A Distressino- March. 



The Kazaks drink large quantities of it, and its manufacture is 

 one of the principal occupations of the women in early spring. 

 Stuck into the rods, forming the framework of the aul, are wooden 

 bowls and spoons, black and grimy, from which everyone eats 

 indiscriminately, the only washing they receive being a rinse 

 with water at rare intervals. Numdahs or carpets of felt were 

 spread upon the floor and also round the fire which blazed 

 cheerily in the centre, thus completing the furniture of this 

 primitive homestead. 



The Kazaks were much astonished on hearing from Rasul 

 that I performed my own medical dressings, and the head man 

 amongst them came to ask my advice as to the curing of sundry 

 ailments with which members of his band were afflicted. 



Their faith in the healing powers of the European is remark- 

 able, they apparently thinking it only necessary to bring 

 forward the sufferer for an immediate cure to be effected. This 

 is often embarrassing, since one's reputation is at stake, and to 

 get out of the trouble with safety is a matter calling for a con- 

 siderable display of skill and circumspection. 



The following day another long and agonising march ensued 

 to Uliassutou, on the Siberian frontier, due west of the Zaisan 

 Lake. The latter is an immense sheet of water into which the 

 Irtish River runs, and, issuing from the western shore, flows 

 through the province of Semipalatinsk, past Omsk, and north- 

 ward to the Arctic Ocean. It was 28 miles to Uliassutou, all 

 rough going, mostly over plain cut up by innumerable ruts and 

 hillocks, in which the wheels of the tarantass bumped and jolted 

 with sickening persistency, though luckily for me without coming 

 to grief. 



I reached the frontier late at night, camping in an old log 

 hut there belonging to a Kazak. It was an indescribably filthy 

 abode, low pitched, dark and gloomy, with no outlet for the 

 accumulated stench of long years, and only a tiny door to enter 

 by, so one had to bend down and crawl through into the inky 

 darkness beyond. 



395 



