Page:Morgan Philips Price - Siberia (1912).djvu/89

 Rh some hundred yards. It thus drifted with the ice without coming in contact with it.

When all was safely over we repaired to the neighbouring village, where we found Easter festivities going on. Groups of youths and girls were stiffly and solemnly dancing simple peasant dances in the streets to the music of an accordion, an instrument which is always very much in evidence in Russian villages. The interior of the houses had been white-washed and decorated with sprays of fir-trees, and Easter cakes, part of which is given to the priest, were to be found in every house. After a meal in a peasant's home and a pleasant chat we continued our journey.

The last stage to Minusinsk was easily accomplished. Travelling southwards over rolling hills, we sank down at last by a long incline into a flat plain across which the Yenisei winds. Situated on a bank of the river and at the north end of the so-called Minusinsk steppe was Minusinsk itself, a typical Siberian town of wooden houses, over-shadowed by three or four Greek churches with green cupolas. It has a population of about 15,000, and is the last town of the Yenisei Government before the Mongolian frontier is reached, and the economic and administrative centre of a large area of country.

Down the main street of the town our horses gallopped on that April afternoon, kicking up clouds of dust, and waking storms of protests from numerous street dogs. Of course there were no hotels in Minusinsk, so we set out to try and find some private individual who would be disposed to have a party of four hungry people and three cartloads of baggage