Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus Part 19

But this new incident was a sort of lesson in philosophy for us. When we saw these men conversing quietly as they smoked their tchibouks, without the least show of impatience, and talking of the heavy losses the unseasonable weather might occasion them, as calmly as if their own interests were not concerned, we could not help envying the stoic resignation of which the men of the East alone possess the secret. There is nothing like their fatalism for enabling one to take all things as they come; is not that the acme of human wisdom?

Our escort pa.s.sed the three days of this deluge in a corner of the shed adjoining the house. Wrapped up in their sheep-skins, those iron men slept as quietly through wind and rain as if they had been in a snug room. One must have lived among the Russians to have any idea of the apathy with which they bear all kinds of privations. Their bodies, inured to the rigours of their climate, to the coa.r.s.est food, and most Spartan habits, grow so hardened, that what would be mortal to others makes no injurious impression on them.

At last the rain ceased towards the end of the third day. A west wind followed it, and dispersed the dark threatening clouds that had so long obscured the sky. Though the weather seemed still unsettled, we determined to make for the Caspian, which lay but thirty versts from us.

My husband's anxiety to commence his surveying operations, and our eagerness to quit our detestable abode, gave us courage to risk the chance of another storm in the open steppe.

But a very unexpected incident threw the station into confusion just as we were departing, and delayed us some hours longer. A Kalmuck Cossack, mounted on a camel, arrived in great haste and informed us that the Armenian merchants, who had started the day before, had been attacked some distance from the station by a band of Kalmucks and plundered of the greater part of their merchandise.

Our Cossack officer, after listening with great indignation to this story, asked permission of my husband to pursue the robbers. The whole escort set off with him at a hard gallop, but the pursuit was ineffectual. The robbers, having had some hours' start, had already reached the sedges of the Caspian. In consequence of this delay it was the afternoon before we could make a start, and even then we had great difficulty in getting away, for the terrified postmaster entreated us not to forsake him at a moment so critical. His dismay, for which indeed there was little reason, almost infected me too, and it was not without some apprehension of disaster that I left the station.

The appearance of our caravan was curious and grotesque. Our britchka was drawn by three camels, taken in tow by a man on foot, and several other animals of the same species, besides sumpter-horses, were mounted by Kalmucks and Cossacks. Our escort followed, and all the men composing it, armed with sabres, guns, and pistols, looked martial enough to scare away the most daring thieves. The leader of the troop, the Tatar prince, rode with his falcon on his fist, every now and then showing off his skill in horsemans.h.i.+p and venery. Thinking no more of the morning alarm, I gave myself up to the liveliest antic.i.p.ations of the extraordinary things which this excursion promised us. At last I was about to behold that Caspian Sea which, ever since men have been engaged with geographical questions, has been the object of their researches and conjectures. Besides, it had a much more potent interest for us, for it was in a manner the sole aim and end of our journey; it was to solve an immemorial question concerning it, that we had abandoned the comforts of civilised life, and encountered so many annoyances and privations.

Notwithstanding my ignorance of science, I felt that in sharing my husband's toils, I was in some sort a partner in his learned researches, and that I too, like him, had my claims upon the Caspian. I was, therefore, impatient to see it; but our camels, who had no such motives for hurrying themselves, crawled along at a provokingly slow rate. They did not at all correspond with what we had read of the s.h.i.+ps of the desert, creatures insensible to hunger, thirst, and fatigue, and as obedient to the will of man as the dry leaf is to the breath of the wind. In spite of a thick cord pa.s.sed through one of their nostrils, which caused them sharp pain whenever they were unruly, our camels scarcely marched more than two hours at a stretch without lying down.

The men had to battle with them continually to rouse them from their torpor, or hinder them from biting one another. Whenever one of the drivers pulled the halter of his camel roughly, we heard loud cries, the more hideous from their resemblance to the human voice. In short our camels behaved so badly during this short trip, as largely to abate the good opinion of their species, which we had conceived in reading the more poetical than true descriptions of our great naturalist.

At some distance from Houidouk we met two camps of Kalmucks, improperly called Christians. These tribes are reputed to be addicted to theft, and are generally despised by the other Kalmucks. We will speak of them again in another place. This whole region, as far as the Caspian, is extremely arid, with only here and there a few pools of brackish water, the edges of which swarm with countless birds, the most remarkable of which are the white herons, whose plumage forms such beautiful _aigrettes_. Unfortunately, these birds are so wary, that our companion could not take one of them, notwithstanding all his address and the power of his falcon.

