u* ShelfX)-^_U UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 362 tl)f "Sai^c 3[uti)or. ♦ THE LIFE AND TIMES Sir Philip Sidney. A Memorial of one whose name is a Syttoftym for every Manly Virtue. By Mrs. S. M. Henry Davis. Illustrated with Three Steel Plates : Portrait of Sidney ; View of Penshurst Castle ; Fac-Simile of Sidney's Manuscript. i2mo. Cloth, bevelled, stamped in ink and gold with Sidney's Coat of Arms, $1.50. FORDS, HOWARD, & HULBERT, Publishers^ New York. Norway Nights ^ Rttssian Days, J '-'TOvffl:|ftt'££!^:: .Skjaeggedalsfos Frontispiece. Norway Nights ^ Russian Days. (1 / Ik/ BY ' ^W, sf^M. HENRY DAVIS, y AUTHOR OF "life AND TIMES OF SIR PHILIP SIDNEY." S[ cS '^•^^ VA^i-^ ,'-^' ' J ' liii} Numerous Sllustrati'onjBL Noywegiati Peasant. AUG .31 1887 NEW YORK: FORDS, HOWARD, & HULBERT. 1887. Copyright, in 1887, By S. M. Henry Davis. lor COlfOEESS llMSHINOTON V \i \»^ A ^0 / INSCRIBE THIS RECORD OF A PLEASANT SUMMER TOUR. CONTENTS. JVORIVAV NIGHTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. Setting Out, 17 II. Christianta, 28 III. The GUDI5RANSDAL, 53 IV. The Romsdal, 92 V. Trondhjem iiS VI. The Arctic Ocean 129 VII. Hammerfest, 155 VIII. North Cape and Midni(;ht Sun, . . . 162 IX. The Return Voyage, 171 X. Sw'EY.D^U {Par Parenthese) iSi XI. Yl^'LA^n {An P^pisode), 202 liCSSIAX DAYS. I. St. Petersburg 213 The Shops : The Cathedral : Palaces and Museums. II. Moscow, 262 The Streets : The Kremlin : The Kremlin — Palaces: The Kremlin — Churches : Russian Monastic Insti-. tulions • In General. ILLUSTRATIONS. NORWAY NIGHTS. PAGE Skjaeggedalsfos, Frontispiece Norse Viking Galley, i6 Ancient Church — Hitterdal, 38 Old Norwegian Silver Brooch, 40 Remains of Viking Ship — Showing Shields, ... 44 Remains of Viking Ship — Starboard, 48 Norwegian Kariol, 59 Peasant Woman — Holiday Dress, 68 Kitchen at Stueflatten, 89 Church in Gudbransdal, 97 Geiranger Fiord, 108 In Trondhjem Cathedral, 122 Apse of St. Olaf's Cathedral, 126 Laplander, 148 Lapp Wedding Ring, 150 Lapp Wo/nan and Baby, 153 Hammerfest, 159 Midnight Sun — North Cape, 166 Trollhatten Falls — Sweden, 186 Swedish Peasant and Baby, 191 Dalecarlian (Swedish) Costume, 199 1 4 ILL US TRA TIONS. RUSSIAN DAYS. PAGE A Russian Church, 212 Russian Coachman, 218 Cossack Officer, 225 The Neva — The Bridge — St. Isaac's, ..... 231 The Kremlin — Moscow 261 Russian Costume (Woman), 265 Russian Peasant . 267 Wine Seller in Moscow Market, 271 Game Vendor in Moscow Market, 275 Ivan Tower, Kremlin, 281 Spasski (Redeemer) Gate, Kremlin, 286 Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel, Kremlin, . 303 Church of St. Basil, 317 V hettre qui plait a voire Majeste, 325 NORWAY NIGHTS. NORWAY NIGHTS. CHAPTER I. SETTING OUT. " Thor had two ravens, Hugin and Mugin, who flew all over the world and brought him news from every quarter." T N (.lefiance of the conservative old adage, a party -'■ of three roUing stones started out to gather moss in Norway and its adjacent countries. Moreover, they did gather it : rich, vivid, aro- matic, health-giving to mind and body, joy in acquisition, a treasure in memory. The progress of the travellers developed har- mony of purpose, of disposition, and of taste ; and the tour was also singularly favored by the ele- NORWAY NIGHTS. ments and by circumstances : no cold, no heat ; timely showers, but not one day of rain ; no failure to meet trains or steamers ; the best rooms in the best hotels ; obliging landlords and civil attendants everywhere. They had wisely started earl}- in the season, before managers became excited and ser- vants overworked b}' the pressure of tourists, while rooms were fresh and visitors fair to behold. But yet more of their comfort was due to the gC)od and kindly nature of the Scandinavians Avhe)se territory they invaded. Anglo-Saxons of to-dav are paying back the incursions of the old Norse pirates a thousand years ago, but with bet- ter feeling on both sides. This pleasant journey of three women — neither *'lone" nor "lorn"' — began the first day of June, 1886. .There is a choice in the liquid paths to Norway. One is from Hull or Newcastle in England by the North Sea to Bergen ; another, in smoother waters, from Danish Copenhagen to SETTING OUT. 19 Christiania ; and a third line of steamers, swift and well appointed, has lately l)een built to sail from Aberdeen to the western coast of Norway, taking in the })rincipal places there, and also run- ning away up to the North Cape. It pleased us better, with perhaps an instinct of the kind embodietl in the proverb — Reculer pour micux sauier — to first turn southward. Thus^ after receiving a benediction in Cologne Cathedral, we glitled slowly up the river which is so vain of its castles and clamorous of its legends, to gay, complacent Frankfort ; thence, turning northward again, we paused at Cassel, which redeems its commonplace streets b}' its Auegarten, one of the most beautiful public parks in Germany, dignified by su))erb oaks and a winding river, — and which also boasts of an admirable picture-gallery, and of the castle and park of Wilhelmshohe where Napo- leon III. was a reluctant "guest" after his fatal defeat at Sedan. Another day we gave t(^ pros- 20 JVOJ^^AV NIGHTS. perous, pretty Hanover, and two or three to Hamburg, where we enjoyed its gay gardens, its charming Alster promenade, and its general air of success. It was on the menu of the Hamburger Hof that we were offered a sort of fritter with the unmeaning name of ' ' Armer Ritter, " and an arti- cle called " Lieder ohne Worte," which of course ought to have been a dish of skylarks, but was merely beefsteak with a mysterious sauce. Next in order on our chart was the railway, still northward, across the mnch-bequestioned Schleswig-Holstein to the little town of Kiel, which although not large is important, being the home-station of the princi- pal part of the German navy, that finds both refuge and anchorage in its deep fiord. From Kiel one goes by steam around the eastern islands of Den- mark nine or ten hours to Copenhagen. The shores of the fiord are pleasing, but not salient ; many islands dot the waters,. ^nd the vil- lages resemble toy hamlets with bright }'ellow SETTING OUT. 2 1 houses and red roofs. The steamer was severely clean, and gratuitously furnished minute guide- books in various languages, those in English being peculiarly eulogistic of "the view of the aspect of the sceneries. " Here we first heard the language of Denmark and Norway, rather blunt and unmusical, and with so slight analogy to any other that memory retains it with difficulty. A few nouns and phrases for travelling purposes are of course de- sirable, and well worth the trouble of acquiring. In fact, it is better to take a good deal of trouble rather than endure the humiliating sense of help- less idiocy in a foreign land. One is uncon- sciously apt to fancy that with the accents of a new language one must receive new ideas, as if the problems of thought might clear themselves through strange articulations — a delusion quickly dispelled when we find that such mystic syllables as "Ver saa god luk op doren og luk vinduet 2 2 MO/^fVAV NIGHTS. igjen"' convey no deeper meaning than '''■ Please shut the door and open the window." Copenhagen, as seen on the surface, did not appeal forcibly to our interest. The streets are broad, modern, and indistinctive. There are pretty drives — one especially around the harbor, where hundreds of masts with foreign and native flags are etched against the evening sky — and an in- dented coast studded with trees, well ' ' composed "' as a picture. On a wooded hill above is a sub- stantial, comfortable-looking Mariner's Home, a pleasing contrast to the wretched boarding-houses and drinking-caves, where those homeless sea-birds often find their only refuge. The old castle of Rosenberg standing in a fine park is curious as the residence of a long line of Danish kings, whose ugly portraits decorate the stuffy interior. One could readily believe that the handsome win- dows in old German style had never admitted fresh air since the last breath of the last of the %. SETTING OUT. "Christians" had feebly floated through them. The good-looking Hercules who conducted us through the rooms told us, in excellent and hu- morous English, several anecdotes of these de- funct royalties, and exhibited, with an interest that became contagious, their quaintly-embroidered satin coats and dresses, old jewel- and snuff-boxes, watches, gold goblets, silver andirons, and much more of that indescribable lumber which becomes either art-treasure or rubbish according to the taste of succeeding ages. Our cicerone's air of bonhomie and pleasant jests indicated a social grade quite above that of an ordinary guide; and the perplexing question whether or not to. offer him the customary fee nearly proved our disgrace. Fortunately he relieved onir unexpressed dilemma by indicating that the servant whom he had or- dered to bring us a branch of lilac-blossoms would not object to a gratuity. We afterwards learned that he was by no means the ordinary 24 NO J? WAV NIGHTS. showman, but the " Herr Direktor" of the palace, and inferred that it was probably for the mere pleasure of talking that he had played the part of Boswell to his dead lions. The principal object of interest in Copenhagen is Thorwaldsen's gallery, which occupies three stories in a large building erected for that pur- pose, and contains the original casts of nearly all his works. Although his sculptures are familiar objects all over Europe, and plaster copies are universal, only here does one realize the creative power and manual industry of the genial sculptor. The most interesting of his later productions is an unfinished life-size statue of himself leaning on a youthful figure of Hope. In this as in all por- traits of him there is an almost childlike sweet- ness of expression, as well as vivacious intelligence in his strongly-marked features. There are sev- eral lions in plaster and marble, but they give only a faint impression of the magnificent crea- SETTIXG OUT. 25 ture carved in the face of the rock at Lucerne, where, overshadowed b}- lofty trees, his gigantic body reflected in the water, but unapproachable to the profane touch of the curious, he lies dying, alone, in pathetic majesty. This temple of art is built around a court in the centre of which is the artist's grave ; utterly simple, in accordance with his directions : only an ivy-covered mound enclosed by low slabs of granite, with the name " Thorwaldsen" carved on one side, on another the dates of his birth and death — that single word his all-sufficient eulogy. When leaving Copenhagen we quite forgot that the sail to Elsinore would lead us to the alleged locality of Hamlet's grave, marked by a heap of stones ; but as that young hero's life is by latest researches supposed to antedate the Christian Era by two hundred years, one may be pardoned for not sacrificing on so mythical a shrine. 26 JVOJ^M^^AV NIGHTS. We embarked for Christiania on the fine Danish steamer Melchio?' ; but as it came from Stettin with full complement of passengers, we were un- able to obtain private sleeping-cabins, and it be- came a serious question whether we should not be obliged to sit up all night. Happily, the cap- tain's kindness, added to a slight knowledge of English and German, came to the rescue, and he ordered the large deck-saloon to be placed at our disposal after lo p.m. This was the first of a series of gratuitous courtesies which we received from the chief officers of ten different steamers in northern waters ; for which we hold them in grateful remembrance. Here was our first noticeable experience of a June sunrise in higher latitudes. Wakened at half-past two by the light glowing through uncur- tained windows, I stepped on deck to breathe the first freshness of that perfect day. The sky was scintillant with opaline hues ; the water, a SETTING OUT. 21 tremulous mass of jewels in the wake of the golden sun : and the beauty was even heightened by solitude, for not a creature was visible, save one red-capped sailor at the prow. CHAPTER II. CHRISTIANIA. % THE voyage to Christiania is made in about twenty hours, and during at least half that time the ship steers between verdant islands of various forms and sizes. The fiord that leads directly from the Baltic to Christiania is fifty miles long, including the Kattegat and Skagger Rack of childish amusement in foreign names, narrow- ing and widening between Denmark and Sweden, — a very picturesque arm of the sea, enlivened by sailing-boats and steamers, flecked with islands, and bounded by fertile, sometimes pine-clad, hills dotted with pleasant-looking villas. The new capital of Norway is unmarked by steeples or any salient architectural lines. As we neared the harbor, a little fleet of twenty sailing- CHRISTIAXIA. 