184 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



people was hard and monotonous enough. Nature had 

 provided them with only two things in abundance, 

 wood and water, both of which lay outside their doors. 

 Nevertheless they seemed very happy and contented, 

 and we had quite an enjoyable picnic on the shore, until 

 presently two men landed from the boat and joined us. 

 Neither of them seemed quite to have recovered from 

 the feast of the previous day, especially one, a hot- 

 coloured red-haired young man with a most unpre- 

 possessing cast of countenance, and I liked him still 

 less from what I understood of his sly winks to his 

 neighbour and his remarks to the girls. He was very 

 inquisitive, and began to play with my gun, asking if it 

 was for sale. I replied no, but he still seemed so re- 

 luctant to give it up that I feared he wanted to keep it 

 altogether. 



I therefore told him that it was a horroshie angliski 

 rouschye — a splendid English gun (English being the 

 equivalent of the treble X hall-mark in Siberia) — and 

 under the pretext of showing him how the ejector 

 worked, I persuaded him to give it up to me, and 

 slipped in a couple of cartridges. After this he did not 

 meddle with the gun any more, but instead tried to beg 

 first my binoculars and secondly my gold watch. I 

 took refuge in the ever-useful, " I do not understand 

 Russian," which always parried inconvenient questions, 

 and in order to distract his attention, suggested that 

 the party should be photographed. This proposal met 

 with great approval, and the whole family ran into the 

 balagan, whence they presently returned dressed in their 

 finest clothes — the women iu holiday kerchiefs and the 



