Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/381

 THE INVADED COUNTRY. 351 seemed to understand war and its exigencies ; chap. for they asked the interpreters to say that such of their possessions as might be wanted by the English army were at Lord Eaglan's disposal. Pleased with the demeanour of the men, as well as with the purport of their speech, Lord Eaglan told them that he would avail himself of some of their possessions, more especially their wag- gons and draught animals, but that everything taken for the use of the English army would be paid for at a proper rate. Much to Lord Eaglan's surprise (for he was not accustomed to the people of the East), the head man of the village resisted the idea of the people being paid, and anxiously pressed the interpreter to say that their posses- sions were yielded up as free gifts. Pure ignorance of the invaded country gave Resuiioi- charm to every discovery tending to throw light expeditions upon the character and pursuits of the inhabi- tants ; and if our soldiery had found in the vil- lages high altars set up for human sacrifices, they would scarcely have been more surprised than they were when, prying into the mysteries of this obscure Grim Tartary, they came upon traces of modern refinement and cultivated taste. In some of the houses at Kentugan there were pianos ; and in one of them a music-book, lying open and spread upon the frame, seemed to shoM' that the owner had been hurried in her flight. But the owners of these dwellings must have been oflQcial personages. The mass of the country people were Tartars.