UP THE DON AND VOLGA. 259 



Cossacks threw their arms about each other's necks 

 and kissed. 



Kalatch is three days' journey by steamboat up the 

 Don from Rostoff. The time occupied in reaching it, 

 however, conveys to the American altogether a mis- 

 leading idea regarding the distance between the two 

 places, until he understands the sinuous and shallow 

 nature of the river and the extraordinary methods that 

 have to be resorted to at times to help the steamer 

 along. 



The prominent features of Kalatch were lumber, 

 vodka shops, red-shirted lumbermen, and a boat hotel 

 for the accommodation of travelers. On the upper 

 deck of this floating caravansary, at a near table, were 

 a party of Russian travelers. Noticing that I was a 

 foreigner, they ceased talking their mother tongue and 

 began chattering in French. In a few minutes they 

 dropped French and took a turn at German. 



This peculiarity of the traveling Russian had come 

 under the observation of the writer many times, and I 

 have yet to come to a satisfactory solution of their 

 motive. The airing of their linguistic accomplishments 

 was, on the whole, too modest in its manifestations to 

 justify a verdict of ostentation. Their talk was to one 

 another and not at the foreigner, whose presence, never- 

 theless, undoubtedly had stimulated their tongues to 

 the international exercise. 



The explanation that occurs to me as being the 

 most probable is this, nearly all Russians of education 

 and noble birth learn several languages in their youth. 

 English governesses, French teachers, German nurses, 

 instructed them in their tender youth, and made these 