29 vessels glided towards us, simulating, in the morn- ing mist that now partially obscured the sun, a procession of white robed and hooded Carmelite monks, in twos and threes, the smaller ones be- hind in pictural perspective, going out to morning prayer. The beauty of that June morning, and of the lovely panorama, might well inspire a Te Deum laudamus. Here we were at last, in the Norway of our dreams — very different dreams from those of the Orient, of Italy and Spain : a land of the grandly picturesque, dark and stern in most of its moods as were the anthropomorphic gods of its pagan days, and with a simple, honest, practical people who are the antipodes of Southern fire and Eastern guile. As the landing-plank was secured to the quay, a few porters and cabmen stood quietly wait- ing, some of whom came on board with grave salutations, and carried off on their stalwart shoul- # 30 A■0/^H^'AV NIGHTS. ders the boxes of a hundred or more equally tran- quil passengers. No one shrieked or pushed or lost temper, and yet the end was accomplishetl without these ordinary motors. The custom- house officers, with national trust in the probity of their fellow-beings, rherely asked for a declara- tion, without opening a trunk. We soon found ourselves in such attractive rooms at the Victoria Hotel that we said in our hearts, ' ' Let us abide here forever. '" It was not a "grand hotel," — happily we were not doomed in Norway to those mocking hostelries that are fain to pass themselves off as palaces, and to give you the minimum of comfort with the maximum of price,— but a serene ^z/(25-/-home, where one re- ceives the respectful tribute of his own name, and is not stigmatized as Number Twenty-nine. In our "ideal tour,"" as we fondly called it, we es- caped that obloquy everywhere. We breakfasted here in a veranda open on one side to a garden, '^^^fe CHRISTIAN! A. and profusely decorated on the others with polar- bear skins, eider - down rugs, reindeer and elk heads and antlers, a collection of antique silver ornaments, carved-wood trifles, eider-ducks and auks that looked alive but for their immobility, besides enticing photographs of waterfalls and mountains. The prettiest-mannered little thing in feathers hopped on the back of a chair close by our table, cocked his head on one side inquiringly, but without even the chirp of a petition : evi- dently a reconnoitring party sent out to scan the resources and disposition of the enemy ; for when an amicable volley of crumbs was projected to- wards him he flew away, but presently returned with half a dozen of his tiny brothers. The dining-room was a pretty pavilion in the garden, covered with striped red and white linen ; from the roof were suspended with friendly inter- national effect the flags of various countries ; a huge mass of sparkling ice rose like a glacier from 32 NO/^WAV NIGHTS. the centre of the table, around which gathered Danes, Swedes, Germans, one or two Frenchmen (who always look out of place when out of France), and Englishmen garrulous of prospective spoils in trout and reindeer haunts. Some years as^o Norway was an El Dorado of freedom for sportsmen, but several Englishmen have purchased or leased large estates of the best salmon-grounds (or waters), and the government now exacts a tax on public lands of two hundred to three hundred krone (or ten to fifteen pounds sterling) for the season. Salmon - fishing is not now to be ob- tained ; but other fishing is always at hand, and reindeer may be hunted if one will take a guide to their mountain haunts and accept the hardships involved in the pursuit of creatures so shv and keen-scented. Sleeping on straw in a leaky hut or under a snow-covered rock, with only milk and oat-cakes to live upon, certainly demands the noble incentive of "something to kilk" CHRISTIANIA. H Christiania, which replaced a much older town, was founded in 1624 by Christian IV. of Den- mark. It is built mostly of stone, the original city of wood having suffered from many confla- grations ; the streets are broad to avoid this dan- ger, and the houses low, generally only two stories. It cannot be called architecturally handsome, but has a few fine streets, the best of which contains the principal shops and has a lively aspect. At one end is the Storthing, or Parliament House, a more curious than happy combination of Ro- manesque and Renaissance styles outside, but very comfortable within. The other terminus is a pretty park which leads to a hill of moderate height, on which stands the very plain but sub- stantial royal palace. In front of this edifice is a statue of Bernadotte, first king of Sweden and Norway, on a pedestal carved with the words. " The people's love is my reward. W -O^ 34 NORWAY NIGHTS. ■ — a sentiment which during at least the early part of his reign was rather more theoretical than prac- tical ; for Norway, wrested from Denmark after a union of four hundred years by the haute politique of Russia and Sweden combined, was much more disposed to receive the parvenu monarch with cuffs than with kisses, and with pardonable patri- otism resisted all attempts to infringe upon its free Constitution. However, not to plunge unduly into history, Bernadotte, successful adventurer, soldier, and statesman as he was, had wisdom enough to make many popular concessions, and his successors have proved acceptable rulers. But it is evident even to a passing traveller that the old jealousies are not quite effaced between the united kingdoms. Norway clings proudly and fondly to the traditions and institutions of ' ' Gammle Norge"" — old Norway — and observes with considerable pride the anniversary of May 17, 1 8 14, when the mutual rights of king and CHRIS T/A XI A. 35 people were clearly defined and guaranteed by the allied powers. The government is more republi- can than monarchical ; there is no hereditary no- bility ; the two houses of Parliament combine much freedom with judicious checks upon each other ; a bill which has passed through both houses of three successive assemblies of parlia- ment ma\' become a law without the roval assent ; and there are reasonable property qualifications for the privilege of voting. The interior of the palace is utterly unpalatial, the only objects worth looking at being a few pictures by the most celebrated native artists, Tiderman and Ciude. The Queen's apartments are ver}- unpretending, but ha\e a happy air from the numerous photographs and portraits that cover walls and tables. We noticed a picture of a sheaf of oats hanging from a window in winter- time, and were told that it illustrated the prett\- custom of giving Christmas dinner to the birds. 36 JVOJ^lVAV NIGHTS. The broad balcony of the palace commands a charming view of the city, the neighboring hills dotted with villas, the bay flecked with white sails, and the graceful curves of the shore. The castle of Agershaus, six hundred years old, stands promi- nently on one of the hills, a fortress and also a prison. A story is told of an adroit criminal, the Robin Hood of Norway, who was long ago im- prisoned here in a room formed of thick iron bars. After having several times eluded the jailers (once by breaking into the inspector's room while that official was at church, dressing in his clothes and quietly walking out of the city), he was consigned to a deep dungeon underneath the strongest part of the fortress, whence escape seemed impossible. But like Love he laughed at bolts and bars, cut through the heavy planks of the flooring, and made an outlet under the walls. Not long after he robbed a bank of a large amount, so mysteri- ously as to leave no trace on either door or locks ; CHRIS TIAXIA . 3 7 and finally, on being again imprisoned, gave the last turn to his fate by hanging himself. A well-shaded drive up the hills brought us to the little summer palace called Oscar's Hall, which seems to have no raison d'etre except the view, the rooms being small and nearly bare. 0\\ the dining-room walls hang a set of paint- ings by Tiderman, depicting with great charm of color and form Norwegian peasant-life from in- fanc}- to old age. The favorite subjects of this popular artist were taken from his own people, and j)robably no one has given the world so faith- ful an idtia of their characteristics. On his crowded canvas is no indistinctness or confusion ; the grouping is artistic, and the varied and marked expressions of face an admirable study. A few steps from Oscar's Hall there stands on a grassy slope a very small wooden chapel, which is a most fantastic piece of architecture, and closely resembles a ver}- ancient one at Borgund, and an- 38 JVOJ^JVAV NIGHTS. Ancient Church. Other at Hitterdal near Bergen. The interior, which will not hold more than fifty people, has no windows, and light is admitted only from the CHRISTIANIA. 39 two doors ; a covered balcony runs all around the building, and a lofty indescribable roof surmounts it, ornamented with serpents twined together, and dragons' heads, more Chinese than European. In the other churches of the same sort are relics of pagan forms of worship. Nearly opposite this " Gammle Kirke" is a quaint old peasant-house containing furniture, kitchen utensils, beds, and the family Bible pre- cisely as they were left two hundred years ago ; and at that time the low-raftered ceiling, tiny win- dows, and painfully short beds in close alcoves or bunks were perhaps considered a ' ' grateful shel- ter. There is a flourishing small university in Chris- tiania, and an interesting museum, with a picture- gallery containing some good paintings by native artists, all of whom, however, study in Dusseldorf or Paris, as there is no school of art in Norwa\ . The ethnographical department illustrates the 40 NORWAY NIGHTS. household hfe of two centuries ago in carved fur- niture, quaint utensils, silver ornaments, spoons and cups. There is great skill exhibited in this work, especially in the filigree : in all the towns, Old Norwegian Brooch. and even in the villages, silversmiths are numerous. The antique spoons are awkward in shape, but the handles are often curiously wrought. In those made by the Laplanders, found farther north, CHRISTIAN/A. 41 small, finely-chased rings are inserted ; silver brooches and wedding-rings were similarly adorned, as well as by rows of gilded ornaments, like the bowl of a salt-spoon. Modern collectors have swept away the greater part of these interest- ing relics ; in a short time there will be scarcely an old spoon left outside of museums. Hitherto the peasants emigrating to America have often sold their silver heirlooms ; but they never part with them if they can help it. Among these curios is one group that brings a shudder — the girdle and knives used in the duel which pre- vailed among the lower classes until about sixty years ago. The combatants began by driving their knives into a piece of wood ; that portion of each blade not buried in the wood was bound around with strips of leather, leaving for use only the part which the wielder had been able to stab into the wood. The men were now placed close together face to face, the girdle around both, 42 JVO/^JVAV NIGHTS. securely buckled so that neither could release him- self; their knives were handed them, and they fought till one of them gave out. This coarse and horrible mode of settling a grievance was known as ''the duel of the girdle." It is said that as these duels were almost certain to be fatal to one or both parties, every man's wife used to carry a winding-sheet to banquets where quarrels were likely to arise from jealousy or intoxica- tion. In the picturesque market-place stands the old- est church, the interest of which is all on the out- side, looking down upon the vendors of domestic wares, scanty vegetables and fruits, the best of which at this season are the fragrant little • wild strawberries. Two or three days are quite sufficient for a good view of Christiania, including the near excursions, for its area contains only one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. A local guide-book, CHRISTIAN/A. 43 "printed at expenses of the author," contains some amusing specimens of EngHsh learned in Norway. He says, " In Oslo is the very old Oslo church situated. It is built in a very old style and is very old. " He mentions "several establishments for informations, destinated for boys and girls, together with many others establishments founded for more specially use." He proudly enumerates the "not quite inconsiderable" manufactories of Christiania, among which is a " fabric for pack of cards;" and says, "the streets are altogether well-pavemented and in the night lightened with gas." The Hotel Victoria "is undergone several new amendments after the present pretensions," and ' ' is put to the stranger's disposition for it exists no public restauration there." The stranger is advised to " accord with the coachman so as to escape later incommodations, " and invited to a "great plain which is used for exercising the sol- diers of every arms ; these march off from the city CHRIS TIA NTA . 