134 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



ercise of small knavery, by collecting donations from the 

 Orthodox and easily-gulled moujiks, under the pretense 

 of wishing to build a church. It seemed to me that 

 this would be an exceedingly congenial game to any 

 number of Russians ; but my companion assured me 

 that this class of fraud was positively unknown among 

 them, owing to their dread of incurring the wrath of the 

 saints. There was probably no mistake whatever about 

 this explanation. One who might be the biggest rogue 

 in all Russia in dealing with his fellows, would tremble 

 in his boots with fear at the suggestion of bamboozling 

 the saints by collecting money falsely in their name. 

 And on the road, in any dangerous part of the country 

 infested by Orthodox robbers, the toe-nail or shin-bone 

 of a saint, bearing the " hall-mark " of Holy Kiev to 

 prove its genuineness, would be a better protection to 

 the traveler than a whole arsenal of revolvers. 



All through the provinces of Orel and Kursk, our ears 

 were gladdened, — evening, night, and morning, — by the 

 singing of an astonishing number of nightingales. The 

 forests seemed alive with them, and of an evening 

 fairly rang with their sweet melody. Whether influ- 

 enced by the cheerinessand the example of these forest 

 songsters, or whether this particular part of Russia is 

 blessed with some mysterious property of earth or air 

 that inspires the vocal muse in humans as well as birds, 

 seemed a reasonable enough fantasy in which to indulge 

 one's mind ; for here, too, we heard more singing from 

 the village maidens than at any other part of the ride. 

 Nightingales are, indeed, said by some authorities to 

 be more plentiful in this part of Russia than in any 

 other country. It would be interesting to know what 



