The Lettes are as passionately fond of bathing as the Russians themselves. Every Satm^day the oven of the bath-room is heated. First the men go and bathe, and then the women. After the bath they are always in the highest spirits. A dish of boiled peas constitutes the usual supper after the bath ; a wliite cloth is spread over a large table, and little heaps of boiled peas are scattered over it, which are eaten amidst laughing, talking, and singing, and every other kind of merriment. It is within the bath-room that most of the Lettes first see the liglit of day, for as it is the warmest and most undisturbed part of the Gehofte, the oven is always heated there for a lying-in woman, and there she remains during her confinement.
Within the principal room, the Lettes fasten to one of the beams the smooth pliable stem of a young birch-tree, to the end of which is fixed a little cradle. Before every matrimonial couch there hangs such a cradle, in which the young infants are placed, and the smallest touch makes them rock for a considerable time. If therefore cradles are admissible at all, these are certainly excellent and useful in their kind.
The dwellings of the Lettes are altogether superior to tliose of the Esthonians, who build no separate houses for different purposes. When we enter an Esthonian house, we are generally at once in tiie bedroom, sitting-room, kitchen, provision-room, sheep-pen, and pigsty. The Lettes have always chimneys, whilst in the Esthonian houses, the smoke escapes by the door, together with a mixed multitude of unwholesome smells and vapours.
The national costume of the Lettes has nothing striking, either in colour, form, or material. The Lettes and Lithuanians, both male and female, dress exclusively in white and light gray ; contrasting strongly with their neighbours, the Russians, who delight in the brightest and gaudiest colours. These pale gray, and grayish white diesses, seem characteristic of the mild, quiet, timid, disposition of the people. Had they any of the fire and energy which we find in other nations, there is little doubt that such qualities would manifest themselves in the colour of their costume as with the tiger in his spotted skin.
The cloth of which their clothes are made, and which they manufacture themselves, is of two kinds ; thick for winter, and thin for summer. The cat of their clothes is in many districts picturesque and very becoming. In some, the women wear cloaks of which the make and material strongly remind us of the Scottish plaid. These cloaks ai'C hung at the edges with small pieces of metal, wliich, when the wearers are in motion, kc?p up a constant tinkling noise. Buttons are unknown to them ; but their place is supplied by hooks, strings, and above all by the girdle, which keeps both coat and pantaloons in their places.
The pantaloons of the men do not reach below the knee, but cloths and ribbons are wound round the legs. The shoes of the Lettes are sandals, either of leather tied with strings, or else platted strips of the bark of limetrees. The women wear shifts edged with red boixlers, full petticoats, and closely-fitting bodices ; and over the whole a large, thick, white mantle, which rises stittty from the neck, and is fastened on the breast by a large brooch or agraffe. They expend most trouble and money upon tliis ornament, which is of very various forms and sizes, and generally made either of silver or amber, I'he latter material, being very common in this country, is worked up by them into a variety of ornaments.
The Lettes do not adorn themselves with flowers, as frequently as the Russians, The asparagus-plant, however, which is with them a symbol of a happy and fruitful marriage, is very much worn. In many districts a suitor never appears before his mistress without the stem of an asparagus in his hat. The girls generally stick the same kind of nosegay into their caps or hoods on Sundays.
Gloves are a very conspicuous and important part of Lettish costume. They consider the clothing of the hand as necessary as that of the foot or body. They are never to be seen without gloves. The boys who run behind the oxen and horses always wear gloves. The woodcutters in the forest never chop trees without gloves. A farm servant will use eight or ten pairs of gloves in the year. Gloves are very frequent presents among the Lettes; and at a wedding a bride generally gives away three or four hundred pairs among her guests. The Lettes make them of soft white wool, ornamented with a variety of red flowers, stars, and scrolls, of different shapes, of which they are continually inventing new ones.