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The following curious custom among the Kossacks is an
illustration of the moral conceptions of the Russian colonists
of Yakutsk. Among the privileges granted to the Kossacks
is the so-called “payek” or “share,” which is given to
each male Kossack. For each Kossack boy who is born a
“pol-paika” or “half-share” (1 pood of rye-meal per month)
is granted, and from his seventh year a full “share,” or
double this quantity, is given to him as long as he lives.
Each boy born, therefore, is a considerable addition to the
wealth of the Kossack’s family. The increase of humanity
has therefore become a species of game of chance among
the Kossacks of Yakutsk, the issue being watched with
the greatest suspense. Will a “payek” or “share” (a boy)
be born or “only a girl?” But not content with this the
Kossacks also try to influence the issue of the affair. If
the wife has no children, or only girls, she is given over
by contract for some time to a father of “shares.” If
then a boy is born to her, the paternal substitute receives
“a half-share” for one year as a remuneration for his
services. The unmarried girls are also encouraged to produce
“shares,” because, according to law, even illegitimately born
male children receive the allowance. The reputation of the
girl-mothers does not suffer in the least by these
proceedings; on the contrary, girls having borne “shares” are in
great demand in the matrimonial market of Yakutsk.[1]
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