45 in the morning and return in the evening ; no more notice of this "' ! The table of contents in- cludes ''atrip to the Madhouse," "a trip to the deafs and dumbs, " "the fire-stopping apparates, *' and other equally well-defined sights. The most interesting object to be seen in the city of Christiania is the celebrated Viking ship which was found buried at Gokstad, a little town, on the southern coast in a tumulus called the King's Mound, from the tradition that a king had been buried there with his valuables. But, as all the world now knows, the Vikings and the Sea-Kings were two distinct classes of Norse folk ; the latter being really of royal race, while the former were roving pirates who found refuge for their long rowing-galleys in the vicks, or creeks, of the coast. Probably in modern Ameri- can parlance we should call them Creekers ; still. Viking has a royal and romantic sound, and we will not give it up. Doubtless they were for- 46 NORWAY NIGHTS. midable in their time, whatever we may now call them. In 1880 the owners of the land excavated the vessel with its numerous appurtenances, archae- ologists hastened to see and speculate, fragments were carefully criticised, and finally the entire treasure-trove was transferred to Christiania, where a wooden building was erected for it. It is the largest and most complete ship in the world of so ancient date, — a. d. 900, — and had evidently been the private property of one of those Viking pirates who bore terror at his prow and conquest at his helm. " The eagle heads of all the North Have left their stormy strand ; The warriors of the world set forth To seek another land. Again their long keels sheer the wave, Their broad sails court the breeze ; Again the reckless and the brave Ride, lords of weltering seas." CHRJSTIANIA. 47 This curious craft was seventy-six feet long, six- teen feet wide amidships, had a lofty prow, a sin- gle mast with a square sail, and was clinker-built — that is, the lower edge of every plank overlaps the next below it like slates on the roof of a house. It contained the remains of three small boats even more remarkable than the vessel itself, as the only known specimen of so great antiquity. They are of unpainted oak, very sharp at each end, with a place for a mast, singular rowlocks for oars, and are most skilfully wrought, even the bottom-boards being adorned with graven circles. The ship was originally equipped with thirty-two shields, but only four now remain. Their disks were formed t>f thin white pine and a central boss, a cross-piece underneath serving as handle. Each shield was so arranged that its outer edge touched the boss of the preceding one ; and as they were painted yel- low and black, the whole range looked like a series of party-colored half-moons. They were probably. CHRISTIANIA. 49 from their thinness, indifferent defences, for the Sagas often speak of shields being cleft and ex- changed for new ones. Possibly they were de- signed more for ornament than for use. A very interesting object is the rudder, which is in perfect preservation on the starboard — originally the sleerboard, or steering — side, which here is on the ridit of the vessel. It was evidentlv a sort of movable blade or oar, not attached to the ship, but to a projecting beam of wood, and could be hauled on deck when the oars were used instead of sails. The ( )ne mast was also movable, and when erected was placed in a hole made in a beam at the bottom of the ship, and secured a few feet higher up by passing through another ori- fice in a heavy log of curious shape. There were no indications of seats for the rowers, who may have plied the oars in a standing position, in man- ner similar to that of Venetian gondoliers. Among the relics found with the ship are the 50 NORWAY NIGHTS. feathers of a peacock, no doubt a souvenir of for- eign voyages ; a bundle of yellow cloth with red stripes sewed on, clearly meant for a tent ; dark- gray woollen fragments of clothing, a long piece of silk interwoven with gold, carved wooden plates, cups, candlesticks, gilded and silvered strap-buckles and buttons, a large copper cal- dron, a remarkable axe, and even the landing- plank. Who knows but this plank may have up- held the feet of the adventurous Norsemen who sought new homes among the geysers of Iceland before pushing over to America, or who crushed heather and gorse in Scotland, or even of those who stepped from the Golden Horn to service in the Imperial Guard of the Sultan's palace ! * The funeral of a Viking chief was a barbaric * I give considerable space to the description of this old ship, because it was really the most characteristic and historically interesting thing to be seen in Norway. CHRIS TJA NIA . 5 1 ceremony. A slight excavation was made on the coast, into which his ship was lowered, the prow turned seaward. A sepulchral cabin was pre- pared in the centre, and the body, lying on a sledge, decked in state attire, ornaments and full panoply of arms, was then introduced, and the opening closed with layers of birch-bark ; all other personal possessions were laid in other parts of this gigantic coffin, which was packed to the top with moss and blue clay, which is said to be a peculiarly good preservative against deca}-. His horses and dogs were killed and placed against the sides, and finally earth piled over all in form *>f a lofty mound. This was done very near the shore, so that even after death the shadow of the sea-rover might frown upon his chosen ele- ment. Occasionally, however, the vessel and its owner were burned together to the water's edge. A tradition has come down concerning one of those dauntless warriors that when he felt the 52 JVOJ^lVAV NIGHTS. hand of death upon him he ordered his ship to be filled with combustible materials and ignited, the sail set seaward, and there, alone upon his funeral-pyre, the spray of ocean for his chrism, the winds his ministers, his unconquered spirit fled to the Walhalla of his faith. Even ships "may rise on stepping-stones of former selves. "' Perhaps a thousand years hence the skeleton of one of our ocean steamers may survive — ^a barbaric toy, when the now-anticipated glories of electric motors shall have had their day, and some more powerful agent may offer summer excursions straight to the Pole itself CHAPTER III. THE G U D B R A N S D A L. BEFORE leaving Christiania we planned our chart of travel with the aid of Mr. Bennett, an Englishman long resident there, who is a sort of Cook's Agency amplified and improved. He rents vehicles for posting, marks out routes in ac- cordance with the time and taste of the inquirer, furnishes guide-books, has a large assortment of antiquities for sale, and is withal so friendly and obliging that he is very popular. Our time was limited, for we had also Sweden and Russia be- fore us, and an engagement at Bayreuth at the end of two months. It has been well said that two of the requisities for a pleasant tour are "a little too little tin^e 54 NORWAY NIGHTS. and a little too much money. " The spur of ac- tion stimulates the brain ; the generous purse se- cures from care. The quantum sufficit in Scandi- navia is somewhat less than elsewhere on the Con- tinent, and is indicated in a general way in the guide-books. Mr. Bennett is especially service- able to ladies travelling without a courier, and they can very well dispense with one on ordinary routes if they will take the trouble to learn a little Norsk. A few lessons only are necessary for pro- nunciation, and Bennett's Phrase-book is more helpful than those books generally are, being more ingeniously arranged. If a guide is preferred, a man in Christiania named Aak may be highly recommended. Our route was to take us up the Mjosen lake, the largest in Norway, to Lilliehamar, thence across the Gudbransdal and the Romsdal valleys to Molde, including the Geiranger Fiord, to the west- ern coast ; from Molde to Trondhjem ; thence THE GUDBRANSDAL. 55 by Steamer to the North Cape. Much patient scrutiny of numerous guide-books had indicated this as a very satisfactory though not an exhaustive tour. For the latter at least one entire, diligent summer would be required, and even then much would be left out. A railway ride of two hours through a fertile country for that latitude brought us to Eidsvold, where we went on board the Kong Oscar, a dainty little steamer affording an upper deck and a good dinner, including the inevitable Lay or salmon. The simple-hearted old captain paid us frequent visits and expatiated on the beauties of the lake, which he had thoroughly learned in his experience of thirty years between its two princi- pal points. It is the largest in Norway, seventy miles long, and contains twenty species of fish, whose ancestors must have suffered terrible fright during the earthquake at Lisbon in 1755, when the waves suddenly rose twenty feet high and as 56 JVOI?WAV NIGHTS. suddenly retreated. The banks are pleasing, but have no salient features, until at the northern end the hills rise in height with evident emulation of their neighbors in the Gudbransdal region ; for- ests of birch and mountain ash grow to the water's edge, and pine and fir reach to their summits. All day we saw drifting down to Eidsvold rafts of pine logs felled in mountain forests, where they are shot singly down the Lougen (a tributary of the lake), over boulders and cataracts, as far as Lilliehamar ; there they are collected and bound together for a new itinerary. We stopped for the night at Lilliehamar, a pros- perous but not a pretty village in spite of its pretty name (Little Hill) and its commanding position above Lake Mjosen. Like nearly all Norwegian villages it consists mainly of one long straggling street of uninviting houses, in which are half a dozen shops that offer in the murky windows hats, buttons, colored handkerchiefs, faded photographs, THE GUDBRANSDAL. 