Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/374

368 built that two of them can run together with considerable force without serious consequences. Look at the picture of a vashok and you will understand it.

"The runners are about thirty inches apart, and generally shod with iron. On each side there is a fender, which consists of a stout pole fastened to the forward end of the runner, and extending downward and outward to the rear, where it is about two feet from the runner and held by strong braces. On a level surface it is just clear of the snow, but when the vehicle tips ever so little the fender sustains the weight and prevents an overturn. When two sleighs moving in opposite directions come together, the fenders slip against each other like a pair of fencing foils.

"Occasionally the shock of meeting is so severe that the fenders are broken. An accident of this kind happened one day to my kibitka, the fender on one side being completely torn off. At the next station I summoned a carpenter and had the missing fender restored and made stronger than it was before."

Frank asked how the traveller's baggage was carried in a Siberian sleigh?

"Baggage is spread over the bottom of the sleigh," said Mr. Hegeman, in reply to the question. "Wooden and other solid trunks must be discarded, and in their place the Russians have what they call chemidans. The chemidan is made of soft leather, very broad and flat, and must not be filled with fragile articles. For ladies' bonnets and other crushable things there are chemidans which more resemble the packing-case of a framed picture than anything else; they fit easily into the bottom of a sleigh or tarantasse, and are strong enough to bear the weight of the traveller. Baggage is spread over the bottom of the vehicle, and the chinks and crevices are filled with straw or hay to make as level a surface as possible. Over this is spread a rug of sheepskins. There is no seat as in an ordinary vehicle, but you sit there very much as you would on the carpet in the corner of a room. Each traveller has a corner of the sleigh, and wedges himself into a comfortable position by means of pillows; he may lie down, recline, or sit bolt upright as he chooses."

"Did you carry your provisions for the road, or could you rely upon the stations to furnish them?" Fred inquired.

"We could rely upon the stations for the samovar with hot water, and for bread and eggs," was the reply, "the same as in the tarantasse journey I have already described, but everything else that we wanted had to be carried along. We had our own tea and sugar, likewise our roast-beef, cabbage-soup, and pilmania."