The fishing season is divided into several distinct periods. The first,

which extends from March till May, that is from the breaking up of the

ice to the time of flood, is called the caviar season; it is the most

important and most productive of the caviar and isinglass. The second

occurs in July when the waters have sunk within their ordinary bed, and

the fish having spawned, are returning to the sea. The third, from

September to November, is the season when the beluga, sturgeon, and

sevriuga[34] return to the deepest parts of the river. These fish are

also taken in winter by nets of a peculiar form. At that time of year

the fishermen of the coasts often travel over the ice for dozens of

miles from the land. Every two men have a horse and sledge, and carry

with them 3000 yards of net, with which they capture belugas, sturgeons,

silures, and even seals under the ice. These expeditions are very

dangerous. The wind often drives the ice-blocks on a sudden out to sea,

and then the loss of the fishermen is inevitable, unless the wind chops

round and drives them back to land. Old experienced fishermen allege

that the instinct of the horses forewarns them of these atmospheric

changes, and that their uneasiness puts their masters on their guard

against the danger; according to the same authorities, the moment the

animals are yoked they turn of their own accord towards the shore, and

set off thither with extraordinary speed.

The fishermen of Astrakhan reckon three classes of fish. The first they

call red fish, which includes the beluga, the sevriuga, and the

sturgeon. The second consists of white fish, such as the salmon-trout,

the bastard beluga, the sterlet,[35] the carp or sazan, the soudak,[36]

and the silure. To the third class belong all those designated by the

general name of _tchistia_, _kovaya_ or _riba_, either on account of the

closeness of the nets employed to take them, or of their habits of

entering rivers in very dense shoals. They are small fish, which are

little prized, and are salted for the consumption of the interior of the

empire.

The government fishing board has the general control of the fisheries,

grants the requisite licences, superintends the election of the headmen,

sends out inspectors to maintain order, and collects information as to

the produce of the fisheries. In 1828, 8887 men employed in fishing, and

254 in taking seals, with 3219 boats, brought in 43,033 sturgeons,

653,164 sevriugas, and 23,069 belugas: these yielded 330 tons of caviar,

and about 34 tons of isinglass. There were also taken 8335 soudaks, and

the enormous quantity of 98,584 seals. The sturgeon fishery alone

produces about 2,000,000 of rubles annually, but the expenses are very

considerable. The revenue derived by the government from the fisheries

of the Volga amounts to 800,000 paper rubles.

The celebrated imperial ukase appointing a uniform monetary system

throughout the empire, was promulgated during our stay in Astrakhan, and

afforded us a fresh opportunity of beholding the amazing impassiveness

of the Russians, and their extreme incapability of self-assertion. The

change was certainly excellent in itself, and loudly called for by the

circumstances of the country, but the manner of carrying it into effect

caused a loss of eighteen per cent, to all holders of coin. In

Astrakhan, the voice of the public crier sufficed at once, and without

warning, to reduce the 4 ruble piece to 3.5, that of 1.20 to 1.05, that

of 1 ruble to 0.87, and that of 0.62 to 0.52; and immediately after beat

of drum, the law was carried into full force on all commercial

transactions. It must not be supposed, however, that this inert

resignation of the tzar's subjects is merely the result of their

profound reverence for whatever emanates from the omnipotence of their

sovereign. Every one of them is fully and keenly sensible of his loss,

and if no voice is uplifted against such ministerial spoliations, the

cause abides in that total absence of will and reflection which we have

already had many occasions to point out as a distinguishing trait of the

Russian character. For our own part we cannot but highly approve of the

idea of establishing a complete uniformity in the value of coinage, for

the variations of value which the same coin formerly underwent in

passing from one government to another were exceedingly injurious to

trade. We think, however, that the change might have been accomplished

by more legal and less violent means. It is true, that by acting as he

did, Count Cancrine was sure of realising a gain of eighteen per cent.,

and this, it may be presumed, was the principal motive that actuated

him. Be this as it may, this was not the first time the Russian

government took such a course; every one knows that in 1812, the silver

ruble fell abruptly to the value of a paper ruble, entailing a loss of

seventy-one per cent. on all holders of government bills, who received

but a paper ruble for every silver ruble represented by the bills. This

state of things lasted until 1839, when the old system was restored. The

present government paper, having for its basis a real coin, the silver

ruble, worth 3.50 paper rubles (about 3_s._ 2_d._), consists of notes

for 5, 10, 20, and even 10,000 rubles. These notes are extremely small,

and the government must inevitably realise a large profit annually by

their wear and tear and loss. It is likewise very possible that the

ministry of finance had no other motive for creating these new notes,

than that of preparing means to repeat the bankruptcy of 1812; and

seeing the actual state of the imperial treasury, there is no doubt that

such an act of bankruptcy would be committed in case of war. Never was

the state so oppressed with debt as it is at this day. The war in the

Caucasus, the grand military parades, and the payment of a countless

host of diplomatic agents, avowed and secret, all absorb immense sums,

and the ministry is consequently reduced to miserable shifts to make up

the deficit, and restore the balance of the finances. The proposal of a

great military expenditure was discussed in the imperial council of

1841, and was opposed with reason by Cancrine, on the too real ground of

want of money. The emperor, chafed by an opposition to his wishes such

as he was not used to, ordered the grand treasurer to produce all his

accounts, that the matter might be investigated in council. Next day the

accounts were examined in presence of the tzar and his ministers. One

item excited great surprise; an enormous sum was set down as expended,

but how or wherefore it was spent was not stated. The emperor yielding

without reflection to a sudden impulse of anger, commanded Cancrine to

explain what had become of the money, and the minister, who had taken

his precautions beforehand, instantly laid before his master a note in

which were revealed some singular mysteries. It was, they say, after

this memorable sitting that all public works were immediately stopped,

the stamp duties were quadrupled, the charge for passports centupled,

and new notes payable to the bearer, were issued for more than

100,000,000 of silver rubles. Such are the expedients that constitute

the genius of the ministry, and which Count Cancrine thought it right to

employ to augment the financial resources of the country. I recollect an

anecdote that exactly typifies the notions of that statesman. I was once

in the house of a Moldavian landowner of Bessarabia, whose lands bring

him in about 10,000 rubles a year. The conversation turned on

agriculture. "What!" exclaimed a Russian who was present, "your estate

yields you but 10,000 rubles a-year? Nonsense; put it into my hands and

I warrant you twice as much."--"That would be a very agreeable thing, if

it could be done," said the landlord; "I flatter myself I am tolerably

well versed in these matters, and yet I have never been able to discover

any possible means of increasing my income."--"How many days do your

peasants work?" said the Russian.--"Thirty."--"That's not enough: make

them work sixty. What breadth of land do they till for you?"--"So

much."--"Double it." And so he went on through the other items of the

inquiry, crying, "Double it! double it!" We could not help heartily

laughing. But the Russian remained perfectly serious, and I am sure he

thought himself as great a man as Cancrine himself; I really regret that

I did not ask him, had he taken lessons in economics in the office of

that illustrious financier.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] Notwithstanding the assertions of most geographers, we are of

opinion that the communications between Soldaia, Kaffa, and Astrakhan

generally took place by way of the Don and the Volga. Many reasons seem

to confirm this opinion. Had it been otherwise, the Genoese would not

have attached so much importance to the possession of Tana, on the mouth

of the Don. Furthermore, the route by the banks of the Terek and the

Kouban, skirting the northern slope of the Caucasus, being much longer

as well as more dangerous, by reason of the neighbourhood of the

Caucasian tribes, preference would naturally have been given to the

route by the Don and the Volga, which passed only through Tatar

countries, inhabited by the same people as the traders, and subjected to

the same government. It seems confirmatory of this opinion that in the

expedition of Sultan Selim against Astrakhan, in 1560, part of the

Turkish army marched by that very route. The line of the Manitch must

have been little frequented on account of its almost total want of

drinkable water.

[21] Among the various nomade hordes then encamped on the soil of

Southern Russia, the Kalmucks alone numbered more than 120,000 families;

at the same period the Crimea alone had a population of more than

600,000. But these regions have undergone a remarkable change since

Peter the Great's time. A large portion of the Kalmucks have emigrated

to China, and the Mussulman tribes have lost at least nine-tenths of

their population. It may easily be conceived how injurious to the trade

with Persia and Central Asia has been the disappearance of these Asiatic

races.

[22] The best cotton of Persia is grown on the slopes of the Elbrouz.

These regions might easily supply Russia annually with an average of

1,500,000 kilogrammes of cotton, at 65 to 70 centimes the kilogramme on

the spot.

[23] Among the articles exported by Russia, the following are to be

estimated at the approximative values annexed to them: cotton cloths,

700,000 rubles; woollens, 40,000; linens, 30,000; iron, 200,000 to

400,000; various metal wares, 200,000, and wheat 100,000.

[24] In 1836, Ghilan exported more than 9,000,000 rubles worth of silk

to Trebisond.

[25] Salian is a port on the Caspian, at the mouth of the Coura (the

ancient Cyrus). The roadstead is tolerably good, and the fisheries are

important. An immense quantity of sturgeons are caught.

[26] Astrabad on the southern coast of the Caspian, between Persia and

Turkistan, is in regular and easy communication with all the regions of

Persia, Khiva, and Bokhara. It is the true key to all the commerce of

Asia by way of the Caspian; hence it was an object of special attention

for Peter the Great and Catherine II.

[27] Manghishlak is not a town but merely a port, at which vessels used

formerly to touch to trade with the nomades of that part of the coast.

It is now entirely abandoned; the few vessels which still visit these

parts, stop at Tuk Karakhan, near the old landing place, whence goods

are conveyed on camels to Khiva in twenty-eight days.

[28] A town on the Caspian, at the mouth of Terek, celebrated for its

brandy.

[29] A town at the mouth of the Ural. It belongs to the Cossacks of the

Ural, and contains upwards of a hundred houses.

[30] An island not far from the Gulf of Agrakhan.

[31] The particulars that follow as to the fisheries of the Caspian,

were communicated to us at Astrakhan. Neither the weather nor the season

allowed us to be present at those interesting operations.

[32] The _beluga_ of the Russians is the great sturgeon (_Piscis

ichthyocolla, Accipenser Huso_), its weight often amounts to 1400 lbs.

[33] _Silurus glanis_, a fish unknown in France. I have found it in the

Danube, the Volga, and the Dniepr, where its voracity and strength make

it formidable to bathers.

[34] Accipenser stellatus.

[35] A. ruthenus.

[36] Perca asper.

CHAPTER XXII.

DEPARTURE FROM ASTRAKHAN--COAST OF THE CASPIAN--HAWKING--

HOUIDOUK--THREE STORMY DAYS PASSED IN A POST-HOUSE--ARMENIAN

MERCHANTS--ROBBERY COMMITTED BY KALMUCKS--CAMELS--KOUSKAIA--

ANOTHER TEMPEST--TARAKANS--A REPORTED GOLD MINE.

We left Astrakhan at eight in the evening, and were ferried across the

Volga in a four-oared boat. It took us more than an hour to cross the

river, its breadth opposite the town being more than 2000 yards. When we

reached the opposite bank we might have fancied ourselves transported

suddenly to a distance of a hundred versts from Astrakhan. Kalmucks,

sand, felt tents, camels, in a word, the desert and its tenants were all

that now met our view. We found our britchka waiting for us; our officer

and the dragoman got into a telega or post chariot, and the bells began

their merry jingling.

Nothing can be more dismal than the route from Astrakhan to Kisliar. For

two days and two nights our journey lay through a horrid tract of loose

sand, with nothing to be seen but some half-buried Kalmuck kibitkas,

serving for post stations, and a few patches of wormwood, the melancholy

foliage of which was in perfect harmony with the desolate aspect of the

landscape. The heaps of sand we passed between exhibited the most

capricious mimicry of natural scenery. We had before our eyes hills,

ravines, cascades, narrow valleys, and tumuli; but nothing remained in

its place; an invisible power was ceaselessly at work, changing every

shape too quickly for the eye to follow the rapid transformation.

On the evening of the day after our departure, we had an opportunity of

testing the prowess of our travelling companion, the hawk. The first

theatre of his exploits was a little pond covered with wild ducks and

geese, that promised a rich booty.

