33° THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



The recognized tendency of the densely ignorant to 

 regard with suspicion anything they cannot understand, 

 operated against us in every village we entered. Curi- 

 osity might greet us with a fair measure of hospitality 

 to begin with, but suspicion was very sure to be close 

 in its wake and would eventually come to the fore. 



By the men we were suspected of being secret agents 

 of the government, visiting them in the artful guise of 

 passing travelers. By the women, whose dread of the 

 Evil One was more palpable than their dread of govern- 

 ment spies, we were suspected of being Antichrists, 

 wizards, or " Cow Deaths." 



One poor old soul is distinctly remembered among 

 many others because of her innocent confidences. 

 She didn't know what we might be, she confessed ; as 

 for her, she was very old and had nothing more to live 

 for, so could very well be indifferent as to what might 

 happen as a result of our visit. 



She remembered, however, that two strangers, "very 

 much like us," had ridden through the village during 

 the war with the Turks ; that three boys who had fol- 

 lowed them down the road to call them names were 

 never seen again. We took this as a powerful hint to 

 deal gently with her grandchildren who were playing 

 about near by, should we be meditating a supernatural 

 visitation of any kind on the inhabitants of the place. 



Another form of suspicion was equally amusing, 

 though very annoying. 



Whether we obtained accommodation over night 

 with a rustic inn-keeper or a moujik, it seemed to be a 

 most natural suspicion in the mind of our host that if 

 not watched very closely we might clear out and leave 



