No, it is not winter; but you see the Ostjaks and most of the Russians
wear their hair long, quite down to the neck. Our hair is growing, but
at present it will only just lie down flat. If I leave on these black
tails round the caps, at a little distance it will look like hair. Then,
if you like, I can make two summer caps to put on when we land to buy
anything."

"Very well, Luka, I think the idea is a good one. The people do wear
their hair long, and our close crops might excite attention. This is
better than gold-digging at Kara, isn't it?"

Luka nodded. "No good for man always to work," he said. "Good to lie
quiet sometimes."

"I don't know that I care about lying quiet generally, Luka, but it is
pleasant to do so in a boat. I am keeping a look-out for wild-fowl, it
would make a pleasant change to fish diet."

"Not so far south as this. The Yenesei swarms with them in winter, but
in summer they go north. Just before the frost begins you can shoot as
many as you like."

"That will be something to look forward to. When does the weather begin
to get cold and dry?"

"Where I lived the nights began to get cold at the end of September, but
we shall be far down the Yenesei by that time, and it will begin early
in the month."

"We shall be a long way down," Godfrey said, "if we keep on at this
pace. We must be going past the banks eight or nine versts an hour."

"That is nothing; it will be more than twice that some times. The Angara
between the lake and Irkutsk runs fifteen versts. When I was taken east
we saw barges, each towed up-stream by twenty horses, and it took them
sometimes four days, sometimes six, to make forty-five versts."

As they went along they passed several fishing-boats, but as they were
keeping in the middle of the stream, while the boats lay in the slacker
water near the shore, there was no conversation. Twice the Ostjaks
shouted to know where they were going, but Luka only replied by pointing
down the stream. The journey was singularly uneventful. At night they
lit a torch for a short time, and generally speared sufficient fish for
the next day, but if not, they cut a strip or two from the back of one
they had caught, baited three or four hooks and dropped them overboard,
and never failed in a short time to fill up their larder. Sometimes they
grilled the fish over the fire, sometimes fried them, sometimes cut them
up in pieces that would go into the kettle, and boiled them.
Occasionally, w