At a signal from my husband the Tatar officer unhooded the bird, and

cast him off. Instantly the hawk darted off like an arrow, close along

the surface of the ground, towards the pond, and was soon hidden from us

among the reeds, where his presence was saluted with a deafening

clamour, and a scared multitude of wild geese rose up out of the sedges.

Their screams of rage and terror, and their bewildered flight backwards

and forwards, and in all directions, were utterly indescribable, until

the arrival of the officer put them to the route, and delivered their

assailant from their obstreperous resentment. The moment the hawk flew

off, the Tatar followed him at a gallop, all the while beating a small

drum that was fastened to his saddle. When he reached the pond he found

the bird planted stoutly on the back of a most insubmissive victim, and

waiting with philosophic patience until his master should come and

release him from his critical position.

The officer told us, that but for his presence, and the noise of the

drum, the geese would in all probability have pummelled the hawk to

death with their beaks, in order to rescue their companion. In such

cases, however, the hawk braves the storm with imperturbable coolness,

and adopts a curious expedient when the attacks are too violent, and his

master is too slow in appearing. Without quitting hold of his victim, he

slips himself under the broad wings of the goose, which then become his

buckler. Once in that position he is invincible, and the blows aimed at

him fall only on the poor prisoner, whose cruel fate it is to be forced

to protect its mortal enemy. When the falconer comes up, the first thing

he does is to cut off its head and give the brains to the hawk. Until

that operation is completed, the latter keeps fast hold on the quarry,

and no efforts of its master can induce it to relax its gripe.

The hawk made two or three more successful flights before we reached

Houidouk, and supplied us with a good stock of provisions, which were

not a little needful to us in that miserable post station.

During this journey we passed several times very close to the Caspian,

but without perceiving it.

At Houidouk, on the mouth of the Kouma, we found our escort, which had

been waiting two days for us. Every thing was ready for our departure,

but a violent fall of rain detained us three mortal days in the most

detestable cabin we had yet entered. Two rooms, one for travellers, and

the other for the master of the station and his family, composed the

whole dwelling. We installed ourselves as well as we could in the

former, the whole furniture of which consisted of a long table and two

benches. The walls of this wretched hole were made of ill-jointed

boards, that gave admission to the wind and the rain, and to add to our

discomfort, it served as an ante-chamber to the other room, and was thus

common to the whole household. Hens, children, and the master of the

house, were perpetually passing through it, and left us not a moment's

rest. Our situation was intolerable; the violence of the tempest

increased at such a rate, that we knew not how the miserable wooden

fabric could stand against it. All the elements seemed confounded

together; there was no distinguishing earth or sky; but the terrible

disorder of nature appeared to me more tolerable than the scene within

doors. Outside there was at least something for the imagination; the

mind was exalted in contemplating the swelling uproar that threatened a

renewal of chaos; but the scene within was enough to drive us to

despair--children fighting and screaming, fowls fluttering and perching

on the table and benches, squalor all around us, and a frowsy

atmosphere! To complete our distress, some Armenian merchants on their

way to the fair of Tiflis, finding it impossible to continue their

journey, came to share with us the den in which we were already so

uncomfortable.

But this new incident was a sort of lesson in philosophy for us. When we

saw these men conversing quietly as they smoked their tchibouks, without

the least show of impatience, and talking of the heavy losses the

unseasonable weather might occasion them, as calmly as if their own

interests were not concerned, we could not help envying the stoic

resignation of which the men of the East alone possess the secret. There

is nothing like their fatalism for enabling one to take all things as

they come; is not that the acme of human wisdom?

Our escort passed the three days of this deluge in a corner of the shed

adjoining the house. Wrapped up in their sheep-skins, those iron men

slept as quietly through wind and rain as if they had been in a snug

room. One must have lived among the Russians to have any idea of the

apathy with which they bear all kinds of privations. Their bodies,

inured to the rigours of their climate, to the coarsest food, and most

Spartan habits, grow so hardened, that what would be mortal to others

makes no injurious impression on them.

At last the rain ceased towards the end of the third day. A west wind

followed it, and dispersed the dark threatening clouds that had so long

obscured the sky. Though the weather seemed still unsettled, we

determined to make for the Caspian, which lay but thirty versts from us.

My husband's anxiety to commence his surveying operations, and our

eagerness to quit our detestable abode, gave us courage to risk the

chance of another storm in the open steppe.

But a very unexpected incident threw the station into confusion just as

we were departing, and delayed us some hours longer. A Kalmuck Cossack,

mounted on a camel, arrived in great haste and informed us that the

Armenian merchants, who had started the day before, had been attacked

some distance from the station by a band of Kalmucks and plundered of

the greater part of their merchandise.

Our Cossack officer, after listening with great indignation to this

story, asked permission of my husband to pursue the robbers. The whole

escort set off with him at a hard gallop, but the pursuit was

ineffectual. The robbers, having had some hours' start, had already

reached the sedges of the Caspian. In consequence of this delay it was

the afternoon before we could make a start, and even then we had great

difficulty in getting away, for the terrified postmaster entreated us

not to forsake him at a moment so critical. His dismay, for which indeed

there was little reason, almost infected me too, and it was not without

some apprehension of disaster that I left the station.

The appearance of our caravan was curious and grotesque. Our britchka

was drawn by three camels, taken in tow by a man on foot, and several

other animals of the same species, besides sumpter-horses, were mounted

by Kalmucks and Cossacks. Our escort followed, and all the men composing

it, armed with sabres, guns, and pistols, looked martial enough to scare

away the most daring thieves. The leader of the troop, the Tatar prince,

rode with his falcon on his fist, every now and then showing off his

skill in horsemanship and venery. Thinking no more of the morning alarm,

I gave myself up to the liveliest anticipations of the extraordinary

things which this excursion promised us. At last I was about to behold

that Caspian Sea which, ever since men have been engaged with

geographical questions, has been the object of their researches and

conjectures. Besides, it had a much more potent interest for us, for it

was in a manner the sole aim and end of our journey; it was to solve an

immemorial question concerning it, that we had abandoned the comforts of

civilised life, and encountered so many annoyances and privations.

Notwithstanding my ignorance of science, I felt that in sharing my

husband's toils, I was in some sort a partner in his learned researches,

and that I too, like him, had my claims upon the Caspian. I was,

therefore, impatient to see it; but our camels, who had no such motives

for hurrying themselves, crawled along at a provokingly slow rate. They

did not at all correspond with what we had read of the ships of the

desert, creatures insensible to hunger, thirst, and fatigue, and as

obedient to the will of man as the dry leaf is to the breath of the

wind. In spite of a thick cord passed through one of their nostrils,

which caused them sharp pain whenever they were unruly, our camels

scarcely marched more than two hours at a stretch without lying down.

The men had to battle with them continually to rouse them from their

torpor, or hinder them from biting one another. Whenever one of the

drivers pulled the halter of his camel roughly, we heard loud cries, the

more hideous from their resemblance to the human voice. In short our

camels behaved so badly during this short trip, as largely to abate the

good opinion of their species, which we had conceived in reading the

more poetical than true descriptions of our great naturalist.

At some distance from Houidouk we met two camps of Kalmucks, improperly

called Christians. These tribes are reputed to be addicted to theft, and

are generally despised by the other Kalmucks. We will speak of them

again in another place. This whole region, as far as the Caspian, is

extremely arid, with only here and there a few pools of brackish water,

the edges of which swarm with countless birds, the most remarkable of

which are the white herons, whose plumage forms such beautiful

_aigrettes_. Unfortunately, these birds are so wary, that our companion

could not take one of them, notwithstanding all his address and the

power of his falcon.

A ludicrous misadventure that befel our dragoman, Anthony, amused us a

good deal. Curiosity prompting him to ride a camel, he asked one of the

Kalmucks to lend him his beast, and the request being complied with, he

bestrode the saddle, pleased with the novelty of the experiment, and

quite at a loss to know why the Cossacks and camel-drivers laughed among

themselves as he mounted. But as soon as the beast began to move, a

change came over his face, and he speedily began to bawl out for help.

The fact is, one must be almost a Kalmuck to be able to endure the

trotting of a camel; the shaking is so violent as to amount to downright

torture for those who are not accustomed to it. The unlucky Anthony,

left in the rear of the party, strove in vain to come up with us, and

was obliged, in spite of himself, to continue his ride to the Caspian,

where we arrived two hours before him. I never saw a man so cut up. He

groaned so piteously when he was lifted down, that we began to be really

alarmed for him.

There are in nature two opposite types, beauty and ugliness; the

elements of which vary infinitely, though imagination always erroneously

supposes it can fix their boundaries. How often are we fully persuaded

we can never meet again an object so beautiful as that before us; yet no

sooner have we lavished all our enthusiasm upon it, than a more charming

face, a sublimer landscape, or a more graceful form makes us forget what

we had regarded as the model of perfection; and itself is soon, in turn,

dethroned by other objects which we declare superior to all our former

idols. Just so it is with ugliness. It matters not that we have before

us the lowest grade we believe it can attain, we have but to turn our

heads another way to be amazed and confounded by new discoveries

revealing to us the inexhaustible combinations of nature. These

reflections occurred to me more and more strongly as we approached

Koumskaia. The aridity of the steppes round Odessa, the wilderness of

the Volga, the parched and dismal soil of the environs of Astrakhan, in

a word all we had heretofore seen that was least engaging, seemed lovely

in comparison with what met our view on the banks of the Caspian.

A grey, sickly sky, crossed from time to time by heavy black clouds,

threw an indescribably sad and revolting hue over the lonely, sandy

plain, and low, broken shore. The same funereal pall seemed to hang over

the wooden houses, the gangs of Turkmans and Kalmucks loading their

carts with salt, and the camels that roamed along the shore mingling

their dismal cries with the sound of the waves.

Yet hideous as it seemed to us, this part of the coast is not

unimportant in a commercial point of view. It supplies large quantities

of salt, and has a port where vessels unload their cargoes of corn for

the army of the Caucasus. We counted at least a score of vessels which

had been driven in there by the late storm.

The population of Koumskaia consists of a Russian functionary, a Cossack

post, and a few Kalmuck families, that appear very miserable. The

_employe_ gave us the use of his house; that is to say, of two

dilapidated rooms without glass windows or furniture. One can scarcely

conceive how the mind can have strength to endure so very wretched an

existence. An unwholesome climate, brackish water, excessive heat in

summer, rigorous cold in winter, huts and kibitkas buried in the sand,

the Caspian Sea with its squalls and tempests--all these things combine

to make this region the most horrible abode imaginable. The major, who

welcomed us to Koumskaia, had a slow fever, which he owed still less

perhaps to the insalubrity of the climate than to the hardships and

mortal ennui he had endured for eighteen months. His wife, more

stout-hearted, and amused in some degree by her household occupations,

had still preserved a certain cheerfulness, which was no less than

heroic in her situation. Their exile was to last in all two years. The

government, perceiving that many _employes_ died in Koumskaia, has

limited the time of service there to that short period, and as some

compensation for what those suffer who are sent thither, their two years

are counted as four of ordinary service.

The weather had been louring since we left Houidouk, and we had a

regular hurricane the evening we reached the Caspian. It lasted

four-and-twenty hours, and such was the noise of the wind and waves,

that we could hardly hear each other speak in our room. We saw two or

three kibitkas blown away into the sea, and we expected every moment to

share the same fate, for our frail tenement creaked like the cabin of a

ship; the boarded window let in such a current of air, as soon drove

into the room all the garments with which we strove to stop the chinks.

But the saddest chapter of our history remains to be narrated. As soon

as our servant had prepared the samovar, and lighted the candles, a

multitude of black creatures crept out of the chinks of the walls and

ceilings, and dropped from all sides like a living rain. Imagine our

consternation at the sight of that legion of black demons swarming

around us, and leaving us no alternative but to put out the candles that

attracted them. These insects, called in the country _tarakans_, though

disgusting in appearance, are very inoffensive, and seldom climb on the

person; but they are fond of light and heat, and hence they are a

grievous nuisance in these regions, where their number is prodigious. I

had already seen them in some post-houses, but in small numbers, and

though I had always disliked them, I had never been so horrified by them

as in the house of the major, where they kept me awake all night.

Next morning, the wind having fallen somewhat, we went, in spite of the

rain, to gather shells on the shore. The vessels in the harbour all

showed signs of having suffered severely by the storm. The waters of the

Caspian had a livid, muddy colour I never observed in any other sea in

the most boisterous weather.

