Thus there is properly no inheritance or succession, but simply liquidation and distribution of the property among the members.

The written law of inheritance founded on the conception of personal property, is quite unknown to the peasantry, and quite inapplicable to their mode of life.

In this way a large and most important section of the Code remains a dead letter for about four-fifths of the population.
This predominance of practical economic considerations is exemplified also by the way in which marriages are arranged in these large families.
In the primitive system of agriculture usually practised in Russia, the natural labour-unit--if I may use such a term--comprises a man, a woman, and a horse.

As soon, therefore, as a boy becomes an able-bodied labourer he ought to be provided with the two accessories necessary for the completion of the labour-unit.

To procure a horse, either by purchase or by rearing a foal, is the duty of the Head of the House; to procure a wife for the youth is the duty of "the female Big One" (Bolshukha).