tives of the surrounding region, most of them engaged in
transporting merchandise to and from the city. I saw several trains of
their little two-wheeled carts bringing tea from the southward or
departing with Russian merchandise, and in one visit I encountered a
drove of camels on the neutral ground.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

I have already mentioned the prevalence of feast-days, both national
and personal. During my stay in Kiachta there were several of these
happy occasions, and I was told they would last the entire winter. One
man opened his house on his name's day, and another on that of his
wife. A third received friends on the anniversary of his daughter's
birth, and a fourth had a regular house-warming. Each kept open
mansion in the forenoon and greeted all who came. There was a grand
dinner in the afternoon, followed by a _soiree dansame_ and a supper
at a late hour. In a population like that of Kiachta there is a weekly
average of at least three feast days for the entire year. During my
stay Major Boroslofski had a morning reception on the anniversary of
the death of a child, but there was naturally neither dinner nor dance
after it.

The dinner and dancing parties were much alike, the same company being
present at all. Even the servants were the same, there being a regular
organization to conduct household festivities. At the first dinner I
attended there were about forty persons at table, all of the sterner
sex. According to the custom among Russian merchants the ladies were
by themselves in another room. Between their apartment and ours there
was a large room, corresponding, as I thought, to the neutral ground
between Kiachta and Maimaichin. Doors were open, and though nobody
occupied the _terre neutrale_ during dinner, both parties retired to
it at the end of the meal.

The dinner would have been a success in St. Petersburg or Paris; how
much more was it a triumph on the boundary between China and Siberia.
Elegant and richly furnished apartments, expensive table ware, and a
profusion of all procurable luxuries, were the attractions of the
occasion. We had apples from European Russia, three thousand miles
westward, and grapes from Pekin, a thousand miles to the south. There
were liberal quantities of dried and preserved fruits, and the wines
were abundant and excellent. Of the local productions we had many
substantials, till all appetites were satisfied.

According to Russian custom the host does not p