The Ghosti--a word which is etymologically the same as our "host" and "guest"-- were originally the merchants who traded with other towns or other countries.
In the other parts of the town the air of solitude and languor is still more conspicuous.

In the great square, or by the side of the promenade--if the town is fortunate enough to have one--cows or horses may be seen grazing tranquilly, without being at all conscious of the incongruity of their position.

And, indeed, it would be strange if they had any such consciousness, for it does not exist in the minds either of the police or of the inhabitants.

At night the streets may be lighted merely with a few oil-lamps, which do little more than render the darkness visible, so that cautious citizens returning home late often provide themselves with lanterns.

As late as the sixties the learned historian, Pogodin, then a town-councillor of Moscow, opposed the lighting of the city with gas on the ground that those who chose to go out at night should carry their lamps with them.