A PRISONER IN RUSSIAN HANDS 183 
one attended in gala attire, several of the men 
sporting swallow-tails and white 4 chokers.’ Dancing 
was kept up till well into the small-hours, to the 
accompaniment of a fiddle and accordion, which just 
managed to squeak out a few notes to enable the 
dancers to keep time. Although most of the votaries 
of the Terpsichorean art were about as graceful in 
their movements as young elephants, they heartily 
enjoyed themselves. What the dances were sup¬ 
posed to be I could not say, but it appeared as if 
each one danced what he liked, a cross between a 
polka and Highland schottische being the favourite. 
Eating, drinking, and smoking, filled up the intervals 
between dances. Vodki flowed freely, and several 
fine specimens of Kamchatkales were found next 
morning lying around preserved in alcohol. Nor 
was the drinking confined to the men ; the ladies 
took their share, and one or two youngsters of not 
more than twelve or thirteen were helplessly drunk. 
46 1 believe in many parts of Russia the natives are 
noted for their economical use of water, both in¬ 
wardly and outwardly. A teacup or oyster-shell is, 
I believe, the usual thing in which many of the 
Czar’s subjects take their morning bath. These, 
however, have to take a back-seat compared with 
some of the Petropaulovskians. Of course the 
steam bath is an institution here as in other parts of 
Russia, and all indulge in it more or less, but the 
everyday ablutions of many of the natives here 
are performed as follows : A quantity of water is 
taken into the mouth, the hollows of both hands 
held before the face, the water ejected into^ them 
and rubbed over the parts to be washed. This is 
doubly economical, as it does away with the necessity 
