Samovar

“ Now, have you a servant for us who can be trusted not to talk about us?”
“Yes, mistress—a sister of my cousin. She waits upon some of the Ataman’s officers who live in the house. It is she who will bring you your samovars and your food. She is safe—not too much sense and little to say to any one.”
“Then this is my plan,” said Katerin. “If you will contrive to put us near the American officer, the next thing will be to take care that when the American rings for a samovar the girl does not take it to him, but brings it to us. And I shall carry the samovar to him. ”

“ Is it not wise to be known here as a servant? We have come here as peasants and wish to be known as such for safety. Look at my old black dress! I have on my slippers—see—and I can let down my hair. How will an American know that I am not a samovar girl—unless, as we have said, he recognizes me at once as a Kirsakoff? And I can talk with him, perhaps. He will not be afraid of saying things to a girl who is a servant which he would keep from others.”
“And what then?” asked Michael with a frown. “Do you think that this American is going about telling his secret business to any samovar girl? ”

“ Our safety now depends upon keeping secret where we are, and upon making the best of such time as we have. Who knows when the Ataman will learn where we have gone from the house? And you 159shall be well paid for your help, Mr. Slipitsky, and for what you have done.”
“Ah, it is not for money,” said the Jew. “When are you to begin as samovar girl, mistress? I must make the arrangements and be sure that everything is ready.”
“The morning is the best time for me to go to the American,” said Katerin. “I shall take his morning samovar to him, the girl bringing it to me first. ”

“ You could smile when you thought I was deceived.” His manner with her was easier now, and he seemed to be toying with the situation, testing her bravery.
“Yes, it was all a woman has against a man—a smile for a shield. And you thought you were deceiving me—you would tell to Rimsky what you would not tell to Vashka the samovar girl.”
“Vashka the samovar girl!” he repeated. “Vashka, telling me of Kirsakoff—a tall man in uniform, with black mustaches—a man in his full strength, stalwart—the cruel Governor who was behind the government of Zorogoff!” ”

“ A well-known tourist has told us that every Russian peasant possesses a tea-urn, or samovar; but this is not the case. The majority of the peasants are too poor to afford such a luxury as tea, except on rare occasions, but a tea-urn is one of the first objects that a peasant who has saved a little money buys; and it is true, that in some prosperous villages there is a samovar in every hut ”

“ The boys slipped on their sheepskin coats and left the cottage, while the girls removed the mattresses and set the samovar. I rejoiced when I saw the old 183 woman preparing to light the stove. My legs gradually thawed, forming pools of water on the floor, and one of the boys, when he came in, helped me pull my boots off. But this was a painful process, for both my feet were partially frozen.
At last the samovar was boiling and I was invited to table to have a mug of tea. It was not real tea and tasted nothing like it, though the packet was labelled “Tea.” ”

“ A person is not supposed [Pg 233] to be responsible for what he says when half asleep. Is the samovár ready?”
Then he went into the dining-room, and sat down to the tea-table with his paper—and again with the appearance of a man whose thoughts are wholly occupied with very serious and important matters. His wife, Xenia Pavlovna, poured out the tea, and he could hardly see her face from behind the samovár. Maria Petrovna sat at the other end of the table, with a child’s stocking in her hand, which she was forever darning. ”

“ On entering the vestibule, Akakiy Akakievitch beheld a whole row of goloshes on the floor. Among them, in the centre of the room, stood a samovar or tea-urn, humming and emitting clouds of steam. On the walls hung all sorts of coats and cloaks, among which there were even some with beaver collars or velvet facings. Beyond, the buzz of conversation was audible, and became clear and loud when the servant came out with a trayful of empty glasses, cream-jugs, and sugar-bowls. It was evident that the officials had arrived long before, and had already finished their first glass of tea. ”

“ There was no one in the kitchen. The samovar hissed near the stove, waiting for my father. "Who pours out my father's tea now?" I thought. Taking the lantern I went out to the shed, built myself up a bed of old newspapers and lay down. The hooks on the walls looked forbidding, as they used to of old, and their shadows flickered. It was cold. I felt that my sister would come in in a minute, and bring me supper, but at once I remembered that she was ill and was lying at Radish's, and it seemed to me strange that I should have climbed over the fence and be lying here in this unheated shed. ”

“ Holes was the first to speak. "Sir," he said, "resistance is useless. Your schemes have been discovered. All that is left for you is to throw yourself upon the mercy of your King."
The rage of the Magyar was fearful to witness. Holes continued, inexorably:—"This piece of green ribbon matches the colour of your Sunday tunic. Can you swear it has not been torn from the lining? You cannot. I thought so. Know then that wrapped in this ribbon was found the great Samovar diamond, and that you, you alone, were concerned in the robbery." ”

“ The average Russian takes between a dozen and fifteen cups per day, and he will not travel without his tea, tea-pot, and his sugar, and the samovar, a sort of glorified kettle, is never absent from every table in Russia, and is always full of hot water ready to moisten the leaves of the plant that comforts but does not intoxicate. ”

“ Then the samovar made its appearance; they drank tea in the evening.. . . This concession they did make to the spirit of the age, though they always thought it a weakness, and that the people were growing noticeably feebler through this 'Chinese herb', As a rule, however, they refrained from criticising modern times or exalting the old days; they had never lived in any other way from their birth up; but that other people might live differently, better even, they readily admitted so long as they were not required to change their ways. ”

“ If a couple of men have a bargain to strike, the charcoal is lighted inside the urn, which has a pipe carried into the stone chimney, and the noise of the heated air is like a roaring furnace. They will go on drinking boiling hot weak tea, in glasses, for hours, with a liberal allowance of vodki. The samovar, however, is a completely new institution, and the old peasants will tell you, "Ah, Holy Russia has never been the same since we drank so much tea." ”

