In the south of Russia, the Spanish dollar is also frequently found in circulation, passing generally for six rubles currency.
Of copper-money there is, perhaps, more in Russia than in any other country in the world. The largest is the grivna, worth 10 copeks. Then comes the piatak=: 5 copeks, the grosh = 2 copeks, the kopaika=z I copek, the denga coi^ek, and the pohishka = ^ copek. These half and quarter copeks were formerly very current, but are never seen now, and even the kopaika is but rarely met with.
While at Kharkoff, I was invited by a Russian family of distinction to spend a few days of the spring at Dikanka, an estate formerly belonging to the Kotshubey family, and I was delighted to have this opportunity of observing, at my leisure, a little of the rural life of this part of the great Russian empire.
The weather was fine when we set off, and continued so till we arrived at Valki, where we spent the night. The next morning, shortly after we had started, the rain began to fall heavily, and the roads became so deep, that I began to think seriously of reinforcing our six horses, by yoking four oxen before them, a kind of auxiliary to which it is often necessary to have recourse in Little Russia. However, towards dusk we contrived to get to Dikanka, where we entered by a triumphal arch, erected some years ago by Prince Kotshubey, on the occasion of a visit paid him by the Emperor Alexander.
The Slavonian divinity Radegast (literally, the cheercr of guests) reigns yet triumphantly in the palace of the Russian noble, as in the cottage of the peasant. We found a whole population of guests assembled at Dikanka. The relations of the family had gathered together from all parts of the country, and peopled a whole row of guest houses, that had been erected close to the main building. The family itself consisted of the noblest among the noble, the kindest among the kind. The chief held his place among the liighest and wisest men of the empire ; the hostess was one of the first, and certainly of the most amiable ladies of St. Petersburg. Their daughter, now, alas, no more, was one of the most beautiful, and most accomplished of her age and sex, in Russia ; while the junior members of the family formed as pretty a little group of angels and cupids, as it has ever been my fortune to meet with. In short, we found, in every sense of the word, a most deHghtful circle assembled at Dikanka ; so much so, that we were easily persuaded to postpone our departure till the days had grown into weeks, and the weeks into months. People on this side of the Oder, have very little notion of how very agreeably life may be spent on the other side of the Dnieper, by those who know how to reconcile themselves to the foreign element in which they must move.
In ancient times the possessor of such a noble residence as Dikanka, would have been a tolerably independent prince. He would have had a number of armed men in his service, ready to mount and follow him on a foray into Tartary or Turkey, or to back him at a contested election for the office of hetman. The days of the Cossack repubhc are not very remote, for even after its subjection by Russia, the country retained much of its ancient institutions, and it was only in the reign of Catherine, that these were assimilated to the institutions of the rest of the empire.
In the lumber-rooms of many a countiy-seat of Little Russia may yet be seen the weapons with which the warriors of the olden time were wont to arm themselves when they sailed down the Dnieper on their predatory excursions along the Turkish coast. For the last century, these things have happily been consigned to the lumber-rooms ; the Cossacks have been metamorphosed into well-drilled soldiers, their bearded chiefs into smart officers, and their piratical vessels are replaced by the men-ofwar and frigates that have given to Russia the undisputed sway of the Black Sea.
The houses, likewise, have changed their outward form, and have assumed, for the most part, that half-Itahan look given to them by the profusion of pillars, in which modern Russian architecture dehghts so much. The armed bands which formerly constituted the magiiificence of a Cossack chateau, have now been changed into bands of musicians, for Little Russia is the very land of music and song. A nobleman will often send for a music-master from St. Petersburg, by whose aid a corps of lackeys is metamorphosed in a short time into a regular orchestra of fiddlers, hornists, &c.
A PEASANT WEDDING IN THE UKRAINE.
We had not been long enjoying the hospitalities of Dikanka, wlicn an opportunity was afforded us of witnessing a Malorossian wedding. One