PLANNING THE RIDE. 41 



Persian in this respect. The rest of the story was, not 

 unlikely, true enough, but the " two thousand stu- 

 dents sent to Siberia ' was worthy of the Persian who, 

 within a stone's throw of the mud walls of Teheran, 

 told me that they were of marble. 



Many of the exaggerated stories that reach us from 

 Russia and the East are the result of the European 

 correspondent taking the statements of the natives too 

 literally. 



If you are traveling in Turkey or Persia, the native, 

 believing you to be anxious to get to your destination, 

 will assure you that it is but an hour away, even 

 though it be several days. In like manner, these Rus- 

 sian students, knowing that, as an American, I was 

 probably interested in the question of students being 

 sent to Siberia, evolved from their inner consciousness 

 the story of the two thousand. 



Neither Turks nor Russians expect you to accept 

 their statements literally. A polite desire to please, 

 to say something that they imagine will fall pleasantly 

 an your ear, is the motif, in so far as there is one ; but 

 with them both, the tongue is more often but the vehi- 

 cle for the ventilation of the vaguest imaginings. In- 

 tellectual apathy is the explanation. Ask six different 

 officials, about a railway station, as to the time of de- 

 parture of a certain train, and, whether in Turkey or 

 Russia, you will be very sure to get a half-dozen con- 

 flicting replies. Too careless to remember and too 

 lazy of brain to reflect, the answer will be the time they 

 happen to think of first. In our conception of the 

 Russians we are, I think, too apt to neglect this trait 

 of their character. 



