Beasts, Men and Gods | Page 6

I will guide you to another safer place and then go on."
CHAPTER II
THE SECRET OF MY FELLOW TRAVELER
At the dawn of day we started forth, leaving my first place of refuge.
Into the bags we packed our personal estate and fastened them on one
of the saddles.
"We must go four or five hundred versts," very calmly announced my
fellow traveler, who called himself "Ivan," a name that meant nothing
to my mind or heart in this land where every second man bore the
same.
"We shall travel then for a very long time," I remarked regretfully.
"Not more than one week, perhaps even less," he answered.
That night we spent in the woods under the wide spreading branches of
the fir trees. It was my first night in the forest under the open sky. How
many like this I was destined to spend in the year and a half of my
wanderings! During the day there was very sharp cold. Under the hoofs
of the horses the frozen snow crunched and the balls that formed and
broke from their hoofs rolled away over the crust with a sound like
crackling glass. The heathcock flew from the trees very idly, hares
loped slowly down the beds of summer streams. At night the wind
began to sigh and whistle as it bent the tops of the trees over our heads;
while below it was still and calm. We stopped in a deep ravine
bordered by heavy trees, where we found fallen firs, cut them into logs
for the fire and, after having boiled our tea, dined.
Ivan dragged in two tree trunks, squared them on one side with his ax,
laid one on the other with the squared faces together and then drove in
a big wedge at the butt ends which separated them three or four inches.
Then we placed live coals in this opening and watched the fire run

rapidly the whole length of the squared faces vis-a- vis.
"Now there will be a fire in the morning," he announced. "This is the
'naida' of the gold prospectors. We prospectors wandering in the woods
summer and winter always sleep beside this 'naida.' Fine! You shall see
for yourself," he continued.
He cut fir branches and made a sloping roof out of them, resting it on
two uprights toward the naida. Above our roof of boughs and our naida
spread the branches of protecting fir. More branches were brought and
spread on the snow under the roof, on these were placed the saddle
cloths and together they made a seat for Ivan to rest on and to take off
his outer garments down to his blouse. Soon I noticed his forehead was
wet with perspiration and that he was wiping it and his neck on his
sleeves.
"Now it is good and warm!" he exclaimed.
In a short time I was also forced to take off my overcoat and soon lay
down to sleep without any covering at all, while through the branches
of the fir trees and our roof glimmered the cold bright stars and just
beyond the naida raged a stinging cold, from which we were cosily
defended. After this night I was no longer frightened by the cold.
Frozen during the days on horseback, I was thoroughly warmed
through by the genial naida at night and rested from my heavy overcoat,
sitting only in my blouse under the roofs of pine and fir and sipping the
ever welcome tea.
During our daily treks Ivan related to me the stories of his wanderings
through the mountains and woods of Transbaikalia in the search for
gold. These stories were very lively, full of attractive adventure, danger
and struggle. Ivan was a type of these prospectors who have discovered
in Russia, and perhaps in other countries, the richest gold mines, while
they themselves remain beggars. He evaded telling me why he left
Transbaikalia to come to the Yenisei. I understood from his manner
that he wished to keep his own counsel and so did not press him.
However, the blanket of secrecy covering this part of his mysterious
life was one day quite fortuitously lifted a bit. We were already at the

objective point of our trip. The whole day we had traveled with
difficulty through a thick growth of willow, approaching the shore of
the big right branch of the Yenisei, the Mana. Everywhere we saw
runways packed hard by the feet of the hares living in this bush. These
small white denizens of the wood ran to and fro in front of us. Another
time we saw the red tail of a fox hiding behind a rock, watching us and
the unsuspecting hares at the same time.
Ivan had been silent for a long while. Then he