57 and pebbly bonbons. However, it considers it- self a promising town and boasts of several mills, a "grammar school,"' and two or three rival inns. We went to the ambitiously-named Victoria, which overlooks the lake. Its bare floors and deficiency of toilet requisites suggested "roughing it, "' but through our emphatic gestures and our few invalu- able Xorse words the bewildered landladv con- trived to understand enough of our needs to make us comfortable. After our excellent sup- per of brook trout and wheat pancakes, or " y)ankagen,"' which are a specialty of Norway, the captain of tlie Koiig Oscar walked up from his boat to escort us to a neighboring waterfall which for the honor of his country he was fain to exhibit. A pleasant saunter through fragrant woods and wild-flowers led to a point where the turbulent little river Messna dashes and dances X over a heap of boulders in a very spirited manner. " Helvedeshol, " or "Caldron of Hell,"' seemed a 58 NORWAY NIGHTS. needlessly severe name for a rush of water that was merely in high (not evil) spirits. We declined an invitation to watch departing day with other guests on the terrace at eleven o'clock, and began to wonder whether anybody ever went to bed o' summer nights in Norway. Our first sweet sleep had scarcely begun when cocks and hens announced the sun again, and re- minded us that we had appointed an early hour for our first experiment in the national vehicles, cariole, stolkjserre, and trille. The kariol, or cariole, of Norway, unlike our carryall which its name sug- gests, is a unique vehicle — a species of gig with two wheels, for one person only. It is light and sim- ple in construction ; the long, elastic shafts are attached to the axle-tree ; the seat, placed well for- ward, rests by cross-pieces upon the shafts. The legs of the rider must be nearly horizontal and rest on stirrup-shaped irons, so that he is protected from all inconvenience and danger in descending 6o NORWAY NIGHTS. Steep hills or in case of the horse falling — a rare occurrence, as the animals are very sure-footed. Across the ends of the shafts, behind the seat, there is a board to hold a small trunk, and on that sits the boy who takes the horse back to his post-sta- tion. The harness has no traces, and the shafts are attached to a substitute for a collar by some simple arrangement, so that the little cream-col- ored ponies look as free as the coursers of Apollo, but much less frantic, for ladies and children can generally drive them with safety ; pretty creatures with long dark manes, and tails that often reach to the hoof. It is pleasant to see how kindly they are treated : a whip is almost an unknown ap- pendage ; encouraging words speed them forward, and they are stopped, not by pulling the reins, but by a peculiar prolonged Bur-r-i- ! Like everything else in Norway they move at rather moderate pace, except down hill, when they fly like a bicycle and gain impetus for the ascent THE GUDBRANSDAL. 6 1 beyond. It is a significant fact that only foreign- ers ever abuse them by hard driving, but it appears that our high civihzation must " get through" at any cost. Why even That should desire to hurry through picturesque Norway is past comprehen- sion. It is hard upon the poor farmers, who are obliged by the government to furnish horses to travellers in lieu of certain taxes and at fixed and rather low prices, and particularly disadvantageous on some of the by-roads, or "slow stations" as they are called, when in the harvest season the horses are urgently needed in the fields. Along the principal arteries of travel the farmers club together and establish regular "fast," or fixed, stations, where they always keep in reserve a suffi- cient number. Another vehicle, for two or three persons with a driver, is the trille, which cannot be praised for its "ample space and verge enough," but otherwise is comfortable — especially if one is for- 62 jyO/?WAV NIGHTS. tunate, as we were, to obtain a good one for our journey through the Gudbransdal. We started upon our novel journey from LiUiehamar early in the morning, — early by the clock, very late by the sun, — and a delightfully exciting departure it was. The landlord and land- lady, maids, hostlers, and post-boys assisted with the grave deliberation of the nation, and corded on our portmanteaus, bags, and bundles, previously subjected in Christiania to as stringent limitation as comfort would permit, and we were launched, a fearless, happy trio, upon our own resources and our diamond edition of Norse words, which en- larged itself a little day by day. The cariole was pronounced delightful ; the two in the trille found it satisfactory : and, to vary our experience, we sometimes exchanged places in the two vehicles. We entered at once the narrow valley of the Gudbransdal, which extends one hundred and X fifty miles ; and as far as Dombaas, at the end of THE GUDBRANSDAL. 63 our second day, the valley is rather level. The mountains on either side are nearly uniform, the lower slopes cultivated, the heights covered with pine forests. The Lougen or Laugen, which j y merely signifies The River, runs through the val- ley ; sometimes it pauses in smooth swirls which broaden to a lake, but oftener it forces its milky- blue waters into narrow channels and foams im- petuously over stones and boulders, gathers trib- ute from countless waterfalls in trickling sprays or dashing torrents, and sweeps down its generous flood hundreds of huge trees felled from the for- ests. At Fossegarden, seven miles from Lilliehamar, is the cataract called Hunerfos {/os means waierfall) that arrests the swim of the abundant lake trout, which consequently are here caught in large num- bers. We sometimes pass huge cairns of stones which indicate the farmers' trouble in preparing their land ; we obtain on some eminence an oc- 64 NORWAY NIGHTS. casional glimpse of the snow-capped Rondane Mountains, seven thousand feet high and tenanted by reindeer and foxes ; and all the way we see patches of snow lingering in crevices, for the I2th of June and the verdure around appeal to them in vain : many of them will hide in the peaks and under ledges of rock all through the summer. The air is sweet and gracious ; the fields are decked with pink roses, violets, aconite, yellow buttercups, and other spontaneous flowers. The flora of Norway is said to be very abundant for so northern a latitude. Sometimes a linnet in a bush confesses the joy of his heart, and "Sings each song thrice over, Lest you should think He never can recapture The first, fine, careless rapture." Hares flit along the brushwood, harassed by no- body ; pied crows, perched on barns or fences, THE GUDBRANSDAL. 65 speculate on our movements ; and now and then a magpie with audacious eye, a bird superstitiously venerated in Norway, tries to intercept our news. Peasants with red woollen caps, tassel hanging from the peak, and odd paniers on their backs, salute us with "Godmorgen. " Sunburned chil- dren, tidily dressed, lift their clear blue eyes, but never ask for alms. Triangular wooden snow- ploughs now and then are drawn up from the wayside, suggestive of past and future winter, which in all this summer sheen seems an unsea- sonable impossibility. Throughout our six days of posting we had nothing to say but praise^ — of men, women, and accommodations ; for this is one of the very best posting routes in the countr}'. It is easy enough to find discomforts if one wanders away from the well-beaten tracks. The stations, which are all farm-houses and bear the names of their owners, are from seven to ten miles apart. As we drive 66 JVO/^WAV NIGHTS. into the enclosure we address the first person we see with ' ' Godmorgen ; veer saa god, Heste" ("Good-morning; if you please, horses"). No one properly appreciative of Norwegian civility would think of omitting '' Veer saa god. " Travel- y^ lers who call out peremptorily, " Heste, strap/" ("Horses, quick!") are in disfavor among these quietly courteous people, who from the highest to the lowest never enter a shop or meet each other without raising their hats ; who invariably thank a host or hostess after a repast in the words "■ Tak for Maden' ("Thanks for the food"), and receive in reply a hearty " Velbekom- men" ("May it do you good'"), and who even express retrospective gratitude by the frequent phrase " Takfor sidsf' ("Thanks for the last time we met") ! When a vehicle overtakes another on a country road, the driver who desires to pass the other invariably asks permission, and apolo- gizes for so doing. THE GUDBRANSDAL. 67 While the farmer or his boys are changing horses at the stations and a new Skvds-gut, or post- boy, takes his place on each vehicle, we enter the sitting-room, a pleasant-mannered woman shows us ihe Dag-bog, or visitors' day-book, where we inscribe our names in obedience to required custom, also stating our destination and the number of horses we require. If there are just causes for complaint, travellers are requested to enter them ; but these are very rare, and tributes to the comforts afforded are numerous. In fact, the farmers themselves are much more likely to be displeased with the hard driving of their horses, and are permitted by act of Parliament, if the animals are injured, to de- mand an indemnity, on testimony of the post-boy, two other men being called in to confirm the claim of injury. Throughout this valley, which is the most com- fortable part of Norway for posting, the farm- houses are perfectly clean, the sitting-rooms cheer- 68 NORWAY NIGHTS. fill with pots of growing flowers ; heirlooms of carved or painted furniture are often seen ; views of the country and numerous family photographs deck the walls — the latter, it must be said, some- times ludicrously solemn. It is not a handsome race, this honest, kindly race of Norway, and the sun-artist has not learned how to idealize by ''touching up" their long, serious faces and irregular features. Al- ways we find a few books on shelves : like the Icelanders, the people are great readers Norwegian PEASANT. ^j^j.^^gj^ ^j^^ protracted win-. ters. Education is compulsory, and English is taught in the higher schools. The only university is in Christiania, and the higher classes often send their boys to England to be educated, and the girls to Paris or Germany for accomplishments. We found the beds comfortable as to linen and THE GUDBRANSDAL. 69 eider-down pillows and duvets for cool nights ; but they are decidedly Procrustean for long-limbed sleepers. The food, served on coarse white table-linen wo- ven by hand-looms in the family, is wholesome and palatable. Beef and mutton are scarcely known ; but fish, generally trout fresh from the river, veal, chickens, game, ptarmigan and wood-grouse, dried reindeer-tongues, — delicate and savory, — good coffee, milk, eggs, and certain excellent sweets form a menu that ought to satisfy any modern Lucullus. Of course one never finds them all at a single repast, fish and one kind of meat or bird being the rule. The bread is of several sorts — the coarse family rye bread, white bread for effeminate foreigners, often imported English biscuits, and in- variably the national Fladbrod, a round, very thin and crisp cake about the size of a large dinner- plate, stamped with tracery, and generally made of oat or rye meal. Great quantities are prepared / 70 NORWAY NIGHTS. at a time and stowed away in drawers and chests. Their tea is not the beverage that cheers, and those who cannot be happy without tea would better take their own supply. Pancakes form the usual sweet dish, and are so delicate that we soon learned to ask for them at every substantial meal. They are generally accompanied by stewed currants or rasp- berries and whipped cream. The butter is taste- ess and untempting, and there are no vegetables except potatoes and a species of sorrel. Necessa- rily the quality of the cooking varies ; we came across stations where the cordon bleu was decidedly a cordon vert. The prices are very low : never more than forty cents, American currency, for din- ner or supper ; twenty cents for morning coffee, eggs, and bread. We were usually served by the farmer's wife or daughter, who would speed us at parting with a kindly " Farvel /' or sometimes by a Pige, or young woman from a neighboring farm, — for there are no servants in the convention- THE GUDBRANSDAL. 