TRAVELING COMPANIONS. 429 



close together, and then he had a general hang-dog look that 

 would give him away in the company of saints. He could 

 talk fluently with Constantine, though, and advised me to 

 take him along to drive my dogs and as an interpreter. 

 The interpreting was all well enough as far as they were 

 concerned, and the only difficulty was in understanding Con- 

 stantine or making him understand me. 



Knowing I had to be for several months among the Rus- 

 sians, I thought that by gaining the start by a few words 

 before I came plump into their country I would acquire an 

 advantage ; so I asked Constantine what the Russians said for 

 " yes." " They say 'yes'," he replied. This was easy enough 

 to remember, so I went to the next word. " What do they 

 say for no ?" I asked. " Why, they say ' no'." This seemed 

 a most remarkable coincidence, but certainly convenient, so 

 I went on to something harder. 



" What does a Russian man say when he is hungry and 

 wants something to eat ?" 



" Oh, sir, he says he wants something to eat." 



This was a little more than I could stand, and I immedi- 

 ately took a recess. I saw that the poor fellow had no idea 

 how he spoke what little English lie knew. He did not 

 translate it from one language to the other, but had merely 

 learned as a parrot would learn, only with greater fluency, 

 for he seemed to have the well known facility of the Rus- 

 sians in acquiring foreign languages, having in two months 

 and a half on shipboard learned sufficient to be of consider- 

 able use there, as well as to our party on shore. 



En route Constantine drove my sled, but we went very 

 slowly, for the dogs I had were hastily bought after I had 

 made up my mind to this trip, and proved a sorry lot. Con- 

 stantine always examined the dogs as an expert, and had a 

 way of running his hand along the dog's back-bone, and if 

 it did not cut his finger he pronounced it a fine dog. 



The second night of our journey we halted at the village 

 of Ynedlin, near which the Vega wintered. We were enter- 

 tained at the house of the chief, the largest house I had yet 



