On returning to Houidouk, we found the postmaster in still greater perturbation than he had been cast into by the disaster of the Armenian merchants. One of his postillions had been seized but two versts from the station by Turkmans, who, after robbing him of his sheep-skin and his tobacco, had beaten him and left him half dead, and then made off with the three horses he was taking back to the station. The strangest part of the adventure was, that on the morning of the next day, which happened to be that of our arrival, the three horses returned quietly to their stable, as if nothing extraordinary had befallen. This proved, at least, that the robbers were not very confident, but chose rather to lose their booty than expose themselves to the vengeance of the Cossacks.
Though such stories were not very encouraging to us, we nevertheless set out early next morning, entirely forsaking the post road we had till then pursued, and striking across the steppes with a weak escort, very insufficient to resist a serious attack. My husband, who had already begun his course of levels, resumed his operations from the station at Houidouk. Having to make one every ten minutes, he proceeded on foot, as well as the Kalmucks and Cossacks who carried the instruments and measured the distances. All the men were occupied except the camel drivers and the officer, who amused himself with flying his falcon now and then at wild ducks and geese. Besides its positive and gastronomic results, this sport did me the further service of withdrawing my mind from the monotony of a slow march across the desert, in which I had often no other pastime than watching the grotesque movements of the three camels that drew my carriage, or the capricious evolutions of the flocks of birds that were already assembling for their autumnal emigration.
Yet the impression made on me by this first day did not tend much to alarm me at the prospect of wandering, like a veritable Kalmuck, for several weeks across the steppe. The novelty of my sensations, and the secret pleasure of escaping for awhile from the round of prescribed habits that make up the chief part of civilised life, banished from my mind every sombre thought. The excursion was an experimental glimpse of those natural ways of life which are no longer possible in our thickly-peopled lands; and in spite of my prejudices, a nomade existence no longer seemed to me so absurd or wearisome as I had supposed it to be. The quiet and the immensity of space around us imparted a deep serenity to my mind, and fortified it against any remains of fear occasioned by the late events at Houidouk.
We made our first halt about noon, not at all too soon for our Cossacks, a race not accustomed to long walking. They immediately made a great fire, whilst our camel-drivers were busy setting up the tents and arranging a regular encampment. The sun had reappeared with more force than before, as usually happens after violent storms. The heat of the vertical sunshine, increased by the bare parched soil and by the extraordinary dryness of the air, had so overcome us that we could scarcely attend to the picturesque group presented by our halt in the desert, over which we appeared to reign as absolute masters.
The britchka, unyoked and unladen, was placed a little way from, the tent, on the carpet of which were heaped portfolios, cushions, and boxes, in a manner which a painter would have thought worth notice. Whilst we were taking tea our men were making preparations for dinner, some plucking a fine wild goose and half-a-dozen kourlis, others attending to the fire, round which were ranged two or three pots for the pilau and the bacon soup, of which the Cossacks are great admirers; and Anthony with a little barrel of brandy under his arm, distributed the regular dram to every man, with the gravity of a German major-domo. As for the officer, he lay on his back under the britchka, for sake of the shade, amusing himself with his hawk, which he had unhooded, after fastening it with a stout cord to the carriage. Though the creature's sparkling eyes were continually on the look out for a quarry, it seemed by the continual flapping of its wings to enjoy its master's caresses. The camels, rejoicing in their freedom, browsed at a little distance from the tent, and contributed by their presence to give an oriental aspect to our first essay in savage life; wherein I myself figured in my huge bonnet, dressed as usual in wide pantaloons, with a Gaulish tunic gathered round my waist by a leathern belt. By dint of wondering at every thing, our wonderment at last wore itself out, and we regarded ourselves as definitively naturalised Kalmucks.