7 I al sense — all are on a level among these country folk. Of course we added the usual douceur to our moderate bill ; but we heard afterwards that the independent Norwegians prefer a trifling gift in other shape, a gay-colored ribbon or a bright handkerchief, accompanied by a pleasant word — if one happens to know the word ! They always acknowledge a gift of any kind by a shake of the hand — a custom which, in the case of a cariole- boy for instance, one would prefer '' to honor in the breach," for the hand of that personage, though, like "the hand of Douglas, " unquestionably "his own,"' is not always immaculate. By a conver- sion of genders the cariole-boy is sometimes a girl. A little creature not more than nine years old was in two instances deputed to sit behind on the box and drive back the horse. No doubt it was safe ; for the roads are good at this season, and the animals are models of integrity. After Fossegarden, noticeable for its fine cata- C^^^V 72 JVOJ^JVAV NIGHTS, ract, the first station of interest was Kirkestuen, which boasts of a quaint little church containing some stiff Byzantine-like painted figures of Christ with angels, an almost solitary instance of such adornment in Norway. While we waited at the station to rest, a jolly old party, with great "breadth of beam" and a round face wreathed in smiles, stood still to be sketched, much to the de- light of his family. I have no doubt he was the landlord ; and, in compliment to the Byzantine angels, he took an attitude as nearly as possible like theirs, rigid, ascetic, with pendent arms and monumental legs, as ludicrous a combination as could be imagined. At the unpronounceably-named station of Skjaesggestad the dark red spire of another antique church is the only prominent object. We passed the first night at the Listad farm, and astonished the hostess by asking for a separate room for each of the party. Such lack of socia- THE GUDBRANSDAL. 73 bility she could not comprehend ; but as she had no other guests, our persuasions prevailed, and we were soon ensconced in three enormous rooms, with a balcony looking upon sweet green fields framed in forest-covered hills. The air was de- licious ; and supper, that important item to trav- ellers, made savory by the sauce of good appetite, was served in a room decorated with pots of ivy which stood in corners whence the vines were trained over the walls quite to the ceiling. Sleep seemed an impertinence in that long opalescent twilight, followed, not by night, but by the sun ; and until he rose gayly at two o'clock the scene was more fitting for Romeo and Juliet than was that pent-up balcony overhanging the noisome street in Verona. Just then the fair Capulet of our party found herself quite happy without a Montague, but " When enchantments afterwards befell " — 74 NO/^]VAV NIGHTS. However, let us avoid personalities and resume our carioles ! The second day offered more variety than the first. Again the Laugen hurries its course, and forms farther on two cataracts which bound over rocks and sprinkle the fern-clad cliffs. Near Storklevestad is a house partly built of timbers which formed the one in which was born St. Olaf, one of the fierce evangelist - kings of the tenth century, whose title to saintship rests upon his de- struction of the temples of Odin and Thor, and his propagation of the religion of peace by battle- axe and sword until his atrocities roused the whole country against him. " Norway never yet had seen One so beautiful of mien, One so royal in attire When in arms completely furnished. Harness gold-inlaid and burnished, Mantle like a fiame of fire. THE GUDBRANSDAL. 75 ' I command This land to be a Christian land ; And if you ask me to restore Your sacrifices, stained with gore. Then will I offer human sacrifices — Not slaves and peasants shall they be, But men of note and high degree.' " On and on runs the exhilarating river until it pauses to sleep in a small lake at Bredevaugen, )< but wakens again when reinforced by two torrents which are utilized to turn several saw-mills. These ordinarily uncouth structures do not mar the scenery in Norway, because the roofs are covered with green turf, and the pine logs lying about are harmonious with gray and yellow lichens. We now pass a very steep hill called Kringelen, which was the scene in 1 8 1 2 of the massacre of a number of Scotch troops under Colonel Sinclair, who had been despatched to assist Sweden in one X 76 JVO/?lVAV NIGHTS. of the numerous feuds between that country and its turbulent neighbor, Norway. In rashly at- tempting to pass through this valley to Sweden they were fatally surprised by about three hundred peasants, who hurled upon them from this hill an immense avalanche of rocks, stones, and roots of trees carefully collected for the purpose. A small monument and a tablet in the rock commemorate the disaster. The road now rises gradually ; the valley be- comes dreary and desolate ; there are no farm- houses for several miles through a desert of stones, sand, and debi-is from the mountains, whose only vegetation is stunted pines. The few laborers' cabins are roofed with birch-bark, covered with turf which is often prinked with bright flowers and occasionally affords footing for a small birch- tree. A little farther on we reach the Rusten Pass, a magnificent gorge wooded thickly with firs and birches. The mountains nearly ap- THE GUDBRANSDAL. 77 proach each other, the river forces its way through precipitous rocks of gneiss, the air is filled with spray of innumerable waterfalls from trick- ling threads to impetuous torrents, and the whole scene is wild and grand in the extreme. At the finest point of view we cross the ravine by a pic- turesque wooden bridge, about a hundred and fifty feet above the foaming waters. We pass a pretty church, in form of a Greek cross, entirely covered with slabs of dark slate, and then reach Toftmoen, which deserves mention as the abode of a de- scendant of Harald Haarfager (Harold of the Fair Hair), who in 872 conquered and fused into one the numerous small earldoms of Norway. He had offered his warlike heart to a haughty beauty named Gyda, who replied that she would never marry the chief of a few insignificant prov- inces ; only the throne of an absolute sovereign would tempt her. To hear was to obey. The im- petuous wooer registered a vow to Odin and all 78 NO J^ WAV NIGHTS. the other gods that he would neither comb nor cut his hair until he had fairly won his suit, which he did at the decisive battle of Halfursfiord. The ambitious lady kept her promise, but history does not report whether she found herself happy in sharing her matrimonial honors with eight other wives, according to the custom of the period. Harald Haarfager's crown was by no means a comfortable ornament, for the dissatisfied prov- inces gave him endless trouble by their internal feuds ; but the Viking chiefs emigrated in large numbers, visited the entire sea-coast of Europe, made permanent homes in Scotland, Ireland, and Iceland, and even drifted to the shores of America. It was in the reign of this ancestor of Herr Toftmoen that the Viking ship previously mentioned was buried at Godstad. The lonely farm-house where we paused gives no external in- dication of royal lineage ; but the owner is consid- ered passing rich, and keeps four hundred horses, THE GUDBRANSDAL. 79 two hundred sheep, and fifty goats in his stables all the winter. When King Carl. XIII. stopped at this station V to dine in i860, on his way to Trondhjem to be crowned, the uncle of the present landlord sent word to his Majesty that it was unnecessary to unpack his travelling-case of silver, as there was quite enough in the house for the entire suite of forty persons ; and when the dinner was served, this descendant of the Haarfager asserted his royal rank by dining also at the side of the king. The family pride runs in the blood still, though they are simple folk enough. One of them showed us some of their antique relics, which are used even now on proper occasions — a high silver wedding- crown, decked with colored stones but not jewels, which had rested on many a fair head in genera- tions long past ; silver chains, brooches, rings, and a girdle worn on the same occasions, some of which we wickedly coveted, as curios. 8o NO J? WAV NIGHTS. One of the sitting-rooms in this ancient house was dazzUng to behold : a bright blue dado half-way up, and the remainder, together with the rafters, bright pale-yellow ! The pantries and closets were exhibited with housewifely pride, as well as an enormous key with most complicated wards which hung in the entrance-hall, souvenir of a past habitation. The boys of ten and twelve years who drove us to the next station were sons and heirs to this primitive wealth — frank, good- humored little chaps who amused themselves and us by repeating a few English words which seemed to them intensely funny. Their laughter was contagious, and we arrived in merry mood at 1 1 o'clock at Dombaas, our station for the night. Eleven o'clock — only the edge of the evening in these high twilight-latitudes ! We met two gentlemen just sallying out for a walk ; cocks and hens were picking up vesper crumbs, and the house-dogs on hospitable qui vive like the THE GUDBRANSDAL. 8 1 master and the maids. And yet by four or five the next morning all the household would be astir. We often asked, "Do you never sleep in summer.?" "O, yes, but we sleep in winter," — implying that the brief, beautiful summer was for siesta merely. Any artificial light is of course out of the question, and we rarely even saw a candle in the bedrooms. As the windows have usually only white muslin shades, the full blaze of the sun, two or three hours after going to bed, in a room where his evening reflections still lingered, was more poetic than pleasing, and we were often compelled to darken the windows with shawls and rugs. We had ascended from Toftmoen over great stony barren plains to the plateau, two thousand feet above the sea, on which stands the farm-house of Herr Dombaas, externally bare and without ornament of trees, but within doors the most at- 82 NORV/AY NIGHTS. tractive of all the Norway stations. The intelli- gent and obliging landlord greeted us at the door in excellent English, which was a joy to our ears after two days of unmitigated Norsk. The en- trance-hall was hung with white bear-skins and the pretty white fox-skins, the expressive heads undetached ; while above stretched the arms of fine branching antlers. The sitting-room had a very homelike aspect, with readable books and comfortable sofas. The air was pure and brac- ing, and we were very glad to repose in this pleasant place for two nights. Herr Dombaas owns one of the best Scsters, or mountain dairies, in Norway. In these saeters one may see life reduced to its primitive elements. They are rude log-cabins with the usual tiny roof, on mountain plateaux, sometimes three thousand feet high, to which in summer the farmers send two or three of their daughters with the cows and goats. The large room serves as sitting-room, THE GUDBRANSDAL. 83 bedroom, and kitchen. Those remaining form the dairy — all very clean, and the floors strewn, as they are in some parts of the farm-houses, with sweet-scented fir-branches. A writer in the Lon- don Graphic says: "There are two beds, and a belated traveller is always welcome to one of them ; for while purer-minded maidens do not exist than these mountain-lassies, there is no false modesty about them, nor have we ever heard of their hos- pitality being abused. No sooner does a traveller set foot inside of the door than one of them ap- pears with a huge bowl of milk, of which it would be the greatest possible rudeness to refuse to par- take. Of tips they are delightfully ignorant, but they thoroughly appreciate the gift of a bright- colored handkerchief or of a packet of English needles. " But while the life on these lonely mountains de- velops great simplicity and integrity of character, it is not surprising that traditions of the gnomes 84 NORWAY NIGHTS. who once mixed their weird loves and hates with the impulses of humanity should still cast shadows of superstition upon these primitive abodes ; and we must be lenient to the fear of the saeter-maid, who when her swain comes up for his Sunday visit hopes he will not be ensnared on the way by the Huldr, a tall fair woman in yellow bodice and blue skirt, with golden hair flowing over her shoulders, who sits on a rock, sewing or knitting, for the malign purpose of stealing men's hearts from their lawful owners. Fortunately, the inces- sant toil of the dairy leaves little time for fancies ; the milk of sheep, goats, and cows requires much persuasion before it consents to assume its various names. The ' ' gamle Ost, " or old cheese, as one quahty becomes in course of time, might well be omitted from the catalogue according to An- glo-Saxon ideas, for it salutes the olfactories in the same overpowering way as the notorious Lim- burger, and must be brought to the table in a THE GUDBRANSDAL. 