signed expression is observable on the faces of the common people from
one end of Russia to the other. It is quite extraordinary for a common
Russian to look one in the eye. Nor is this at all deceptive; a social
superior might step up and strike one of these men brutally in the face
without the slightest provocation, and, though the victim of the outrage
might be strong as an ox, no remonstrance whatever would be made. It is
difficult for us to comprehend How human beings can possibly become so
abjectly servile and spiritless as the lower-class Russians. But the
terrors of the knout and Siberia are ever present before them. Cheap
chromolithographs of Gregorian saints hang on the walls of the saloon,
and with them are mingled fancy pictures of Tiflis and Baku cafe-chantant
belles. Long rows of vodka-bottles are the chief stock-in-trade of the
place, but "peevo" (beer) can be obtained from the cellar.

Quite a number of army officers, with their wives, come aboard at
Krasnovodsk. They seem good fellows, nearly all, and inclined to
cultivate our acquaintance. Individually, the better-class Russian and
the Englishman have many attributes in common that make them like each
other. Except for imperial matters, Russian and English officers would be
the best of friends, I think. The ladies all smoke cigarettes
incessantly. There is not a handsome woman aboard, and they show the
lingering traces of Russian barbarism by wearing beads and gewgaws.

The most interesting of our passengers is a Persian dealer in precious
stones. He is a well-educated individual, quite a linguist, and a
polished gentleman withal. He is taking diamonds and turquoises that he
has collected in Persia, to Vienna and Paris.

Another night of drenching dew, and by six o'clock next morning we are
drawing near to the great petroleum port of Baku. From Krasnovodsk we
have crossed the Caspian from east to west right on the line of latitude
40 deg.

CHAPTER XIII.

ROUNDABOUT TO INDIA.

Baku looks the inartistic, business-like place it is, occupying the base
of brown, verdureless hills. Scarcely a green thing is visible to relieve
the dull, drab aspect roundabout, and only the scant vegetation of a few
gardens relieves the city a trifle itself. To the left of the city the
slopes of one hill are dotted with neatly kept Christian cemeteries, and
the slopes of another display the disorderly multitude of tombstones
characteristic of the graveyards of Isla