When we returned to our cabin, the Cossack officer presented to us a

Tatar, who asserted he had found gold in a spot forty versts from

Koumskaia. Having heard of our arrival, he had walked all that horrible

night to ask my husband to accompany him to the spot where he had made

the discovery. But in spite of the gold ear and finger-rings he

exhibited as tokens of his veracity, my husband was not tempted to lose

four or five days in a search that would have led to nothing, to judge

from the nature of the ground in which the Tatar reported that the

precious ore was to be found.

CHAPTER XXIII.

ANOTHER ROBBERY AT HOUIDOUK--OUR NOMADE LIFE--CAMELS--KALMUCK

CAMP--QUARREL WITH A TURCOMAN CONVOY, AND RECONCILIATION--

LOVE OF THE KALMUCKS FOR THEIR STEPPES; ANECDOTE--A SATZA--

SELENOI SASTAVA--FLEECED BY A LIEUTENANT-COLONEL--CAMEL-DRIVERS

BEATEN BY THE KALMUCKS--ALARM OF A CIRCASSIAN INCURSION--

SOURCES OF THE MANITCH--THE JOURNEY ARRESTED--VISIT TO A KALMUCK

LADY--HOSPITALITY OF A RUSSIAN OFFICER.

On returning to Houidouk, we found the postmaster in still greater

perturbation than he had been cast into by the disaster of the Armenian

merchants. One of his postillions had been seized but two versts from

the station by Turkmans, who, after robbing him of his sheep-skin and

his tobacco, had beaten him and left him half dead, and then made off

with the three horses he was taking back to the station. The strangest

part of the adventure was, that on the morning of the next day, which

happened to be that of our arrival, the three horses returned quietly to

their stable, as if nothing extraordinary had befallen. This proved, at

least, that the robbers were not very confident, but chose rather to

lose their booty than expose themselves to the vengeance of the

Cossacks.

Though such stories were not very encouraging to us, we nevertheless set

out early next morning, entirely forsaking the post road we had till

then pursued, and striking across the steppes with a weak escort, very

insufficient to resist a serious attack. My husband, who had already

begun his course of levels, resumed his operations from the station at

Houidouk. Having to make one every ten minutes, he proceeded on foot, as

well as the Kalmucks and Cossacks who carried the instruments and

measured the distances. All the men were occupied except the camel

drivers and the officer, who amused himself with flying his falcon now

and then at wild ducks and geese. Besides its positive and gastronomic

results, this sport did me the further service of withdrawing my mind

from the monotony of a slow march across the desert, in which I had

often no other pastime than watching the grotesque movements of the

three camels that drew my carriage, or the capricious evolutions of the

flocks of birds that were already assembling for their autumnal

emigration.

Yet the impression made on me by this first day did not tend much to

alarm me at the prospect of wandering, like a veritable Kalmuck, for

several weeks across the steppe. The novelty of my sensations, and the

secret pleasure of escaping for awhile from the round of prescribed

habits that make up the chief part of civilised life, banished from my

mind every sombre thought. The excursion was an experimental glimpse of

those natural ways of life which are no longer possible in our

thickly-peopled lands; and in spite of my prejudices, a nomade existence

no longer seemed to me so absurd or wearisome as I had supposed it to

be. The quiet and the immensity of space around us imparted a deep

serenity to my mind, and fortified it against any remains of fear

occasioned by the late events at Houidouk.

We made our first halt about noon, not at all too soon for our Cossacks,

a race not accustomed to long walking. They immediately made a great

fire, whilst our camel-drivers were busy setting up the tents and

arranging a regular encampment. The sun had reappeared with more force

than before, as usually happens after violent storms. The heat of the

vertical sunshine, increased by the bare parched soil and by the

extraordinary dryness of the air, had so overcome us that we could

scarcely attend to the picturesque group presented by our halt in the

desert, over which we appeared to reign as absolute masters.

The britchka, unyoked and unladen, was placed a little way from, the

tent, on the carpet of which were heaped portfolios, cushions, and

boxes, in a manner which a painter would have thought worth notice.

Whilst we were taking tea our men were making preparations for dinner,

some plucking a fine wild goose and half-a-dozen kourlis, others

attending to the fire, round which were ranged two or three pots for the

pilau and the bacon soup, of which the Cossacks are great admirers; and

Anthony with a little barrel of brandy under his arm, distributed the

regular dram to every man, with the gravity of a German major-domo. As

for the officer, he lay on his back under the britchka, for sake of the

shade, amusing himself with his hawk, which he had unhooded, after

fastening it with a stout cord to the carriage. Though the creature's

sparkling eyes were continually on the look out for a quarry, it seemed

by the continual flapping of its wings to enjoy its master's caresses.

The camels, rejoicing in their freedom, browsed at a little distance

from the tent, and contributed by their presence to give an oriental

aspect to our first essay in savage life; wherein I myself figured in my

huge bonnet, dressed as usual in wide pantaloons, with a Gaulish tunic

gathered round my waist by a leathern belt. By dint of wondering at

every thing, our wonderment at last wore itself out, and we regarded

ourselves as definitively naturalised Kalmucks.

Three hours before we halted, the last kibitkas had disappeared below

the horizon: we were absolutely alone on the whole surface of the vast

plain. There was no vestige to tell us that other men had encamped where

we were. The steppe is like the sea; it retains no trace of those who

have traversed it.

At two o'clock Hommaire gave the word to march: the tent was struck; the

camels knelt to receive their burdens; the officer was in the saddle

with his hawk on his fist; and I was again alone in the carriage, slowly

following our little troop as it resumed its operations.

My first night under a tent proved to me that I was not so acclimated to

the steppe as my vanity had led me to suppose. The felt cone under which

I was to sleep; the Kalmucks moving about the fire; the camels sending

their plaintive cries through the immensity of the desert; in a word,

every thing I saw and heard, was so at variance with my habits and ways

of thought, that I almost fancied I was in an opium dream.

We spent part of the night seated before the tent, our reveries unbroken

by any inclination to sleep. The moon, larger and more brilliant than it

ever appears in the west, lighted the whole sky and part of the steppe,

over which it cast a luminous line like that which a vessel leaves in

its wake at sea. Absolute silence reigned in the air, and produced upon

us an effect which no words can describe. Hardly did we dare to break

it, so solemn did it seem, and so in harmony with the infinite grandeur

of the waste. It would be in vain to look for a stillness so complete,

even in the most sequestered solitudes of our regions. There is always

some murmuring brook there, some rustling leaves; and even in the

silence of night, some low sounds are heard, that give an object to the

thoughts. But here nature is petrified, and one has constantly before

him the image of that eternal repose which our minds can so hardly

conceive.

We marched for several days without meeting one living creature. This

part of the steppes is inhabited only in Winter; for during the rest of

the year it is completely destitute of fresh water. At last, towards the

close of the fourth day, we saw a black object in motion on the horizon.

The officer instantly galloped off to reconnoitre, waving his cap in the

air, for a signal of command. In a few seconds we were sure he was

perceived, for we distinguished the form of a Kalmuck mounted on a camel

approaching us. He was hailed with shouts of joy by our men, who soon

fastened on him, and overwhelmed him with questions. The eagerness of

nomades to hear news is unbounded, and it is wonderful with what

rapidity the knowledge of the most trivial event is conveyed from one

tribe to another. The new comer told us that our journey was already

known all over the steppes, and that we should soon fall in with an

encampment of Kalmucks, who had moved forward on purpose to see us.

The presence of this man put all our men in the gayest humour. Desirous

of doing due honour to his arrival, they deputed Anthony to solicit from

us a double ration of spirits. They passed all the early part of the

night sitting round the fire, smoking their tchibouks, and telling

stories, as grave and as entranced in the charms of conversation as

Bedouins.

Next day our little caravan was in motion before sunrise; the Kalmuck

set off alone for the fair of Kisliar, and we took the opposite

direction, pursuing the invisible line which science traced for us

across the desert, and which was to lead us to the sources of the

Manitch.

It was on this morning I took my first ride on the back of a camel, and

I vowed it should be the last. Decidedly the camel is the most

detestable quadruped to ride in the world. From the moment you mount

until you descend from that murderous perch you have to endure an

incessant series of shocks, so violent and sudden, that every joint in

your body feels dislocated. I could now feel for the sufferings of our

poor dragoman during his long trot from Houidouk to the Caspian. Though

my experiment was limited to a trip of two versts at the most, I was

totally exhausted when I dismounted.

Not long afterwards I had an opportunity of observing a curious instance

of the vindictive temper of these rough trotters. The camel, as every

one knows, is a ruminating animal, but few, perhaps, are aware that he

has the cunning to make his rumination subservient to his vengeance in a

very extraordinary and ingenious manner.

I had noticed in the morning that one of our camel-drivers seemed to be

on very bad terms with his beast. In vain he strove to master it by

severity, and by pulling the cord passed through its nostril; the brute

was obstinate, and threw itself every moment rebelliously on the ground.

At last the Kalmuck, incensed beyond endurance, took advantage of a

general halt, and alighted to give the camel a sound drubbing. But the

creature, disdainfully lifting up its long neck, followed all its

master's movements with so spiteful an eye, that I was sure it had some

wicked scheme in its head. It waited patiently till the Kalmuck stood in

front of it, and then, opening its great mouth, it let fly a charge of

chewed grass mixed with mucus and all sorts of nastiness, and hit the

poor driver full in the face. To tell with what an air of satisfied

vengeance the camel again reared its neck and turned its head from side

to side, as if looking round for applause, would be totally impossible.

But what astonished me the most was the moderation of the master after

such an outrage. He wiped his face very coolly, got into the saddle

again, and patted the neck of his ill-bred brute, as if it had played

the most amiable and innocent little trick imaginable. Good fellowship

was thenceforth re-established between them, and they jogged peaceably

along together, without thinking any more of what had happened.

It happens by a rare good fortune, that no noxious insect is found in

the steppes between the Caspian and the Caucasus. Of course it was not

until I was quite sure of this that I could sleep in peace. Our tent,

made of felt like those of the Kalmucks, was at most five feet high and

as many wide. It was supported by a bundle of sticks tied together at

the ends; the interior, furnished with a carpet and cushions laid on the

ground, contained, besides, some boxes belonging to the britchka. A flap

of felt formed the door. As the tent narrowed toward the top, we could

not stand within it, but were obliged to kneel. Such was our dwelling

for six weeks; and I can aver, that notwithstanding the hardness of our

bed on the ground, and the strangeness of our situation, I never slept

so soundly as during that period of my life. Nothing is better for the

health than living in the open air; the appetite, the sleep, the

unutterable serenity of mind, and the free circulation of the blood

which it procures, sufficiently attest its happy influence on our

organisation. Few functional maladies, I suspect, would resist a two or

three months' excursion like that which we accomplished.

As the Kalmuck had foretold, we arrived at night in a Kalmuck camp,

consisting of a score of tents. All the men came to meet us, took the

camels from the britchka, and would not allow our people to lend a hand;

then having pitched our tent a little way off from their own, at the

foot of a tumulus, they began to dance with their women, in token of

rejoicing. One of the latter went down on her knees and begged some

tobacco of my husband, and when she had got it she became an object of

envy to her companions, before whom she hastened to display and smoke

it.

When night had fallen, the camp was lighted up with numerous fires,

which gave a still more curious aspect to the kibitkas, and the dancing

figures of the Kalmucks and Cossacks, whose exuberant gaiety was in part

owing to an extraordinary distribution of food and brandy. The women

advanced in their turn, and several of them forming a circle, danced in

the same manner as the ladies of honour of the Princess Tumene. But they

all seemed to me extremely ugly, though some of them were very young.

Two days afterwards we arrived at the edge of a pond, where we arranged

to pass the night. The sight of the water, and of the thousands of birds

on its surface, afforded us real delight; there needed but such a little

thing, under such circumstances as ours, to constitute an event, and

occupy the imagination! All that evening was spent in shooting and

hawking, bathing, and walking round and round the pool. We could not

satiate ourselves with the pleasure of beholding that brackish mud, and

the forest of reeds that encompassed it. No landscape on the Alps or the

Tyrol was probably ever hailed with so much enthusiasm.

