Among the superstitions of the country may be mentioned the blessing of the cattle by the priest before they are sent out in the spring to graze, and of the different kinds of fruit before they are allowed to be sold in the market. The latter may be a wise law in the state of ignorance in which the lower classes are at present, for they are just like children and cannot govern their appetites, so they would infallibly render themselves ill by eating unripe fruit, if their superstition did not act as a check upon them. The common people really believe that the pictures of saints can see what they are doing. A lady told me an amusing anecdote of a servant belonging to one of her acquaintances. It was during one of the two long fasts ordered by the Greek Church. The poor girl was sorely tempted by a can of fresh milk that was brought into the kitchen; the temptation was too strong, she could no longer resist it; so she took off her apron and threw it over the portrait of the Virgin (for in every kitchen, and almost in every room, some picture is suspended), being very careful to look that there was no hole through which she could peep. She then turned her back and took a long draught of the delicious fluid, after which she removed the apron and quietly tied it round her waist as before, being perfectly convinced that Heaven had been blinded to her backsliding. The four besetting sins of the Russian serfs are their propensity for lying, their deceitful cunning, their want of honesty, and their frequent intoxication. But undoubtedly their state of slavery, their half-civilized condition, and the demoralizing effects of their government have mainly contributed to these grave defects.