Page:Morgan Philips Price - Siberia (1912).djvu/84

52 it is better that the peasants should get thoroughly drunk once and again on pure spirit, than continually soak at impure beer or whisky.

We now crossed the rolling downs of the eastern part of the Abakansk steppe heading southward. Away to the east was an endless expanse of steppe with several salt lakes in the hollows. Over the steppes roamed large flocks of horses, cattle and sheep, while on the tops of the hills, where patches of snow still lay, were little groves of melancholy birch, and here and there one or two stunted larch and pine trees could be seen, relics of the northern forest, holding out against the steppe vegetation, which crept up from below.

It was soon apparent that the Russians were not the only inhabitants of this country. In several of the villages men could be seen dressed just like Russians with tunic, belt, breeches, high boots and fur cap, but with squat faces, black eyes, partially puffed eyelids and black straight hair. They were Russified Tartars, and with hair cut short had much the same appearance as Europeanized Japanese. Some of them were living in the villages and, judging from several half-breeds who were to be seen about, had even intermarried with the inhabitants. Indeed one of our drivers who took us for a short distance was a half-breed. He was a jolly, communicative fellow, singing pretty little Tartar airs, as the tarantass jogged along over the steppes. In this connexion I may note that Russians seem to have that most valuable of all qualities for colonization—viz. the power of intermingling with the subject races with which they come in contact and of submerging, racial distinctions. Thus those of the Tartars, for