s with written calculations, or demonstrate the problem by
the four cardinal rules of arithmetic; you might express the numbers
by sticks, stones, beans, or grains of coffee, but it would be all
the same to this astute and cautious calculator--facts can only reach
his understanding through the colored balls of his beloved schot. I
don't think he would rely with certainty upon the loose verbal
statement that two and two make four without resorting to the schot
for a verification. But to proceed:

A few of the guests, too far gone with "little water" to get up and
perform their devotions, rolled over on the floor and went to sleep.
The lights grew dim. A gloomy silence began to settle over the room,
interrupted only by the occasional grunting or snoring of the
sleepers. The ruffians who sat at the table with me had been nodding
for some time; but, roused by the cessation of noises, they called to
the man of the house, and in a low voice gave him some orders. He got
a light and opened a small door in a recess at one side of the room. I
was then lifted up by the others and carried into an adjoining
passage, and thence up a narrow stairway. In a large dingy room
overhead I could see by the flickering rays of the lamp a bed in one
corner. It was not very clean--none of the Russian beds are--but they
laid me in it, nevertheless, for I could offer no remonstrance. What
they had hitherto done was bad enough, but this capped the climax of
outrages. Were the cowardly villains afraid to murder me, and was this
their plan of getting it done, and at the same time getting rid of the
body? Great heavens! was I to be devoured piecemeal by a rapacious
horde of the wild beasts that are said to infest the Russian beds! And
utterly helpless, too, without the power to grapple with as much as a
single flea--the least formidable, perhaps, of the entire gang! It was
absolutely fearful to contemplate such an act of premeditated
barbarity; yet what could I do, unable to speak a word or move a limb.

I am reminded by this that the Russians derive the most striking
features of their civilization from the French and Germans. Their
fashions, their tailors, their confectioners, their perfumeries, their
barbers, are nearly all French or Germans; but their baths are a
national institution, derived originally, perhaps, from the Orientals.
We hear a good deal of Russian baths, especially from enthusiastic
travelers, and are apt to suppose that where such