The women of the people still plaster their faces crudely with white and red cosmetics: a mode once in favour with the upper classes, but now condemned as distinctly bad form and savouring of barbarity. I cannot leave Russia without some reference to the Jews, who write now as ever an important chapter in their history. No Jew can justly be counted a peasant, since no member of the race is allowed to be a land-owner, his utmost privilege permitting him to be a tenant farmer. The distinctive garment remains what it has been through many centuries--the gaberdine; but some concession is made to modern opinion by the black peaked cap, which, in place of the old skull-cap, is worn in the streets by the less prejudiced. The gaberdine buttons down the front to the waist, hangs to the ankles, and is usually now made of black cloth, silk, or moiré, held at the waist by a folded belt. It is finished at the neck by a soft turn-down collar attached to an under-shirt, and it conceals from view loose trousers and high boots; in winter it is lined with fur. The chin is unshaven, and a pendent curl hangs from either temple; and reverence for the old traditions upholds the custom that on the Fast or Atonement day of the Jews, the patriarch of the family shall attend the synagogue in his shroud, and that the praying-shawl or _taleth_ of white, with a border of blue, be worn every day at devotions. The Jewish women of the poorer class wear a white kerchief over the head, crossed on the bust of a black sateen jacket, which buttons on the slant and reaches below the hips. The short skirt beneath is of a vivid tone of red, covered by a white apron, and the most vital difference between the Jew and the other races in Russia is the significant absence of the cross. The working dress of the Jew consists of a pair of baggy trousers disappearing into top-boots, and a white shirt drawn into the waist by a leather belt, surmounted by a round cloth cap, for no religious Jew ever uncovers his head. The hair would seem to have some special importance, for no Jewish woman who marries is allowed to retain her tresses; they are cropped or shaved close to the head, which is covered by a black satin cap, down the centre of which a white thread is sewn in imitation of a parting. This sacrifice is demanded of all who would enjoy matrimony; and the great question as to whether the cause is worthy has not yet been aired in any halfpenny daily issued at St. Petersburg.