85 covered glass dish, which is as carefully opened as a bottle with a live reptile in. The necessity for rest and letter-writing de- prived us one day of a promised excursion on the Dovre Fjeld, the most famous of the mountain- ranges, and the one which separates Southern from Northern Norway. There are no well-de- fined chains as in Switzerland, and therefore no "passes," in the Swiss sense, but vast elevated pla- teaux, from which rise mountain-peaks some- times to the height of eight thousand feet, and occasionally too precipitous for the snow to lie upon them. Above the range of the forests these plateaux are covered with stones and boulders dis- integrated by frost. Of the Dovre Fjeld, Baedeker says : "A great part of the route traverses lofty, bleak, and treeless solitudes, rock-strewn tracts, swamps, gloomy lakes, and blackened masses of snow. The solemn grandeur of the scene, how- ever, has a peculiar weird attraction of its own, S6 NORWAY NIGHTS. and the pure air is remarkably healthful and ex- hilarating." There is compensation even in these desolate wastes to sportsmen, geologists, and bot- anists. Another writer speaks of the abundance and variety of mosses and lichens clothing the rocks with rich colors, and adds that after one passes the crest of the Fjeld and descends to the station of Kongsvold one finds it filled with Scan- dinavian botanists, who are attracted by the great variety of Alpine flora. He says : " It is comical to see detachments of professors and students sallying forth in the early morning with their gayly- colored tin cases slung around them. In the afternoon they return laden with floral treasures which they spread before the house on masses of blotting-paper, kept from flying away by large stones. Many, nay, most of these good people can speak a little English, and when once the natural reserve or shyness so characteristic of the Norwegian is broken through, pleasanter or more THE GUDBRANSDAL. 87 entertaining companions could scarcely be found, ' We would gladly have looked upon the stern heights which frown over the lovely valley we had just passed, for everything in nature responds 10 some experience or some imagination of many-sided humanity ; but as we had permitted ourselves the liberty of choice only, not of com- bination, this excursion was projected into some shadowy by-and-by, and we turned our horses' heads towards the more than compensating valley of the Romsdal. By the calendar that morning it was the 15th of June : by the wind that blew down from the snows of the Dovre Fjeld it was the 15th of De- cember ; and the numerous warm wraps packed for use in the Arctic Circle were all put in requisi- tion. In fact, we never again found them so es- sential. But as we gradually descended,, the cold winds remained above, the mercury rose to its sea- sonable altitude, and the air was most exhilarating. 88 NORWAY NIGHTS. One must be prepared in Norway even more than in Switzerland for heat in the valleys and winter cold on the heights ; but our experience found the temperature usually very equable. The day's drive was delightful, but not especially picturesque ; the Romsdal was still beyond sight, but we learned that for fishermen and huntsmen this region is a paradise. All the way from Lilliehamar the guide- books indicate detours for these healthful amuse- ments and for mountain excursions. We had left the Lougen several miles behind, and as we neared Stueflatten, our station for the night, the road skirts the Rauma, which just presents itself in a narrow, precipitous ravine through which it tum- bles in roaring haste. The solitary farm-house stands at the head of the gorge, and enjoys oppor- tunities to ''muse o'er flood and fell" that must be maddening when enforced the year round. It may have been this which had petrified the pretty girl who served our supper into a statue of sad 90 JVOJ^lVAV NIGHTS. silence ; not a muscle of her face moved in re- sponse to our admiration of the pale-yellow carna- tions in the window, or of the perfection of the "pankagen." I peeped into the quaint kitchen and asked permission to sketch the characteristic chimney. The whole household inspected as the work went on, and suggested snndry additions behind the foreground and beyond the linear perspective which if followed out would have compelled me to tear down a wall and make the drawing from the outside. After the road leaves Stueflatten it descends by a series of rapid zigzags, and within a distance of seven miles there is a marvellous succession of beautiful waterfalls, some of them tumbling be- tween perpendicular walls of basalt rocks until they culminate in the grand Slettefos. Here we alighted and crossed the river over a bridge of pine-logs to a ledge below the overhanging rocks, where the roar is loudly reverberated. "Flood THE GUDBRANSDAL. 9 1 upon flood hurries on, never ending,'" of waters lashed into foam between black ledges from w^hich fronds of fern and slender trees sway and quiver in the sweep of the cataract. As we stood there, a tiny hand holding a bunch of wild-flowers was suddenly held before us — only a hand and nothing more, till we turned and saw an elfin creature not more than six years old, w^ho had scrambled down from a grassy knoll among the trees. Imagine a life bounded by the cabin above and the torrent below! But we must pursue our road. Again and again, fringes of silvery threads all adown the stately hills! The rushing river sometimes pauses to take breath, sometimes concentrates its foam- ing w^aters for mad leaps over stones and bould- ers ; the mountains on either side approach, again thev recede, once more the\- narrow the path, as if petrified in some rhythmic measure, and here at last we are in the vallev of CHAPTER IV. THE ROMSDAL. A LAS ! already bankrupt in adjectives, my nouns and verbs tattered and torn with con- stant use, and the ' ' courteous reader" yawning over the debris, I am sorely tempted to treat this new claimant in the happy manner of ' ' The Snakes of ')>< Jreland '"' — There is no Romsdal valley in Norway ! Yet I do indeed remember a panoramic dream of lofty pinnacles and serrated crags, four thousand to seven thousand feet high, fitly called the Witches' Peaks, baptized by waterfalls galore, foaming cataracts, and veils of finest spray which sparkle through dark pines and firs till they meet the river rushing through the curves of its rocky bed, mountains on either side closing the path at intervals as in a cul-de-sac ; and at last the Roms- THE ROMSDAL. 93 dalshorn, with sharply shattered summit, overtops and sentinels them all at the end of the valley. Then the mountains recede on either side ; a broad green meadow flecked with purple violets sweeps towards the Romsdal fiord, and the Rauina, now transformed into the most peaceful of streams, glides towards the same goal. At one point in this plain stands a large white house, formerly a hotel, but now the summer resi- dence of an English gentleman. We afterwards met on a steamer several of his relatives who were invited there to pass the summer, making alto- gether a party of fourteen enviable people. The road westward from this point runs through a charming park-like expanse supposed to be the covered and clothed remains of an old glacier mo- raine. The Romsdal fiord opens before us ; the quaint village of Verblungnaes nestles upon it under the brow of a mountain. We preferred the station of Naes, as it commands a better view of 94 NO J^ WAV NIGHTS. the Romsdal range, and has the advantage of a new hotel in freer air. At ten o'clock at night we walked out to gather lilies of the valley, which grew in profusion thereabouts. The TroUtinderne, or "Witches' Peaks," uplifted fingers of fire to- wards the blue serene ; the Romsdalshorn, and yet loftier crests of the Vengetinder, glowed in crim- son with deep purple shadows ; and the plaintive iteration of the cuckoo made the best of his lim- ited minor thirds — a bird mcoDipris, who is al- ways moaning that the ideals of his heart are de- nied the expression of the gifted tenors and so- pranos whose music " Bubbles, ripples up the dome In sprays of silvery trilling ; Like endless fountain's lyric foam, Still falling, still refilling." The next day two of us drove back over a ^art of the Romsdal, to renew and deepen its impres- THE ROMSDAL. 95 sion. We walked in search of the finest points ; we gazed, analyzed, compared, and then decided that we could fiot decide. Artists come there with canvas and colors, but the rich embarrassm..nt mocks their selection. The next morning, with Norwegian leisureliness, at seven o'clock we started on the steamer for Vest- naes, whence we were to post to Soholt. The fiord at first entrance looked like an inland lake, and the mountains around and behind gleamed in the morning sun with distinct individuality of form. The steamers on all these fiords not only cross and recross to opposite sides, but they also run into all the little tributaries where a hamlet or post-station exists, thus traversing a great deal of space and aff"ording a good opportunity to scan the people. One sees many pretty hamlets nearly always under watch and ward of a white church on the hillside, and a cascade or two of more or less pretension. The steamer landed us at a 96 NORWAY NIGHTS. grassy slope whence a shaded path led to the post- station, and our impedimenta followed after a long interval, under conduct of the only positively stupid boy we encountered in the journey. At once we became the cynosure of a hundred eyes much enlarged for the occasion, belonging to a troop of Sunday-dressed boys and girls who were to be confirmed, though it was not Sunday, in the church near by. They crowded round us while we engaged vehicles for Soholt, the next station, but preserved a civil immobility of feature when our Norsk gave out disgracefully in certain unex- pected exigencies. We obtained a cariole, but no trille was to be seen among the dozen dilapidated, unpainted, and extraordinary carts that were scat- tered about the premises ; for in Norway there are no sheds for vehicles outside of cities. So we were fain to put up with the novelty of a Stoelk- jcBrre, a heavy springless cart seating two persons and a post-boy behind them. There was doubt Church in Gldbraxsdal. 98 NORWAY NIGHTS. about our obtaining even that, until there came to ■ the rescue the sister of the station-master, a very conscious and smihng beauty, who must have been the belle of the neighborhood, for she was not only pretty, but well endowed in other ways. She had learned ' ' a few English " at .school in Molde, and not a few exotic graces. Like the descendants of Harald Haarfager, the family are pecuniarily independent and not over- pleased to be subsidized by the government to en- tertain strangers. It is to be feared that at some future time all this part of Norway may be ruined by railways — and then, farewell forever to its charm of simplicity and freshness. Already evil spirits are suggesting one from Lilliehamar to the western coast through the Gudbransdal and Romsdal valleys ; and the only salvation from such a calamity lies in the fact that the foreign travel is limited to about three months of the year, and the commercial gain would be too trifling to com- THE ROMSDAL. 