chap. ii. CHANGING HORSES. n 



hungry we carried our provision-basket into the station- 

 house, ordered the " samovar," and made tea. The samovar 

 is a great institution in Russia. Provisions are not to be 

 had at the station-houses, but we alwavs found a samovar 

 and we were generally able to procure milk. The samovar 

 is a brass urn, with a charcoal fire in a tube in the centre, 

 and boils water in a few minutes. We found that about 

 a dozen words of Russ sufficed to pull us through very 

 comfortably. Arrived at a station, we generally allowed 

 the station-master to have the first say. As soon as a con- 

 venient opportunity occurred we interposed, " tre loshed say 

 chass," which being interpreted means " three horses imme- 

 diately." We then produced some rouble notes, and asked, 

 " scoho," how much ? The station-master would again begin 

 to talk Russ. We offered the amount due as appeared 

 from the list of stations which had been provided for us by 

 M. Verakin at Vologda. This proving satisfactory, we pro- 

 ceeded to pay the yemschik his backsheesh. The station- 

 master once more began to talk volubly in Russ. We 

 waited until he had clone, and then asked innocently, 

 "fameehje f y The station-master nodded his head and said, 

 " da da " (yes). We then said, " Brown Seebohm Angliski 

 Vologda nah Archangelsk." After the changes had been 

 rung upon our names, it generally ended in our having to 

 copy them upon a piece of paper for the station-master to 

 write in his book; and the new yemschik having by this 

 time got his team in order, we settled ourselves down again, 

 cried " Icharashaw ! " all right ! and started off. With slight 

 variations this course was repeated at each station. Our 