A ludicrous misadventure that befel our dragoman, Anthony, amused us a good deal. Curiosity prompting him to ride a camel, he asked one of the Kalmucks to lend him his beast, and the request being complied with, he bestrode the saddle, pleased with the novelty of the experiment, and quite at a loss to know why the Cossacks and camel-drivers laughed among themselves as he mounted. But as soon as the beast began to move, a change came over his face, and he speedily began to bawl out for help.

The fact is, one must be almost a Kalmuck to be able to endure the trotting of a camel; the shaking is so violent as to amount to downright torture for those who are not accustomed to it. The unlucky Anthony, left in the rear of the party, strove in vain to come up with us, and was obliged, in spite of himself, to continue his ride to the Caspian, where we arrived two hours before him. I never saw a man so cut up. He groaned so piteously when he was lifted down, that we began to be really alarmed for him.

There are in nature two opposite types, beauty and ugliness; the elements of which vary infinitely, though imagination always erroneously supposes it can fix their boundaries. How often are we fully persuaded we can never meet again an object so beautiful as that before us; yet no sooner have we lavished all our enthusiasm upon it, than a more charming face, a sublimer landscape, or a more graceful form makes us forget what we had regarded as the model of perfection; and itself is soon, in turn, dethroned by other objects which we declare superior to all our former idols. Just so it is with ugliness. It matters not that we have before us the lowest grade we believe it can attain, we have but to turn our heads another way to be amazed and confounded by new discoveries revealing to us the inexhaustible combinations of nature. These reflections occurred to me more and more strongly as we approached Koumskaia. The aridity of the steppes round Odessa, the wilderness of the Volga, the parched and dismal soil of the environs of Astrakhan, in a word all we had heretofore seen that was least engaging, seemed lovely in comparison with what met our view on the banks of the Caspian.

A grey, sickly sky, crossed from time to time by heavy black clouds, threw an indescribably sad and revolting hue over the lonely, sandy plain, and low, broken sh.o.r.e. The same funereal pall seemed to hang over the wooden houses, the gangs of Turkmans and Kalmucks loading their carts with salt, and the camels that roamed along the sh.o.r.e mingling their dismal cries with the sound of the waves.

Yet hideous as it seemed to us, this part of the coast is not unimportant in a commercial point of view. It supplies large quant.i.ties of salt, and has a port where vessels unload their cargoes of corn for the army of the Caucasus. We counted at least a score of vessels which had been driven in there by the late storm.

The population of Koumskaia consists of a Russian functionary, a Cossack post, and a few Kalmuck families, that appear very miserable. The _employe_ gave us the use of his house; that is to say, of two dilapidated rooms without gla.s.s windows or furniture. One can scarcely conceive how the mind can have strength to endure so very wretched an existence. An unwholesome climate, brackish water, excessive heat in summer, rigorous cold in winter, huts and kibitkas buried in the sand, the Caspian Sea with its squalls and tempests--all these things combine to make this region the most horrible abode imaginable. The major, who welcomed us to Koumskaia, had a slow fever, which he owed still less perhaps to the insalubrity of the climate than to the hards.h.i.+ps and mortal ennui he had endured for eighteen months. His wife, more stout-hearted, and amused in some degree by her household occupations, had still preserved a certain cheerfulness, which was no less than heroic in her situation. Their exile was to last in all two years. The government, perceiving that many _employes_ died in Koumskaia, has limited the time of service there to that short period, and as some compensation for what those suffer who are sent thither, their two years are counted as four of ordinary service.

The weather had been louring since we left Houidouk, and we had a regular hurricane the evening we reached the Caspian. It lasted four-and-twenty hours, and such was the noise of the wind and waves, that we could hardly hear each other speak in our room. We saw two or three kibitkas blown away into the sea, and we expected every moment to share the same fate, for our frail tenement creaked like the cabin of a s.h.i.+p; the boarded window let in such a current of air, as soon drove into the room all the garments with which we strove to stop the c.h.i.n.ks.

