' MAKORKHA.' Ill 



within a stone's throw of the village. But 

 for all that, when the entertainment was over 

 and our endurance at an end, there was 

 not a sing-le o-uide forthcomino; for the next 

 day, nor even a horse promised to carry our 

 bao:o;a2:e. 



DO o 



The letters which our kind friend. Baron 

 Geikin, had given us to the starchina were, 

 no doubt, powerful and useful m their way, 

 but unluckily there is no law obliging the 

 starchina to keep at home or leave another to 

 perform his duties in his absence, so we never 

 found anyone to present our letters to. 



At last, there being no dry place left to 

 expectorate upon, and no more liquor forth- 

 coming, the Elders of Gebi kindly took them- 

 selves, their ' makorkha ' (a vile kind of rough 

 native tobacco, smoked out of small pipes 

 such as opium- smokers use), and their garlic 

 off to the bosoms of their respective families ; 

 and after Platon had cleared decks as well as 



