When seen in his village home, it is impossible not to admire the hard-working, intelligent, patient, gentle, and sympathetic muzhik, in spite of all his faults.  We made acquaintance with some of his democratic manners during a truly unique picnic, arranged by our charming hosts expressly to convince us that the famous sterlet merited its reputation.  We had tried it in first-class hotels and at their own table, as well as at other private tables, and we maintained that it was merely a sweet, fine-grained, insipid fish.

“Wait until we show you zhiryokha [sterlet grilled in its own fat] and ukha [soup] as prepared by the fishermen of the Volga.  The Petersburg and Moscow people cannot even tell you the meaning of the word ‘zhiryokha’” was the reply.  “As for the famous ‘amber’ soup, you have seen that even Osip’s efforts do not deserve the epithet.”

Accordingly, we assembled one morning at seven o’clock, to the sound of the hunting-horn, to set out for a point on the Volga twelve miles distant.  We found Milton, the Milliner, and the whole litter of officials in possession of the carriage, and the coachman’s dignity relaxed into a grin at their antics, evoked by a suspicion that we were going hunting.  Our vehicle, on this occasion, as on all our expeditions to field and forest, was a stoutly built, springless carriage, called a lineika, or little line, which is better adapted than any other to country roads, and is much used.  In Kazan, by some curious confusion of ideas, it is called a “guitar.”  Another nickname for it is “the lieutenant’s coach,” which was bestowed upon it by the Emperor Nicholas.  The Tzar came to visit one of the Volga provinces, and found a lineika awaiting him at the landing, for the reason that nothing more elegant, and with springs, could scale the ascent to the town, over the rough roads.  The landed proprietors of that government were noted for their dislike for the service of the state, which led them to shirk it, regardless of the dignity and titles to be thus acquired.  They were in the habit of retiring to their beloved country homes when they had attained the lowest permissible rung of that wonderful Jacob’s ladder leading to the heaven of officialdom, established by Peter the Great, and dubbed the Table of Ranks.  This grade was lieutenant in the army or navy, and the corresponding counselor in the civil service.  The story runs that Nicholas stretched himself out at full length on it for a moment, and gave it its name.  Naturally, such men accepted the Emperor’s jest as a compliment, and perpetuated its memory.

This style of carriage, which I have already described in my account of our visit to Count Tolstoy, is a development of the Russian racing-gig, which is also used for rough driving in the country, by landed proprietors.  In the latter case it is merely a short board, bare or upholstered, on which the occupant sits astride, with his feet resting on the forward axle.  Old engravings represent this uncomfortable model as the public carriage of St. Petersburg at the close of the last century.