Three hours before we halted, the last kibitkas had disappeared below the horizon: we were absolutely alone on the whole surface of the vast plain. There was no vestige to tell us that other men had encamped where we were. The steppe is like the sea; it retains no trace of those who have traversed it.
At two o'clock Hommaire gave the word to march: the tent was struck; the camels knelt to receive their burdens; the officer was in the saddle with his hawk on his fist; and I was again alone in the carriage, slowly following our little troop as it resumed its operations.
My first night under a tent proved to me that I was not so acclimated to the steppe as my vanity had led me to suppose. The felt cone under which I was to sleep; the Kalmucks moving about the fire; the camels sending their plaintive cries through the immensity of the desert; in a word, every thing I saw and heard, was so at variance with my habits and ways of thought, that I almost fancied I was in an opium dream.
We spent part of the night seated before the tent, our reveries unbroken by any inclination to sleep. The moon, larger and more brilliant than it ever appears in the west, lighted the whole sky and part of the steppe, over which it cast a luminous line like that which a vessel leaves in its wake at sea. Absolute silence reigned in the air, and produced upon us an effect which no words can describe. Hardly did we dare to break it, so solemn did it seem, and so in harmony with the infinite grandeur of the waste. It would be in vain to look for a stillness so complete, even in the most sequestered solitudes of our regions. There is always some murmuring brook there, some rustling leaves; and even in the silence of night, some low sounds are heard, that give an object to the thoughts. But here nature is petrified, and one has constantly before him the image of that eternal repose which our minds can so hardly conceive.
We marched for several days without meeting one living creature. This part of the steppes is inhabited only in Winter; for during the rest of the year it is completely destitute of fresh water. At last, towards the close of the fourth day, we saw a black object in motion on the horizon. The officer instantly galloped off to reconnoitre, waving his cap in the air, for a signal of command. In a few seconds we were sure he was perceived, for we distinguished the form of a Kalmuck mounted on a camel approaching us. He was hailed with shouts of joy by our men, who soon fastened on him, and overwhelmed him with questions. The eagerness of nomades to hear news is unbounded, and it is wonderful with what rapidity the knowledge of the most trivial event is conveyed from one tribe to another. The new comer told us that our journey was already known all over the steppes, and that we should soon fall in with an encampment of Kalmucks, who had moved forward on purpose to see us.
The presence of this man put all our men in the gayest humour. Desirous of doing due honour to his arrival, they deputed Anthony to solicit from us a double ration of spirits. They passed all the early part of the night sitting round the fire, smoking their tchibouks, and telling stories, as grave and as entranced in the charms of conversation as Bedouins.
Next day our little caravan was in motion before sunrise; the Kalmuck set off alone for the fair of Kisliar, and we took the opposite direction, pursuing the invisible line which science traced for us across the desert, and which was to lead us to the sources of the Manitch.
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.