But the saddest chapter of our history remains to be narrated. As soon as our servant had prepared the samovar, and lighted the candles, a mult.i.tude of black creatures crept out of the c.h.i.n.ks of the walls and ceilings, and dropped from all sides like a living rain. Imagine our consternation at the sight of that legion of black demons swarming around us, and leaving us no alternative but to put out the candles that attracted them. These insects, called in the country _tarakans_, though disgusting in appearance, are very inoffensive, and seldom climb on the person; but they are fond of light and heat, and hence they are a grievous nuisance in these regions, where their number is prodigious. I had already seen them in some post-houses, but in small numbers, and though I had always disliked them, I had never been so horrified by them as in the house of the major, where they kept me awake all night.

Next morning, the wind having fallen somewhat, we went, in spite of the rain, to gather sh.e.l.ls on the sh.o.r.e. The vessels in the harbour all showed signs of having suffered severely by the storm. The waters of the Caspian had a livid, muddy colour I never observed in any other sea in the most boisterous weather.

When we returned to our cabin, the Cossack officer presented to us a Tatar, who a.s.serted he had found gold in a spot forty versts from Koumskaia. Having heard of our arrival, he had walked all that horrible night to ask my husband to accompany him to the spot where he had made the discovery. But in spite of the gold ear and finger-rings he exhibited as tokens of his veracity, my husband was not tempted to lose four or five days in a search that would have led to nothing, to judge from the nature of the ground in which the Tatar reported that the precious ore was to be found.

CHAPTER XXIII.

ANOTHER ROBBERY AT HOUIDOUK--OUR NOMADE LIFE--CAMELS--KALMUCK CAMP--QUARREL WITH A TURCOMAN CONVOY, AND RECONCILIATION-- LOVE OF THE KALMUCKS FOR THEIR STEPPES; ANECDOTE--A SATZA-- SELENOI SASTAVA--FLEECED BY A LIEUTENANT-COLONEL--CAMEL-DRIVERS BEATEN BY THE KALMUCKS--ALARM OF A CIRCa.s.sIAN INCURSION-- SOURCES OF THE MANITCH--THE JOURNEY ARRESTED--VISIT TO A KALMUCK LADY--HOSPITALITY OF A RUSSIAN OFFICER.

On returning to Houidouk, we found the postmaster in still greater perturbation than he had been cast into by the disaster of the Armenian merchants. One of his postillions had been seized but two versts from the station by Turkmans, who, after robbing him of his sheep-skin and his tobacco, had beaten him and left him half dead, and then made off with the three horses he was taking back to the station. The strangest part of the adventure was, that on the morning of the next day, which happened to be that of our arrival, the three horses returned quietly to their stable, as if nothing extraordinary had befallen. This proved, at least, that the robbers were not very confident, but chose rather to lose their booty than expose themselves to the vengeance of the Cossacks.

Though such stories were not very encouraging to us, we nevertheless set out early next morning, entirely forsaking the post road we had till then pursued, and striking across the steppes with a weak escort, very insufficient to resist a serious attack. My husband, who had already begun his course of levels, resumed his operations from the station at Houidouk. Having to make one every ten minutes, he proceeded on foot, as well as the Kalmucks and Cossacks who carried the instruments and measured the distances. All the men were occupied except the camel drivers and the officer, who amused himself with flying his falcon now and then at wild ducks and geese. Besides its positive and gastronomic results, this sport did me the further service of withdrawing my mind from the monotony of a slow march across the desert, in which I had often no other pastime than watching the grotesque movements of the three camels that drew my carriage, or the capricious evolutions of the flocks of birds that were already a.s.sembling for their autumnal emigration.

Yet the impression made on me by this first day did not tend much to alarm me at the prospect of wandering, like a veritable Kalmuck, for several weeks across the steppe. The novelty of my sensations, and the secret pleasure of escaping for awhile from the round of prescribed habits that make up the chief part of civilised life, banished from my mind every sombre thought. The excursion was an experimental glimpse of those natural ways of life which are no longer possible in our thickly-peopled lands; and in spite of my prejudices, a nomade existence no longer seemed to me so absurd or wearisome as I had supposed it to be. The quiet and the immensity of s.p.a.ce around us imparted a deep serenity to my mind, and fortified it against any remains of fear occasioned by the late events at Houidouk.

