Here I may relate another amusing incident. Unable to get at my towels
packed in my registered baggage, and ignorant of the Russian language, I
inquired of a polyglot fellow-passenger what was the Russian word for
towel, so that I could ask the guard for one.

"_Palatiensi_," said he, and I repeated, "Palatiensi, palatiensi,
palatiensi," so as to impress the word well upon my memory. Having
enjoyed a good wash and a shampoo, and dripping all over with water, I
rang for the guard, and sure enough, when the man came, I could
not recollect the word. At last it dawned upon me that it
was,--"_Palatinski_," and "_Palatinski_," I asked of the guard.

To my surprise the guard smiled graciously, and putting on a modest air
replied: "_Palatinski niet, paruski_ (I do not speak Latin, I speak only
Russian)," and the more I repeated "palatinski," putting the inflection
now on one syllable, then on the other, to make him understand, the more
flattered the man seemed to be, and modestly gave the same answer.

This was incomprehensible to me, until my polyglot fellow-passenger came
to my assistance.

"Do you know what you are asking the guard?" he said in convulsions of
laughter.

"Yes, I am asking for a 'palatinski'--a towel."

"No, you are not!" and he positively went into hysterics. "Palatinski
means 'Do you speak Latin?' How can you expect a Russian railway-guard to
speak Latin? Look how incensed the poor man is at being mistaken for a
Latin scholar! Ask him for a _palatiensi_, and he will run for a towel."

The man did run on the magic word being pronounced, and duly returned
with a nice clean _palatiensi_, which, however, was little use to me for
I had by this time nearly got dry by the natural processes of dripping
and evaporation.

One or two other similar incidents, and the extreme civility one meets
from every one while travelling in Russia, passed the time away
pleasantly until Kiev, one of the oldest cities of Russia, was reached.

CHAPTER II

Kiev--Its protecting Saint--Intellectuality and trade--Priests
and education--Wherein lies the strength of Russia--Industries--A
famous Monastery--The Catacombs of St. Theodosius and St.
Anthony--Pilgrims--Veneration of Saints--The Dnieper
river--Churches--A luminous cross--Kharkoff--Agriculture--Horse
fairs--Rostoff--Votka drunkenness--Strong fortifications--Cheap
and good travelling--Baku.

Tradition tells us that Kiev was