DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVELLING. 45 



change. My seat by day, iny bed by night, this box has a 

 leading part in our little play; but no adjustment of the 

 other traps, no stuffing in of hay and straw, no coaxing of 

 the furs and skins, suffice to appease the fitful spirit of that 

 trunk. It slips and jerks beneath me, rising in pain at 

 every plunge. Coaxing it with skins is useless ; soothing 

 it with wisps of straw is vain. We tie it with bands and 

 belts ; but nothing will induce it to lie down. How can 

 we blame it ? Trunks have rights as well as men ; they 

 claim a proper place to lie in ; and my poor box has just 

 been tossed into this tarantass ; and told to lie quiet on logs 

 and stones. 



' Still more fitful than this trunk are the lumber verte- 

 brae in my spine. They hate this jolting day and night ; 

 they have been jerked out of their sockets, pounded into 

 dust, and churned into curds. But then these mutineers 

 are under more control than the trunk ; and when they 

 begin to murmur seriously, I still them in a moment by 

 hints of taking them a drive through Bitter Creek.' 



In regard to the packing of luggage in a tarantass, Dr 

 Lansdell, in his volume entitled Through Siberia, tells : 



' The packing of the vehicle requires nothing short of 

 a Siberian education, Avoid boxes as you would the 

 plague ! The edges and corners will cruelly bruise your 

 back and legs. Choose rather flat portmanteaus and soft 



and spread them on a layer of hay at the bottom of 

 the tarantass. Then put over them a thin mattress, and 

 next a hearth-rug. When we entered Tiumen, women 



j.cd us with these hearth-rugs, as I thought them. 

 Not knowing what they were for, I could not conceive 



they meant by such conduct. Had my companion 

 been a lady, I should have deemed that they thought us 



' iridal trip, and about to set up housekeeping. But 



innocent of all such devices, and chased the women 



away. When it was discovered what the carpets were for, 



retted not having bought one. Next, put at the 

 back of the carriage two or more pillows of the softest 



