the globe, and where upwards of fifteen million human beings
celebrate in various ways the great winter festival of Yule-tide, it
will be found that the people retain many traditions of the
sun-worshipers, which shows that the season was once observed in honor
of the renewal of the sun's power. With them, however, the sun was
supposed to be a _female_, who, when the days began to lengthen,
entered her sledge, adorned in her best robes and gorgeous head-dress,
and speeded her horses summerward.

Russian myths indicate a connection with the Aryans in the remote
past; their songs of the wheel, the log, the pig or boar, all show a
common origin in centuries long gone by.

Russia to most minds is a country of cold, darkness, oppression, and
suffering, and this is true to an altogether lamentable extent. But it
is also a country of warmth, brightness, freedom, and happiness. In
fact, there are so many phases of life among its vast population that
descriptions of Russian life result about as satisfactorily as did
those of Saxe's "Three blind men of Hindustan," who went to see the
elephant. Each traveler describes the part he sees, just as each blind
man described the part he felt, and each believes he knows the whole.

There are certain general features of the Yule-tide observance that
are typical of the country. One is the singing of their ancient
_Kolyada_ songs, composed centuries ago by writers who are unknown.
They may have been sacrificial songs in heathen days, but are now sung
with fervor and devotion at Christmas time.

In some places a maiden dressed in white and drawn on a sledge from
house to house represents the goddess of the Sun, while her retinue