

GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN THE DISTRICT. 163 



thoughts. About nine o'clock they shamble off to their 

 own quarter of the town ; which after that is as still as 

 death not a kabac or a drunken man to be seen. No 

 Sir Wilfrid Lawson's Permissive Bill required here ; but 

 that is because they are not Christians, I suppose. 



' I never saw handsomer, more athletic looking men 

 than those Bokharians and Central Asians perfect 

 Adonises every one of them, proud and noble in mein and 

 bearing, especially when mounted. They say they can do 

 anything on a horse, but nothing off. Well, you won't 

 catch them at hard work certainly. And it is no exaggera- 

 tion to say that their piercing black eyes sparkle like 

 diamonds; but the Baskirs, the Kalmuks, and the Ker- 

 ghis, are poor, miserable, repulsive-looking beings the 

 very quintessence of Mongolian ugliness. 



' I saw another, to me, very exciting scene. As I learned 

 I should be some time in Troitsk, I went to the police 

 office to send home a copy of my passport ; but I found it 

 was not a police office at all, as Troitsk is under a military 

 commander of the Orenburg Kossae province. While 

 waiting there a great commotion occurred in the street 

 people running, drums beating, soldiers marching and 

 while I was looking through the window all vanished out 

 of the hall, and I was left alone. I, too, made a speedy 

 exit, as I thought there must be a fire. I enquired from my 

 isvoschik (driver) what it all meant. He said, "Follow 

 on, and then you will see." I did so, and soon came up to 

 the crowd, who were swarming round a tumbrel waggon. 

 On an elevated platform was a young woman, sitting with 

 her back to the horses, and her face to the merry, laugh- 

 ing, eager throng. Her screams were drowned by the 

 rataplan of the drums, as well they might be, for 

 she was weeping and writhing most piteously ; but she was 

 securely strapped back, arms, and feet. When we arrived 

 at the echafote all was hushed as she was taken down and 

 chained to a pillar in the centre, the military authorities 



