A NATIONAL CHARACTERISTIC. 3 2 9 



this side of his nature, but it was not to be dislodged 

 either by ridicule or discomfiture. In an American, 

 an Englishman, a German, this pertinacious suspicion 

 would have called for resentment, but with the Russian 

 it is plain as daylight that he is no more responsible 

 for his suspicions than a crow is for being black. 



And speaking of crows, since there are supposed to 

 be white crows, it is fair to presume that there may also 

 be such phenomena as unsuspicious Russians, though 

 I should say one would be as rare a bird as the other. 



Though I never lost patience with my companion on 

 account of his absurd suspicions, there was a certain 

 malicious delight in seeing him come daily under the 

 suspicion of others. He never grew weary of relating 

 to his countrymen that his companion had ridden 

 around the world on a bicycle, and, though he never 

 succeeded in getting one of them to believe it, he re- 

 turned to the unequal combat on an average of three 

 times a day. " Eato na mozhet buet " (Such a thing 

 cannot be) was the answer he nearly always got, and 

 any further attempt to explain away his auditor's sus- 

 picions only tended to increase them. His sole reward 

 would be their admiration of what they considered his 

 extraordinary abilities as a disciple of Munchausen, 

 artistic lying being regarded in Russia as a valuable 

 accomplishment. 



Among the peasants, the suspicions of the people 

 with whom we had dealings assumed many curious 

 forms. In a general way we were always under the 

 ban of suspicion ; primarily because we were strangers, 

 and secondly, because we were strangers of an uncom« 

 mon sort. 



