Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 71 (Color Image)

0071	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. ri.] COSSACK HOSPITALITY. 47

stores for a Russian colonel seems to be his

own quarter-master and storekeeper and all

about the room were piles of saddlery, racks of

arms, and heaps of miscellaneous articles of

Cossack equipment.

We had some light refreshment, and then

the colonel took us round to see the barracks.

Here the Cossacks were still hard at work,

completing the building before winter set in.

They were hard, strong-looking men, fair in

complexion, with cheery good-natured faces ;

and there was about them a workmanlike air,

which gave one the idea that they could and

would turn their hands to anything. An

English soldier is perfectly right when he has

shaken down on active service, but in barracks

he produces the impression that his dress is his

main interest in life. A Cossack, on the other

hand, wherever one meets him, looks as if he

were ready to buckle to and fight there and

then ; and certainly dress or appearance is the

last thing in the world he would trouble his

head about. The barracks they had just con-

structed were rough but clean, and about as

good as those of our native troops in India.

They were inferior to those of the Chinese

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