BLACK SEA COAST. 65 



greater encouragement given to agriculture, and 

 more inducements held out to foreigners to settle in 

 the waste places of Russia's vast empire, so that by 

 their example they might teach her own people 

 how to make the best of the natural advantages 

 they enjoy, there might then be a chance of hap- 

 piness and prosperity for Russia and her people. 



There is in every Russian moujik an inherent 

 love of the Czar, a personal loyalty to him, which 

 deifies and renders its object infallible in the eyes of 

 his subjects, and this takes much to eradicate. 

 Could this feeling be fostered rather than destroyed 

 by the injustices of petty provincial officials, who 

 to the peasant are the only direct representatives of 

 the supreme power, regicide and revolution would 

 be things unknown. 



The only complaint I ever heard from peasant 

 lips in Russia of the Great White Czar was, he is 

 too far off, lie is deaf, our voices cannot reach him 

 through the crowd of rascals who hedge him in. 



To-day T myself was destined to dine on 

 peasants' fare ; and though the bread was black and 

 damp, it was wholesome, and hunger gave the 

 meal the only sauce it needed. My night was 

 passed on a wooden sofa at Tumeruk, with my 

 pointer for a pillow, a style of repose that at least 

 ensured early rising. 



At 5 A.M. I was in the market chaffering with 

 the peasant women for supplies for the journey. 



F 