99 pensate the expense. Those who desire to see Norway before the army of summer locusts have devoured every green leaf of its honest forest-life would better go there as soon as may be, leaving behind all superfluity of dress and impatience of speech and manner. In truth, no one ought to visit it who does not worship nature more than fashion ; those who care only to roll from a Pull- man car into a liveried hotel, to run through pic- ture-galleries and buy diamonds, '■ to lord it o'er their fellow-men With most prevailing tinsel " — \vill find no other welcome than " Procu/, procjil , profani !"' Our first trial of the springless stoelkjaerre was happily our last. It was not a flowery bed of ease ; the horse crept when the road was level, but dashed up hill and down hill with a \ igor that lOO JVOJ^tVAV NIGHTS. left no doubt either of his own good intentions or of the consequences to ourselves. The happy in- dividual in the cariole was not disturbed, but the tenants of the stoelkjaerre have never solved the problem which was the largest factor in that drive, the misery or the mirth. Very shortly after our first starting we passed a church with sloping, red-tiled roof where the boys and girls we encountered at the station were now receiving the rite of confirmation. This cere- money is compulsory and marks an important era in life, for no one can be married or obtain a situation in a factory or office before passing through it. The newspapers advertise for a "con- firmed young man as clerk,"' or "a confirmed young woman as seamstress," etc. This is not a purely ecclesiastical observance as would be sup- posed, for it is preceded by at least six weeks' ear- nest instruction by the parish clergyman and his assistant, not only in theology but in many useful THE ROMSDAL. lOI practical branches : examinations follow which must be satisfactory, or the pupil is remanded for another course. Confirmation is therefore a testi- monial of a certain degree of knowledge and of good character. Both boys and girls are then supposed to be prepared for the duties of life. The religion is Lutheran, from which there is no dissent ; it is partly under government control, at least so far as church property is concerned, for bishops and priests are maintained by funded rev- enues, and their widows and children provided for by a special appropriation. It is said that the Norwegians have great reverence and affection for their church, and that the clergy are remarkably intelligent and influential men. Some of them are members of Parliament, but not ex officio— merely as laymen. Our road for several miles lay through smooth green plains, bright with wild-flowers, through which ran a little arm of the fiord that reflected I02 NOJ^W.-lV NIGHTS. the log-cabins of the owners of the land ; then a gay little torrent marked the way to a narrow val- ley, which gradually ascended to bare and treeless mountains. We changed horses at the only really y poor station we had seen, Ellengsgaard, a mere peasant's dwelling, dirty and displeasing. Hap- pily we could dispense with food, and gladly pushed onward through a very dreary region for three hours, until we made an abrupt descent into a sheltered valley where smiling vegetation, pleas- ant farms, and the blue Stor fiord indicated our arrival at Soholt, a cluster, or rather a street, of white and red houses that follows the shore and offers all essential comforts to tourists in the new and clean Alexandra hotel. Supper and sleep were very welcome that night after the early morn- ing boat, the jolting stoelkjgerre and the too-gen- erous warmth of the sun. The landlord of the hostelry, named Ramussen, talks English fluently, for he w^as a laborer six or seven years on an Illi- THE ROMSDAL. 1 03 nois farm, returned with his savings to " Gamle Norge," built his inn, and then " they were mar- ried;" and we hope they will ''live happilv ever after," for he is a good-hearted, honest son of the soil who deserves to prosper. \\^e were sympa- thetic with his pride in his new belongings, in his store of household linen, and the new mattresses ; and when he asked us whether it was better to leave the unpainted pine walls of some of the chambers as they were or to paper them, we of course voted against the paper. The steamer, fettered by no horological laws, was nearly two hours late the next morning. After preliminary study of guide-books, gathering of wild-flowers, and much discursive chat, we were fain to betake ourselves to the one shop of the vil- lage to lay in a small stock of the national pipes made of some dark polished wood, and soon found ourselves the target of many feminine eyes, which took in all the details of our dresses, and. I04 NORWAY NIGHTS. aided by fingers, even remarked with signal ap- proval the confidential embroideries beneath. At last the tardy steamer, with little to do and a great deal of time to do it in, pufi"ed around the promontory, and we were soon ensconced for the next ten hours in a favorable position for studying the fiord and its confluents. The views were very varied, of green meadows with background of mountains traversed by the inevitable waterfalls, uplying farms, tiny red hamlets on the shore, quaint-looking people, and fishermen in quiet nooks, with their log-houses perched on ledges of the cliffs. We crossed and recrossed continually, taking on and putting off" cargo, and parties of peasants who were a study in manners and dress. There are no very distinctive costumes here as in some other parts of Norway ; the men wear very loose, one might almost say flowing, coats, short waistcoats, gay neckties, and high felt hats when in ''full dress" — ordinarily they dispense with a THE ROMSDAL. 1 05 coat ; the women wear short daiis. w^oollen skirts, white bodies, bright or white handkerchiefs on their heads, and silver brooches and chains of an- tique make. A large wedding-party came on board in this attire and with an air of solemnity that included even the violinist, who appeared much more ready for an epitaph than an epithala- mium. The bride was not of the number ; and the groom, a stalwart young fellow in brown coat and scarlet cravat, soon found himself unequal to the embarrassing occasion and shyly retired out of sight. When the landing-point was reached he reappeared, full of care for certain barrels which he and his ' ' best man" rolled on shore, contain- ing, we were told, supplies for the wedding- feast, beer, fladbrod, cheese, and sweet cakes. Several quiet cheers and exclamations of '"God Held/" ("Good luck !") saluted their departure; and we waved our handkerchiefs, wishing that we had an invitation to the ceremony. The party was to pro- Io6 NORWAY NIGHTS. ceed to the home of the bride, two or three miles distant, and the festivities, lasting three days, would begin on their arrival. The marriage takes place at the church al\va}s on Sunday ; each guest brings a present, and the bride wears the silver girdle and frontlet and the high silver crown which in- vests every Norwegian girl with queenly honors for one day in her life, and then these ornaments are laid away until another bride comes to claim them. Another party landed to attend a pro- tracted religious meeting in which fasting was not a feature, as they also were furnished with barrels of provisions. The trunks and boxes that came and went were curiosities for a museum. They were usually painted in bright colors, such as a dark-blue ground with red and yellow flowers, to which the dates were added : we noticed one dated 1782, and another still fit for service revealed a world of domestic contentment in the figures 1689! THE ROMSDAL. 107 As we proceeded down the Nord fiord the mountains became higher and more imposing, until the steamer turned almost at right angles into that superb water-defile, the Geiranger fiord, which one writer pronounces the " culmination of all the fiords of that region, its only rival in Nor- way, perhaps in the world, being the Nero fiord, '^ which it resembles. ' Its dark, unmeasured depths are walled by rocky cliflis, often perpendicular, which rise to the height of three thousand to four thousand feet. Countless light, gauzy waterfalls descend from their summits, often uniting in one roaring mass ; stunted firs and birches cling where- ever their roots can find support, and adventurous flowers sway from the crevices. Our liquid path is so narrow and the curves so abrupt that the steamer sometimes appears to be running sharply against the rocks, while the spray of the falls bathes it in a gentle shower. When winter reigns supreme, avalanches of snow and stones thunder VS L ,'^"?i^"^i :■ THE ROMSDAL. 109 down from these majestic bastions, whose tops are never touched by the sun, except for a brief hour or two at high noon. And yet in this awful soH- tude a few human beings Hve and move and pre- serve their being. We saw two cabins on differ- ent mountains, ahiiost overhanging the ledge like eagles' nests. The small grassy plateaux on which they stand are at least two thousand feet from the black flood below ; an apparently perpendicular path and a tiny boat forming the only means of communication with the world. A cow that grazes on the mountain-top, and perhaps a couple of goats, furnish milk. Goats and babies are teth- ered to the threshold or the rocks, but adults have occasionally by a fatal misstep been precipitated, " Low and lower, to their watery graves, With downward face and wide-spread hair!" When a death occurs in winter, the body is laid away in snow until the return of spring permits I r O NOR WA Y NIGH TS. interment in the nearest village cemetery. It is inconceivable that all the fulness of our generous planet should offer nothing but this perilous, des- olate scrap of earth to these poor families. They possess, to be sure, the rare boon of pure air and unadulterated food, such as it is, and would doubtless answer our fretful inquiry, " Is life worth living.?" from a standpoint very remote from ours; but we, from the plane below, recalled the remark of Theophile Gautier when visiting the Escorial: ' ' Whenever hereafter I find myself bored or un- happy, I shall be consoled in remembering that I mis:ht be at the Escorial and that I am not there. " o On the whole, for a short stay the hut on the Geiranger would seem to me preferable. Only an hour is required for the tr aver see of this unique defile ; the steamer stops half an hour at Merak, the village at the end, and the return through the fiord imprints every detail on the memory. There are many beautiful excursions THE ROMSDAL. I 1 1 from Merak ; in fact, the guide-books teem with alluring invitations to by-ways as well as high- ways all through the Scandinavian peninsula. Emerging from the Geiranger, the boat crossed to Hellesylt, the village where we intended to pass the night. We made our way up a rough, stony path to as primitive an inn as can w^ell be seen, to find it so crowded ("crowd " implying about two dozen people) that we gladly returned to the steamer, which the captain had previously warned us would be more comfortable. He received us with a friendly laugh and with Spanish hospitality : " I thought you would come back, ladies! Now the boat shall all be yours, to-night — only give me my cabin."' We were put in possession of the dining-saloon, with the small ladies' cabin for a dressing-room ; we had blankets and pillows ad libitum; and when six o'clock came the next morn- ing were still sleeping undisturbed by the hasty toilet, the bill, and the rush to the boat which 112 .VO/^tVAV NIGHTS. preluded the breakfast of our fellow-travellers. The weather was dull, and the wind fresh ; the steamer again crowded with peasants coming and going, and there was no first-class deck. Again the good captain came to our aid and gave us his own cabin, where with wraps and rugs we had a retrospect of the Nord fiord, increased in interest by his traditions of the rocks and stories of the people, recounted in fair English. The mate was equally entertaining, and very proud of his three visits to the United States. "O yes, "'he said in reply to some encouraging remark, "I like New York ; I lived in a fine street there^ — Pearl Street. You know Pearl Street .? And I have been to Chicago, too ; I was there when the great fire was. I want to go back again. O yes, if I live I shall see New York again before I die. " For the sake of our nationality he kept watch and ward over our audience-room, and banished the inquisitive boys and girls who peeped in at the THE ROMSDAL. II3 door as if we were the royal animals of a menag- erie ; and when we left the steamer on arriving at Aalesund on the western coast, our trifling gra- tuity, accompanied by the gift of a purse from the city of his admiration, brought tears to his eyes. Norwegians usually receive good impressions of our country from their emigrating compatriots ; many of the seamen and skippers have sailed to and from our shores, and have brought back a slight knowledge of the language and reminis- cences of wonderful fruits, grand buildings, gala spectacles, and a general gorgeousness, such as the palaces of Bagdad offered to the dazzled eyes of Aladdin. We had several unemployed hours to spare at Aalesund before the arrival of the steamer for Molde, our next halting-place, and we improved this interval by rambling about the town. Al- though a small place of only six or seven thou- sand inhabitants, it is