Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 1.djvu/315

Rh "He says, your High Nobility," translated the interpreter, "that when he was arrested they took eight rúbles from him and told him the money would be given back to him in Siberia. He wants to know if he cannot have some of it now to buy tea."

"Nyettoo chai!" [No tea!] said the Tatar mournfully, with a gesture of utter desolation.

"To the devil with him!" cried the officer furiously. "What does the blank blank mean by delaying the reception of the party with such a trifle? This is no place to talk about tea! He 'll receive his money when he gets to his destination. Away with him!" And the poor Tatar was hustled into the eastern end of the shed.

"Iván Dontremember — the red-headed," shouted the examining officer.

"That 's a brodyág" (a vagrant or tramp), whispered Colonel Yágodkin to me as a sun-burned, red-headed muzhík in chains and leg-fetters, and with a tea-kettle hanging from his belt, approached the inclosure. "He has been arrested while wandering around in Western Siberia, and as there is something in his past history that he does n't want brought to light, he refuses to disclose his identity, and answers all questions with 'I don't remember.' The tramps all call themselves 'Iván Dontremember,' and they 're generally a bad lot. The penalty for belonging to the 'Dontremember' family is five years at the mines." The examining officer had no photograph of "Iván Dontremember, the red-headed," and the latter's identity was established by ascertaining the number of teeth that he had lost, and by examining a scar over his right ear.

One by one the exiles passed in this way before the examining officer until all had been identified, counted, and turned over, and then the warden of the Tomsk forwarding prison gave a receipt to the convoy officer of the barge for 551 prisoners, including 71 children under 15 years of age, who were accompanying their fathers or mothers into exile.