The moment we had announced to our host, evidently to his great satisfaction, our acceptance of his kind invitation, he began his preparations to entertain us to the best of his power. Our horses were turned out to graze on the steppe, a fire was lit in the hole above described by the wife and mother, the son set about pounding the millet for the favourite national dish, and we soon had on the table a capital supper, including omelets and most superb milk. While we were in the midst of our enjoyment of this excellent fare, we suddenly heard without the clattering of hoofs and the rattle of arms, and there entered a Cossack from beyond the Danube, who claimed, like ourselves, the hospitality of our good-natured Troglodyte. It was immediately granted, and the Cossack and his horse were added to the number of the guests. I was delighted to fall in with a Cossack under circumstances so congenial to his habits, and accordingly cultivated his conversation diligently. He wore behind his ears great bunches of flowers mixed with grass, that he had plucked as he rode along over the steppes. His horse, his sabre, his pistols, and his uniform, had all been bought with his own money. His name he told us was " Yephim Affauassievitsh Lesharno:" he was born at a village near the Danube ; his father was a rich man there, possessing fifty cows, two hundred horses, and many sheep. He added, that his father sent him evei-y month twenty silver rubles, so that he was not obliged to starve on his pay, though he had every thing to provide for himself.
Our kind hosts would fain have trrned themselves out of their beds in order to accommodate us, but we insisted on their occupying them as
442 NAVIGATION OF THE DNIESTER.
usual, had an excellent night's rest on some straw in the other room, and the next morning, as soon as the sun darted his rays along the high grass, we departed with an excellent breakfast and a thousand good wishes.
My last considerable excursion from Lustdorf was directed to the towns of Ovidiopol and Akerman, and the mouth of the Dniester liman.
As far as Ovidiopol we met vrith. grass and grass, and nothing but grass, and more than one half of the town itself consists of semlankas, such as I have just described. It had a short period of prosperity when the left bank of the Dniester had been joined to Russia, wliilst the Turks still possessed the right ; but since Akerman has also become Russian, this prosperity has declined. In the fortress, which consists of a gigantic mud wall and ditches, there are but fifteen Cossacks, and the roofs of most of the bvuldinor-s belonoanoto it have fallen in.
We entered the post-boat here, in order to cross the liman to Akerman, with a crowd of other passengers. I inquired of the Russian skipper how long the passage would probably take. " How do I know ? As long as God pleases," was the answer. " Certainly. Quite right," I rephed, " but how long should you suppose ?" ' How can any man tell ? God makes the weather !"