Beyond this pond, the appearance of the steppes gradually changed; water

grew less rare, the vegetation less scorched. We saw from time to time

herds of more than five hundred camels, grazing in freedom on the short

thick grass. Some of them were of gigantic height. I shall never forget

the amazement they manifested at beholding us. The moment they perceived

us they hurried towards, then stopped short, gazing at us with

outstretched necks until we were out of sight.

The eighth day after our departure from Houidouk our fresh water was so

sensibly diminished, that we were obliged to use brackish water in

cooking. This change in our kitchen routine fortunately lasted but a few

days; but it was enough to give me a hearty aversion for meats so

cooked: they had so disagreeable a taste, that nothing but necessity and

long habit can account for their ordinary use. The Kalmucks and

Cossacks, however, use no other water during a great part of the year.

That same day we had a very singular encounter, which went near to be

tragical. Shortly before encamping, we saw a very long file of small

carts approaching us; our Kalmucks recognised them as belonging to

Turkmans, a sort of people held in very bad repute, by reason of their

quarrelsome and brutal temper. Every untoward event that happens in the

steppes is laid to their account, and there is perpetual warfare between

them and the Cossacks, to whom they give more trouble than all the other

tribes put together. As we advanced, an increased confusion was manifest

in the convoy, and suddenly all the oxen, as if possessed by the fiend,

exhibited the most violent terror, and began to run away in wild

disorder, dashing against each other, upsetting and breaking the carts

loaded with salt, wholly regardless of the voices and blows of their

drivers. Some moments elapsed before we could account for this strange

disaster, and comprehend the meaning of the furious abuse with which the

Turkmans assailed our escort. The camel-drivers were the real culprits

in this affair, for they knew by experience how much horses and oxen are

frightened by the sight of a camel, and they ought to have moved out of

the direct line of march, and not exposed us to the rage of the fierce

carters.

The moment immediately after the catastrophe was really critical. All

the Turkmans, incensed at the sight of the broken carts and their salt

strewed over the ground, seemed, by their threatening gestures and

vociferations, to be debating whether or not they should attack us. A

single imprudent gesture might have been fatal to us, for they were more

than fifty, and armed with cutlasses; but the steady behaviour of the

escort gradually quieted them. Instead of noticing their hostile

demonstrations, all our men set to work to repair the mischief, and the

Turkmans soon followed their example; in less than an hour all was made

right again, and the scene of confusion ended much more peaceably than

we had at first ventured to hope. All parties now thought only of the

comical part of the adventure, and hearty laughter supplanted the tokens

of strife. To seal the reconciliation, Hommaire ordered a distribution

of brandy, which completely won the hearts of the fellows, who a little

before had been on the point of murdering us.

The more we became accustomed to the stillness and grandeur of the

desert, the better we understood the Kalmuck's passionate love for the

steppes and his kibitka. If happiness consist in freedom, no man is more

happy than he. Habituated as he is to gaze over a boundless expanse, to

endure no restriction, and to pitch his tent wherever his humour

dictates, it is natural that he should feel ill at ease, cribbed,

cabined, and confined, when removed from his native wastes, and that he

should rather die by his own hand than live in exile. During our stay at

Astrakhan, every one was talking of a recent event which afforded us an

instance of the strong attachment of those primitive beings to the natal

soil.

A Kalmuck chief killed his Cossack rival in a fit of jealousy, and

instead of attempting to escape punishment by flight, he augmented his

guilt by resisting a detachment which was sent to arrest him. Several

of his servants aided him, but numbers prevailed; all were made

prisoners and conveyed to a fort, where they were to remain until their

sentence should have been pronounced. A month afterwards, an order

arrived for their transportation to Siberia, but by that time

three-fourths of the captives had ceased to exist. Some had died of

grief, others had eluded the vigilance of their gaolers, and killed

themselves. The chief, however, had been too closely watched to allow of

his making any attempt on his own life, but his obstinate silence, and

the deep dejection of his haggard features, proved plainly that his

despair was not less than that which had driven his companions to

suicide.

When he was placed in the car to begin his journey, some Kalmucks were

allowed to approach and bid him farewell. "What can we do for thee?"

they whispered; the chief only replied, "You know." Thereupon one of the

Kalmucks drew a pistol from his pocket, and before the bystanders had

time to interpose, he blew out the chief's brains. The faces of the two

other prisoners beamed with joy. "Thanks for him," they cried; "as for

us, we shall never see Siberia."

I have not yet spoken of the Kalmuck _satzas_, and the desire we felt to

become acquainted with them. From the moment we had entered the waste,

we had never ceased to sweep the horizon in hopes to discover one of

these mysterious tombs, from which the Kalmucks always keep aloof, in

order not to profane them by their presence. These satzas are small

temples erected on purpose to contain the remains of the high priests.

When one of them dies, his body is burned, and his ashes are deposited

with great pomp in the mausoleum prepared to receive them, along with a

quantity of sacred images, which are so many good genii placed there to

keep watch eternally over the dust of the holy personage.

Before we left Astrakhan, we had taken care to collect all possible

information respecting these satzas, in order to visit one of them

during our journey through the steppes, and rifle it, if possible, of

its contents. But as the religious jealousy of our Kalmucks had hitherto

prevented us from making any researches of the kind, we determined at

last to trust to chance for the gratification of our wishes.

It was at one day's journey from Selenoi Sastava that we had for the

first time the satisfaction of perceiving one of these monuments. Great

was our delight, notwithstanding the difficulty of approaching it, and

eluding the keen watch of our camel-drivers; nay, the obstacles in our

way did but give the more zest to our pleasure. There were precautions

to be taken, a secret to be kept, and novelty to be enjoyed; all this

gave enhanced interest to the satza, and delightfully broke the monotony

that had oppressed us for so many days. All our measures were therefore

taken with extreme prudence and deliberation. We halted for breakfast at

a reasonable distance from the satza, so that our camel-drivers might

not conceive any suspicion; and during the repast Anthony and the

officer, who had received their instructions from us, took care to say

that we intended to catch a few white herons before we resumed our

march. The Kalmucks, being aware of the value we attached to those

birds, heard the news as a matter of course, and rejoiced at the

opportunity of indulging in a longer doze.

The satza stood in the midst of the sands, five or six versts from our

halting-place. To reach it we had to make a long detour, in order to

deceive the Kalmucks, in case they conceived any suspicion of our

design. All this was difficult enough, and extremely fatiguing; still I

insisted on making one in the expedition, and was among the first

mounted.

After two hours' marching and countermarching over the sands, in a

tropical temperature that quite dispirited our beasts, we arrived in

front of the satza, the appearance of which was any thing but

attractive, and seemed far from deserving the pains we had taken to see

it. It was a small square building, of a grey colour, with only two

holes by way of windows. Fancy our consternation when we found that

there was no door. We all marched round and round the impenetrable

sanctuary in a state of ludicrous disappointment. Some means or other

was to be devised for getting in, for the thought of returning without

satisfying our curiosity never once entered our heads. The removal of

some stones from one of the windows afforded us a passage, very

inconvenient indeed, but sufficient.

Like conquerors we entered the satza through a breach, like Mahomet

entering the capital of the Lower Empire; but we had not thought of the

standard, which was indispensable for the strict accomplishment of the

usual ceremonies. Instead thereof, Hommaire had recourse to his silk

handkerchief, and planting it on the summit of the mausoleum, he took

possession of it in the name of all present and future travellers.

This ceremony completed, we made a minute inspection of the interior of

the tomb, but found in it nothing extraordinary: it appeared to be of

great antiquity. Some idols of baked clay, like those we had seen at

Prince Tumene's, were ranged along the wall. Several small notches, at

regular intervals, contained images half decayed by damp. The floor of

beaten earth, and part of the walls were covered with felt: such were

the sole decorations we beheld.

Like generous victors we contented ourselves with taking two small

statues, and a few images. According to the notions of the Kalmucks, no

sacrilege can compare with that of which we were now guilty. Yet no

celestial fire reduced us to ashes, and the Grand Llama allowed us to

return in peace to our escort. But a great vexation befel us, for one of

the idols was broken by the way, and we had to supplicate the Boukhans

of the steppe to extend their protection to the other, during the rest

of the journey.

Anthony and the officer were questioned at great length by the Kalmucks,

who seemed possessed by some uneasy misgivings. On awaking, they had

seen us return in the direction that led from the satza, and this

circumstance had much annoyed them. The display of some game, however,

with which we had taken care to furnish ourselves, and the peremptory

tone of the officer, cut short all their observations.

On the day after this memorable adventure, Anthony informed us that

there was no more bread. The news obliged my husband to suspend his

scientific operations, and proceed to Selenoi Sastava, from which we

were distant only thirty-five versts. I cannot express the delight with

which the Kalmucks and Cossacks again took possession of their camels.

We need not wonder at any eccentricity of taste when we see men

preferring the dislocating torture of riding those detestable trotters

to the fatigue of walking fifteen or twenty versts a day. Hommaire, too,

did not seem at all dissatisfied at taking his place again in the

britchka. In short, we were all like a set of schoolboys that had got an

unexpected holiday.

Before reaching the salt-works, where we intended to ask for

hospitality, we passed some Kalmuck camps; carts loaded with salt

appeared in different directions. The desert was assuming a more

animated aspect, and we were no longer alone between the sky and the

steppe.

On arriving at Selenoi, we were taken to the house of the sub-inspector

of the salt-works (the inspector was absent). We found that functionary

in a most miserable hole, compared with which the hut at Houidouk was a

palace. We had never seen such horrid deficiency of all needful

accommodation even among the poorest Russian peasants.

We were received by a little weasel-faced man in a uniform so old and

tarnished, that neither the colour of the cloth nor the lace was

distinguishable. His manifestations of bewildered joy--his volubility

that savoured almost of insanity--and his incessant importunity,

completed our disgust. The house, a heap of ruins, kept from falling by

a few half-rotten posts, was abominably filthy. We were assigned the

least dilapidated chamber, but it took more than two hours to clear away

the clouds of dust raised by Anthony in sweeping it. The windows were

without frames, the doors were broken, and furniture there was none. How

we regretted that we had not encamped as usual on the steppe. We tried

to quit the house, but the lieutenant-colonel (for our host bore that

title in addition to that of sub-inspector) made such an outcry, that we

were obliged, whether we would or not, to resign ourselves to his

singular hospitality. To make up for the want of furniture, we did like

the Turks, and made a carpet and cushions on the ground serve us for a

bed and a divan.

Having completed these first arrangements, we proceeded to ask our host

if he had bread enough to spare us some. Having learned from our escort

the reason of our coming, he was prepared with his answer. Our presence

was too great a piece of good luck for a man in his extreme state of

destitution to allow of our escaping out of his hands until he had made

the most of us. Accordingly, he protested he could not possibly provide

what we wanted in less than three or four days, and we had every reason

to think we should be fortunate enough if we got out of his clutches so

cheaply. The event proved that our suspicions were not unjust, and his

conduct towards us, his indecorous demands, his cupidity and his thefts

sufficiently explained the motives of his extravagant delight at our

arrival.

On the first day of our sojourn with him, tempted by a fine wild goose

which Anthony had roasted in the tent of his Kalmuck cook, he sent to

beg permission to dine with us, and presently arrived, holding in his

hand a plate of paltry crusts dried in the oven, which he presented to

us as excellent _zouckari_. During all the time of dinner he diverted us

exceedingly by his insatiable gluttony and continual babbling: nor was

it the least amusing part of the performance to see him despatch to his

own share a half mouldy loaf he had sold us that morning for a ruble and

a half.

The camel-drivers proceeded, during our stay at Selenoi, to a

neighbouring camp to get fresh camels instead of their own, which had

been fatigued by more than a fortnight's marching. They promised to

return within twenty-four hours, but we did not see them again till two

days had elapsed, and then in a very sorry plight. According to the

account given by one of them, who was the first to arrive in great

tribulation, they had behaved rather roughly to the Kalmucks who were to

furnish them with the camels, and the latter had retaliated by beating

them, tieing them hand and foot, and carrying them before one of their

inspectors, who kept them in confinement until the next day. I never saw

a more woe-begone set than these unfortunate camel-drivers appeared on

their return: one of them had his head bandaged, another wore his arm in

a sling, a third limped, and all had been very roughly handled. This

adventure, and the gross cupidity of the lieutenant-colonel, were not

the only things that occurred to amuse or interest us at Selenoi. On the

third day of our stay, a great number of Kalmuck families suddenly

arrived in strange disorder, and announced that the Circassians had just

shown themselves three versts from the salt-works, on the borders of the

Kouma.

