164 SIBERIA 



passed some hills that looked as if they consisted 

 of gold and copper, and we photographed a Kalmuck 

 shrine near a settlement of these interesting people. 

 The rites appear to consist in lighting a fire and 

 walking round it with lighted faggots in their hands, 

 offering prayers. Their religion is said to be 

 Shamanism, but from the part that fire plays in 

 the rites it would appear rather to be a form of 

 Zoroastrianisffi. 



We arrived at Ouskam at seven o'clock. Most of 

 the villagers had gone after a pack of wolves that 

 had, very inconsiderately, eaten two horses the pre- 

 vious night, so we experienced some difficulty in 

 procuring a sledge and team to take us farther. 

 We got these in instalnients at last, the horses coming 

 from one peasant and the sledge from another, and 

 at eight o'clock in the evening we started on a. 

 40-mile stage to Abbi. 



The first part of the journey was through very 

 fine scenery and over level ground. Some of the 

 valleys were about a. mile and a half across, ^nd 

 their extent was about 20 miles. The rest pf the 

 journey escaped my observation, as it was my turn 

 to sleep. When I awoke, the temperature had fallen 

 and the thermometer now registered 7 degrees below 

 freezing-point; my feet were slightly frozen. 



We were very glad when we reached Abbi. We 

 had travelled for thirty-two and a half hours, with 

 three halts of an hour ea:ch, from Tavourack to Abbi, 

 a total distance of 76 miles, 20 miles of which were 

 over mountain passes. 



A peasant who had just arrived from Koksa, 

 40 miles farther on, offered to take us the whole 

 journey for three roubles, or about 6s. 4^d. This 

 was too good an offer to miss, so we arranged to 

 start at half-past six the next morning. It was four 

 o'clock when we arrived, but we were anxious to 



