Chapter I: Preface: To the English Edition

Embarrassed readers, who delight in books of travel, whether for the recreation or the useful information they afford, are not relieved of their difficulty when the title of the work, instead of indicating the nature of the subject, only presents an enigma for them to solve. How, for instance, is the reader to gauge the nature of the contents of “Voyage en Zigzag?” It might mean the itinerary of some crooked course among the Alps, or, perhaps, the log-book of a yacht chopping about the Channel, or the record of anything but a straightforward journey. Again, “By Land and Sea” might simply be the diary of a holiday trip from London to Paris, or a _réchauffé_ of impressions of a “globe-trotter,” who went to see what everybody talked about that he also might talk about what he had seen. Then there are a host of others, such as “Travels West,” “The Land of the North Wind”--which one has to discover vaguely by ascertaining first where it does not blow,--“Loin de Paris,” “Dans les Nuages,” “On Blue Water;” all of which might be strictly applicable to the metropolitan area if the water were only just a little bluer. But “Voyage Autour de ma Femme” is still less intelligible. Is it a book of travel at all, or only a romance, or a _comédie-vaudeville_? It may not be a _fantaisie_ like “Voyage Autour de ma Chambre,” nor even the record of a journey necessarily performed within four walls, for--though I have not looked at the book--it may be the narrative of an unsentimental journey, in which the tourist had taken a holiday trip all around picturesque Europe and his wife, leaving her at home; or it may be a sentimental journey as touching as Sterne’s--a kind of circular tour _en petit_, circumscribed by the ordinary length of the apron-string; in which event, a very subjective turn of the _impressions de voyage_ would be evident; and consequently would not suit readers who decidedly prefer to regard what is presented from the objective side.

The reader will naturally discover from the title of this book the traveller’s course, but he will at the same time, no doubt, desire to know something of the character of the book.

It may gratify him to be told that essentially it is a personal narrative, that cannot fail to interest those who like in a book of travel a tale of life full of incident and adventure: it is one in which his sympathies will be awakened and sustained in following the traveller in his movements from day to day and from place to place, his imagination being vividly stirred by the illusion that the participator is, as it were, in the changing scenes and events passing before his eyes like the tableaux of a diorama. And yet it must not be supposed, because the writer’s chief object has been to give an interesting personal narrative, that it is deficient in useful information: far from it; but, instead of overcharging his book with minute details, he has seized the more salient features of men and things. These are presented from his own point of view as the result of intelligent observation or discriminating hearsay.

The traveller, who is evidently a most genial companion, passes lightly and rapidly over the well-known route from Paris to St. Petersburg and Moscow in the short space of thirty pages. After taking a glance at the wonders of the Kremlin and the monastery of Troïtsa, probably the richest religious community in the world, with its heaps of precious pearls and various gems, he passes on to the famous mart of Nijni-Novgorod, along the frozen Oka and the Volga, through the country of the Votiaks, and across the Ural Mountains into Siberia. Posting at full gallop over the snowy way, sleeping, living altogether in fact, in his sledge (for the luxury of beds is unknown in Siberian hotels), he falls in with a series of adventures, sometimes amusing and sometimes even tragic, in his progress over that vast territory that presents so many strange races, and, in winter, so many remarkable scenes. At one time he is in imminent peril of being lost in a snowstorm on the steppe of Omsk, and at another on the frozen surface of the Baikal. He makes an excursion on the way amid the wild Kirghiz, gets a peep at the life of the Polish exiles, and at the gold miners and the people of Irkutsk in their amusements and occupations. The grand scenes of nature, particularly at this season, are all duly depicted with the emotion of one alive to the beautiful and sublime: the wonderful atmospheric effects of light at a very low temperature, the novel and changing aspects of the steppes; the startling spectacle of the frozen Angara and Lake Baikal, the grotesque aspect of the snow-capped forests, and then, later, the picturesque, verdant valleys of China. In the course of his journey through Mongolia, he enables us to get a glimpse at those strange people the Mongols, their tent life, their city of tents, their incessant prayer-turning as a chief occupation, and the fearful character of some of their ceremonies. Then, after a caravan journey of eighteen days across the trackless Desert of Gobi, he arrives at the great Wall of China, and finally at Pekin, where he contemplates its curiosities, its works of art, its people, their institutions and their daily life.

