276 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



like a land of enchantment, filled with all the mystery 

 and magic of the north. Sadly we turned away from 

 it and went below. Disappointed hope is a bad 

 bedfellow. 



At seven o'clock next morniDg came a call : '* Come 

 up quickly ; the ships are in sight." The Oryol was 

 rolling along in a choppy sea, and there, not ten versts 

 away, were the vessels at last. There was no room for 

 uncertainty this time. Here were two big steamers 

 with three little tug-boats between them, all keep- 

 ing station as they steamed steadily southwards. The 

 English expedition had reached the Yenesei. We joined 

 hands and danced round the bridge, singing, "Hurrah 

 for the Kara Sea ! " 



All day we puffed up the river, but towards evening 

 the wind rose aQ-ain and obliojed us to lie to. There was 

 a balagan on shore, and about midnight a boatload of 

 people came off to the Oryol. Presently the pope came in 

 to tell us that he was about to celebrate a native wedding. 

 Should we like to see it ? Of course we went, and were 

 given the seat of honour beside the captain's wife at one 

 end of the saloon. The bridegroom was an Ostiak, and 

 the bride was a half-breed — the daughter of a Yurak by 

 a white woman. Their relations, in various degrees of 

 inebriety, crowded into the room. The pope, in the 

 gaudy robes of his order, put a little table in the middle 

 of the room, and arranged thereon all the ikons that he 

 could collect. As the woman, who did not look more 

 than seventeen years of age, had already borne two 

 children, prayers of purification were read over her 



