ON THE CRIMEAN STEPPES. 247 



coloring of the picture. The noontide halt of the last 

 day but one of the ride was made in the o)d Tartar 

 town of Bekchiserai, where the population is now 

 chiefly Greek and Tartar. Here a band of itinerant 

 Greek musicians regaled my ears with the only music, 

 save of military bands, that had been heard on the 

 journey. 



All through Malo Russia, the land of the balalaika, 

 not a solitary twang of that instrument had been 

 heard; the dead level of the eternal steppes seemed to 

 have found an echo in the monotony of the people's 

 pursuits, which were the gratification of their animal 

 wants. After harvest, possibly, the Little Russian pic- 

 ture might have brightened somewhat; but the 

 absorbing concern of the population, as they came 

 under my observation was, monotonously, — work, food, 

 and money. 



But the mountains introduced the pleasure-loving 

 Greeks ; and so here at Bekchiserai were musicians at 

 mid-day, and the little girls dancing graceful Hellenic 

 measures to the playing. There was an element of doubt 

 as to whether this was altogether an improvement, 

 however, on the Little Russians, from their own 

 standpoint, so much as it was from mine ; unless, 

 indeed, the main object of life is the seeking of but- 

 terfly pleasures. As compared with the children of 

 the Russian villages, the little Greek girls were amus- 

 ingly precocious. Small misses of eight and ten danced 

 and posed in rivalry for the applause of the lookers-on, 

 as soubrettes on the stage ; and some of them smoked 

 cigarettes, producing paper and tobacco from their 

 pockets to roll them. 



