1876 British Viscount & Ambassador James Bryce - Noah's Ark Search

138 THE EXPLORERS OF ARARAT
much upon them and bread. If I were asked to characterize the most conspicuous externals of Russia in three words,
they should be “sheepskins, cucumbers, emeralds.” 1
Buoys are anchored in many dangerous spots, landmarks are placed along the shore, and at night colored lights
are shown. Although our steamer drew only four feet of water there were so many shoals and sandbanks about, that,
instead of holding an even course down the middle of the stream, she was perpetually darting across it from the one
shore to the other, so as to keep in the deepest part of the channel. Whenever one of the shallower parts was reached
a bell was rung, which brought some of the crew forward, and one of them took his place armed with a long pole, the
lower part of which was marked in colors, just like the “stick” in croquet, each foot’s length having a different color.
This pole he nimbly plunged into the water just before the bow, till it touched the bottom, and then seeing by the marks
on it what the depth was, he sang out, “vosem,” “sem,” “shest” (eight, seven, six), as the case might be, the vessel still
advancing. As the smaller numbers began to be reached, a slight thrill ran through the group that watched, and when
“piat” (five) followed, the engines were slowed or stopped in a moment, and we glided softly along over the shoal till
“sem,” “vosem,” “deviat” (nine), following in succession, told that the risk of grounding was for the moment past.
The Tatars of Kazan [different Kazan than the village Kazan next to Mount Ararat], who are no doubt Turks, retain
not only their language and their religion but their social usages; they rarely or never intermarry with the Russians, but
otherwise live on good enough terms with them, and do not seem to complain of the Christian government, which has
been wise enough not to meddle with their faith. Since the fall of their Khanate three hundred years ago, they have
rarely given any trouble, and now serve in the army like other subjects of the Czar. They are usually strong men, lithe
and sinewy, of a make more spare than that of the Russians, and do most of the hard work both here, in their own
country, and at Nijni and other trading spots along the river. In their faces is seen a good deal of that grave fixity which
gives a dignity even to the humblest Oriental, and contrasts so markedly with the mobile features of the Slav.
Archaeology, except perhaps as a branch of hagiology, or in the leaned circles of St. Petersburg and Moscow,
has scarcely begun to exist in Russia; it is one of the latest births of time everywhere, and, as one may see from the
fate of so many of our own pre-historic monuments, does not commend itself to the practical mind of the agriculturist.
The only countries in which the traveler finds the common people knowing and revering the monuments and legends
of their remote past are Norway and Iceland, where the sagas read aloud in the long nights of winter from manuscripts
preserved in lonely farm-houses, have through many generations fired the imagination and ennobled the life of the
peasant, who knew no other literature and history than that of his own ancestors.
Just as the easternmost point of the bend the river turns south, breaking through the Jigoulef ridge which has
bordered it for twenty miles, and here, at the town of Samara, one seems suddenly to pass, as if through a gate in the
hills, from Europe into Asia. Up to this point all has been green, moist, fresh-looking, the air soft though brilliantly clear,
the grass not less juicy than in England, the wayside flowers and trees very similar to our own, if not always of the
same species. But once through the hills, and looking away southeast across the boundless steppe towards Orenburg
and the Ural River, a different climate and scenery reveal themselves. The air is hot and dry, the parched earth gapes
under the sun, the hills are bare, or clothed only with withered weeds; plants and shrubs of unfamiliar aspect appear,
the whole landscape has a tawny torrid look, as if of an African desert. Henceforth, all the way to the Black Sea, one
felt one’s self in the glowing East, and seemed at a glance to realize the character of the wilderness that stretches from
here all the way, a plain with scarcely a mound to break its monotony, to the banks of the Oxus and the foot of the
Thian Shan mountains.
By this time nearly all the cabin passengers had done, but the lower deck was still crowded with Armenians and
Persians bound for Astrakhan, whence they were to proceed, by another steamer of the same company, across the
Caspian to Baku in Transcaucasia, or to Lenkoran on the frontiers of Persia. Travelers are fond of talking of the
Oriental character of Russia; and though the smart saying about scratching Russians and finding Tatars is pretty well
exploded (nobody can be essentially less like a Tatar than the Russian is), there are, no doubt, certain points, mostly
mere externals, in which Russian towns, or Russian usages, recall those of the East. What is far more curious is to find
1 The profusion of fine gems, especially emeralds, rubies, and sapphires, you are shown in geological and
antiquarian collections, sewn on to sacerdotal vestments, stuck on to the gold plates with which the sacred pictures are
overlaid, is extraordinary.