THE SCENE: The 12th Century scholar Nestor provides an overview of the different early Slavic races. When evaluating how civilized they were, one criteria seems to rise above the rest: how they treated their daughters-in-law.
THE TEXT: For the Polyanians retained the mild and peaceful customs of their ancestors, and showed respect for their daughters-in-law and their sisters, as well as for their mothers and fathers. For their mothers-in-law and their brothers-in-law they also entertained great reverence. The Derevlians, on the other hand, existed in bestial fashion, and lived like cattle. They killed one another, ate every impure thing, and there was no marriage among them, but instead they seized upon maidens by capture. The Radimichians, the Vyatichians, and the Severians had the same customs. They spoke obscenely before their fathers and their daughters-in-law. When the people gathered together for games, for dancing, and for all other devilish amusements, the men on these occasions carried off wives for themselves, and each took any woman with whom he had arrived at an understanding. The Polovcians maintain the customs of their ancestors in the shedding of blood and in glorifying themselves for such deeds, as well as in eating every dead or unclean thing, even hamsters and marmots. They marry their mothers-in-law and their sisters-in-law.
– Tales of Bygone Years, Nestor, 12th Century AD
[Serena Found of Savages by Thomas Benjamin Kennington]