Having thus given an outline of the book and its contents for the reader’s guidance, I will proceed to explain why I have thought it advisable to depart from a close imitation throughout of the original, and to present, in fact, a modified version rather than a strict translation.

The style of the original, though simple and unadorned, is frequently slipshod; and the author--contrary to many French travellers, who often make, and perhaps still oftener attempt to make, the subject of their narrative a vehicle for epigram and sparkling and spirited diction--has evidently thought more of conveying a truthful picture to the reader, than of the mode of expression by which this could be most effectively done. In many novel and interesting descriptions, for example, the effect they are capable of producing is almost wholly lost through the want of a more just co-ordination of parts and subordination of minor details, and, occasionally, through the want of sufficient expansion, lest the reader should not have time to contemplate and realize a quick succession of fleeting images.

These, consequently, are some of the chief points I have attempted to correct; though in making the attempt, I hope I may not have exposed myself to an unpleasant suspicion, in the first place, of having assumed too much assurance in undertaking uninvited to revise the writing of another, and, in the next place, in certain _tableaux_, which would be unattractive if obscure or colourless, of having indulged in a taste for fine writing, when the sole object has been to place the matter before the reader as lucidly and vividly as possible.

But it will probably more concern the reader to be assured that the truthfulness of these descriptions, such as represented by the traveller, has not been distorted in this manner of treating them. On this point he may readily satisfy himself on taking the trouble to compare some of them with those in the original edition. He will find, I hope, that my work has not been in vain, and that I have contributed something towards rendering more attractive this interesting narrative, chiefly relating to that land over which Madame Cottin, Xavier de Maistre, and other writers have thrown a glow of romance.

WILLIAM CONN.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

FROM PARIS TO ST. PETERSBURG.
PAGE
_En route_ by rail--Berlin--Annoyances at the Russian Custom
House--First aspect of European Russia--An evening on the
banks of the Neva 1

CHAPTER II.

ST. PETERSBURG TO MOSCOW.

Letters of recommendation for Siberia--M. Pfaffius, frontier
commissary at Kiachta--Russian music--Arrival at Moscow 19

CHAPTER III.

MOSCOW--NIJNI-NOVGOROD.

The Kremlin--Equipage and visits of the Virgin of Inverski--
Origin of Christianity in Russia--A few words about Troïtsa--
A travelling companion--Purchase of furs--Passage of the Oka
in a sledge--Feeling of terror on first travelling in a sledge
over a frozen river 30

CHAPTER IV.

FROM NIJNI-NOVGOROD TO KAZAN.

The Volga in winter--Varieties of podarojnaia--What is
necessary for a long sledge journey--Departure from Nijni--
Posting relays--A momentary thaw--The snow--Arrival at
Kazan 51

CHAPTER V.

KAZAN--JOURNEY TO PERM.

The Virgin of Kazan--Russian manner of expressing disapproval--
Dining with a grandee--His description of the enfranchisement
of the serfs--The Tartars--Journey in a sledge--Caravan of
exiles--The Votiaks--Aspect of European Russia 73

CHAPTER VI.

PERM--THE ROAD TO CATHERINEBURG.

Hotel accommodation in Siberia--A councillor--Opinions and
examples of Russian administration--National music--The
passion for aggrandizement of territory--Entry into Asia 98

CHAPTER VII.

OUR PARTY ON THE ROAD TO TUMEN.

Trade and manufactures at Catherineburg--Carolling cherubs--
Christmas at Kamechlof--Grand gala at a posting stage--Tumen
--Its situation--Its gipsies--Fruit preserved in ice 113

CHAPTER VIII.

A PERILOUS NIGHT ADVENTURE ON THE STEPPE OF OMSK.

An ostentatious Siberian custom--The steppe--The cemeteries
--Omsk--Its situation--Its society--The emancipation of
the serfs related by a citizen--M. Kroupinikof--Visit to an
encampment of Kirghiz--Masquerade at Omsk 128

CHAPTER IX.

