A MODEL VILLAGE 443 



inhabitants of the village. It was evident at a glance 

 that the people here were a different race from the 

 Yenesei Russian. The place looked quite English ! 

 Order reigned, and a hundred little details betokened 

 industry and civilisation. The boats were larger and 

 better finished ; instead of being hauled up on shore 

 through the mud, a wooden Janding-stage was provided 

 for them, with a revolving wooden roller at the head. 

 Instead of having to climb a muddy inclined plane to 

 reach the houses, a flight of wide and easy wooden steps 

 led up to them, with a neat gate at the bottom to keep 

 the cows from coming up. To reach an ordinary 

 Russian peasant's house one has to pick one's way across 

 a dunghill. Here the surrounding space was clean, the 

 cows being railed off on every side. The inhabitants 

 were most hospitable. Although it was only half-past 

 two the women- folk were stirring. Soon the samovar 

 came in steaming, and tea, sugar, bread and butter, and 

 smoked herrings were laid before us. " That says more 

 than it looks," as the German idiom has it : tea and 

 butter are kept in store for strangers only, and are never 

 tasted by the inhabitants. The house we were in was 

 far better than any we had visited between Yeneseisk 

 and the sea ; the rooms were lofty, the windows large, 

 well glazed, and double ; there was a large and well- 

 built stove in it, and due provision was made for ventila- 

 tion. A special stove was erected to smoke out 

 mosquitoes. A clock hung upon the wall, and there 

 were positively books on a shelf! The carpenter's work 

 was excellent, evidently planed, and not merely smoothed 

 with an axe. There was also ample evidence about that 

 the village possessed a competent smith. Outside, the 

 same signs of honest toil prevailed : casks were being 

 made, and boats were being built. Several fields, care- 



