CURIOUS CUSTOMS OF COSSACKS.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 840, 3 November 1877, Page 2

CURIOUS CUSTOMS OF COSSACKS.

These Cossacks have some very ' curious customs. They are all comparatively young men and nearly all married, of course to young wives. It often happeus, as m the present instance, that they are away^ from home during the war for one or even three or foui? years, and the natural result is that many of the wives left behind do not prove to be Lucretias. The Cossacks are quite aware of this, and many of them, upon starting home, buy a white scarf or handkerchief, which they take with them. Upon entering their Tillages the whole population •—women, girls, old men, and chil-dren—-come out to meet them, including of course, the wives of the returning wanderers. Now those of the wives who have been unfaithful to their lords-— of which theie is usually a considerable sprinkling — -« go forward to their husbands, kneej down before them m the road, put their faces m the dust and place their husband's foot upon their necks This is confession of their guilt and at the same time a prayer for forgiveness. If the husband then covers the wife's head with the scarf it means that he forgives her, > asks no questions and obliterates the past. In this case go one haß a right ever to reproach the wife with her inconstancy, and if any, one sholud be rash enough to do so he j would hare to count with tbs husband, who is proteotor of hisj wife's honpr. If, on the contraig, the white handkerchief is not proat^ged^^ *? straight to bey

AIMVU\JL O UHDUIUg - IT lUUUUV — nganr eutering her kusbatid/s ffdwelling, and a divorce ia pronounced." Although there is generally, a o'onsideK" able sprinkling of women who coato' forward to kneel dbynr alnd' pilb'theit' 7 face 3 m the dust, it rarUfn^Wtli they are not forgiven, '". JCj j|fry tragical case, however, is reporfcec', m which the reverse took p*!#e)*jiA. returning Cossack was inioriaptl „by a malicious neighbor befpre. he reaohed bis home .^that his wife bald b|en iinfaib^i^/withbttt^i^^-'tei' p6e whether the gullly wonian ; wp.uld come forward and confess her sins.' The comrades of the Cossack perceived that he had all of a sudden taken to drink arid' dissipation, altboagh he was not a man given to these vices. When, he reached* iris village his wife, a3 he feared, came forward, knelt dptfti; k ajnch 'bat '^r fobe m the dust atliii M ' l^ spectators saw him. look at her as she lay m the dust for & long-time: Two or three times he. put his hands m his breast forthd^Hite handkerchief, as it he the f eperitant* wo^n^' Ji^la— two or three times the movement was restrained. Finally, as if driven by a sudden impulse, he' &i 6nce { $kjr his shashka, and * with one stroke severed her head' froinjlier,^liqdy;i The punishment for tho crime was two months' , , imp£isQnMent,-L while the malicious neighbor who h»d taken the trouble to inform him beforehand of his fife's Jd4ijfcp^dtlcfc was sent to Siberia for tiiree! years.