THE BLAGACHINA 289 



finally begged again and again for his friend in Omsk. 

 It was very amusing and very expensive ; otherwise the 

 old buffer was as jolly as possible, talked and laughed 

 and made himself and us at home, gave us the best he 

 (or rather the widow) had, and kissed us most affection- 

 ately at parting. 



The Blagachina was a tall, comparatively young man, 

 with long flowing hair parted in the middle. He was a 

 widower. So far as we could see he appeared to be a 

 true man, anxious to do all the good that lay in his 

 power and to give us every information possible. He 

 was very kind and generous to us, and invited us several 

 times to his house ; but he had the too common Russian 

 failing of being fonder of vodka than was consistent with 

 due sobriety. 



The second priest was a teetotaler, a small, keen- 

 eyed man, with an excellent wife and a row of charming 

 children. He had a turning-lathe in his house, and was 

 skilful in making cups, boxes, etc., out of cedar and 

 mammoth-ivory. He had been amongst the Ostiaks of 

 the Taz, and had visited the ruins of the ancient town 

 of Mangaze. He was something of an ethnologist 

 and archaeologist, and made very fair pencil sketches. I 

 rather liked him, but Captain Wiggins thought him 

 something of a Jesuit, poking his nose into everything, 

 ubiquitous, and taking upon himself to answer every 

 question, no matter to whom addressed. He had taken 

 the side of the deposed Zessedatel in the quarrel between 

 that gentleman and the two captains in the previous 

 year, and so had incurred the anger of the postmaster 

 and the Blagachina, who nicknamed him the " Thir- 

 teenth Apostle." From what I afterwards learned, I am, 

 however, disposed to think he was in the right. The 

 postmaster appeared to be a good-natured fellow, a 



