Provincial Russia . ed by Peter and Catharine they tooka clod of her earth to their new home, and when-ever they rode out on forays or set sail in theirpirate craft to swoop down on merchant vessels orharry seaboard towns in the Black Sea, all theZaporoztians turned round before they were outof sight of the Setch and said : Farewell, ourmother! May God keep you from all misfortune!In war-time their ataman had power of life anddeath over his troops, but the Setch itself was hkea great free republic or, as Gogol says, a close ringof schoolboy friends. The difference was only inthis, that instead
Provincial Russia . ed by Peter and Catharine they tooka clod of her earth to their new home, and when-ever they rode out on forays or set sail in theirpirate craft to swoop down on merchant vessels orharry seaboard towns in the Black Sea, all theZaporoztians turned round before they were outof sight of the Setch and said : Farewell, ourmother! May God keep you from all misfortune!In war-time their ataman had power of life anddeath over his troops, but the Setch itself was hkea great free republic or, as Gogol says, a close ringof schoolboy friends. The difference was only inthis, that instead of sitting under the rule andrubbishy instructor of a schoolmaster, they maderaid after raid on five thousand horses ; instead ofthe meadow where schoolboys play at ball, theyhad infinite free expanses, where in the distance theswift-moving Tartar would show his head and tlieTurk glance stern and motionless in his greentchalm. In the constant expeditions from thisisland stronghold there is not lacking the religious. RETURNING FROM A HUNT IN THE CAUCASUS THE STEPPE 143 note that runs like a coloured thread through allRussian history. Against Catholic, INIohammedan,and Jew, the Cossacks were a kind of INIonasticOrder that fought as defenders of the Faith. Inelection to the hrotherhood the only questionsasked of the newcomer were whether he believedin Christ and the Holy Trinity, and whether hebelonged to the Orthodox Church ; the only requestmade was that he should sign himself with the in the Setch was full of a rich barbaric colour ;there were companies lodged apart and jealous ashouses in a public school, rough conceptions ofknightly honour, heroic drinking, sudden alarumsof Tartar raids, elections of atamans, anointed mthmud, terrible punishments for theft or murder,where the living were buried together with thedead; there were horses and boats, dirt and ragsand breeches of gorgeous purple, smeared ostenta-tiously with tar. But there was nothing moreinteresting th
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