legally recognised, and may constitute a bar to matrimony.  If all the preliminary negotiations are successful, the marriage takes place, and the bridegroom brings his bride home to the house of which he is a member.  She brings nothing with her as a dowry except her trousseau, but she brings a pair of good strong arms, and thereby enriches her adopted family.  Of course it happens occasionally—­for human nature is everywhere essentially the same—­that a young peasant falls in love with one of his former playmates, and brings his little romance to a happy conclusion at the altar; but such cases are very rare, and as a rule it may be said that the marriages of the Russian peasantry are arranged under the influence of economic rather than sentimental considerations.

The custom of living in large families has many economic advantages.  We all know the edifying fable of the dying man who showed to his sons by means of a piece of wicker-work the advantages of living together and assisting each other.  In ordinary times the necessary expenses of a large household of ten members are considerably less than the combined expenses of two households comprising five members each, and when a “black day” comes a large family can bear temporary adversity much more successfully than a small one.  These are principles of world-wide application, but in the life of the Russian peasantry they have a peculiar force.  Each adult peasant possesses, as I shall hereafter explain, a share of the Communal land, but this share is not sufficient to occupy all his time and working power.  One married pair can easily cultivate two shares—­at least in all provinces where the peasant allotments are not very large.  Now, if a family is composed of two married couples, one of the men can go elsewhere and earn money, whilst the other, with his wife and sister-in-law, can cultivate the two combined shares of land.  If, on the contrary a family consists merely of one pair with their children, the man must either remain at home—­in which case he may have difficulty in finding work for the whole of his time—­or he must leave home, and entrust the cultivation of his share of the land to his wife, whose time must be in great part devoted to domestic affairs.

In the time of serfage the proprietors clearly perceived these and similar advantages, and compelled their serfs to live together in large families.  No family could be broken up without the proprietor’s consent, and this consent was not easily obtained unless the family had assumed quite abnormal proportions and was permanently disturbed by domestic dissension.  In the matrimonial affairs of the serfs, too, the majority of the proprietors systematically exercised a certain supervision, not necessarily from any paltry meddling spirit, but because their own material interests were thereby affected.  A proprietor would not, for instance, allow the daughter of one of his serfs to marry a serf belonging to another proprietor—­because he would thereby lose a female labourer—­unless some compensation were offered.  The compensation might be a sum of money, or the affair might be arranged on the principle of reciprocity by the master of the bridegroom allowing one of his female serfs to marry a serf belonging to the master of the bride.