We made our first halt about noon, not at all too soon for our Cossacks, a race not accustomed to long walking. They immediately made a great fire, whilst our camel-drivers were busy setting up the tents and arranging a regular encampment. The sun had reappeared with more force than before, as usually happens after violent storms. The heat of the vertical suns.h.i.+ne, increased by the bare parched soil and by the extraordinary dryness of the air, had so overcome us that we could scarcely attend to the picturesque group presented by our halt in the desert, over which we appeared to reign as absolute masters.

The britchka, unyoked and unladen, was placed a little way from, the tent, on the carpet of which were heaped portfolios, cus.h.i.+ons, and boxes, in a manner which a painter would have thought worth notice.

Whilst we were taking tea our men were making preparations for dinner, some plucking a fine wild goose and half-a-dozen kourlis, others attending to the fire, round which were ranged two or three pots for the pilau and the bacon soup, of which the Cossacks are great admirers; and Anthony with a little barrel of brandy under his arm, distributed the regular dram to every man, with the gravity of a German major-domo. As for the officer, he lay on his back under the britchka, for sake of the shade, amusing himself with his hawk, which he had unhooded, after fastening it with a stout cord to the carriage. Though the creature's sparkling eyes were continually on the look out for a quarry, it seemed by the continual flapping of its wings to enjoy its master's caresses.

The camels, rejoicing in their freedom, browsed at a little distance from the tent, and contributed by their presence to give an oriental aspect to our first essay in savage life; wherein I myself figured in my huge bonnet, dressed as usual in wide pantaloons, with a Gaulish tunic gathered round my waist by a leathern belt. By dint of wondering at every thing, our wonderment at last wore itself out, and we regarded ourselves as definitively naturalised Kalmucks.

Three hours before we halted, the last kibitkas had disappeared below the horizon: we were absolutely alone on the whole surface of the vast plain. There was no vestige to tell us that other men had encamped where we were. The steppe is like the sea; it retains no trace of those who have traversed it.

At two o'clock Hommaire gave the word to march: the tent was struck; the camels knelt to receive their burdens; the officer was in the saddle with his hawk on his fist; and I was again alone in the carriage, slowly following our little troop as it resumed its operations.

My first night under a tent proved to me that I was not so acclimated to the steppe as my vanity had led me to suppose. The felt cone under which I was to sleep; the Kalmucks moving about the fire; the camels sending their plaintive cries through the immensity of the desert; in a word, every thing I saw and heard, was so at variance with my habits and ways of thought, that I almost fancied I was in an opium dream.

We spent part of the night seated before the tent, our reveries unbroken by any inclination to sleep. The moon, larger and more brilliant than it ever appears in the west, lighted the whole sky and part of the steppe, over which it cast a luminous line like that which a vessel leaves in its wake at sea. Absolute silence reigned in the air, and produced upon us an effect which no words can describe. Hardly did we dare to break it, so solemn did it seem, and so in harmony with the infinite grandeur of the waste. It would be in vain to look for a stillness so complete, even in the most sequestered solitudes of our regions. There is always some murmuring brook there, some rustling leaves; and even in the silence of night, some low sounds are heard, that give an object to the thoughts. But here nature is petrified, and one has constantly before him the image of that eternal repose which our minds can so hardly conceive.

We marched for several days without meeting one living creature. This part of the steppes is inhabited only in Winter; for during the rest of the year it is completely dest.i.tute of fresh water. At last, towards the close of the fourth day, we saw a black object in motion on the horizon.

The officer instantly galloped off to reconnoitre, waving his cap in the air, for a signal of command. In a few seconds we were sure he was perceived, for we distinguished the form of a Kalmuck mounted on a camel approaching us. He was hailed with shouts of joy by our men, who soon fastened on him, and overwhelmed him with questions. The eagerness of nomades to hear news is unbounded, and it is wonderful with what rapidity the knowledge of the most trivial event is conveyed from one tribe to another. The new comer told us that our journey was already known all over the steppes, and that we should soon fall in with an encampment of Kalmucks, who had moved forward on purpose to see us.

The presence of this man put all our men in the gayest humour. Desirous of doing due honour to his arrival, they deputed Anthony to solicit from us a double ration of spirits. They pa.s.sed all the early part of the night sitting round the fire, smoking their tchibouks, and telling stories, as grave and as entranced in the charms of conversation as Bedouins.