THE COLD ON THE WAY TO TOMSK.

The intense cold--Its inconveniences--The fine effects of light
at a very low temperature--The baptismal fête of Christ on the
Obi--Tomsk--Its commerce--An evening on the banks of the
Tom 156

CHAPTER X.

THE GOVERNMENT OF YENISSEISK AND KRASNOIARSK.

Wretched aspect of the villages of this province--The country
at last becomes hilly--The night watchers at Krasnoiarsk--M.
Lovatine’s three collections--A Polish exile’s ball 171

CHAPTER XI.

KRASNOIARSK TO IRKUTSK.

Social position and education of the country people and citizens--
Uselessness of Siberian forests--Journey to Irkutsk--A pack
of wolves--Cleanliness of the villages--Congelation of the
Angara--The government of Irkutsk--The college--The prison
--The fire brigade 184

CHAPTER XII.

IRKUTSK.

The gold miners--Their luxury; their wealth; their wives--A few
words about the clergy, and the code of religion--The Polish
exiles--Travelling maniacs--A dinner _en famille_ 202

CHAPTER XIII.

ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE BY A POLISH EXILE.

Why the Polish exiles cannot escape--Narrative of an attempt by
M. Bohdanovitch--Encounter with a bear--Sanitary arrangements
in Siberia--Wolf hunts--A blue fox--Different values of
furs--A few words on the passion for displaying riches 222

CHAPTER XIV.

IRKUTSK TO LAKE BAIKAL.

The natives--The Olkhonese--Shamanism--The Buriats--The
Tungus--The Samoyeds--The Carnival at Irkutsk--Pablo--
Adieu to Constantine--Another perilous night on the ice of Lake
Baikal 244

CHAPTER XV.

LAKE BAIKAL TO KIACHTA.

Observations on Eastern Siberia and its inhabitants--Their dream
of independence--Motives that might contribute to independence
--Example of the Chinese--The Yakuts and the inhabitants of
Kamtchatka 266

CHAPTER XVI.

KIACHTA TO MAIMATCHIN.

The tarantass--Tea merchants--Their competition--The Sienzy
--Aspect of Maimatchin--A dinner at the Chinese Governor’s--
Preparations for crossing the Gobi desert 285

CHAPTER XVII.

MAIMATCHIN TO URGA.

First Stage in Mongolia--The Mongols--Their tents; their life
--How they steer their way in the desert--The Caravan--A
Sacrilege--The Russian Consul at Urga--The Koutoukta 304

CHAPTER XVIII.

URGA AND THE ENTRY INTO THE DESERT OF GOBI.

Urga--Mongol religion--Praying wheels--Burial ceremonies--
The Holy Mountain--My travelling companions in the desert--
Departure from Urga--First halt--A Mongolian repast--Easter
Eve 321

CHAPTER XIX.

CARAVAN ACROSS THE DESERT OF GOBI.

A Mongolian Prince and his Court--Prayer turning--Our life in
the desert--The sandy plain--Want of water--Lunar mirage--
Three executions--A traveller astray in the desert--Arrival
at Kalkann and the Great Wall of China 341

CHAPTER XX.

FROM THE GREAT WALL TO TCHAH TAO.

First view of China proper--Last Russian hospitality--The
Palankeen--The streets of Kalkann--Travelling along the Great
Wall--The Secret Societies--Chinese art--How order is
maintained--Origin of the tress--How the titles of Chinese
nobility become extinct 362

CHAPTER XXI.

TCHAH-TAO TO PEKIN.

An exciting incident--The Pass of Nang-kao--Picturesqueness
of the gorge--A young married couple--The levy of taxes--
Toun-cheh-ouh--The last solitude--Entry into Pekin--Arrival
at the Legation 379

CHAPTER XXII.

PEKIN--DEPARTURE.

The Marble Bridge--The Tartar City--Objects of Art--Japanese
lacquering--Interments--The Observatory--The Imperial
Palace--The Temples--The four harvests--Kinds of tea--
Departure from Pekin--Tien-tsin--The sea at last 395

NOTES 417

London: W. Swan Sonnenschein & Co.]

FROM PARIS TO PEKIN.