheahs, and of which Aly
is the chief personage. The play, however,
being, as I have said, designed for the entertainment
of children, has a queer termination in
Russia. At the close of the piece, all the nations
of the earth assemble, and have a good dance in
the person of their representatives, until
suddenly a Cossack arrives and cuts off all their
heads: which edifies the little folk amazingly.
In the Eastern mystery a Christian ambassador
is also introduced to enact some mummery.
Such entertainments may be traced to very
remote antiquity, long before the Mohammedan
or Christian era, and are, perhaps, the very
earliest known among men.

On New Year's Eve in Russia, people go out
of their houses and ask the name of the first
person they meet. The answer will give them
the name of the person to whom they are to be
married. Great games are played with young
ladies in this way; and many a pretty girl
goes blushing to her pillow, and dreams a
sweet troubled dream that night. Fortune-
telling is also a prime thing on a New Year's
Eve, and cards handled by young fingers tell
delicious secrets. It is a match-making season,
a joyous time of jollity and good wishes,
kindness, merry-making, forgiveness, charity with all
men. The ways of telling fortunes are many.
Here is a hint for English young ladies next
Christmas. In Russia, we take little loaves of
bread. On the little loaves of bread we write
young ladies' and gentlemen's names, and then
we call in a brisk little hungry dog to gobble
them up. Those whose names are written on
the loaves which the little dog has gobbled up,
will be married before the year is out: the rest
must-wait for a more favourable opportunity.
Oh, what bright eyes follow the little dog!

The little dog is not, however, the only creature
whose appetite is turned to the service of
Cupid. A cock, sacred to that young gentleman's
mamma, also plays a part. The names of
young ladies and gentlemen of marriageable age
are written on little pieces of paper and placed
in a circle. Each little piece of paper has several
grains of corn placed upon it to entice the cock,
Then the bird of birds is carried in, with hearty
wishes that he may make a good supper; for if
he leave the contents of a single paper
undevoured, there will be an old maid or an old
bachelor among the company. It is also an
undoubted fact, well known to all matrimonially-
disposed young ladies in Russia, that if a soup-
plate with a stick across it be placed under
your bed on New Year's Eve, Hymen and the
Graces will come tripping, about the small hours,
over the tiny bridge, and, whispering in your ear
the name of the person to whom you are to be
married, will politely present him to you, with a
hope that he may meet your approbation. A
young lady informs me that she has twice made
trial of these means of learning the secrets of
the future; and that on each occasion two
gentlemen appeared, behaving in the most
distant manner to each other, as if unacquainted;
but, unfortunately, they both had their backs
turned towards her, and their names she has
been unable to remember. She has, however,
informed me confidentially, and under the seal of
secresy, that she infers from this revelation that
she will be twice married. It is to be remarked,
I learn from the same authority, that you must
not put the soup-plate under the bed yourself;
but by acts of kindness and fellow-feeling
towards others, you are to induce some well-wisher
to do it for you.

If you take half a sheet of paper, write a
question on it, fold it in the form of a fan,
light it at the candle, and hold it upwards
perpendicularly until it goes out, and then open
it against the wall, the lines of the shadow
will give a true answer. Take some wax,
melt it in a spoon, pour the contents into
cold water, take out the hardened lump, and
its shadow against the wall will answer a mental
question. Molten lead will serve the same
purpose.

These are the amusements of the young
but the old have their more pathetic aad tender
holiday ways. As the night of New Year's Eve
closes in, the housewife busies herself in writing
prayers for the health and long life of the good
man and his friends. The strips of paper on
which these prayers are written, are folded up
and sewn in silken covers about the size of a
shilling. They are to be worn round the neck
until next New Year's Day, and are charms
against sickness and evil. When the clock
strikes twelve, the wife and children rise, and,
after the patriarchal custom in Russia, kiss the
house-father's hand. The wife presents him with
her little amulet with a prayer and a blessing;
her kiss and the children's kisses are returned
on the forehead; and so to supper and
champagne—without which, things grave or gay are
incomplete in Russia.

On New Year's Day in the morning the same
bitter weather continues, and the same utter
contempt of it. As early as nine o'clock in
the forenoon, the great officers of state and
public functionaries begin to receive official
visits, and by ten o'clock the streets blaze with
uniforms and carriages. All the heads of departments
wait in gala array upon their chiefs,
and then the chiefs themselves repair to the
superior authority. Then, comes high mass
in the cathedral: a very imposing affair: the
sonorous chanting mingling with the clatter of
spurs and scabbards as the military and civil
officers pour one after another through the
doors, and stand, a glittering crowd, before the
high altar.