1 66 STANAVIALACHTA REVISITED 



smoke a few papyros, and dress. The peasants frequent 

 these bath-houses, and often walk out of the hot steam 

 naked, the colour of boiled lobsters, to plunge into the 

 Petchora. 



The next day was one of our red-letter days. Little 

 Feodor, our boatman, returned, bearing with him the 

 longed-for trophy the swan's skin. He told us he had 

 gone to Mekitza, only to learn there that the peasant 

 whom he sought had departed to another island to fish. 

 Going to his house he found, however, that the man had 

 left the skin with his wife, and she, good soul, had cut off 

 the beak and given it to her children for a plaything. 

 Feodor paid her a rouble for the skin, with the feet still 

 attached to it, and got the beak into the bargain. There 

 was no other swan's skin in the house, nor, as far as we 

 could ascertain, was there another in the village ; this 

 one was still soft and greasy, showing the bird had been 

 but recently killed. This, undoubtedly, was the skin of 

 a Bewick's swan ; the beak also 'was equally indisputable. 

 The eggs in our possession were exactly the size one 

 would expect a swan so much smaller than the wild swan 

 would lay. We had every reason to believe and none to 

 doubt that this was, indeed, the skin of the bird caught 

 upon the nest containing the two eggs we had purchased. 

 The chain of evidence connecting them was complete, 

 and the identification of the eggs satisfactory. Let us 

 recapitulate and go over the links of the narrative, the 

 more fully to establish the conclusion we had arrived at. 

 Two peasants are fishing together at Pyonni, an island 

 near the mouth of the delta of the great river, twelve 

 versts north of Stanavialachta. They find there a swan's 

 nest, containing two eggs, and they set a trap for the 

 bird, which they succeed in catching. In the division of 

 spoil, one takes the eggs, the other the swan. One peasant, 



