250 SIBERIA 



a drosky. The moujik who drove us was, no doubt 

 on account of the holiday, dressed in a handsome 

 suit of velvet. He was smart and clean shaved. 

 Nearly every peasant in Russia and Siberia wears 

 his hair and beard long — probably to protect him 

 from the severe cold in winter. 



The road to the next post station was very bad, 

 owing to the accumulations of deep snow, which the 

 sun had not yet melted and, although the distance 

 to Starahelokura is only six miles, the journey took 

 us more than six hours. The peasants had congre- 

 gated on a hill not far from the post station, where 

 they appeared to be enjoying themselves. The 

 women .were dressed in very striking, brightly-hued 

 costumes, the prevailing colour being red. We 

 arrived at Starahelokura at two o'clock and dined 

 at the station. We had made a detour of about six 

 miles to avoid two rivers, and had consequently left 

 the post route, which we rejoined at this station. 



The next station was Tochilna. We started as 

 soon as we had finished our meal. The road led 

 us over the hills and, as we approached the village, 

 we had. a splendid view of the flat-roofed huts lit up 

 by the sun. Large flocks of ducks and game of all 

 kinds flew past us, but we were anxious to reach 

 Bysk as quickly as possible, as we did not know what 

 might be in store for us. We were driven to the 

 post station and here the driver left us. He should 

 have taken us on to the next station, but, in spite of 

 our eloquence, he categorically refused to go any 

 farther. We discovered his reason for this when we 

 got on the way again. This took some arranging, 

 however, as we had the greatest difficulty in persuading 

 any one to take us, and, when at last we did induce 

 one of the moujiks to give us a. drosky, we had to 

 pay him three times the ordinary fare. Even then 

 he did not appear to be altogether happy, but walked 



