one of them simmering in an iron pot over the fire, while the other hung
suspended by a string in front of the blaze. Supper over, we wrapped
ourselves in our furs, and lay down upon the floor, beds in such a place
being of course out of the question.

Before daybreak, I awoke, and found Ivan and the carriers already afoot,
and in consultation as to the practicability of continuing our journey.
The question was at last decided in favour of the march; the waggoners
hastened to harness their horses, and I went to inspect our carriage,
which the village blacksmith had taken off its wheels and mounted upon a
sledge. Ivan meantime was foraging for provisions, and shortly returned
with a ham, some tolerable bread, and half a dozen bottles of a sort of
reddish brandy, made, I believe, out of the bark of the birch-tree.

At length all was ready, and off we set, our sledge going first,
followed by the carriers' waggons. Our new companions, according to a
custom existing among them, had chosen one of their number as a chief,
whose experience and judgment were to direct the movements of the party,
and whose orders were to be obeyed in all things. Their choice had
fallen on a man named George, whose age I should have guessed to be
fifty, but who, I learned with astonishment, was upwards of seventy
years old. He was a powerful and muscular man, with black piercing eyes,
overhung by thick shaggy eyebrows, which, as well as his long beard,
were of an iron grey. His dress consisted of a woollen shirt and
trousers, a fur cap, and a sheepskin with the wool turned inside. To the
leathern belt round his waist were suspended two or three horse-shoes, a
metal fork and spoon, a long-bladed knife, a small hatchet, and a sort
of wallet, in which he carried pipe, tobacco, flint, steel, nails,
money, and a variety of other things useful or necessary in his mode of
life. The garb and equipment of the other carriers were, with some small