462 FROM YENESEISK TO TOMSK 



satisfaction, and no doubt a still better quality of these 

 would have been yet more appreciated. 



I spent most of the day of Saturday, the i8th of 

 August, in P. P. C. visits. This was a holiday ; a harvest 

 it must have proved to the isvostchiks, or cabdrivers. 

 The merchants and the various official personages sat 

 in state to receive visitors, and occasionally slipped out to 

 pay calls themselves. On a side-table in each house, 

 vodka, sherry, or madeira, dishes of cold meat, sardines, 

 dried fish, etc. were laid out, but no plates and very 

 little cutlery were to be seen. The visitors took a 

 mouthful and a glass of wine standing, chatted a few 

 minutes, and then left. I paid my visits with one of the 

 telegraph officials in uniform, who kindly translated for 

 me. He had just got two months' leave of absence, and 

 was going to Warsaw, so we arranged to travel together. 

 I spent the whole of the next day finishing the packing- 

 up of my birds. 



A dinner at the Ispravnik's on the following Monday 

 furnished me with a curious example of Yeneseisk 

 customs. I received a written invitation in French to 

 dine at two o'clock. Soon after that hour I made my 

 appearance, and found three other gentlemen, officials 

 from Krasnoyarsk, making up a party of half a dozen, 

 including host and hostess. After being introduced to 

 the other guests, I was requested to help myself from 

 the side-table to a glass of vodka or sherry, with a 

 morsel of bread and cheese, or a sardine. A card-table 

 was soon after placed in the centre of the room, and the 

 four gentlemen sat down to play a game resembling 

 whist, whilst I chatted in French with Madame. Some- 

 times Madame took a chair at the card-table, then the 

 Ispravnik and I would hold a laborious conversation in 

 Russian with the help of a dictionary. This continued 