“ The winter evening was only just beginning; the samovar was boiling on the table, the conversation had hardly taken a definite turn, but passed lightly from one subject to another. They began discussing exceptional people, and in what way they differed from ordinary people. Every one expounded his views to the best of his abilities ”

“ It was a wonderful study in character, temperament, and dress, for the men were extraordinarily different from each other, though all most attractive and interesting; the Kirghiz more so than the one or two Russians we had.
We carried our food, chiefly tinned, with us, but there was an abundance of eggs, butter, and white bread always to be got, and, most welcome sight, always the steaming samovar, with its promise of cheering and comforting tea. It is astonishing how one’s ordinary food can be cut [Pg 172] down in quantity when necessary. ”

“ He was determined to convince them of the justice of his designs.
“My father and I,” he began anew, “lived in a little hut down the Sofistkaya—it is there yet—I can see it from the windows of my room. An old man lives in it now, a queer old patriarch, who sells cigarettes——”
“That is Rimsky!” exclaimed Wassili to Katerin. She nodded, and looked at him so that she checked him.
“Yes, Rimsky,” said Peter. “That is his name. That is where I lived with my father, and where he taught me 228the almanacs. We were happy, for we had a samovar, and the ladies of the Street of the Dames came to us often. ”

“ Surely, we need not be afraid of an American!”
“No,” agreed Michael. “He cannot be from enemies if he is not from friends. But it is best to learn what we can first, and you must have a good rest before you begin a battle of wits.”
The Jew left them again, and later in the day he put Michael and Katerin into two rooms next to the room in which Peter was resting and planning how he should deal with Michael Kirsakoff if he could be found in Chita.
160 XIV
THE SAMOVAR GIRL IT was nine o’clock by his wrist-watch when Peter got out of bed that morning. ”

“ Salt is now brought from Norway to Mesen, where it costs fifty to sixty copecks per pood. The Samoyeds buy nearly everything from the Russians. There were many inquiries for gunpowder, shot, cheap fowling-pieces, rum, bread, sugar, and culinary vessels (teacups, &c.) . The Samoyed women wear clothes of different colours, chiefly red. In exchange for the goods enumerated above there may be obtained fish, train oil, reindeer skins, walrus tusks, and furs, viz, the skins of the red, white, and brown fox, wolf, Polar bear, and glutton. ”

“ Aren't we going past Samara?' says I. 'We are going by steamer up the Volga, and shall pass. Samara,' says she. (And I come from Samara, from the district of Bousoulouk.) 'Well,' says I, 'little mother, you do as you like, but if you want to do the master good as well as yourself and get God to give you both your health again, you go and see Kousmitch (for in our part lives Kousmitch, who is worth all the doctors in the world; he comes of peasant stock, but princes and generals and lots of gentlefolk go to him to be cured, because he cures all those that the doctors can't cure) . ”

“ The wildest tundras and woods of Northern Russia and Western Siberia are the home of the Samoïede. With his reindeer herds he wanders over the naked wastes, from the eastern coast of the White Sea to the banks of the Chatanga, or hunts in the boundless forests between the Obi and the Jenissei. His intercourse with the Russians is confined to his annual visit at the fairs of such miserable settlements as Obdorsk and Pustosersk, where, far from improving by their company, he but too often becomes the prey of their avarice, and learns to know them merely as cheats and oppressors. ”

“ In the cabins nine Russian householders live with their servants, who are Samoyeds. [54] The Russians bring hither neither their [pg 78] wives nor children. In the tents the Samoyeds live with their families. The Russians are from the village Pustosersk on the Petchora river, from which they set out immediately after Easter, arriving at Chabarova about the end of May, after having traversed a distance of between 600 and 700 versts. During their stay at Chabarova they employ themselves in the management of reindeer, in catching whales, and in carrying on barter with the Samoyeds. ”

“ One small town, Samara, has been planted on the eastern bank—a landing-place for Orenburg and the Kirghiz Steppe. All other towns—Simbirsk, Volsk, Saratof, Tsaritzin—rise on the western bank, and look across the river towards the Ural Ridge. Samara is a Kirghiz, rather than a Russian town, and but for the military posts, and the traffic brought along the military roads, the place would be wholly in Moslem hands. Samara has a name in the East as a place for invalids—the cure being wrought by means of fermented mare's milk, the diet and medicine of rovers on the Tartar Steppe. ”

“ Samson in his black robe came out on the terrace. A wooden cross hung at his girdle; he wore leather sandals and an iron chain round his neck. Waving the peasant folk back as they thronged him, he took a stool of cedar wood that stood by the wall. Putting back the cowl from off his face, he gazed round on those who awaited his words.
Though a seeming monk, he wore no tonsure; the black hair was cropped close to the massive head. Seated there in the western glow, he looked like a Homeric hero with the face of a Jove. The eyes were black, bright as polished stone. ”

“ Below the country of the Samojedes lies that of the Ostiaks, along the river Oby. These people have no resemblance in any respect with the Samojedes, save that like them and all the first race of men, they are hunters, fishermen, and shepherds; some of them have no religion, not being formed into any society, and the others who live together in herds or clans, have a kind of worship, and pray to the principal object of their wants; they adore the skin of a sheep, because this creature is of all others the most serviceable to them ”

“ A new custom is followed by the modern Samorins, that jubilee is proclaimed throughout his dominions, at the end of twelve years, and a tent is pitched for him in a spacious plain, and a great feast is celebrated for ten or twelve days, with mirth and jollity, guns firing night and day, so at the end of the feast any four of the guests that have a mind to gain a crown by a desperate action, in fighting their way through 30 or 40,000 of his guards, and kill the Samorin in his tent, he that kills him succeeds him in his empire. ”