Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 2.djvu/90

74 street. Cold applications finally reduced the inflammation, and about ten o'clock I set out in search of the Buriát chief of police, Khainúief Munkú, who had been recommended to us as a good Russiau and Buriát interpreter, and a man well acquainted with the lamasery that we desired to visit. I found Khainúief at the office of the district isprávnik, where he was apparently getting his orders for the day from the isprávnik's secretary. He proved to be a tall, athletic, heavily built Buriát, about sixty years of age, with a round head, closely cut iron-gray hair, a thick bristly mustache, small, half-closed Mongol eyes, and a strong, swarthy, hard-featured, and rather brutal face. He was dressed in a long, loose Buriát gown of some coarse grayish material, girt about the waist with a sash, and turned back and faced at the wrists with silk. His head was partly covered with a queer Mongol felt hat, shaped like a deep pie-dish, and worn with a sort of devil-may-care tilt to one side. The portrait of him on page 73 is from a photograph, and would give a very good idea of the man if the face were a little harder, sterner, and more brutal.

I introduced myself to the isprávnik's secretary, exhibited my open letters, and stated my business. "This is Khainúief Munkú," said the secretary, indicating the Buriát officer; "he can go to the lamasery with you if he likes."

As I looked more closely at the hard-featured, bullet-headed chief of police, it became apparent to me that he had been drinking; but he had, nevertheless, the full possession of his naturally bright faculties, and the severe judicial gravity of his demeanor as he coolly defrauded me out of six or eight rúbles in making the necessary arrangements for horses excited my sincere admiration. For his services as interpreter and for the use of three horses I paid him seventeen rúbles, which was more than the amount of his monthly salary. The money, however, was well invested, since he furnished us that day with much more than seventeen rúbles' worth of entertainment.