It was on this morning I took my first ride on the back of a camel, and I vowed it should be the last. Decidedly the camel is the most detestable quadruped to ride in the world. From the moment you mount until you descend from that murderous perch you have to endure an incessant series of shocks, so violent and sudden, that every joint in your body feels dislocated. I could now feel for the sufferings of our poor dragoman during his long trot from Houidouk to the Caspian. Though my experiment was limited to a trip of two versts at the most, I was totally exhausted when I dismounted.
Not long afterwards I had an opportunity of observing a curious instance of the vindictive temper of these rough trotters. The camel, as every one knows, is a ruminating animal, but few, perhaps, are aware that he has the cunning to make his rumination subservient to his vengeance in a very extraordinary and ingenious manner.
I had noticed in the morning that one of our camel-drivers seemed to be on very bad terms with his beast. In vain he strove to master it by severity, and by pulling the cord passed through its nostril; the brute was obstinate, and threw itself every moment rebelliously on the ground. At last the Kalmuck, incensed beyond endurance, took advantage of a general halt, and alighted to give the camel a sound drubbing. But the creature, disdainfully lifting up its long neck, followed all its master's movements with so spiteful an eye, that I was sure it had some wicked scheme in its head. It waited patiently till the Kalmuck stood in front of it, and then, opening its great mouth, it let fly a charge of chewed grass mixed with mucus and all sorts of nastiness, and hit the poor driver full in the face. To tell with what an air of satisfied vengeance the camel again reared its neck and turned its head from side to side, as if looking round for applause, would be totally impossible. But what astonished me the most was the moderation of the master after such an outrage. He wiped his face very coolly, got into the saddle again, and patted the neck of his ill-bred brute, as if it had played the most amiable and innocent little trick imaginable. Good fellowship was thenceforth re-established between them, and they jogged peaceably along together, without thinking any more of what had happened.
It happens by a rare good fortune, that no noxious insect is found in the steppes between the Caspian and the Caucasus. Of course it was not until I was quite sure of this that I could sleep in peace. Our tent, made of felt like those of the Kalmucks, was at most five feet high and as many wide. It was supported by a bundle of sticks tied together at the ends; the interior, furnished with a carpet and cushions laid on the ground, contained, besides, some boxes belonging to the britchka. A flap of felt formed the door. As the tent narrowed toward the top, we could not stand within it, but were obliged to kneel. Such was our dwelling for six weeks; and I can aver, that notwithstanding the hardness of our bed on the ground, and the strangeness of our situation, I never slept so soundly as during that period of my life. Nothing is better for the health than living in the open air; the appetite, the sleep, the unutterable serenity of mind, and the free circulation of the blood which it procures, sufficiently attest its happy influence on our organisation. Few functional maladies, I suspect, would resist a two or three months' excursion like that which we accomplished.
As the Kalmuck had foretold, we arrived at night in a Kalmuck camp, consisting of a score of tents. All the men came to meet us, took the camels from the britchka, and would not allow our people to lend a hand; then having pitched our tent a little way off from their own, at the foot of a tumulus, they began to dance with their women, in token of rejoicing. One of the latter went down on her knees and begged some tobacco of my husband, and when she had got it she became an object of envy to her companions, before whom she hastened to display and smoke it.
When night had fallen, the camp was lighted up with numerous fires, which gave a still more curious aspect to the kibitkas, and the dancing figures of the Kalmucks and Cossacks, whose exuberant gaiety was in part owing to an extraordinary distribution of food and brandy. The women advanced in their turn, and several of them forming a circle, danced in the same manner as the ladies of honour of the Princess Tumene. But they all seemed to me extremely ugly, though some of them were very young.
Two days afterwards we arrived at the edge of a pond, where we arranged to pass the night. The sight of the water, and of the thousands of birds on its surface, afforded us real delight; there needed but such a little thing, under such circumstances as ours, to constitute an event, and occupy the imagination! All that evening was spent in shooting and hawking, bathing, and walking round and round the pool. We could not satiate ourselves with the pleasure of beholding that brackish mud, and the forest of reeds that encompassed it. No landscape on the Alps or the Tyrol was probably ever hailed with so much enthusiasm.
Beyond this pond, the appearance of the steppes gradually changed; water grew less rare, the vegetation less scorched. We saw from time to time herds of more than five hundred camels, grazing in freedom on the short thick grass. Some of them were of gigantic height. I shall never forget the amazement they manifested at beholding us. The moment they perceived us they hurried towards, then stopped short, gazing at us with outstretched necks until we were out of sight.
The eighth day after our departure from Houidouk our fresh water was so sensibly diminished, that we were obliged to use brackish water in cooking. This change in our kitchen routine fortunately lasted but a few days; but it was enough to give me a hearty aversion for meats so cooked: they had so disagreeable a taste, that nothing but necessity and long habit can account for their ordinary use. The Kalmucks and Cossacks, however, use no other water during a great part of the year.
That same day we had a very singular encounter, which went near to be tragical. Shortly before encamping, we saw a very long file of small carts approaching us; our Kalmucks recognised them as belonging to Turkmans, a sort of people held in very bad repute, by reason of their quarrelsome and brutal temper. Every untoward event that happens in the steppes is laid to their account, and there is perpetual warfare between them and the Cossacks, to whom they give more trouble than all the other tribes put together. As we advanced, an increased confusion was manifest in the convoy, and suddenly all the oxen, as if possessed by the fiend, exhibited the most violent terror, and began to run away in wild disorder, dashing against each other, upsetting and breaking the carts loaded with salt, wholly regardless of the voices and blows of their drivers. Some moments elapsed before we could account for this strange disaster, and comprehend the meaning of the furious abuse with which the Turkmans assailed our escort. The camel-drivers were the real culprits in this affair, for they knew by experience how much horses and oxen are frightened by the sight of a camel, and they ought to have moved out of the direct line of march, and not exposed us to the rage of the fierce carters.