SUSPICIOUS PEASANTS. 157 



startlingly curious in these days of well-nigh universal 

 enlightenment among the Western nations. In speak- 

 ing of the different navies, he seemed thoroughly con- 

 scious of the superiority of the British navy over the 

 Russian; "but," said he, "if a British ship were to 

 attempt to run down a Russian ship, God would inter- 

 fere on behalf of the Russians, and before the English 

 ship could reach them it would go to the bottom." 



One can understand how the Russian authorities 

 manage to foster such beliefs in the soldiers, who are 

 never altowed to come under any outside influence, 

 but it was something of a revelation to the writer, that 

 a young officer who had knocked about in foreign 

 ports should still seriously entertain such fanatical 

 ideas as this. 



We were now fairly in Little Russia, and at Khar- 

 koff we had reached the end of the broad chausse, 

 which we had followed all the way from Moscow. 

 The difficulty of finding our way across a country 

 threaded with small roads that seemed to lead to 

 nowhere in particular, during our first day out from 

 Babayi, afforded Sascha exceptional opportunities for 

 the display of one of his peculiarities of disposition. 

 This peculiarity consisted of assuming the looks and 

 the language of utter despair, on the smallest possible 

 provocation. Any difficulty about finding the road, 

 getting food to eat, or a place to pass the night, or the 

 likelihood of being overhauled by the police about our 

 passports, would bring from Sascha the exclamation, 

 " Now what to do ? " with such a tremendous emphasis 

 on the " what," that at first I used to look at him with 

 astonishment, supposing him to be in a frame of mind 



