by any accident did they hit upon
the right combination, unless I stood over them constantly and
superintended personally the preparation of my own supper. Ignorant as
they were, however, of the nature of these strange American eatables,
they always manifested a great curiosity to taste them, and their
experiments in this way were sometimes very amusing. One evening, soon
after we left Shestakova, they happened to see me eating a pickled
cucumber, and as this was something which had never come within the
range of their limited gastronomical experience, they asked me for
a piece to taste. Knowing well what the result would be, I gave the
whole cucumber to the dirtiest, worst-looking vagabond in the party,
and motioned to him to take a good bite. As he put it to his lips his
comrades watched him with breathless curiosity to see how he liked it.
For a moment his face wore an expression of blended surprise, wonder,
and disgust, which was irresistibly ludicrous, and he seemed disposed
to spit the disagreeable morsel out; but with a strong effort he
controlled himself, forced his features into a ghastly imitation
of satisfaction, smacked his lips, declared it was "akhmel
nemelkhin"--very good,--and handed the pickle to his next neighbour.
The latter was equally astonished and disgusted with its unexpected
sourness, but, rather than admit his disappointment and be laughed at
by the others, he also pretended that it was delicious, and passed it
along. Six men in succession went through with this transparent farce
with the greatest solemnity; but when they had all tasted it, and all
been victimised, they burst out into a simultaneous "ty-e-e-e" of
astonishment, and gave free expression to their long-suppressed
emotions of disgust. The vehement spitting, coughing, and washing out
of mouths with snow, which succeeded this outburst, proved that the
taste for pickles is an acquired one, and that man in his aboriginal
state does not possess it. What particularly amused me, however, was
the way in which they imposed on one another. Each individual Korak,
as soon as he found that he had been victimised, saw at once the
necessity of getting even by victimising the next man, and not one of
them would admit that there was anything bad about the pickle until
they had all tasted it. "Misery loves company," and human nature is
the same all the world over. Dissatisfied as they were with the result
of this experiment, they were not at all daun