The Russians delight as much in all motion where the limbs are at rest, and the body changes place by means of a machine, as they eschew all corj)orcal exercise, which keeps the muscles in play. Hence their pleasure in the Russian mountains, as they are called ; in swings, sledgedriving, see-sawing on elastic planks, whirhng through the air on roundabouts, &c. These are amusements in which a Russian's delight is j)art of his very nature, and they are enjoyed alike by prince and peasant. The fibres of the nuiscular system of the Russian are sluggish and unelastic ; gymnastic exercises are nowhere more neglected. Tlieir blood is voluptuous, their nervous system excitable ; licnce this swhiging and gliding, this flying and floating without any effort on their own part, is peculiarly to their taste.
Their inventions of this kind are innumerable ; but the chief and crown of all Russian pleasures for the people is that expressed by the favourite word Katsheli (swing), which includes all similar pastimes.
For the erection of the Katsheli of the butter-week they choose a large and ^particularly long piece of ground, which is never wanting in the extensive Russian towns. In St. Petersburg the icy floor of the Neva was fonnerly in use ; but since the accident of some years ago, when the ice gave way under the pressiore, and swallowed up a multitude of the swingers, the Admiralty square has been the chosen spot.
Long trains of sledges, laden with beams and plaiilis, are seen moving for days before in that direction, and soon, under the strokes of the ready Russian Iiatchet, theatres and other wooden buildings, which recal the palaces of St. Petersburg 140 years ago, are reared amidst the splendid edifices of the Admiralty, the War-office, the Senate and Synod Houses, he. These booths are erected in long rows : among them are theatres capable of holding some thousands ; and these ephemeral buildings, aping the magnificence of stone buildings, are decorated with galleries, pillars, balconies, &c. At one of these theatres I saw several hundreds busily at work, and swarming like so many ants ; with their hammers, saws, and hatchets, they aff'orded no uninteresting spectacle in themselves, even before the stage had been prepared for the show.
To foreigners, the most striking of these preparations are the ice mountains and the method of their construction. A narrow scaffold is raised to the height of thirty or more feet, on the top of which is a gallery, ascended on one side by wooden steps ; on the other is the great descent, very steep at first, and gradually declining till it becomes level with the ground. It is formed of huge square blocks of ice laid upon planks. Under a few strokes of the hatchet the beautiful solid crystal masses assume a regular form, and over the whole water is thro\^^l from time to time, which cements or rather ices the blocks together. Where it is level witli the ground dams of snow are formed on either side, and the gulley between filled with water, which, freezing smooth as glass, lengthens the slide. Two such ice mountains stand always opposite one another, so that their paths, only separated by the snow dams, run parallel to each other.
The English say that they invented these ice mountains. They have probably improved the mechanical part, but the anuiscment itself is an ancient and a national one, and is practised over all Russia. In the courtyards of most of the great houses in St. Petersburg there are such ice mountains erected for the amusement of the children ; and even in the halls of some of the wealthier Russians, elegant " rutschbergs" are to be found, with this difference, that the slide is made not of ice but of polished mahogany, or of some other smooth wood, down which the httle sledges glid(3 with great rapidity. There is a mahogany ''' rutschberg even in the imperial palace. In every town and village these slippery decHvities are
♦ Wiuni a Russian family removes into the country for the summer, the first thing done lor the ainusenicnt of the company is to repair the old swings and to erect new ones. Scarcely has spring set in than the peasants throng to the hirch-woods, and U-nding down the clastic branches of the trees, form them into swings, where tlie young pcopie of l)oth sexes pass their leisure, singing and swinging. In some neighbourhoods there arc public swings, where old aud yoimg loiuige and swing for hours.