RETURN TO KERTCH. 177 



and when they take their glass they take it neat as 

 the men do, and toss it off at one gulp as cleverly. 

 Russian peasant women are hard-working, frugal,' 

 and the earliest risers in the world, being generally 

 up before dawn ; but they are, alas ! too often to be 

 found on their backs dead drunk in the street in 

 the morning. This is at least true of the Crimea 

 and Caucasus. I can only speak of what I have 

 seen. 



At the Krimsky fair I discovered a show- 

 booth, and as show-booths are not every day 

 occurrences in such places, I proceeded to investi- 

 gate it. A rough tent, with strange pictures of 

 beasts roughly painted upon it, formed the abiding 

 place of the show. Hound this a red-bearded 

 Persian continually prowled, with a long stick to 

 thump the heads of penniless brats who, unable 

 to pay for admission, kept trying to satisfy their 

 curiosity by furtively lifting a corner of the canvas 

 veil that concealed the mysteries within. Avoiding 

 this functionary's stick, I paid twenty copecks 

 (about (>f/.), and entered. There was one other 

 spectator besides myself, and, satisfied that this 

 was the largest audience he was likely to obtain, 

 the gentleman of the stick kindly followed me in 

 and prepared to perform, leaving the little boys to 

 see as much as they could meanwhile. In the 

 tent, in spite of all its grand advertisements, the 

 whole show consisted only of three small monkeys 



X 



