Kept closely confined to a small apartment, living almost always in heated rooms the Russian ladies had fair complexions; “white cream-and-snow tinged with the faint hue of the inside of a camellia” one poet describes it. Others are not so generous; Turberville writes:
“To buy her painted colours, doth allowe his wife a fee
Wherewith she deckes herselfe, and dyes her tawny skin;
She prankes and paints her smoakie face,
Browe, lippe, cheeke and chinne.”
All writers complain that the women painted without art; many blacked their teeth, and stained their nails with henna, a custom which obtained with the wives of Russian merchants to the present century. So, too, after Peter the Great forced women from the seclusion of the terem, it was the custom of ladies to present to each other in public their paint boxes, even as in the west men offered snuff. It was not until after the French invasion that this custom died out, and Pushkin endeavoured to advance the new order by deriding the practice and ridiculing the English governors who followed it. On the other hand, a lady of the court who, much to the chagrin of others, refused to paint her face, was compelled to do so by order of the Tsar, to whom complaint had been made.
As women were free in the Russia of the Norsemen, the seclusion in the terem was either a custom adopted from Byzantium or, more probably, a precautionary measure to protect them from Tartar invaders. The purpose of these invasions has already been stated, and as on one foray the Tartars are reported to have taken away 400,000 captives from Russia, the hiding of women and children in portions of the dwellings to which men at no time had access was doubtless considered to enhance their chances of escape during the temporary absence of the master in the front of the battle; and from being a temporary retreat it became the ordinary living apartments. But the custom was a town one; not practised by villagers.
The Russians were largely flesh eaters, meat and fish constituted the diet not only of the well to do but of the peasants. In the north Le Bruyn found the natives feeding even their beasts on fish, and Ysbrant noted the same practice among the inhabitants east of the Ural. Jenkinson found that the Muscovites had “many sortes of meates, and delight in eating gross meates and stinking fish.” Brandy was served round before eating commenced, a custom that still obtains and was originally derived from the Norsemen. Collins states that horse-flesh was forbidden; also hare, rabbit, and elk. At some seasons veal was forbidden; any thing sweetened with sugar, or candy, on fast days; and, at all times, dishes flavoured with musk, civet and beaver. The chief dish at a banquet given to Herberstein was of swan, served with sour milk, pickled gherkins and plums. There was abundance of corn, and some of the commoner vegetables; the fruits were insipid; except filberts, Herberstein found none of the sweeter kinds of fruit or nuts. Water melons were grown and then, as now, the Russians fed upon many different kinds of fungus; some thirteen varieties found in the neighbourhood of Moscow are edible, but the Russian regards as scarcely wholesome the only mushroom eaten in England.
Tea was known to the Russians of the middle ages; some quaint samovars are preserved in the Dom Romanof, but the medieval Russ found his greatest pleasure in drinking mead, brandy and strong liquors. Before drinking it was the custom to blow in the cup; to guests and strangers wine was offered by, or on behalf of, each member of the host’s family, in small cups or glasses, then, to conclude, a huge cup filled to the brim from which it was the correct etiquette to take but a sip.
In Sylvester’s “Domostroi” the correct etiquette for masters and servants is set forth. At table the diner may “blow his nose, must spit without noise, take care to turn away from the company, and put his foot over the place.” Instead of advising the lord to sell old slaves and cattle, as Cato told the Romans to do, Sylvester requires that old servants who are no longer good for anything must be “fed and clothed, in consideration of their former services.” Then, for the servant; “when a man sends his servant to honest people, he should on arriving knock softly at the door of the grand entrance; when the slave comes to ask what he wants, he must reply ‘I have nought to do with thee, but with him to whom I am sent.’ He must say only from whom he comes, so that the man may tell his master. On the threshold of the chamber he will wipe his feet on the straw. Before entering he will blow his nose, spit and say a prayer. If no one calls Amen! to him, he will say another prayer; if there is still no answer, a third prayer in a louder voice. If still no answer, he may then knock at the door. On entering he must bow before the sacred ikon; then he will explain his errand: he must not touch his nose, or spit, or cough; look neither to right nor left.”
The Tsars derived much revenue from a cursemay or drinking tavern in each town, which was let out to tenants or bestowed upon some courtier for a year or two, “then, he being grown rich, is taken by the Tsar and sent to the warres again, where he shall spend all that which he hath gotten by ill means, so that the Tsar in his warres is little charged, but all the burden lieth on the poor people.”
Jenkinson writes: “At my being there, I heard of men and women that drunk away their children and all their goods at the Tsar’s tavern, and not being able to pay, having pawned himself, the taverner bringeth him out to the highway, and beates him upon the legs; then they that pass by, knowing the cause and peradventure, having compassion upon him, giveth the money, so he is ransomed.”
During carnival there were many deaths due to excessive drinking and the extreme cold, for it was then that all had licence to drink and make merry. The Tsar Vasili Ivanievich (1505-1533) gave permission to some of his courtiers to drink at any time, but in order that their habits might not corrupt the people they had to live apart in a special suburb, which was appointed them on the south side of the river, where for a time all the dwellers were known by the name of Nali or “Drinkers.”