GLIMPSES OP LIFE IN THE DISTRICT. 163 



thoughts. About nine o'clock they shamble off to their 

 own quarter of the town ; which after that is as still as 

 death — not a hahac or a drunken man to he seen. No 

 Sir Wilfrid Lawson's Permissive Bill required here ; but 

 that is because they are not Christians, I suppose. 



' I never saw handsomer, more athletic looking men 

 than those Bokharians and Central Asians — perfect 

 Adonises every one of them, proud and noble in mein and 

 bearing, especially when mounted. They say they can do 

 anything on a horse, but nothing off. Well, you won't 

 catch them at hard work certainly. And it is no exaggera- 

 tion to say that their piercing black eyes sparkle like 

 diamonds; but the Baskirs, the Kalmuks, and the Ker- 

 ghis, are poor, miserable, repulsive-looking beings — the 

 very quintessence of Mongolian ugliness. 



' I saw another, to me, very exciting scene. As I learned 

 I should be some time in Troitsk, I went to the police 

 ofSce to send home a copy of my passport ; but I found it 

 Yfas not a police office at all, as Troitsk is under a military 

 commander of the Orenburg Kossae province. While 

 waiting there a great commotion occurred in the street — 

 people running, drums beating, soldiers marching — and 

 while I was looking through the window all vanished out 

 of the hall, and I was left alone. I, too, made a speedy 

 exit, ad I thought there must be a fire. I enquired from my 

 I'svoscliik (driver) what it all meant. He said, "Follow 

 on, and then you will see." I did so, and soon came up to 

 the crowd, who were swarming round a tumbrel waggon. 

 Un an elevated platform was a young woman, sitting with 

 her back to the horses, and her face to the merry, laugh- 

 ing, eager throng. Her screams were drowned by the 

 rataplan of the drums, as well they might be, for 

 she was weeping and writhing most piteously ; but she was 

 securely strapped back, arms, and feet. When we arrived 

 at the echafote all was hushed as she was taken down and 

 chained to a pillar in the centre, the military authorities 



