BLACK' SEA COAST. 61 



ridiculous, and been for various reasons useless ; 

 but the umbrella of the country, the Tscherkess 

 bourka, should have been among the first of my 

 purchases. 



This bourka, without which no one thinks of 

 travelling in this country, is a large piece of felt, 

 of a good quality, extremely light for its size, and 

 really waterproof. It fastens round the wearer's 

 neck, and hangs like a bell-shaped tent from his 

 shoulders to his knees. Bourkas vary in texture 

 and quality, as well as price ; some being white, 

 others black; some as rough as a Skye terrier, others 

 almost as smooth as a greyhound. The best are 

 black and almost smooth, and cost as much as 

 thirty or forty roubles (four or five pounds). After 

 his kinjal and his horse, I almost think a bourka 

 is the Cossack's most valuable possession; and rolled 

 in these things, I have seen the hardy fellows 

 sleeping placidly on a wet truss of hay in the midst 

 of a perfect November deluge. 



After going for a verst or so, my yemstchik came 

 to his first halt. The horses here wear their tails, 

 like the ladies' trains at home, preposterously long ; 

 and a dozen times in our drive of twenty versts, had 

 we to pull up whilst the driver wrung out the mud 

 from one of these sweeping appendages, and tied it 

 up into a less comely but more convenient bob. 

 Without this the horses could not have done the 

 distance at all. As for myself, 1 was speedily 



