ther round us at the station-house. All sorts of queries and
ejaculations would pass among them. One would ask: "Are these gentlemen
baptized? Are they really Christians?" On account of their extreme
ignorance these Russian colonists are by no means able to cope with their
German colleagues, who are given the poorest land, and yet make a better
living.

The steppe is a good place for learning patience. With the absence of
landmarks, you seem never to be getting anywhere. It presents the
appearance of a boundless level expanse, the very undulations of which are
so uniform as to conceal the intervening troughs. Into these, horsemen,
and sometimes whole caravans, mysteriously disappear. In this way we were
often enabled to surprise a herd of gazelles grazing by the roadside. They
would stand for a moment with necks extended, and then scamper away like a
shot, springing on their pipe-stem limbs three or four feet into the air.
Our average rate was about seven miles an hour, although the roads were
sometimes so soft with dust or sand as to necessitate the laying of straw
for a foundation. There was scarcely an hour in the day when we were not
accompanied by from one to twenty Kirghiz horsemen, galloping behind us
with cries of "Yakshee!" ("Good!") They were especially curious to see how
we crossed the roadside streams. Standing on the bank, they would watch
intently every move as we stripped and waded through with bicycles and
clothing on our shoulders. Then they would challenge us to a race, and, if
the road permitted, we would endeavor to reveal some of the possibilities
of the "devil's carts." On an occasion like this occurred one of our few
mishaps. The road was lined by the occupants of a neighboring tent
village, who had run out to see the race. One of the Kirghiz turned
suddenly back in the opposite direction from which he had started. The
wheel struck him at a rate of fifteen miles per hour, lifting him off his
feet, and hurling over the handle-bars the rider, who fell upon his left
arm, and twisted it out of place. With the assistance of the bystanders it
was pulled back into the socket, and bandaged up till we reached the
nearest Russian village. Here the only physician was an old blind woman of
the faith-cure persuasion. Her massage treatment to replace the muscles
was really effective, and was accompanied by prayers and by signs of the
cross, a common method of treatment among the lower class of Russians. In
one i