JOURNEY FROM ST. PETERSBURG. 19 



quarter of an hour, and then, taking both hands, and 

 rubbing them over the face from the forehead downwards, 

 they rise, fold up their rugs, and go down again among 

 the steerage passengers. At sunrise they again mount 

 the paddle-box, and go through the same exercise. If a 

 great many professing Christians were only one-hun- 

 dredth part as attentive to the exercises of religion as 

 these Mohammedans, it would necessarily follow, from the 

 nature of their faith, that it would be much better than 

 it now is, alike for themselves and Christendom. These 

 men are a small trading company, who, having finished 

 their business at the fair, are bound for the remote East. 

 And here is another trader he also is a Tartar, and well, 

 not to say splendidly, dressed. This man comes, he tells 

 us, from Siberia, and he has been to the fair selling his 

 parcel of pelts. The market, he says, has been very good, 

 but sables will hardly sell, the fur of the silver squirrel 

 being all the rage. There are any number of ordinary 

 peasants on board, honest-faced Russians, clad in the 

 long sheepskin coat with the wool inside. It is a general 

 thing to laugh at the Russian peasants because they 

 wander about in sheepskins, but for my part I never saw 

 anything in this dress except to admire. I frequently 

 thought how the poor, and often badly clad English 

 labourers in some parts of our country would envy the 

 Russian peasant his sheepskin coat, if they only saw him 

 in it. Why, with an ordinary covering for his head, and 

 long boots, and the coat, he might set up at once for a 

 gentleman ! Nor was the thought foreign to me, that if 

 I should ever have to live in Russia over a winter, and 

 was unable to purchase a set of furs, I should, in spite of 

 any laughter at my singularity, take at once to the sheep- 

 skin as a duck takes to water. 



'Coming so closely in contact with these Russian 



aits, of course you try to catch the idea conveyed by 



their countenances. And this we do, acting upon the 



principle, that it is always right to try and get the best, 



and not the worst, out of a man. When the Greek 