Next day our little caravan was in motion before sunrise; the Kalmuck set off alone for the fair of Kisliar, and we took the opposite direction, pursuing the invisible line which science traced for us across the desert, and which was to lead us to the sources of the Manitch.

It was on this morning I took my first ride on the back of a camel, and I vowed it should be the last. Decidedly the camel is the most detestable quadruped to ride in the world. From the moment you mount until you descend from that murderous perch you have to endure an incessant series of shocks, so violent and sudden, that every joint in your body feels dislocated. I could now feel for the sufferings of our poor dragoman during his long trot from Houidouk to the Caspian. Though my experiment was limited to a trip of two versts at the most, I was totally exhausted when I dismounted.

Not long afterwards I had an opportunity of observing a curious instance of the vindictive temper of these rough trotters. The camel, as every one knows, is a ruminating animal, but few, perhaps, are aware that he has the cunning to make his rumination subservient to his vengeance in a very extraordinary and ingenious manner.

I had noticed in the morning that one of our camel-drivers seemed to be on very bad terms with his beast. In vain he strove to master it by severity, and by pulling the cord pa.s.sed through its nostril; the brute was obstinate, and threw itself every moment rebelliously on the ground.

At last the Kalmuck, incensed beyond endurance, took advantage of a general halt, and alighted to give the camel a sound drubbing. But the creature, disdainfully lifting up its long neck, followed all its master's movements with so spiteful an eye, that I was sure it had some wicked scheme in its head. It waited patiently till the Kalmuck stood in front of it, and then, opening its great mouth, it let fly a charge of chewed gra.s.s mixed with mucus and all sorts of nastiness, and hit the poor driver full in the face. To tell with what an air of satisfied vengeance the camel again reared its neck and turned its head from side to side, as if looking round for applause, would be totally impossible.

But what astonished me the most was the moderation of the master after such an outrage. He wiped his face very coolly, got into the saddle again, and patted the neck of his ill-bred brute, as if it had played the most amiable and innocent little trick imaginable. Good fellows.h.i.+p was thenceforth re-established between them, and they jogged peaceably along together, without thinking any more of what had happened.

It happens by a rare good fortune, that no noxious insect is found in the steppes between the Caspian and the Caucasus. Of course it was not until I was quite sure of this that I could sleep in peace. Our tent, made of felt like those of the Kalmucks, was at most five feet high and as many wide. It was supported by a bundle of sticks tied together at the ends; the interior, furnished with a carpet and cus.h.i.+ons laid on the ground, contained, besides, some boxes belonging to the britchka. A flap of felt formed the door. As the tent narrowed toward the top, we could not stand within it, but were obliged to kneel. Such was our dwelling for six weeks; and I can aver, that notwithstanding the hardness of our bed on the ground, and the strangeness of our situation, I never slept so soundly as during that period of my life. Nothing is better for the health than living in the open air; the appet.i.te, the sleep, the unutterable serenity of mind, and the free circulation of the blood which it procures, sufficiently attest its happy influence on our organisation. Few functional maladies, I suspect, would resist a two or three months' excursion like that which we accomplished.

As the Kalmuck had foretold, we arrived at night in a Kalmuck camp, consisting of a score of tents. All the men came to meet us, took the camels from the britchka, and would not allow our people to lend a hand; then having pitched our tent a little way off from their own, at the foot of a tumulus, they began to dance with their women, in token of rejoicing. One of the latter went down on her knees and begged some tobacco of my husband, and when she had got it she became an object of envy to her companions, before whom she hastened to display and smoke it.

When night had fallen, the camp was lighted up with numerous fires, which gave a still more curious aspect to the kibitkas, and the dancing figures of the Kalmucks and Cossacks, whose exuberant gaiety was in part owing to an extraordinary distribution of food and brandy. The women advanced in their turn, and several of them forming a circle, danced in the same manner as the ladies of honour of the Princess Tumene. But they all seemed to me extremely ugly, though some of them were very young.

Two days afterwards we arrived at the edge of a pond, where we arranged to pa.s.s the night. The sight of the water, and of the thousands of birds on its surface, afforded us real delight; there needed but such a little thing, under such circ.u.mstances as ours, to const.i.tute an event, and occupy the imagination! All that evening was spent in shooting and hawking, bathing, and walking round and round the pool. We could not satiate ourselves with the pleasure of beholding that brackish mud, and the forest of reeds that encompa.s.sed it. No landscape on the Alps or the Tyrol was probably ever hailed with so much enthusiasm.

