272 SIBERIA 



beyond this station it was necessary to cross the River 

 Obi. When we arrived at Jelensky, and went into 

 the room to see the master, we found him seated with 

 about twenty other peasants round a table, all of 

 them" about three-parts drunk. They were unanimous 

 in the opinion that the Obi was too dangerous to 

 cross that night, but we told them we had heard 

 nonsense of that kind before and were determined 

 to proceed. The master then announced to us, that 

 if we were willing to pay for two carriers, and to 

 give him 5s. for the six miles to Barnaoul, he would 

 take us, to which terms we agreed, only stipulating 

 that the start was to be made without delay. Ten 

 minutes later we were seated in a drosky and driving 

 through the village. Two of the drunken men, who 

 had gone on before us to get their horses, for the 

 purpose of accompanying us, hailed our driver and 

 jumped on the drosky, the one behind and the other 

 at the front. From the reckless manner in which 

 these men jumped on the drosky, and the way they 

 tumbled off again to go into the yard for their horses, 

 we were very doubtful as to their ability to retain 

 their seats upon the animals. We drove along 

 slowly, and in about twenty minutes turned round 

 at some shouting. This was from the two moujiks, 

 who, seated on one horse, were galloping furiously, 

 one of them' waving his arms frantically to frighten 

 the horse into full speed. The spectacle they pre- 

 sented was irresistibly comical. They trotted behind 

 us all the way, chatting to our driver, until, as we 

 were going through some deep snow quite near the 

 riverside, they rode up alongside us. Just as the 

 first moujik was turning round to shout something, 

 the horse stumbled in a snow heap and rolled him 

 off like a log. As he crawled out of the snow we 

 expected to hear him swearing in those terribly long 

 and ugly Russian words, but he only remarked that 



