94 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



trousers, and was gathered about the waist with a belt 

 of russet leather. 



" I am very happy to see you," said Count Tolstoi, 

 cheerily. " I hope you will stay some days. We have 

 had American visitors occasionally ; you are, I see, 

 from New York." 



" We are riding from Moscow to the Crimea," I 

 said, " and, of course, couldn't think of passing without 

 calling to pay our respects." 



The Count looked thin and worn from a recent ill- 

 ness, but said he was now in good health. He was 

 taking a season of " koumiss cure." At Samara, on 

 the Volga, is an establishment for the manufacture of 

 koumiss, to which the invalids of Russia resort. Count 

 Tolstoi did not care to spend the summer at Samara, 

 so he had set up a little koumiss establishment of his 

 own. 



" Come and see it," he said, " and take my koumiss. 

 I have been mowing hay. I must now drink koumiss. 

 I drink it six times a day, and take nothing else but a 

 little soup or tea." 



At the end of another short avenue, we came to a 

 round wattle hut with a conical roof. It was a nomad 

 aoul, or tent, of the steppes, improvised out of the best 

 material at hand instead of the felt matting of the 

 tribes in their own homes. Three young colts were 

 tethered to a rope outside, and three big, fine brood- 

 mares, their dams, were grazing in the orchard. 



A family of Bashkirs occupied the aoul — husband, 

 wife, and two small children. They had been obtained 

 from the koumiss establishments of Samara and brought 

 to Yasnia Polyana. The three mares each gave about 



