Once in Old Russia a sick man

Once in Old Russia a sick man asked a monk to heal his skin disease. The monk, at a loss, took berry inks and drew all over the wasting body: fruits and flowers, vines and boughs. Later, when they washed the entire thing off, the man's blemishes were gone. He shone of health, and went forth into the world praising God and the poplar shade.

The poplars are planted in diagonals across the land, to shield the fields from winds of snow and dust. In the winter, when you could not see the fields themselves, the rows of poplars looked like scars, each tree a stitch.

Peter the First sewed his socks while inventing new laws.