A Reckless Character, and Other Stories Part 44

[34] Both these are bad omens, according to superst.i.tious Russians.--TRANSLATOR.

[35] Priests and monks in Russia wear their hair and beards long to resemble the pictures of Christ. Missionaries in foreign lands are permitted to conform to the custom of the country and cut it short.--TRANSLATOR.

[36] "Had been educated on copper coins" is the Russian expression. That is, had received a cheap education.--TRANSLATOR.

[37] The nickname generally applied by the Little Russians to the Great Russians.--TRANSLATOR.

[38] The racing-drozhky is frequently used in the country. It consists of a plank, without springs, mounted on four small wheels of equal size.

The driver sits flat on the plank, which may or may not be upholstered.--TRANSLATOR.

[39] The baptismal cross.--TRANSLATOR.

[40] The bath-besom is made of birch-twigs with the leaves attached, and is soaked in hot water (or in beer) to keep it soft. The ma.s.sage administered with the besom is delightful. The peasants often use besoms of nettles, as a luxury. The shredded linden bark is used as a sponge.--TRANSLATOR.

[41] The great manoeuvre plain, near which the Moscow garrison is lodged, in the vicinity of Petrovsky Park and Palace. Here the disaster took place during the coronation festivities of the present Emperor.--TRANSLATOR.

[42] It is very rarely that a bishop performs the marriage ceremony. All bishops are monks; and monks are not supposed to perform ceremonies connected with the things which they have renounced. The exceptions are when monks are appointed parish priests (as in some of the American parishes, for instance), and, therefore, must fulfil the obligations of a married parish priest; or when the chaplain-monk on war-s.h.i.+ps is called upon, at times, to minister to scattered Orthodox, in a port which has no settled priest.--TRANSLATOR.

[43] The Order of St. George, with its black and orange ribbon, must be won by great personal bravery--like the Victoria Cross.--TRANSLATOR.

[44] Head of the Secret Service under Alexander I.--TRANSLATOR.

[45] That is, living too long.--TRANSLATOR.

[46] _Sukhoy_, dry; _Sukhikh_, genitive plural (proper names are declinable), meaning, "one of the Sukhoys."--TRANSLATOR.

[47] The third from the top in the Table of Ranks inst.i.tuted by Peter the Great.--TRANSLATOR.

[48] Corresponding, in a measure, to an American State.--TRANSLATOR.

[49] The Great Russians' scornful nickname for a Little Russian.--TRANSLATOR.

[50] Each coachman has his own pair or troika of horses to attend to, and has nothing to do with any other horses which may be in the stable.--TRANSLATOR.

[51] Yakoff (James) Daniel Bruce, a Russian engineer, of Scottish extraction, born in Moscow, 1670, became Grand Master of the Artillery in 1711, and died in 1735.--TRANSLATOR.

[52] The great cathedral in commemoration of the Russian triumph in the war of 1812, which was begun in 1837, and completed in 1883.

--TRANSLATOR.

[53] _Nyemetz_, "the dumb one," meaning any one unable to speak Russian (hence, any foreigner), is the specific word for a German.--TRANSLATOR.

[54] Short for Nizhni Novgorod.--TRANSLATOR.

[55] The famous letter from the heroine, Tatyana, to the hero, Evgeny Onyegin, in Pushkin's celebrated poem. The music to the opera of the same name, which has this poem for its basis, is by Tchaikovsky.

--TRANSLATOR.

[56] Advertis.e.m.e.nts of theatres, concerts, and amus.e.m.e.nts in general, are not published in the daily papers, but in an _affiche_, printed every morning, for which a separate subscription is necessary.

--TRANSLATOR.

[57] M. E. Saltikoff wrote his famous satires under the name of Shtchedrin.--TRANSLATOR.

[58] The Little Russians (among other peculiarities of p.r.o.nunciation attached to their dialect) use the guttural instead of the clear _i_.--TRANSLATOR.

[59] A bishop or priest in the Russian Church is not supposed to speak loudly, no matter how fine a voice he may possess. The deacon, on the contrary, or the proto-deacon (attached to a cathedral) is supposed to have a huge voice, and, especially at certain points, to roar at the top of his lungs. He sometimes cracks his voice--which is what the sympathetic neighbour was hinting at here.--TRANSLATOR.

[60] An image, or holy picture, is _obraz_; the adjective "cultured" is derived from the same word in its sense of pattern, model--_obrazovanny_.

--TRANSLATOR.

[61] Ostrovsky's comedies of life in the merchant cla.s.s are irresistibly amusing, talented, and true to nature.--TRANSLATOR.

[62] Turgenieff probably means Grusha (another form for the diminutive of Agrippina, in Russian Agrafenya). The play is "Live as You Can."--TRANSLATOR.

[63] A full gown gathered into a narrow band just under the armpits and suspended over the shoulders by straps of the same.--TRANSLATOR.

[64] The eighth from the top in the Table of Ranks won by service to the state, which Peter the Great inst.i.tuted. A sufficiently high grade in that table confers hereditary n.o.bility; the lower grades carry only personal n.o.bility.--TRANSLATOR.

[65] The long Tatar coat, with large sleeves, and flaring, bias skirts.---TRANSLATOR.

[66] See note on page 24.--TRANSLATOR.

[67] Diminutives of Yakoff, implying great affection.--TRANSLATOR.

[68] Mikhail Stasiulevitch.--TRANSLATOR.

[69] The favourite decoration in rustic architecture.--TRANSLATOR.

[70] These lines do not rhyme in the original.--TRANSLATOR.

[71] "The white-handed man" would be the literal translation.--TRANSLATOR.

[72] The pretty name for what we call mullein.--TRANSLATOR.

[73] That is, made without meat.--TRANSLATOR.

[74] The ideal bearing in church is described as standing "like a candle"; that is, very straight and motionless.--TRANSLATOR.

[75] Strips of gra.s.s left as boundaries between the tilled fields allotted to different peasants.--TRANSLATOR.

[76] The affectionate diminutive.--TRANSLATOR.