The muzhik’s religion, so far as I had observed it, is a set of forms to which he bows--much as he pays his taxes--and an instinctive feeling which is never discussed nor thought about, that outside of himself is some great and mysterious power which he must not offend, and by observing the forms which this vaguely understood Being delights in he may expect in return protection in any hour of trial. The muzhik is naturally shrewd. This is a reasonable explanation, and adequate reason for his going regularly to church. And of course no God would see His children inflict the punishments of fasts and long ceremonials upon themselves without rewarding them at some future time. That there is a genuinely practical element in the muzhik’s religion is indicated in a well-known popular legend which purports to explain how it comes that St. Cassian’s day falls only on the odd day of leap year. It also is a keen analysis of the psychology of the muzhik’s religious outlook. The two saints, Cassian and Nicholas, so the legend goes, appeared before the Lord together. “What hast thou seen on earth?” asked the Lord of St. Cassian. “I have seen a muzhik foundering with his cart in a marsh by the way,” answered St. Cassian. “Why hast thou not helped him?” inquired the Lord. “Because I was coming into Thy presence, and I was afraid of soiling my bright clothes so that they would offend Thine eyes.” At this moment the eyes of the Lord rested upon St. [Illustration: A village boulevard] [Illustration: A Russian cemetery] Nicholas, who approached, falteringly, his dress utterly disheveled and spattered with mud. “Why comest thou so dirty into My presence?” asked the Lord. “Because I was following St. Cassian, and seeing the muzhik of whom he just spake, I have helped him out of the marsh.” The Lord hesitated a moment, then said: “Because thou, Cassian, hast cared so much about thy dress and so little about thy brother, I will give thee thy saint’s day only once in four years. And to thee, Nicholas, for having acted as thou didst, I will give four saint days each year.” And that is how it comes about that St. Cassian’s day falls on February 29 and St. Nicholas’s day occurs quarterly. In this case muzhik ethics are illustrated as eminently practical. And so with muzhik morality. Sexual immorality is so commonplace among the officers, and among certain court and aristocratic circles, that it is no longer scandalous. It is accepted. And also in the industrial towns among the proletariat. But among the peasantry an entirely different code exists--a code of sex honor, born of what Americans would call “horse sense.” Early marriages are the rule, to be sure, much earlier than in the towns, but the standard of morality is probably higher among the peasantry than among any other class of people in Russia.