[1] As vagabonds are frequently mentioned in this narrative, and
Mokrievitch himself became one of them, it may be well to explain
that the wanderers so designated are simply tramps unfurnished with
passports. A double stream of these waifs is always on the move through
Siberia—one towards the east, the other towards the west—the latter
free, the former generally in bonds. Many of the involuntary settlers
either do not take kindly to work, or find their lot intolerable, and
so make off on the first opportunity, begging their way, and living on
the charity of the peasants, who never refuse a destitute traveller a
crust of bread and a night's lodging. Not a few of these wanderers sink
under the hardships to which they are exposed, or freeze to death in
the forests, and the survivors are nearly always arrested before they
reach the frontier of European Russia; but they cause the police a
world of trouble. Having no papers, they are able to give false names,
and deny being fugitive transports—which they almost invariably do.
There is then nothing for it but to write to whatever address a man may
give—generally some remote village—and inquire if he is known there.
Should the answer be in the negative, the fact is taken as proof of the
paperless one's guilt, and he is sent back in chains to the interior
of Siberia. As likely as not, however, it will be in the affirmative,
for there prevails among these outcasts a strange yet regular trade in
what the vagabonds call “nests.” For instance, Ivan Ivanovitch, being
in want of money, sells to Peter Iliouschka, who has a few kopecs to
spare, the name and address of some mujik of his acquaintance, who
long ago left his native village for parts unknown—or, perhaps, his
own name and address. This is Peter's nest, and when he falls into
the hands of the police he tells them he is Paul Lubovitch, from, let
us say, Teteriwino, in the government of Koursk. On this, a missive
is sent to the _starosta_ of Teteriwino, who replies, in due course,
to the effect that the village did once possess a Paul Lubovitch, but
whether the person in question be the same man he is unable to say.
The next proceeding is to send the _soi-disant_ Paul to Teteriwino for
identification. This proceeding naturally results in the detection of
the imposture, whereupon our friend Peter is condemned to a new term of
exile, and sent back whence he came.