274 DOWN RIVER TO THE KAMIN PASS 



Hebrew with both these languages, but on the whole I 

 might have had a worse interpreter, as he did his best to 

 translate faithfully what my companion for the time being 

 said, instead of telling me what, in his (the interpreter's) 

 opinion my companion ought to have said, as too many 

 interpreters are in the habit of doing. Nevertheless, 

 Glinski was, without exception, one of the greatest thick- 

 heads that I have ever met with. He was an exile from 

 the south of Russia. At fourteen years of age he had 

 committed some crime — stolen and destroyed some bills 

 or securities for which his father was liable — and had 

 spent some years in prison. He was afterwards exiled, 

 and his term of exile had just expired. He had scarcely 

 any notion of arithmetic, and his other acquirements were 

 so scanty that he was continually chaffed even by the 

 simple-minded Russian peasants. He was very short- 

 sighted, but clever with his fingers. I asked him if he 

 thought he could learn to skin birds. He said he thought 

 he could, but should like to see how it was done. I 

 skinned a couple of redpolls in his presence, and gave 

 him a bullfinch to try his hand on. With a little help 

 and instruction he made a tolerable skin of it. We after- 

 wards skinned a few birds together at various stations on 

 the journey, and when we arrived at our winter quarters 

 I turned over this part of my work entirely to Glinski. 

 At the end of a week he could skin better and quicker 

 than I could, and on one occasion, as will be hereafter^ 

 recorded, he skinnied forty- seven birds for me in one day. 

 I always found him industrious, honest, and anxious to 

 do his best. He asked me twenty roubles a month 

 wages, I of course paying his board and lodging and 

 travelling expenses. I agreed to these terms, and 

 promised also an additional bonus of ten kopeks per 

 skin. During the time that Glinski was with me he 



