The superstitions of the Russians are not wholly confined to the lower classes: many a time when approaching a card-table have I been requested “not to come too near, lest I should cast an _evil eye_ on the cards, and so turn the luck;” and innumerable stories have been gravely told me about children who have fallen ill or died from its effects. In very few houses will they allow the number thirteen at table, and they will either cause one of the party to sit apart, or call an upper servant to dine, so that there may be fourteen; and they deem it unlucky to hand the salt to any one unless both parties smile at the time. They have lucky and unlucky days; if anything were to be begun on a Saturday it would be attended with misfortune. No true Russian would ever think of commencing a journey on a Monday, and on entering the court-yard of a house it is a bad omen if the coachman turn the horses’ heads round. Many also put the greatest faith in love-philtres and charms, talismans and crosses; the belief in witches and the existence of sorcery is universal. If a hare[9] run across the path, or if a person meet a priest, it is an unfortunate omen that can only be averted by thrice spitting over the right shoulder; indeed, in the latter case it is thought better to return home at once, if the person be going on very important business, unless he make a present to the priest and induce _him_ to retrace his steps. “Alexis Ivanowitch,” said a gentleman to me one day, “was going to see the emperor this morning, but just as he was turning the corner he came upon three popes abreast. As the affair on which he was to see his majesty was a very important one, he gave them each five silver roubles to turn back, so that the ill luck might be averted.” “Why does not Cleopatra Gregorovna eat anything?” asked I one day of an acquaintance at a dinner-party concerning a lady who sat opposite to me; “she looks wretchedly pale and thin.” “Oh, she cannot eat anything, she is condemned to a perpetual fast” (_i.e._ to eat of lenten dishes only). “Why so?” “Because once, immediately after taking the sacrament, when she was a child about nine years old, she had a violent attack of vomiting, and the priests ordered that she should fast for the rest of her life, as it could only be the Evil One, you know, that had possessed her and caused so great a misfortune.”