steppes of Samara.

My father had already been there before his marriage in
1862, and afterward by the advice of Dr. Zakharyin, who
attended him. He took the kumiss-cure in 1871 and 1872, and at
last, in 1873, the whole family went there.

At that time my father had bought several hundred acres of
cheap Bashkir lands in the district of Buzuluk, and we
went to stay on our new property at a khutor, or farm.

In Samara we lived on the farm in a tumble-down wooden
house, and beside us, in the steppe, were erected two felt
kibitkas, or Tatar frame tents, in which our Bashkir, Muhammed
Shah Romanytch, lived with his wives.

Morning and evening they used to tie the mares up outside
the kibitkas, where they were milked by veiled women, who
then hid themselves from the sight of the men behind a brilliant
chintz curtain, and made the kumiss.

The kumiss was bitter and very nasty, but my father and my
uncle Stephen Behrs were very fond of it, and drank it in large
quantities.

When we boys began to get big, we had at first a German
tutor for two or three years, Fyodor Fyodorovitch
Kaufmann.

I cannot say that we were particularly fond of him. He was