Page:Morgan Philips Price - Siberia (1912).djvu/131

Rh steppes, some six or seven versts away. So eighty per cent. of the able-bodied men that afternoon had nothing in particular to do, and were doing it very well. Groups of five or six peasants sat on the benches at the entrance to the yards of their houses, chatting and eating the usual pine and sunflower seeds. As soon as it became known that a foreigner was in the village, glad of an excuse for something to do, the groups began to break up and a small crowd of kind but empty and lazy faces began to collect around me and I heard the following remarks:—"Who is it?" "English engineer!" "Gold seeker!" "Yes, he must be after gold, for the English always know where gold is." "Is there going to be war with China?" asked a youth who had just completed his military service and was hoping to settle down at home again. Not feeling exactly disposed to discuss Russia's foreign relations at that moment, I ignored the question and proceeded to explain that I was the advanced guard of a party of three Englishmen on their way to Mongolia. A considerable crowd had now collected, and it seemed almost hopeless for me to explain what I wanted, especially as they all talked at once in true Eastern style. But a few kindly old peasants quieted the crowd and told them not to press round me; for, they said, "after all, he is our brother." It was not long before these old men grasped the situation; several volunteered to take me in, and after some inspection I fixed on a square log-house in the centre of the village.

Inside, the house consisted of two rooms, one of which was inhabited by a middle-aged couple and the other was kept as a spare room. A rough wooden bedstead stood in one corner and the familiar