ONGUDAI 65 



In the evening- we received a visit from the local 

 priest, Father Constantine. He had spent about 

 thirty years at Ongudai and in the Kalmuk country, 

 having been exiled to this place in his early days for 

 some political offence. He was most interesting in 

 his conversation, having thoroughly studied the Kal- 

 muks, their language and ways, and having converted 

 many to Christianity. He gave me a Russian- 

 Kalmuk dictionary which he had compiled himself, 

 and from which I extracted my available means of 

 conversation. He had crowned his studies by 

 marrying a Kalmuk girl, and was spending the few 

 years that were left to him in educating his wife 

 and father-in-law, who lived in his house. 



The same evening we secured the services, for 

 twenty roubles a month, of a Russian, Nicholas by 

 name, who was to act as interpreter, and whom we 

 found useful in every emergency. A distance of 

 over 200 miles separated us yet from the Siberian 

 frontier — a distance which we covered in six days. 

 We started from Ongudai at 9 a.m. on the 8th of 

 June, on horseback. The ladies drove about twelve 

 miles in a cart, after which they also had to mount 

 the ponies which had been prepared for them. 

 Everyone said it would be impossible for ladies' 

 saddles to pass along the narrow Tchouia path, where 



