A JOURNEY IN SIBERIA. 393 



in the fields or even in the forests which we traversed. For in the 

 open country winter still kept its fetters on life and all was quiet 

 and death-like; we saw hardly any birds except the hooded crow 

 and the yellow bunting; and the snow showed scarce any tracks of 

 mammals. In the villages, however, we were welcomed at least by 

 the delightful jackdaws, which adorned the roofs of the log-houses, 

 by the ravens, which with us at home are the shy frequenters of 

 mountain and forest, but are here the most confident companions 

 of the villagers, by magpies and other birds, not to speak of 

 domestic animals, among which the numerous pigs were especially 

 obtrusive. 



After an uninterrupted journey of four days, without refreshing 

 sleep, without any real rest, without sufficient food, we felt as if 

 we had been beaten in every limb, and were, indeed, glad to reach 

 Kazan — the old capital of the Tartars. We crossed the Volga on 

 foot, picking our steps over the much-broken ice, and drew near to 

 the city of sixty towers, which we had seen the day before shining 

 in the distance. I fancied myself once more in the East. From 

 the minarets and the spire-like wooden towers I heard again the 

 notes which call every faithful follower of Islam to prayer; dark- 

 eyed women bustled about among the turbaned men, veiling them- 

 selves anxiously from their country folk, but unveiling inquisitively 

 before us, and picking their steps, on account of their dainty but 

 not waterproof saffron shoes, along the steps of the houses protected 

 by the overhanging eaves. In the uproar of the bazaar young and 

 old thronged and bustled without restraint. Everything was just 

 as it is in the East. Only the numerous stately churches — among 

 which we saw the convent of "the black Madonna of Kasan not 

 made by human hands ", conspicuous both in site and architecture — 

 were out of keeping with the Eastern picture, though they showed 

 plainly enough that Christians and Mohammedans were here living 

 in mutual tolerance. 



On lighter sledges, but over even more unsubstantial highways, 

 we journeyed onwards towards Perm and the Ural. The road led 

 through Tartar and Eussian villages and the fields around them, 

 and again through extensive forests. The Tartar villages usually 