Beyond this pond, the appearance of the steppes gradually changed; water grew less rare, the vegetation less scorched. We saw from time to time herds of more than five hundred camels, grazing in freedom on the short thick gra.s.s. Some of them were of gigantic height. I shall never forget the amazement they manifested at beholding us. The moment they perceived us they hurried towards, then stopped short, gazing at us with outstretched necks until we were out of sight.

The eighth day after our departure from Houidouk our fresh water was so sensibly diminished, that we were obliged to use brackish water in cooking. This change in our kitchen routine fortunately lasted but a few days; but it was enough to give me a hearty aversion for meats so cooked: they had so disagreeable a taste, that nothing but necessity and long habit can account for their ordinary use. The Kalmucks and Cossacks, however, use no other water during a great part of the year.

That same day we had a very singular encounter, which went near to be tragical. Shortly before encamping, we saw a very long file of small carts approaching us; our Kalmucks recognised them as belonging to Turkmans, a sort of people held in very bad repute, by reason of their quarrelsome and brutal temper. Every untoward event that happens in the steppes is laid to their account, and there is perpetual warfare between them and the Cossacks, to whom they give more trouble than all the other tribes put together. As we advanced, an increased confusion was manifest in the convoy, and suddenly all the oxen, as if possessed by the fiend, exhibited the most violent terror, and began to run away in wild disorder, das.h.i.+ng against each other, upsetting and breaking the carts loaded with salt, wholly regardless of the voices and blows of their drivers. Some moments elapsed before we could account for this strange disaster, and comprehend the meaning of the furious abuse with which the Turkmans a.s.sailed our escort. The camel-drivers were the real culprits in this affair, for they knew by experience how much horses and oxen are frightened by the sight of a camel, and they ought to have moved out of the direct line of march, and not exposed us to the rage of the fierce carters.

The moment immediately after the catastrophe was really critical. All the Turkmans, incensed at the sight of the broken carts and their salt strewed over the ground, seemed, by their threatening gestures and vociferations, to be debating whether or not they should attack us. A single imprudent gesture might have been fatal to us, for they were more than fifty, and armed with cutla.s.ses; but the steady behaviour of the escort gradually quieted them. Instead of noticing their hostile demonstrations, all our men set to work to repair the mischief, and the Turkmans soon followed their example; in less than an hour all was made right again, and the scene of confusion ended much more peaceably than we had at first ventured to hope. All parties now thought only of the comical part of the adventure, and hearty laughter supplanted the tokens of strife. To seal the reconciliation, Hommaire ordered a distribution of brandy, which completely won the hearts of the fellows, who a little before had been on the point of murdering us.

The more we became accustomed to the stillness and grandeur of the desert, the better we understood the Kalmuck's pa.s.sionate love for the steppes and his kibitka. If happiness consist in freedom, no man is more happy than he. Habituated as he is to gaze over a boundless expanse, to endure no restriction, and to pitch his tent wherever his humour dictates, it is natural that he should feel ill at ease, cribbed, cabined, and confined, when removed from his native wastes, and that he should rather die by his own hand than live in exile. During our stay at Astrakhan, every one was talking of a recent event which afforded us an instance of the strong attachment of those primitive beings to the natal soil.

A Kalmuck chief killed his Cossack rival in a fit of jealousy, and instead of attempting to escape punishment by flight, he augmented his guilt by resisting a detachment which was sent to arrest him. Several of his servants aided him, but numbers prevailed; all were made prisoners and conveyed to a fort, where they were to remain until their sentence should have been p.r.o.nounced. A month afterwards, an order arrived for their transportation to Siberia, but by that time three-fourths of the captives had ceased to exist. Some had died of grief, others had eluded the vigilance of their gaolers, and killed themselves. The chief, however, had been too closely watched to allow of his making any attempt on his own life, but his obstinate silence, and the deep dejection of his haggard features, proved plainly that his despair was not less than that which had driven his companions to suicide.

When he was placed in the car to begin his journey, some Kalmucks were allowed to approach and bid him farewell. "What can we do for thee?"