Recollections of Tartar Steppes and their inhabitants. With illustrations

Preface

The reader may perhaps desire to know under what circumstances the following Letters were written, and how it came to pass that an Englishwoman should find her way into countries so remote and so uninviting to those attached merely to the luxuries of life, as Siberia and Tartary. Being one of a large family, it became my duty, at an early period of life, to seek support by my own exertions. I accordingly betook myself to St. Petersburg, where for eight years I remained in the family of General Mouravioff, superintending the education of his only daughter. In 1846 I became ac quainted with Mr. Atkinson, then about to proceed on his travels into Siberia ; and on his return, after the lapse of a year, I was married to him, with the consent of General Mouravioff s family, and from the house of the Governor of Moscow a relation of the General's, and VI

PREFACE.

. I accompanied him during his arduous journeys, which lasted for six years. The scientific and artistic results of those travels are contained in the two volumes which he published during his lifetime: but there is little allusion in them to the adventures we encountered during those journeys, and, especially, there is no mention of the strange incidents which befell myself, often left alone with an infant in arms, among a semi-savage people, to whom I was a perfect stranger. My friends have so often importuned me to give them some account of what happened to me in countries where an English lady had never been seen before, and to describe the manners which characterise female society among the wild Kirghis, that I have bethought me to collect some of the letters written on the spot to friends; and these, with slight omissions and alterations, I now venture to present to the public.

EXPLANATION OF RUSSIAN AND TARTAR TERMS. Ac ... . White. Ala .... Variegated. Altin .... Golden. Aman .... Good-day. Aoul .... A nomad village. Balaghan . . .A booth, made by placing branches of trees in a slanting direction and covering them with birch bark. Baranta . . .A robbery, on a large scale, of aoul, ■women, children, cattle, &c. Baranae . . . Madam, a gentlewoman. Blini . . . .A pancake. Bogha. . . . God. Bouran . . .A storm of snow or wind. Caziole . . .A goat. Dahi .... Unspun cotton. Domavoi . . .A house spirit. Fabric . . . Manufactory. Gastenitz . . .A present. Goosem . . .In file. Gornoi Ispravnick . A bailiff of mines. Granilnoi-fabric . A manufactory for cutting and polishing stones. Ispravnick . .A bailiff of a district ; he is usually pLaced over the peasantry. Kara ....

Black. Khalat . . .A dressing-gown. Kool .... A lake. RUSSIAN AND TARTAR TERMS. Maral .... A deer. Mischanin . . .A commoner. Moollah . . .A Tartar priest. Nachalnick . . . ■ A chief, a director. Nalifka . . .A liquor made from wild fruit. Nechevo . . . Nothing. Noor . . . .A lake. Parok .... A rapid. Pavoska . . .A vehicle, an open carriage. Peraclodnoi . . .To travel post, and change the carriage at each station. Platock . . .A handkerchief. Pood .... Thirty-six lbs. Priesk . . .A mine. Sarafan . . .A dress without sleeves. Sargoochae . . .A governor. Sessedatal . . . An assessor. Shaitan . . . The devil. Shube . ... A fur cloak. Slavnie . . . Glorious. Smotritel . . . An overseer, an interpreter. Somervar . . .A tea-um. Startioner . . .A warden. Sucarees . . . Busks. Taboon . . .A stud or herd of horses.

Tau . . . .A mountain. Tchorny . . . Black. Tolmash . . .An interpreter. Verst .... 3,500 English feet. Vintofka . . .A rifle. Vodky . . .A spirit made from corn or potatoes. Voilock . . . Felt cloth made from camels' hair. Volost . . .A bailiwick, a district. Yasak .... A tribute of furs. Yemschick . . .A post-boy, a driver. Yourt . . .A nomad tent. Zavod .... A manufactory. TABLE OF DATES. 1848 1851 Feb. 13 22 March 21 April 4 June 3 „ 7 July 9 Left Petersburg. „ Moscow. „ Ekaterinburg. Ai-rived in Tomsk. Left Tomsk. Arrived in Barnaoul. Left Barnaoul for Altin-kool. Left the Altai via Zmeinogorsk for Kirghis steppe. May 23 Sept. 6 Left Irkoutsk for the mountains in the north. Returnedto Irkoutsk. 1852 Left Irkoutsk. Arrived in Barnaoul. Sept. 2 May July 1849 1853 Left Barnaoul for Ekaterinburg.

Left Ekaterinburg for the Oural Mountains. Returned to Ekaterinburg. Sept. 3 October Returned to Zmeinogorsk from Kirghis steppe. Left Zmeinogorsk for Barnaoul. February June 11 1850 August June 16 Left Barnaoul for the Yenissey River. Arrived in Irkoutsk. Dec. 24 Aug. 30 Arrived inPetersburg- CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Starting for Siberia — Messages for the Exiles — Packing the Sledge — The Exiles' Gate of Moscow— Our first Stage— Our Courier is drunk, as are all the Postboys — Drive through a Russian Forest — Arrive at Nijni Novgorod — Hospitality of the Governor — The Volga — A Drive on the Ice — Kasan — Roadside bargaining — Beautiful Scenery — Terrors of the Road — Arrive at Ekaterinburg . . . page 1