Year: 1873

bioodsnirsy and savage - A mdIau-a derce,
Wild, uncultivated Barbarian-in short with moth
ing In common with civilized troops except his dis
cipline. such was my idea OF the Russian soldier,
ana / suppose there are few OF my readers who
have not had very similar notions. ~rhere never
was greater mistake.


THE RUSSIAN SOLDIER


is not by any means the fierce savage we have
always heard him represented TO be. He Is neither
cruel bloodthisty, as far ~ have seen, but on
the contrary, rather kind and gentle when not en-
ragged as l since observed in many little
acts OF kindness towards che Turcoman chill
dren during the campaign against the Yomoods.
The lower classes OF the Russian people, although
ignorant and superstitous to the last degree, are
not by nature either cruel brutal, like the genu
inc Anglo-SaxOn. For cold-bl00ded brutality the
latter has no equal among any OF the races OF Eu-
rope. and II there should ever be Commune at
London the Commune OF Paris win appear ~
rather virtuous affair than otherwise.


THE PROCLAMATION.


To return to che Russian In Khiya. General
Kaufman as soon as he reached tho river issued y
proclamation warning the Khivans that II they
would stay quietly In their homes they would not
be molested, that their property and their women
would be respected and that the Russians would
pay with ready money for supplies, provisions and
forage brought into camp; but II they had to go
into the country foraging for supplies they would
take what they needed without paying for It, and
would besides pillage and burn every abandoned
house they should flnd. The supplies brought In
that day were In answer to this proclamation.
The Khivans at first refused the Russian paper
money, as they had never seen 1t before and did
not understand it. They accepted with eagerness.
however, the small silver money in pieces OF 10, Is
and 20 kopecks, OF which the Russians had large
supply. "A piece OF 20 kopecks, about Is cents of
our money, passedreadily for one "k0kan" sill
yer coin OF Khivan money.


BREAD AND FRUIT.


The most curious OF the things they brought us
were the white mulberries q kind which l had
never before seen, and the wheaton cakes. These
were made Of unbolted hour. mixed apparently,
simply with water, and rolled out thin about the
size OF large dinner plate and baked nice brown
on the inner sides in little mud oven. This is the
only bread known in Khva, and when eaten warm
is really excellent 1t must be eaten when fresh,
however, as 1t grows sour and unpalatabe In q
lew hours. The gardens and cultivated land do
not extend quite to the river at Sheik.Arik but
stop short within about half mile OF the fort.
AS there were neither trees nor grass here we
found we were much worse or tnan ON the other
side, where there was plenty of fresh green grass
at least; and the dust here was terrible-w0rse
even than at Khala-Ata. The banks Of the canal,
formed OF dry soft earth. had first been trampled
into powder by the Khivans and now by the Rus
slams, until it was q foot deep and the wind kept
blowing it about in wbirlwinds that ut times were
su1ocating. Inever suffered SO much from dust
and heat in my life and what made It worse were
the fresh green gardens and the cool, dark shade
of mighty elms which were within q few minutes
walk of us and which We were not allowed to
approach.