Terrible was the consternation produced by this news. Both Kalmucks and

Cossacks were terrified at the thought of having the Circassians so near

them. Our whole escort came and implored us on their knees not to set

out until something positive was known of the matter. But after many

inquiries we were satisfied that the alarm was groundless, and we did

not delay our preparations to depart.

Our host was surely the oddest being this world ever produced. In spite

of ourselves, he was the sole object of our thoughts every moment in the

day. Anthony, who had taken no little aversion to him, lost no

opportunity of informing us of what he called his turpitudes. For

instance, every morning he was sure to be seen in ambush behind the

door until our samovar was ready, when he would come in smiling with his

cup and spoon in his hand, without even waiting for an invitation, seat

himself at the table, and wash down his zouckaris with three or four

cups of tea.

One day he begged a few spoonfuls of rum of my husband, for a sick

person, as he said; but that evening his jollity and the redness of his

face told us plainly what had become of our liquor. He even found it so

much to his taste, that he entreated Anthony next day to give him a few

more spoonfuls on the sly, telling him very seriously that the cat had

spilled the first cup.

He gave us no peace night or day. Not content with deafening us by his

incessant babbling, not a word of which we understood, the whim would

sometimes seize him to sing all the Malorussian airs that came into his

head. Long after we were in bed one night, we heard him pacing up and

down the corridor like a sentinel. We tried hard to guess what might be

the meaning of this new freak; but next day we discovered that it

proceeded from his excessive vigilance and forethought. He failed not

himself to tell us, that feeling uneasy at the news that the Circassians

were abroad, he had kept guard over us with his musket shouldered, and

that he was ready to perform the same duty every night.

Could we remain untouched by such conduct? Could we refuse such a man

the parcels of coffee, tea, and sugar he had been so long soliciting

with looks and hints? Unfortunately his requests followed so close on

each other, that our gratitude was worn out at last. Anthony was furious

every time we yielded to his importunities, and ceased not in revenge to

torment him in a thousand ways.

One day the jealous dragoman, of his own authority, served up dinner an

hour before the usual time, in order to baffle our host, who accordingly

did not arrive until we were just quitting the table. I never saw a man

more disappointed; he stood at the door, not knowing whether to enter or

not; at last, doomed to forego his dinner, he knew nothing better to do

in his despair than to go and cudgel his Kalmuck.

On the eve of our departure we learned that he had charged us for the

bread he sold us more than double the price paid at the barracks. This

occasioned a very lively altercation between him and Anthony, who was

delighted to have such an opportunity of speaking out his mind. But the

honourable functionary was not to be disconcerted by such a trifle;

after listening with imperturbable coolness to the dragoman's

reproaches, he replied in a very off-hand manner that the thing was not

worth talking about, for when people travel, they must make up their

minds to pay a ducat in most cases for what is not worth more than

twenty copeks.

He became extremely sulky when he observed our preparations to depart.

He no longer talked, but contented himself with restlessly watching all

that was going on in the room; peering at every article of our baggage,

as if he would look through and through it. Whenever our men carried any

thing to the carriage, he followed them with angry looks, as if they

were committing a robbery upon him. At last, on the sixth day after our

arrival at Selenoi Sastava, we had the pleasure to turn our backs on the

lieutenant-colonel and his miserable cabin. I doubt if the fear of the

Circassians would have been able to detain us longer in such a spot.

The dryness of the atmosphere, which had lasted from the time we left

Houidouk, was succeeded by heavy rain when we reached Selenoi, and this

was the chief cause of our long stay there. On the day of our departure

the sky looked rather threatening, notwithstanding which we stepped into

the carriage with inexpressible delight. I would rather have taken my

chance of ten deluges in the open steppe, than have spent twenty-four

hours more in Selenoi; but fortune was pleased to compensate us in some

degree for our recent vexations by affording us the most agreeable

weather that travellers could desire. The rain had given the sand a

pleasant degree of solidity, and had, besides, spread a mild and subdued

tone over the steppes that was peculiarly agreeable. Autumn was now

come, with its sharp morning air and its melancholy tints; and

accustomed as we had been to the scorching reverberation of the

sunshine, we felt as if an earthly paradise was opening before us. In

one day more the sky was cleared of its last vapours, and reappeared in

all its azure purity, streaked only with a few rich and warm-coloured

clouds, that seemed to take away the aridity of the desert. But the sun

had lost much of its power, and though it shone down on us without

obstruction, we reached the sources of the Manitch without being much

inconvenienced by the heat.

These sources are formed by a depression of about twenty-five versts in

diameter, towards which converge several small ravines. They were quite

dry when we arrived at them, and all the vicinity, intercepted by small

brackish lakes, displayed no kind of vegetation. The total want of water

and fodder hindered us from proceeding to the Don, as we had intended,

and my husband was obliged to suspend his levelling operations. It was

not, of course, without sore regret that he put off the solution of his

great scientific problem until the following year. Our men were in good

spirits, our health excellent, and we were by no means prepared to

expect such an obstacle as that which now stopped us in a course we had

pursued with such perseverance; but nature commanded, and we were forced

to obey.

We passed the night near the sources in the midst of a total solitude,

and early next morning we retraced our steps, and proceeded towards the

Kouma, distant about seventy-five versts; the men were all mounted again

on their camels, and seemed well pleased to have no more pedestrian

labours in prospect; for with all their willingness, they had not been

able to accustom their limbs to that sort of service. We encamped for

two nights successively among Kalmucks, for the steppes grew less lonely

as we departed from our first course. These good people heard the story

of our journey through their plains with eager curiosity. As soon as

supper was over they squatted themselves round our kibitka, lending a

religious attention to the most improbable tales, for our men, who took

upon them the office of historiographers, paid very little respect to

truth in their compositions. One of our camel-drivers, especially, had

been endowed by Heaven with an imagination of extraordinary fecundity.

It was his peculiar office to amuse the whole escort during the bivouac,

and when he had to do with a new audience, his captivating eloquence

attained the utmost limits of possibility, enchanting even those who

heard him every day.

The last encampment in which we passed the night was one of the most

considerable we had seen up to that time. The country, indeed, had

entirely changed its aspect; we had left the dreary sands behind us,

with the Caspian and the Manitch. An abundant vegetation, and

undulations of the ground that became more and more decided as we

proceeded, gladdened the sight, and accounted for the numerous

encampments we discovered in all directions. Herds of horses, camels,

and oxen spotted all the surface of the steppe, and bespoke the wealth

of the hordes to which they belonged. We were not in the least molested

by the latter. These good Kalmucks were delighted to receive us in their

tents, and never attempted to steal the least thing from us. Their

desires and their wants are so very limited! To tame a wild horse, to

roam from steppe to steppe on their camels, to smoke and drink koumis,

to shut themselves up in winter in the midst of ashes and smoke, and to

addict themselves to the superstitious practices of a religion they

cannot understand,--such is the whole sum of their lives.

I had the curiosity frequently to enter their kibitkas, but I never saw

in any of them the dirt I had been told of. The Russian kates are

infinitely more untidy and squalid that the interiors of these tents.

Among other visits we made one to the wife of a subaltern chief, and as

she had been warned of our coming, she was dressed in her best finery.

She sat with her legs tucked under her on a piece of felt, with a child

before her, and a servant-woman motionless at her side. She was

delighted to receive us, and thanked us with much cordiality. We

complimented her on the neatness and good order of her tent, at which

she seem gratified in the highest degree.

We remarked with surprise that there was not one priest in all the camps

we passed through, but we afterwards learned that they were all gone

northwards to the Sarpa, where there were much finer pastures, and where

one was not tormented by the myriads of gnats that abound in those

countries in autumn. We ourselves had much to endure from those terrible

insects all the way to Vladimirofka, and we were often so annoyed by

them as to wish ourselves back among the sands of the Manitch.

Even if the want of water had not put a stop to our journey, the state

of our provisions was such that I hardly know what we could have done.

Our bacon, rice, coffee, and biscuits had long disappeared; we had

nothing left but a small stock of tea and sugar, and for the rest we

were dependent on the hawk, which did wonders daily in supplying the

deficiencies of our commissariat. Our last repast under the tent

consisted only of game cooked in all sorts of ways. Anthony, who to his

functions as dragoman, added those of butler, cook, and scullion, put

forth all his powers on that occasion: but we had been surfeited with

game; we had lived upon it so long that the sight of a wild goose was

enough to give us a fit of indigestion. It was, therefore, with

exceeding joy that on reaching the house of an inspector of Kalmucks, we

found ourselves seated at a table covered with vegetables and pastry.

The house of that officer (a very agreeable young Russian who spoke

Kalmuck like a native) was situated at a little distance from the Kouma

in a magnificent meadow. For a long while we had beheld no such

landscape, and though we were still on the verge of the desert, that

little white house with green window blinds, and the two or three

handsome trees around it, completely changed the physiognomy of the

country in our eyes.

The inspector gave us a good deal of information respecting the

proprietor of Vladimirofka, of whom we had already heard at Astrakhan,

and he offered to accompany us to the establishment, which was barely

ten versts distant. It was there we proposed to rest and recruit

ourselves after the fatigues of our journey, and to take a final leave

of our escort.

CHAPTER XXIV.

REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE KALMUCKS.

The account we have given of our journey on the banks of the Volga, and

the steppes of the Caspian, will have afforded the reader an idea of the

strange and striking habits of the nomade hordes that wander with their

flocks over those vast deserts, and worship their Llamite deities with

all the pomp and fervour of the nations of Thibet. Our historical and

political sketch will serve as a complement to those primary notions. It

is by no means our intention, however, to give a complete history of the

Kalmucks; such a work would be too extensive, and would require too long

and arduous researches to be compressed within our limits. At present we

shall only cast a rapid glance over the past history of the great Mongol

families; we shall dwell principally upon their actual condition, and

then comparing our own observations with the statements of preceding

writers, we shall try to cast some new light on the history of the

Asiatic races that occupy the south of Russia.

Pallas and B. Bergmann, the only travellers who have taken pains to

investigate the history of the Kalmucks in the government of Astrakhan,

have left us some valuable details respecting their manners and customs,

and their religion. But Pallas travelled in 1769, and circumstances have

greatly changed since his day. B. Bergmann visited the Kalmucks in the

early part of this century, and it is to be regretted that his work,

which contains such important information respecting the languages and

the religious books of the Mongols, takes no notice whatever of any

matter connected with their political administration and organisation.

It is not surprising that so little is yet known of the Kalmuck hordes,

for excursions through the remote Steppes of the Caspian Sea present

difficulties and hardships which few travellers can withstand. One must

unquestionably be impelled by a strong motive, to traverse those immense

plains which are almost everywhere destitute of fresh water, where one

often marches 100 leagues without seeing a trace of human life, and

where the soil, bare of vegetation, offers no other variety than sands

and brackish lakes. Yet in order to form an exact idea of the

inhabitants of these deserts, of their character, and ways of life, it

is necessary to dwell beneath their tents. It is in the vicinity of

Sarepta that the traveller arriving from the north meets the first

Kalmuck kibitkas. The camps then stretch away across the Manitch and the

Kouma towards the foot of the great Caucasian chain. We have explored

all that extent of country, have visited the remotest parts of the

steppes, and seen the Kalmucks in an advanced social stage at Prince

Tumene's, and in a primitive condition beneath their tents. It is thus

we have been enabled to collect our information respecting the history

and present condition of this unique people of Europe.

According to the unanimous opinion of all historians, the regions

adjoining the Altai mountains, and especially those south of that great

chain, appear to have been from time immemorial the cradle and domain of

the Mongol tribes. At first divided into two branches, always at war

with each other, the Mongols were at last united into one great nation

under the celebrated Genghis Khan, and thus was laid the basis of that

formidable power which was to invade almost the whole of eastern Europe.

But after the death of Genghis Khan, the old discord broke out with

renewed violence, and only ended with the mutual destruction of the two

great Mongol tribes. The Mongols proper were forced to submit to the

Chinese, whom they had formerly vanquished, and the four nations that

formed the Doerboen OEroet, scattered themselves over all the

north of Asia. The Koites, after long wars, spread over Mongolia and

Thibet; the Touemmoites or Toummouts settled along the great wall of

China, where they remain to this day; the Bourga Burates, who already in

the time of Genghis Khan inhabited the mountains adjacent to Lake

Barkal, are now beneath the Russian sceptre; the Eleuthes, the last of

the four, are better known in Europe and Western Asia under the

appellation of Kalmucks.

