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for the first-class might be seen Armenians in long robes and a sort
of miter on their heads; Jews, known by their conical caps; rich Chinese
in their traditional costume, a very wide blue, violet, or black robe;
Turks, wearing the national turban; Hindoos, with square caps,
and a simple string for a girdle, some of whom, hold in their hands
all the traffic of Central Asia; and, lastly, Tartars, wearing boots,
ornamented with many-colored braid, and the breast a mass of embroidery.
All these merchants had been obliged to pile up their numerous bales
and chests in the hold and on the deck; and the transport of their
baggage would cost them dear, for, according to the regulations,
each person had only a right to twenty pounds' weight.

In the bows of the Caucasus were more numerous groups of passengers,
not only foreigners, but also Russians, who were not forbidden
by the order to go back to their towns in the province.
There were mujiks with caps on their heads, and wearing
checked shirts under their wide pelisses; peasants of
the Volga, with blue trousers stuffed into their boots,
rose-colored cotton shirts, drawn in by a cord, felt caps;
a few women, habited in flowery-patterned cotton dresses,
gay-colored aprons, and bright handkerchiefs on their heads.
These were principally third-class passengers, who were,
happily, not troubled by the prospect of a long return voyage.
The Caucasus passed numerous boats being towed up the stream,
carrying all sorts of merchandise to Nijni-Novgorod. Then passed
rafts of wood interminably long, and barges loaded to the gunwale,
and nearly sinking under water. A bootless voyage they were making,
since the fair had been abruptly broken up at its outset.

The waves caused by the steamer splashed on the banks, covered with
flocks of wild duck, who flew away uttering deafening cries.
A little farther, on the dry fields, bordered with willows,
and aspens, were scattered a few cows, sheep, and herds of pigs.
Fields, sown with thin buckwheat and rye, stretched away to a
background of half-cultivated hills, offering no remarkable prospect.
The pencil of an artist in quest of the picturesque would have found
nothing to reproduce in this monotonous landscape.

The Caucasus had been steaming on for almost two hours,
when the young Livonian, addressing herself to Michael, said,
"Are you going to Irkutsk, brother?"

"Yes, sister," answered the young man. "We are going the same way.
Consequently, where I go, you shall go."

"To-morrow, brother, you shall know why I left the shores of the Baltic
to go beyond the Ural Mountains."

"I ask you nothing, sister."

"You shall know all," replied the girl, with a faint smile.
"A sister should hide nothing from her brother. But I cannot
to-day. Fatigue and sorrow have broken me."

"Will you go and rest in your cabin?" asked Michael Strogoff.

"Yes--yes; and to-morrow--"

"Come then--"

He hesitated to finish his sentence, as if he had wished to end it

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