his fingers; and when I advised him to use
for that purpose his own pockets rather than mine, he promised to act
in future according to my advice. More than once, it is true, I believed
that I was in danger of being attacked, but on every occasion my fears
turned out to be unfounded, and sometimes the catastrophe was ludicrous
rather than tragical. Let the following serve as an illustration.

I had occasion to traverse, in company with a Russian friend, the
country lying to the east of the river Vetluga--a land of forest and
morass, with here and there a patch of cultivation. The majority of the
population are Tcheremiss, a Finnish tribe; but near the banks of the
river there are villages of Russian peasants, and these latter have the
reputation of "playing pranks." When we were on the point of starting
from Kozmodemiansk a town on the bank of the Volga, we received a visit
from an officer of rural police, who painted in very sombre colours the
habits and moral character--or, more properly, immoral character--of
the people whose acquaintance we were about to make. He related with
melodramatic gesticulation his encounters with malefactors belonging to
the villages through which we had to pass, and ended the interview with
a strong recommendation to us not to travel at night, and to keep at all
times our eyes open and our revolver ready. The effect of his narrative
was considerably diminished by the prominence of the moral, which was to
the effect that there never had been a police-officer who had shown
so much zeal, energy, and courage in the discharge of his duty as the
worthy man before us. We considered it, however, advisable to remember
his hint about keeping our eyes open.

In spite of our intention of being very cautious, it was already dark
when we arrived at the village which was to be our halting-place for the
night, and it seemed at first as if we should be obliged to spend the
night in the open air. The inhabitants had already retired to rest,
and refused to open their doors to unknown travellers. At length an old
woman, more hospitable than her neighbours, or more anxious to earn an
honest penny, consented to let us pass the night in an outer apartment
(seni), and this permission we gladly accepted. Mindful of the warnings
of the police officer, we barricaded the two doors and the window, and
the precaution was evidently not superfluous, for almost as soon as
the light was extinguished we could hear that an a