According to ancient national traditions, the greater part of the

Eleuthes made an expedition westward, and were lost in the Caucasus,

long before the time of Genghis Khan. It is to that epoch that some

historians refer the origin of the word Kalmuck, which they derive from

_kalimak_, _severed_, _left behind_, and they suppose this designation

was applied to all those Eleuthes who did not accompany their brethren

westward. According to Bergmann, _kalimak_ signifies likewise

_unbeliever_, and this name may very naturally have been given by the

people of Asia who adhered to the primitive religion, to the Eleuthes,

when they had become converts to Buddhism. We leave to competent judges

the task of deciding which is the more rational or probable explanation.

The Eleuthes or Kalmucks allege that they dwelt in old times in the

countries lying between Koho Noor (Blue Lake) and Thibet. Their division

into four great tribes, each under an independent prince, dates probably

from the dissolution of the Mongol power. These tribes, whose remains

exist to this day, are the Koshotes, Derbetes, Soongars, and Torghouts.

The Koshotes, whose chiefs consider themselves to be lineally descended

from a brother of Genghis Khan, were partly destroyed in intestine wars

with the Torghouts and Soongars, and partly subjugated by China. Only a

small remnant of them accompanied the Derbetes to the banks of the

Volga.

The Soongars originally united with the Derbetes, constituted the most

formidable tribe in Asia, in the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Their princes, who resided on the river Ily, had then subdued all the

other Kalmucks; they could bring 60,000 fighting men into the field, and

the Khirghis and Turkmans paid them tribute. Their pride augmented with

their success, and a war they undertook against the Chinese Mongols

became the cause of their downfall. The Soongars were enslaved or

scattered, and a branch of the Derbetes shared their fate. It was about

this period that the first emigration of Kalmucks took place into

Russia; 50,000 Soongar or Torgout families encamped on the banks of the

Volga, in 1630, and Astrakhan owed its safety only to the death of their

prince Cho Orloek, who was slain in an assault on the town.

Subsequently, however, about 1665, Daitchink, the son of Cho Orloek, was

forced to acknowledge himself a vassal of the empire, and to swear

fealty. His example was followed by his son. But this submission was

merely nominal, and did not at all affect the real independence of the

Mongol hordes.

The first Kalmuck emigrations towards the west were speedily followed by

others. The Derbetes and other Torghouts arrived in the steppes of the

Caspian and Volga to the number of more than 10,000 tents. In 1665,

Aiouki Khan, grandson of Daitchink, an enterprising and ambitious man,

succeeded, in defiance of Russia, in extending his sway over all the

Kalmuck tribes. This chief pushed his excursions up to the foot of the

Caucasus, and being opposed on his march by the Nogais of the Kouban, he

completely defeated them in a general engagement. The bodies of his

slain foes were cast by his orders into a pit dug under a great tumulus,

situated on the field of battle, and still known in the country by the

name of _Bairin Tolkon_ (Mountain of Joy), bestowed on it by the

victorious khan in memory of his triumph.

Aiouki's forces then took part in Peter the Great's famous expedition

against Persia, in which they rendered great services to Russia. The

Kalmuck prince had a brilliant interview on this occasion with the Tzar.

Peter received him on board his galley on the Volga, near Saratof, and

treated him and his wife with all the honours due to sovereigns. Aiouki

was then at the height of his power, and cared little for the oath of

allegiance to Russia taken by his predecessors. Peter required 10,000

men of him, and he furnished 5000. It was about this period that an

embassy, under the special protection of Russia, arrived from China, by

way of Siberia, and waited on Aiouki Khan, ostensibly for the purpose of

treating with him for the restoration of one of his nephews, who was

detained at the imperial court for reasons unknown to us. But we believe

that the principal object of the embassy was to keep up political

relations with the Kalmucks, whom the Chinese government wished to bring

back under its own sway. Aiouki, following the example of his

predecessors, had not broken off all communication with the celestial

empire, and had even sent rich presents to the emperor in 1698. It was,

therefore, important to cherish this favourable disposition, of which

the Chinese hoped to avail themselves sooner or later. Of course it is

not to be supposed that these views were avowed officially; and we

cannot but wonder at the indifference of the Russian government, or the

adroitness with which the Chinese availed themselves of the aid of

Russia herself to compass their ends. But in the various interviews

between Aiouki and Toulichen, the head of the embassy, the question of

keeping up an intimacy between the two nations was largely discussed,

and all necessary measures were arranged to avoid awakening the

suspicions of Russia, and thus closing the only means of communication

that lay open to them.[37]

Aiouki reigned about fifty years. After his death, in 1724, the old

dissensions broke out again among the Kalmucks; Russia made good use of

the opportunity to break down the independence of the hordes by directly

interfering in their domestic affairs, and their princes soon became

subject to the imperial sceptre. Thenceforth the dignity of khan was

conferred only by the Muscovite tzars, and the tribes were put under the

special control of a Russian commander called a _pristof_.

After a long series of contests and intrigues, Dondouk Ombo, the

son-in-law of Aiouki, was named khan, to the prejudice of Aiouki's

grandson. Under this prince internal peace was restored among the

hordes, and the Kalmucks did good service to Russia in the campaigns

against the Nogais, and other inhabitants of the Kouban. But quarrels

broke out again on the death of Dondouk Ombo in 1741. His children, who

were minors, were set aside, and his ambitious and intriguing widow

contrived to have Dondouk Dachi, her youngest brother, and grandson of

the celebrated Aiouki, declared vice-khan. The new chief was entirely

devoted to Russia, and his submissiveness was rewarded after the lapse

of fifteen years by promotion to the rank of khan; but he enjoyed that

dignity only four years. His son Oubacha succeeded him as vice-khan in

January, 1761.

In Oubacha's reign new hordes arrived in Europe, and the Kalmucks were

reinforced by 10,000 tents, commanded by Chereng Taidchi. The various

tribes, which consisted of more than 80,000 families, and possessed

innumerable herds of cattle, extended at that time from the shores of

the Jaik to the Don, and from Zaritzin, on the Volga, to the foot of the

northern slopes of the Caucasus. Oubacha paid no tribute to Russia; he

was regarded rather as an ally than a vassal, and was only required to

supply cavalry to the imperial armies in time of war.

Oubacha vigorously seconded the Russians in their expedition against the

Turks and Nogais. His army amounted to 30,000 horse, and one of its

detachments figured even in the celebrated siege of Otchakof. It was on

the return of the Kalmucks from these campaigns that their celebrated

emigration took place, when nearly half a million of men, women, and

children, headed by their prince, quitted the banks of the Volga with

their cattle, and set out across the most arid regions in quest of their

old country.

The flight of the Kalmucks has been variously explained. B. Bergmann

attributes it solely to the vindictiveness of Zebeck Dorchi, a relation

of Oubacha's, who had been frustrated in his attempt to raise himself to

sovereign power. After fruitless attempts at the court of the Empress

Elizabeth, he had nevertheless been named first _sargatchi_, or

councillor at the court of his rival. The imperial government hoped by

this means to curb the ambition of Oubacha, whose power it had abridged

in 1761, by deciding that the sargatchis, or members of the khan's

council, should be attached to the ministry of foreign affairs, with an

annual salary of 100 rubles. According to Bergmann, Zebeck Dorchi made

no account of his new dignity, and unable to forgive Russia for not

having favoured his pretensions, he joined the hordes with a full

determination to take signal vengeance. He would induce the Kalmucks to

go over to China, and thus deprive the empire of more than 500,000

subjects, and the army of the greater part of its best cavalry, and make

all the neighbouring towns feel severely the loss of their cattle. Such,

according to Bergmann, was Zebeck Dorchi's project, to realise which he

counted solely on the natural fickleness of the Kalmucks, and his own

active intrigues. This was certainly a very extraordinary scheme of

vengeance, and one we can hardly credit, notwithstanding Bergmann's

assertions. Zebeck Dorchi's aim being to secure the supreme power, it

would have been folly for him to choose such means. It would have been

much more to the purpose to have informed against Oubacha at the moment

when the latter was making his arrangements for quitting Russia. Such a

service would have had its reward, and the informer would undoubtedly

have supplanted his rival. This whole explanation of the affair given by

Bergmann, rests on no one positive fact, and can only have been devised

by a man writing under Russian influence, and consequently forced to

disguise the truth.

At the period of the Kalmuck emigration Catherine II. filled the throne,

and the Russian government was beginning to adopt those principles of

uniformity which so highly characterise its present policy. Moreover, it

was really impossible to allow that the whole southern portion of the

empire should be given up to turbulent hordes, which, though nominally

subjected to the crown, still indulged their propensity to pillage

without scruple. Placed as they were between the central and the

southern provinces, and occupying almost all the approaches to the

Caucasus, the Kalmucks were destined, of necessity, to lose their

independence, and fall beneath the immediate yoke of Russia. Catherine's

intentions were soon no secret, and Oubacha saw that he must escape by

flight from the encroachments of his powerful neighbours, if he would

save what remained to him of the primitive authority of the khans. If we

reflect, moreover, that the power of the Kalmuck princes had been

considerably abridged by the new organisation of their administrative

council; that Colonel Kitchinskoi, then grand pristof, had excited the

general indignation of the tribes by his harsh conduct; that the

political and military exigencies of Russia were continually on the

increase; we shall have no difficulty in comprehending the real causes

of the emigration of these Mongol tribes. Certainly it required all

these combined motives to induce the Kalmucks to undertake such a

journey through desert regions, the inhabitants of which were their

natural enemies. Nevertheless, we believe the Chinese government was not

altogether unconcerned in bringing about Oubacha's determination; for,

as we shall see by and by, the emperor had already, in Aiouki's time,

sent the mandarin Toulischin to the Kalmucks, to assure them of his

protection, in case they would return to their native country.[38]

It was on the 5th of January, 1771, the day appointed by the high

priests, that Oubacha began his march, with 70,000 families. Most of the

hordes were then assembled in the steppes on the left bank of the Volga,

and the whole multitude followed him. Only 15,000 families remained in

Russia, because the Volga remained unfrozen to an unusual late period,

and prevented them from crossing over to the rendezvous. Oubacha

arrived, without impediment, beyond the Jaik, but was afterwards

vigorously assailed by the Cossacks of the Ural and the Khirghis, and

lost many men. After two months' marching, the exhausted hordes encamped

on the Irguitch, which falls into Lake Aksakal, to the north of the sea

of Aral. Next they had to cross the frightful desert of Chareh Ousoun,

where they were exposed to all the torments of thirst, and suffered

indescribable disasters; after which they arrived at Lake Palkache Nor,

where many of them fell in a last encounter with the Khirghis. Oubacha

then forced a passage through the country of the Burats, and at last

reached China, after a march of eight months. Strange to say, the

Muscovite government took no energetic means to arrest the fugitives,

and detain them in Russia. General Traubenberg, indeed, who was in

command at Orenberg, was sent in pursuit of them, but failed totally,

whether from incapacity or otherwise. Thus was accomplished the most

extraordinary emigration of modern times; the empire was suddenly

deprived of a pastoral and warlike people, whose habits accorded so well

with the Caspian steppes, and the regions in which many thousand

families had fed their innumerable flocks and herds for a long series of

years, were left desolate and unpeopled.

We will now extract that portion of the Memoirs of the Jesuits, Vol. I.,

in which Father Amiot recounts the arrival of the Kalmucks in China,

dated Pekin, November 8th, 1772. I copy this curious document from

Father Amiot's original manuscript.[39]

"In the thirty-sixth year of Kien Long, that is to say, in the year of

Jesus Christ, 1771, all the Tatars[40] composing the nation of the

Torgouths[41] arrived, after encountering a thousand perils, in the

plains watered by the Ily, entreating the favour to be admitted among

the vassals of the great Chinese empire. By their own account, they

have abandoned for ever, and without regret, the sterile banks of the

Volga and the Jaik, along which the Russians had formerly allowed them

to settle, near where the two rivers empty themselves into the Caspian.

