and ascends from the Arctic Ocean. Beef from the
Kirghese steppes elicited our praise, and so did game from the region
around Barnaool. At the end of the dinner I was ready to answer
affirmatively the inquiry, "all full inside?"

At the appearance of the champagne, Colonel Taskin of the mining
engineers made a brief speech in English, and ended by proposing the
United States of America and the health of the American stranger. Dr.
Schmidt translated my response as well as my toast to the Russian
empire, and especially the inhabitants of Barnaool. The doctor was
then honored for his mammoth hunt, and made proper acknowledgment.
Then we had personal toasts and more champagne with Russian and
American music, and champagne again, and then we had some more
champagne and then some champagne.

When the tables were removed, we had impromptu dancing to lively
music, including several Cossack dances, some familiar and others new
to me. There is one of these dances which usually commences by a woman
stepping into the centre of the room and holding a kerchief in her
right hand. Moving gracefully to the music, she passes around the
apartment, beckoning to one, hiding her face from another,
gesticulating with extended arms before a third, and skilfully
manipulating the kerchief all the while. When this sentimental
pantomime is ended, she selects a partner and waves the kerchief over
him. He pretends reluctance, but allows himself to be dragged to the
floor where the couple dance _en deux_. The dance includes a great
deal of entreaty, aversion, hope, and despair, all in dumb show, and
ends by the lady being led to a seat. I saw this dance introduced in
a ballet at the Grand Theatre in Moscow, and wondered why it never
appeared on the stage outside the Russian empire.

One of the gentlemen who danced admirably had recovered the use of his
legs two years before, after being unable to walk no less than
twenty-eight years. He declared himself determined to make up for lost
time, and when I left the hall, he continued entertaining himself.

During the dancing, a party gathered around where I stood and I
observed that every lady was assembling as if to witness some fun. "Be
on your watch," a friend whispered, "they are going to give you the
_polkedovate_."

The _polkedovate_ is nothing more nor less than a tossing up at the
hands of a dozen or twenty Russians. It has the effect of intoxicating
a sober man, but I never heard that it so