i8o RETURN TO KERTCH. 



meal which I had on the way at the ' duchan ' of a 

 small village we passed through, consisting of soup, 

 chicken, black bread and tea ad libitum,, for my 

 man and myself, together with hay for the horses, 

 cost fifty-five copecks, i.e. about 1-9. Id. Had ] 

 travelled by post from Novorossisk, I should have 

 paid one-third less for my horses and travelled 

 faster, owing to the fact that I should have had 

 relays of horses and not the same pair the whole 

 way ; but then I could not have gone out of the 

 direct course, or stopped where I liked. 



Arrived at Ekaterinodar, I found myself in a 

 hot-bed of political discussion at the table-dilute , 

 where, amongst others, I met a certain Loris 

 Melikoff, a planter in the Caucasus, and brother, 

 I believe, to the dictator. Remembering; Prince 



o 



Vorontzoff's kindly advice, I carefully avoided 

 being drawn into the conversation as long as 

 politics were the subject, although some of the 

 things these half-educated officers were pleased to 

 say of England and her Premier (Lord l^eacons- 

 field) were hard to leave unanswered. They could 

 not, however, have paid him a greater compliment 

 than they involuntarily did by the hatred which 

 they expressed ; and consoling myself with this 

 thought,! ate my dinner with an appetite unmarred 

 by the contempt which they were pleased to ex- 

 press for a nation ruled by ' a Je\v.' This was 

 everywhere the phrase which they hurled at my 