They have abandoned them, they say, _to come and admire more closely the

brilliant lustre of the heavens, and at last to enjoy, like so many

others, the happiness of having henceforth for master the greatest

prince in the world_. Notwithstanding the many battles in which they

have been obliged to engage, defensively or offensively, with those

through whose country they had to pass, and at whose expense they were

necessarily compelled to live; notwithstanding the depredations

committed on them by the vagrant Tatars, who repeatedly attacked and

plundered them on their march; notwithstanding the enormous fatigues

endured by them in traversing more than 10,000 leagues, through one of

the most difficult countries; notwithstanding hunger, thirst, misery,

and an almost general scarcity of common necessaries, to which they were

exposed during their eight months' journey, their numbers still amounted

to 50,000 families when they arrived, and these 50,000 families, to use

the language of the country, counted 300,000 mouths, without sensible

error. Among the Russians carried off by them at their departure, were

100 soldiers, at the head of whom was a Monsieur Dudin, Doudin, or

Toutim,[42] as the name is pronounced here. This name is probably not

unknown in our part of the world. It is not at all like the common

Russian names. Is it not that of some expatriated Frenchman, who had

found employment among the Russians? Be this as it may, had this officer

been still alive in last August, when the emperor gave evidence to the

Torgouth princes whom he had summoned to Ge Ho, where he was enjoying

the pleasures of the chase, he would certainly have been sent back with

honour to Muscovy. His majesty did not disdain to inquire personally as

to this fact. 'Is it true,' said he to one of the chiefs of the nation,

'that before your departure you plundered the possessions of the

Russians, and carried off one of their officers and 100 of their

soldiers?' 'We did so,' replied the Torgouth prince, 'and could not help

doing so, under the circumstances in which we were placed. As for the

Russian officer and his 100 and odd soldiers, there is every reason to

think that they all perished by the way. I remember that when the

division was made, eight of them fell to me. I will inquire of my people

whether any of these Russians are still alive, and if so, I will send

them to your majesty immediately on my return to Ily.'

"This year, 1772, the thirty-seventh of the reign of Kien Long, those of

the Eleuths who were formerly dispersed over the vast regions known by

the general name of Tartary, some hordes of Pourouths, and the rest of

the nation of the Torgouths, came like the others, and voluntarily

submitted to a yoke which no one sought to impose on them. They were in

number 30,000 families, which, added to the 50,000 of the preceding

year, make a total of 480,000 mouths, who will unite their voices with

those of the other subjects of the empire in proclaiming the marvels of

one of the most glorious reigns that has been since the foundation of

the monarchy.

"So extraordinary and unexpected an event, happening when the empress

mother's eighty-sixth year was celebrated here with a pomp becoming all

the majesty of him who gives law to this empire, has been regarded by

the emperor as an infallible mark of the goodness of that supreme

heaven, of which he calls himself the son, and from which he glories in

having unceasingly received the most signal favours since his accession

to the throne: it is in this spirit he has caused the fact to be

enrolled in the private archives of his nation, archives which, in the

course of ages, will, perhaps, contrast in many points with those which

will be published by the Chinese historians, and with those, too, which

some neighbouring nations may publish with reference to the same facts.

The latter will, perhaps, impute political views and manoeuvres which

have had no existence, whilst the former, in spite of certain

appearances which may suggest the probability of intrigues and

negotiations practised for the accomplishment of a preconcerted design,

nevertheless state nothing but the truth, which will be somewhat hard to

believe. If the testimony of a contemporary, and, as it were, ocular

witness, who has no prejudice or interest in the matter, were necessary

to establish that the fact I am about to speak of is among the number of

those which are true in all circumstances, I would freely give it

without fearing that any man, of the least information, could ever

accuse me of error or partiality. Be this as it may, until such time as

history shall acquaint posterity with an event which he regards as one

of the most glorious of his reign, the emperor has caused the statement

and the date to be inscribed on stone in four languages spoken by the

various nations subject to him, viz., the Mantchous, Mongols, Torgouths,

and Chinese. This lapidary monument is to be erected at Ily before the

eyes of the Torgouths, that it may be seen by all those nations I have

named. Having had an opportunity of procuring a copy from the original,

taken by one of those who were employed in making the Mantchou

inscription, I have ventured to translate it. It would doubtless be very

acceptable even as a literary specimen, had I been able to preserve in

our language that noble simplicity, that energy and precision, which the

emperor has given it in his own tongue. Its contents are nearly as

follows:

"'_Records of the transmigration of the Torgouths, who voluntarily, and

of their own full accord, came bodily as a nation, and submitted

themselves to the empire of China._

"'Those who, after having revolted, reflecting uneasily on a crime

which they cannot yet be made to expiate, but for which they see full

well that they will be punished sooner or later, beg permission to

return beneath the yoke of obedience, are men who submit through fear;

they are constrained subjects; those who having the option to undergo

the yoke or not, yet come and submit themselves to it voluntarily, and

of their own full accord, even when there is no thought of imposing it

upon them, are men who have submitted only because such is their

pleasure; they are subjects who have freely given themselves to him whom

they have chosen to govern them.

"'All those who now compose the nation of the Torgouths, undismayed by

the dangers of a long and toilsome journey, filled with the sole desire

of procuring for the future a better manner of life and a happier lot,

have abandoned the places where they dwelt far beyond our frontier, have

traversed with unshakable courage a space of more than ten thousand

leagues, and have ranged themselves, of their own accord, among the

number of my subjects. Their submission to me is not a submission

inspired by fear, but a voluntary and free submission, if ever such

there was.

"'After having pacified the western frontiers of my dominions, I caused

the lands of my domain which are on the Ily to be put under tillage, and

I diminished the tribute heretofore imposed on the neighbouring

Mahometans. I enacted that the Hasacks and the Pourouths should together

form the external limits of the empire on that side, and should be

governed on the footing of the foreign hordes. As regards the nations of

the Antchiyen and the Badakchan, as they are still more remote, I

determined to leave them free to pay or not to pay tribute.

"'No one needs blush when he can limit his desires; no one has occasion

to fear when he knows how to desist in due time. Such are the sentiments

that actuate me. In all places under heaven, to the remotest corners

beyond the sea, there are men who obey under the names of slaves or

subjects. Shall I persuade myself that they are all submitted to me, and

that they own themselves my vassals? Far from me be so chimerical a

pretension. What I persuade myself, and what is strictly true, is that

the Torgouths, without any interference on my part, have come of their

own full accord to live henceforth under my laws. Heaven has, no doubt,

inspired them with this design; they have only obeyed Heaven in putting

it in force. I should do wrong not to commemorate this event in an

authentic monument.

"'The Torgouths are a branch of the Eleuths. Four branches formerly

constituted the entire nation of the Tchong Kars.[43] It would be

difficult to explain their common origin, respecting which moreover

nothing very certain is known. These four branches separated, and each

formed a distinct nation. That of the Eleuths, the chief of them all,

gradually subdued the others, and continued until the time of Kang Hi,

to exercise over them the pre-eminence it had usurped. Tse Ouang Raptan

then reigned over the Eleuths, and Aiouki over the Torgouths. These two

leaders, at variance with each other, had disputes, to which Aiouki, the

weaker of the two, feared he should be the unhappy victim. He conceived

the design of withdrawing for ever from beneath the sway of the

Eleuths.[44] He took secret measures to secure the flight he meditated,

and escaped with all his followers to the lands under the sway of the

Russians, who permitted him to settle in the country of Etchil.[45]

"'Cheng Tsou Jin Hoang Ty, my grandfather, wishing to be informed of the

true reasons that had induced Aiouki thus to expatriate himself, sent

him the mandarin Toulichen[46] and some others to assure him of his

protection in case he desired to return to the country where he had

formerly dwelt. The Russians, to whom Toulichen was ordered to apply for

permission to pass through their country, granted it without difficulty;

but as they gave him no information as to what he was in quest of, it

took him three years and some months to fulfil his commission. It was

not until after his return that the desired information respecting

Aiouki and his people was at last possessed.

"'Oubacha, who is now khan of the Torgouths, is great grandson of

Aiouki. The Russians, never ceasing to require soldiers of him to be

incorporated in their troops, having at last taken his own son from him

as a hostage, and being besides of a different religion from himself,

and making no account of that of the Lamas which the Torgouths profess,

Oubacha and his people finally determined to shake off a yoke which was

daily becoming more and more insupportable.

"'After having secretly deliberated among themselves, they resolved to

quit an abode where they had to suffer so much, and come and dwell in

the countries subject to China, where the religion of Fo is professed.

"'In the beginning of the eleventh moon of last year, they began their

march with their women and children and all their baggage, traversed the

country of the Hasacks, passed along the shores of Lake Palkache Nor

and through the adjoining deserts; and towards the close of the sixth

moon of this year, after having completed more than 10,000 leagues in

the eight months of their wayfaring, they at last arrived on the

frontiers of Chara Pen, not far from the banks of the Ily. I was already

aware that the Torgouths were on their march to submit themselves to me,

the news having been brought me shortly after their departure from

Etchil. I then reflected that Iletou, general of the troops at Ily,

having already been charged with other very important affairs, it was to

be feared that he could not regulate those of the new comers with all

the requisite attention.

"'Chouhede, one of the general's councillors, was at Ouche, employed in

maintaining order among the Mahometans. As he was at hand to attend to

the Torgouths, I ordered him to repair to Ily, that he might use his

best efforts to establish them solidly.

"'Those who fancy they see danger everywhere, failed not to make their

representations to me on this matter. 'Among those who are come to make

their submission,' said they, with one voice, 'is the perfidious

Chereng. That traitor, after having deceived Tangalou, put him to death

miserably, and took refuge among the Russians. He who has once deceived

may do so again. Let us beware; we cannot be too much on our guard. To

give welcome to one who comes of his own accord to make submission, is

to give reception to an enemy.' Upon these representations I conceived

some distrust, and gave orders that some preparations should be made to

meet every contingency. I reflected, however, with all the maturity

required by an affair of such importance, and my reiterated reflections

at last convinced me that what I was told to fear could not possibly

come to pass. Could Chereng alone have been able to persuade a whole

nation? Could he have put Oubacha and all the Torgouths, his subjects,

in motion? What likelihood is there that so many men would willingly

have inconvenienced themselves to follow a private individual--would

have entered into his views--and run the risk of perishing of hunger and

wretchedness with him? Besides this, the Russians, from whose sway they

have ventured to withdraw themselves, are like myself, masters of a

great realm. If the Torgouths were come with the intention of insulting

my frontiers, and settling there by force, could they hope that I would

leave them undisturbed there? Can they have persuaded themselves that I

would not stir to expel them? And if they are expelled, whither can they

retire? Can they dare to hope that the Russians, whom they have treated

with ingratitude in abandoning them as they have done, will condescend

to receive them back with impunity, and allow them to resume possession

of the ground they accorded to them formerly? Had the Torgouths been

actuated by any other motive than that of wishing to submit sincerely to

me, they would be without support on either side; they would be between

two fires. Of ten arguments for and against, there are nine to show that

there is nothing in their proceeding to excite suspicion. Among these

ten arguments is there one tending to prove that they entertain any

secret views? If so, the future will unmask them, and then I will act as

circumstances shall require. What was to happen at the time I made these

reflections, has happened at last. It has proved the accuracy of my

reasoning, and exactly verified what I had predicted.

"'Nevertheless I neglected none of the precautions that seemed to me

necessary. I ordered Chouhede to erect forts and redoubts in the most

important places, and have all the passes strictly guarded. I enjoined

him to exert himself personally in procuring necessary provisions of all

kinds in the interior, whilst fit persons, carefully chosen by him,

should make every arrangement for securing quiet without.

"'The Torgouths arrived; and at once found lodging, food, and all the

conveniences they could have enjoyed each in his own dwelling. Nor was

this all; the principal men among them, who were to come in person and

pay homage to me, were conducted with honour and free of expense by the

imperial post-roads to the place where I then was. I saw them, spoke to

them, and was pleased that they should enjoy the pleasures of the chase

with me; and after the days allotted to that recreation were ended, they

repaired in my suite to Ge Ho. There I gave them the banquet of

ceremony, and made them the ordinary presents with the same pomp and

state as I am accustomed to employ when I give solemn audience to

Tchering and the chiefs of the Tourbeths (_the Derbetes of the

Russians_), of whom he is the leader.

