216 LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 



various experimental plantations. In some places 

 the steppes are covered with small tamarisk bushes 

 or with silky grass, but, as a rule, the chief growth is 

 of silver wormwood. The monotony is not so great as 

 one might think, for the steppes, like a mirror, reflect 

 all the divers light-changes, and wonderful natural 

 phenomena take place there. During the great heat, 

 mirages are to be seen in the distance a river, lakes, 

 reed-grown shores ; sometimes a sand-storm super- 

 venes, more infernal than fairy-like, called here 

 " smertch." The wind raises the sand in tongues of 

 flames or in funnels running up to the sky with giddy 

 rapidity. Gradually, all the separate turmoils join 

 in a gigantic wall of sand, advancing in an orgy of 

 movement ; the heavy clouds fall towards the 

 ground, the sand rushes upwards, everything becomes 

 confounded in darkness and chaos. 



One feels so entirely in the power of natural forces 

 that the fatalism of the poor inhabitants of the land 

 is easily understood. The Kalmuks, primitive and 

 nomadic, produce the impression of ghosts from 

 distant centuries. 



Metchnikoff noticed that since his last visit in 

 1874, fatal influences had worked havoc on the 

 population. Four scourges, all of them coming from 

 outside, are destroying the Kalmuks : syphilis, 

 alcoholism, tuberculosis, and the Russians who are 

 constantly pushing them back. Those poor people 

 realise the fate which is awaiting them, and resign 

 themselves like a sick man who knows his sickness 

 to be incurable. 



The spiritual life of the Kalmuks reduces itself to 

 their religious cult. There are many Buddhist con- 

 vents where children are being brought up for a 



