three blind or crippled beggars who could not move rapidly enough to make their escape. At a later hour that same afternoon, in the bazar of Tróitskosávsk, he came near being mobbed while trying to make a pencil drawing of a fierce- looking Mongol trader, and was obliged to come home with his sketch unfinished. We both regretted, as we had re- gretted many times before, that we had neglected to pro- vide ourselves with a small detective camera. It might have been used safely and successfully in many places where the larger instrument excited fear or suspicion.
Our Chinese dinner in Maimáchin Saturday afternoon was a novel and interesting experience. It was given in the counting-house of a wealthy Chinese merchant, and the guests present and participating comprised six or eight ladies and gentlemen of Mr. Lúshnikof's acquaintance, as well as Mr. Frost and me. The table was covered with a white cloth, and was furnished with plates, cups and saucers, knives and forks, etc., in the European fashion. Ivory chopsticks were provided for those who desired them, but they were used by the Russian and American guests only in a tentative and experimental way. When we had all taken seats at the table a glass flagon containing a peculiar kind of dark-colored Chinese vinegar was passed round, and every guest poured about half a gill of it into a small saucer beside his plate.
"What is the vinegar for?" I asked Mr. Lúshnikof.
"To dip your food in," he replied. "The Chinese in Maimáchin eat almost everything with vinegar. It is n't bad."
As I had not the faintest idea what was coming in the shape of food, I reserved my judgment as to the expediency of using vinegar, and maintained an attitude of expectancy. In a few moments the first course was brought in. I will not undertake to say positively what it was, but I find it described in my note-book as "a prickly seaweed or sea- plant of some kind, resembling stiff moss." It had presum-