"'It was at Ge Ho, in those charming scenes where Kang Hi, my

grandfather, made himself an abode to which he might retire during the

hot season, and at the same time put himself in a position to watch more

closely over the welfare of the people beyond the western frontiers of

the empire; it was, I say, in that delightful spot, that having

conquered the whole of the country of the Eleuths, I received the

sincere homage of Tchering and his Tourbeths, who alone among the

Eleuths, had remained true to me. It is not necessary to go back many

years to reach the term of that epoch; the memory of it is still quite

recent.

"'Who would have said it! When I had the least reason to expect it--when

I was not even thinking of it--that branch of the Eleuths which had been

the first to separate from the trunk, the Torgouths who had voluntarily

expatriated themselves to live under an alien and remote dominion, those

very Torgouths came of themselves and submitted to me of their own free

will; and it was at Ge Ho, near the venerable spot where rest the ashes

of my grandfather, that I had the unsought opportunity of solemnly

admitting them among the number of my subjects.

"'Now, indeed, it may be said, without fear of overstepping the truth,

that the whole nation of the Mongols is subject to our dynasty of Tay

Tsing, since it is from it in fact that all the hordes composing it now

receive laws. My august grandfather conjectured this result; he foresaw

that it would happen one day; what would have been his delight to know

that that day was actually come!

"'It is under the reign of my humble person that the conjectures of that

great prince are realised, and what he had foreseen is fully

accomplished. What token can I give him of gratitude proportioned to

what I owe him! What profound homage, what respectful sentiments can

clear my account with Heaven for the constant protection with which it

deigns to honour me! I tremble under the apprehension of not bearing

sufficiently at heart those obligations with which I ought to be wholly

filled, or of not being sufficiently attentive to fulfil them entirely.

After all I have no thought of imputing to my own virtue and merits the

voluntary submission, or the arrival of the Torgouths in my dominions. I

will strive to behave, in this respect, as well as I possibly can. No

sooner were the Torgouths arrived than the representations began anew.

'These people,' I was told 'are rebels who have withdrawn from the sway

of the Russians; we are not free to receive them. It is to be feared

that if we gave them a favourable reception it would occasion

animosities and some troubles on our frontiers.' 'Let not that alarm

you,' I replied. 'Chereng was formerly my subject; he revolted and took

refuge among the Russians, and they received him. Repeatedly did I

request them to give him up to me, but they would not. And now Chereng,

acknowledging his fault, comes and surrenders voluntarily. What I here

say, I have already said to the Russians in the fullest detail, and I

have completely reduced them to silence.'

"'What! was it to be supposed that for considerations no way binding

upon me, I should have suffered so many thousand human beings to perish,

after they had arrived on the verge of our frontiers almost half dead

with wretchedness and famine! 'But,' it was objected, 'they have

plundered by the way; they have carried off provisions and cattle.' And

suppose they have, how could they have preserved their lives without

doing so? Who would have supplied them with the means of existence?

'Watch so well,' says an old Chinese proverb, 'that you may never be

surprised; keep such careful guard that perfect security may reign even

in your deserts.'

"'With regard to the Ily country where I have allowed them to take up

their abode, though I have very recently caused a town to be built

there, that place is not yet strong enough to protect the frontiers in

that direction, and hinder the brigands from continuing to insult them.

Those who inhabit the country are employed only in tilling the ground

and feeding cattle. How could they protect themselves? How could they

secure the peace of those deserts? General Iletou being informed of the

approach of the Torgouths, failed not to acquaint me with the fact. If

through fear of the uncertain future, or considerations unsuited to the

circumstances of the case, I had determined to have the border strictly

guarded, and to have a stop put to the march of the Torgouths, what

should I have gained thereby? Driven to despair, would they not have

rushed into the most violent excesses? An ordinary private individual

would be justly stigmatised as inhuman, were he to behold strangers from

a far country exhausted with fatigue, bowed down by wretchedness, and

ready to breathe out their last gasp, and not take the trouble to

succour them; and shall a great prince, whose first duty it is to try to

imitate Heaven in his manner of governing men, shall he leave a whole

nation that implores his clemency to perish for want of aid? Far from us

be such vile thoughts! farther still be conduct conformable to them! No,

we will never adopt such cruel sentiments. The Torgouths came, I

received them; they wanted even the commonest necessaries of life; I

provided them with every thing abundantly; I opened for them my

granaries and my coffers, my stalls and my studs. Out of the former I

bestowed on them what was requisite for their present wants; from the

latter I desired that they should be supplied with the means of

providing for themselves in time to come. I intrusted the management of

this important affair to those of my grandees whose disinterestedness

and enlightenment were already known to me. I hope and trust that every

thing will be done to the entire satisfaction of the Torgouths. It is

needless to say more in this place. My intention has only been to give a

summary of what has come to pass."[47]

FOOTNOTES:

[37] "Narrative of the Chinese Embassy to the Khan of Torgouth Tartars,

in the years 1712, '13, '14 and '15, by the Chinese Ambassador, and

published by the emperor's authority at Pekin." London. I am indebted to

the kindness of Baron Walckenaer for an acquaintance with this work.

[38] The flight of the Kalmucks has also been attributed to Prince

Chereng Taidchi, of whom mention has been made above. This version of

the matter seems to us improbable. Chereng had left China as an outlaw,

and it is not to be supposed that he was favourable to the emigration,

notwithstanding the impatience with which he endured the yoke of Russia.

It appears, on the contrary, that he never ceased to protest against the

resolution adopted by Oubacha.

[39] The MS. belongs to M. Ternaux Compans, who has obligingly placed at

my disposal all the rich stores of his valuable library.

[40] Here again we see that the Chinese give the name of Tatars to the

Mongols, which confirms our opinion, that the denomination we give to

the Mussulman subjects of Southern Russia is incorrect. We have

substituted Tatar for the word Tartar in the MS.

[41] The Chinese doubtless adopted the name Torgouth, because the

fugitive Kalmucks consisted, in a great measure, of that tribe. The

Kalmucks that remained in Russia are almost all Derbetes and Koschoots.

[42] Russian documents confirm the fact, that a captain of this name

commanding a Russian detachment was carried off by the fugitive

Kalmucks.

[43] There is here, evidently, a confusion of names. The Soongars, or

Tchong-Kars, as the Chinese call them, are a branch of the Eleuths, and

are the very nation who played the important part here attributed to the

Eleuths in general.

[44] This assertion seems totally erroneous. The Torgouths arrived in

Russia in 1630, and Aiouki was not raised to the dignity of khan until

1675; he could not, therefore, have acted the part here ascribed to him.

The relation of the Chinese embassy to Aiouki (1712-1715) likewise

confirms in all points the inaccuracy of the Emperor Kien Long's

historical version. At that period China was a country almost unknown to

the Kalmucks, and Aiouki, in all his conferences with the ambassadors,

was continually asking for information of all kinds respecting the

celestial empire.

[45] The part of southern Russia comprised between the Volga and the

Jaik. The Tatars also gave the name of Etchil to the Volga.

[46] Here the emperor's words are altogether at variance with the report

of the Chinese embassy, of which Toulischin was the leader.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE KALMUCKS AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF OUBACHA--DIVISION OF THE

HORDES, LIMITS OF THEIR TERRITORY--THE TURKOMAN AND TATAR

TRIBES IN THE GOVERNMENTS OF ASTRAKHAN AND THE CAUCASUS--

CHRISTIAN KALMUCKS--AGRICULTURAL ATTEMPTS--PHYSICAL, SOCIAL,

AND MORAL, CHARACTERISTICS OF THE KALMUCKS.

After the departure of Oubacha, the Kalmucks that remained in Russia

were deprived of their special jurisdiction, and for more than thirty

years had neither khan nor vice-khan. It was not until 1802, that the

Emperor Paul, in one of his inexplicable caprices, thought fit to

re-establish the office of vice-khan, and bestowed it on Prince

Tchoutchei, an influential Kalmuck of the race of the Derbetes. The

administration of the hordes, which had been under the control of the

governor of Astrakhan since 1771, was again made independent, the

functions of the Russian pristofs were limited, and they could no longer

abuse their power so much as they had done. But upon the death of

Tchoutchei, the Kalmucks again came under the Russian laws and

tribunals; they lost all their privileges irrevocably, and the

sovereignty of the khans and of the vice-khans disappeared for ever.

The complete subjection of the Kalmucks was not, however, effected

without some difficulty. Discontent prevailed among them in the highest

degree, but their attempts at revolt were all fruitless. Hemmed in on

all sides by lines of Cossacks, the tribes were constrained to accept

the Russian sway in all its extent. The only remarkable incident of

their last struggles was a partial emigration into the Cossack country.

This insubordination excited the tzar's utmost wrath, and he despatched

an extraordinary courier to Astrakhan, with orders to arrest the high

priest and the principal chiefs of the hordes, and send them to St.

Petersburg. Before leaving Astrakhan, these two Kalmucks engaged a

certain Maximof to act as their interpreter, and plead their cause

before the emperor.

But when the two captives arrived in St. Petersburg, the emperor's fit

of anger was quite over; they were received extremely well, and instead

of being chastised, they returned to the steppes invested with a new

Russian dignity. They took leave publicly of the tzar, and this audience

was turned to good account by their interpreter. In presenting their

thanks to his majesty, that very clever person, knowing he ran no risk

of being contradicted, made Paul believe that the Kalmucks earnestly

entreated that his imperial majesty would grant him, also, an honorary

grade in recompense for his good services. The tzar was taken in by the

trick, and Maximof quitted the court with the title of major. The man

still lived in Astrakhan when we visited the town, and did not hesitate

to tell us the story with his own lips.

Though entirely subjected to the Russian laws, the Kalmucks have an

administrative committee, which is occupied exclusively with their

affairs. It resides in Astrakhan, and consists of a president, two

Russian judges, and two Kalmuck deputies. The latter, of course, are

appointed only for form sake, and have no influence over the decisions

of the council. The president of the committee is what the Russians call

the curator-general of the Kalmucks. In 1840, this post had been filled

for many years by M. Fadiew, a man of integrity and capacity, and the

tribes owed to his wise administration a state of tranquillity they had

not enjoyed for a long while.

To each camp there is also attached a superintendent, called a pristof,

with some Cossacks under his orders. All matters of litigation are

decided in accordance with the Russian code, but criminal cases are

extremely rare, owing to the pacific character of the Kalmucks, and the

interposition of their chiefs.

The Kalmuck hordes are divided into two great classes, those belonging

respectively to princes and to the crown; but all are amenable to the

same laws and the same tribunals. The former pay a tax of twenty-five

rubles to their princes, who have the right of taking from among them

all the persons they require for their domestic service, and they are

bound to maintain a police and good order within their camp. Every

chief, has, at his command, several subaltern chiefs called _zaizans_,

who have the immediate superintendence of 100 or 150 tents. Their office

is nearly hereditary. He who fills it enjoys the title of prince, but

this is not shared by the other members of his family. The zaizans are

entitled to a contribution of two rubles from every kibitka under their

command.

The hordes of the crown come under more direct Russian surveillance.

They paid no tax at first, and were bound to military service in the

same way as the Cossacks; but they have been exempted from it since

1836, and now pay merely a tax of twenty-five rubles for each family.

The princely hordes, likewise, used to supply troops for the frontier

service; but this was changed in 1825, and since then the Kalmucks have

been free from all military service, and pay only twenty-five rubles per

tent to their princes, and 2.50 to the crown.

Besides the two great divisions we have just mentioned, the Kalmucks are

also distinguished into various _oulousses_, or hordes, belonging to

sundry princes. Each _oulousse_ has its own camping-ground for summer

and winter.

The Kalmuck territory has been considerably reduced since the departure

of Oubacha; it now comprises but a small extent of country on the left

bank of the Volga, and the Khirghis of the inner horde now occupy the

steppes between the Ural and the Volga. The present limits of European

Kalmuckia are to the north and east, the Volga as far as latitude 48

deg.; a line drawn from that point to the mouths of the Volga, parallel

with the course of the river, and at a distance from it of about forty

miles; and, lastly, the Caspian Sea as far as the Kouma. On the south,

the boundary is the Kouma and a line drawn from that river, below

Vladimirofka, to the upper part of the course of the Kougoultcha. The

Egorlik, and a line passing through the sources of the different rivers

that fall into the Don, form the frontiers on the west.