ODESSA AND MISKITCHKE. 51 



and breaking its legs, a superstitious observance, 

 I have since heard, common to all Mahometans. 

 Arrived at the village, an old man (the moollah I 

 think he was) climbed to the top of a low hovel in 

 the middle of the straggling main street (if streets 

 there are in Tartar 'aouls'), and shouted himself 

 hoarse in the Tartar tongue. What he said I knew 

 not then, but from subsequent events I believe it 

 was to the effect that the good butcher, Lotso, had 

 brought with him five fat sheep, all or any of 

 which he was prepared then and there to convert 

 into mutton, if sufficient customers were forth- 

 coming. Any one who wanted mutton, to raise 

 his hand. After a great deal of talking all by 

 himself, the moollah came down from his perch, 

 and a crowd forming round him, a tremendous 

 row ensued. It looked like being a free fight, but 

 it was soon over, and perhaps the Tartar house- 

 keepers may take to themselves the credit of settling 

 on the joint for the day sooner than their English 

 representatives at home. 



The purchases being settled, a sheep was se- 

 lected from the cart, and carried to a stone trench 

 hard-by, its throat cut, and the whole operation of 

 skinning and dismembering completed in a very 

 few minutes. Meanwhile a number of gaunt curs, 

 drawn by the smell of blood, had crowded round, 

 and so hardy were they that it was all a dozen 

 Tartars could do, whirling their knouts round the 