one of the principal sea- 114 NOJ^lVAV NIGHTS. ports, and renowned for its good pilots, hardy fishermen, and codfishery. As Mark Twain said of Bermuda, "its pride and its joy, its gem and its jewel, is the Onion,'"' so of Aalesund its gem and its jewel is the Cod, whose mortal remains pervade the atmosphere with undeniable convic- tion. Italy and Spain are its final destination as a noun of multitude. When religious fast-days van- ish from that part of the world in the progress of ages, Aalesund will no longer find these so gen- erous marts for her codfish. Meanwhile Spain re- turns a more savory freight in excellent port-wine, which finds its way at moderate prices all over Nor- way. The town lies partly on the main-iand and partly on islands, thus affording to imaginative travellers a likeness to Venice. Two or three water-ways and bridges can never come together without the immediate exclamation "Venice !" as if prototype or semblance of the unique beauty of that peerless city ever yet existed anywhere ! Be- THE ROMSDAL. I 15 hind the town rises a huge diff from which the sunset shining on the sea, and the fringe of islands off the coast, would be the delight and the despair of an artist. The streets are neither quaint nor old, but there is one historical relic — the ancient castle of ' ' Hrolf Gangr, " or Rollo the Walker, so called because, on account of his great height and size, no Norwegian horse could carry him. He was the conqueror and founder of the duchy of Normandy, the progenitor of William the Con- queror, and of the same mould and spirit as that race of Normans and Norsemen united who sub- jugated Sicily and inwove the iron threads of Scandinavian energy into the golden tissue of Arabic and Greek refinement. The country around Aalesund teems with traditions of the Sea-Kings who from this favorite point set their square sails and lofty prows in search of far-off Pactolian streams. We started on our voyage for INIolde about Il6 NORWAY NIGHTS. eight in the evening, and arrived there at two in the morning, after spending nearly all the interval in chatting on the deck with chance acquaintances. These June* nights-which-are-not-nights seem to steal the pivot from the wheel of Time, and our watches formed the habit of incorrigible lying. One o'clock, they say — and a pink and primrose sky flatly contradicts ; two o'oclock — a rosier gold, and lo, the sun ! No chronometer in the world could stand such bouleversement. Molde is a clean, pretty town of two thou- sand inhabitants, and is more favored in cli- mate than most others in Norway, for it stands on the western coast, under the influence of the Gulf Stream, and is sheltered from north winds by a range of hills. Flowers both wild and cultivated grow in abundance — roses, anem- ones, honeysuckles, butterfly-orchids, and many others. It boasts attractive villas and gardens, and charming walks up the hills, whence stretches THE ROMS DAL. II7 an extensive panorama of the fiord with its many islands, and, beyond, snow-tipped moun- tains which recall the Bernese Alps as seen from the Schauzli. The new and excellent Grand Hotel, with its baths, balconies, and admirable cuisine, would have tempted us to many days' so- journ had not inexorable Fate waved in her hand our tickets, marked June 23, for the Capella, bound to the North Cape. No choice was left, and we embarked again at midnight on our sixth steamer. CHAPTER V. TRONDHJEM. THESE fiord steamers have a fashion of start- ing at such times as anywhere else would be objectionable ; but when the days are twenty- four hours long, one hour is as good as another. A few hours' sleep in comfortable cabins tided us kindly over the somewhat emotional open sea which sweeps around the coast, not always shel- tered by the breakwater of islands. We paused at Christiansund ''for cargo" as usual, but readily restrained our curiosity to see it, except from our cabin windows, as it has no interest for travellers. It is built with singular irregularity on three isl- ands ; there is nothing outside but the sea and barren rocks, and little inside except the,multi- TRONDHJEM. I 1 9 tudinous cod. Beyond this point the scenery is rather picturesque. We sat on deck in view of friendly islands, and soon entered the extensive fiord of Trondhjem. En passant it may be said that all these fiord steamers provide an abundance of good food and good sleeping-cabins — which lat- ter, however, are few in number and ought to be engaged at least two or three days in advance by telegram or letter to the main offices. There is a curious custom of asking for families what they call a " moderation " price, which means that a man and his wife, or a brother and sister, pay for only one and a half tickets. This explains the title of a pleasant little book called " One and a Half in Norwav. "' I have not hitherto trenched on the province of the guide-books by mentioning prices, but it may be well to state here that the cost of travelling is about five dollars per day, including steamer-fares, cariole or trille, meals and beds. In the three large I20 NORWAY NIGHTS. cities, Bergen, Christiania, and Trondhjem, hotel- prices are much the same as in Switzerland and Germany. Railways are few, and for those who have time the post-roads are preferable, especially considering the facilities they constantly offer for detours into regions of grandeur and beauty neces- sarily shunned by the iron road. One hears of many discomforts in what are called the "slow stations'" — that is, where tourists are few and farm- ers have only two or three horses and poor ac- commodations ; but to see as well as to be the beautiful, — * ' ilfaut souffrir. " I am again impelled to laud the friendly, oblig- ing civility of the Norwegians ; and as to honesty, Diogenes might throw away his lamp, for his hon- est man is the universal man, Avoman, and child. Scarcely any crime is considered so disgraceful as dishonesty. An Englishwoman who had lived twenty-six 3'ears in Christiania said to us: "If you should fill this room with gold coins and send a TR ONDHJEM. 121 Norwegian into it alone, he would not touch a single piece." Linen may be left on the grass all night to bleach ; trinkets and watches are safe on bedroom tables with doors unlocked ; and both purses and watches lost on the roads are taken to the nearest inn. This delightful trait includes honesty f the Hudson. The room dedicated to Dutch and Flemish painters })resents many admirable specimens of Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Teniers, and others ; but on the whole this art-treasury is rather mediocre, especially in the Italian department. The modern Scandinavian collection offers more of interest ; but as the artists study principally in German schools, thev have no distinctive national style. ^ There is one large canvas on which Tiderman y represents one of those fanatical preachers often found in Norway who portray the "terrors of the law" with the impassioned fury of the old Puri- 198 JVOJ?WAV NIGHTS. tans, and with the same eifect on the audience ; women fall fainting to the floor, and even men are spell-bound with fear. The picture is highly realistic in variety of feature and expression. More attractive, however, are the cottage-interiors and portraits of the Swedish artist Amalia Lindegren, whose peasant-children have the grace and inno- cence of Arcadia under their homelv o;-arb. The shops of Stockholm are not beguiling ; old silver at ' ' Hammei's, " Dalecarlian costumes and excellent colored photographs of peasants, were our only temptations. Theatres were closed for the summer ; but there was good music in open-air concerts, especially at the Djargarden, an ex- tensive park reached either by boat or train, where orderly crowds flock every pleasant evening ; and we have memories of a gay little dinner there with tourist friends in the veranda of the restau- rant, with echoes of Wagner and Strauss in the evening air, sunshine gilding the trees, rippling SWEDEN. 199 laughter, and of course the all-enveloping blue in- cense, and aroma of the "plant divine, of rarest virtue. " It is superfluous to say that the Swedes have a national reputation for courtesy and hospi- tality, as well as for the sterling virtues of the Nor- wegians. We could not ex- pect, in a mere vol d'oiseau between two seas, to have any personal experience of this ,. agreeable fact ; but in streets and shops their politeness of ' \ manner was noticeable. They Swedish Costume. are a better -looking people than their neighbors on either side, though fair hair and serene blue eyes are not universal ornaments. We saw many Dalecarlian women in the streets in their becoming costume, which consists of full white sleeves, colored bodice fastened with silver or gilded chains and profuse ornaments. 200 JVOJ^IVAV NIGHTS. short dark skirts, a high, close-fitting woollen cap, and red stockings. They are conservative in dress, like the people of the Telemarken province of Norway, hard workers, and don their costumes as every-day clothing, not merely to pose in like the Tyrolese and Romans. In the Moosebacke quarter, the ''Moses Hill," stands the picturesque red-brick church of the Riddaesholm with its tall perforated iron spire — a Walhalla of fame where repose in melancholy state kings and nobles of the Seraphim order. Its bell, called the Sera- phim, never rings, nor are services performed, ex- cept for a funeral pageant. Innumerable flags of various countries and colors droop from monu- ments and armorial bearings which line the interior walls, in the conventional style that must continue until, in the development of higher faith, men de- vise some more cheerful form of commemoration. When our bright and busy week in Stockholm had reached its close, we all felt that Fate might do SWEDEN. 20 1 something much more displeasing than to send us back some future day to that charming sum- mer city. We said farewell over the "beaker's brim" to our courteous Swedish friend, and, with passports ''vised" by the Russian consul, em- barked on the steamer Constatitin for the land of the Tsar. CHAPTER XI. FINLAND. {An Episode^ AS we Steamed, about 6 o'clock p.m., out of the harbor where sits on her throne of isl- ands the Queen of the Baltic, the fair city pre- sented a lovely picture : spires, roofs, and the conspicuous royal palace gleamed in gold ; white suburban villas made points of light in wooded headlands ; broad masses of trees formed contrast- ing shadows ; half-furled sails and tall masts senti- nelled the shining waters. Floating onwards, the glittering details gradually concentrated into a point of unity which soon was lost to sight on the misty horizon. A few hours later the sun also quenched his fires in the sea, but left a promise FINLAND. 203 for the morrow in those silvery gradations of neb- ulous Hght which in northern skies intervene be- tween his parting and his return. The Baltic, like the Mediterranean, has no tides, is neither very deep nor very salt, and, though capable of being roused to passion, is a better disposed ocean than some of its neighbors. With the exception of a few hours in open sea the first night, our picturesque and tortuous track ran between an archipelago of islands on the Finnish coast, many of which are bare red- granite rocks or heaps of stones abraded by un- ceasing waves. The voyage to St. Petersburg occupies three nights, the intervening days being pleasantly diversified by halts at Abo, the old capi- tal of Finland, and at Helsingfors, the new capi- tal. The Conslafttm is one of the best steamers on the Swedish line ; the cabins are comfortable, — and with twenty-one different "appetizers" at every meal, what more could be desired } 204 JVO/dM^'AV NIGHTS. Our trio had now enlarged itself to a quartet, and gained the only element it lacked by the ad- dition of a young American, whose personal characteristics and previous acquaintance with St. Petersburg completed the measure of our enjoy- ment. Ladies can travel alone through the high- ways of Russia with safety and comfort, but the "right sort of man" is undeniably an acquisition. Our preux chevalier was the right sort of man. The passengers were all Swedes, Finns, and Rus- sians — among the latter a lady, who was so con- genial, as well so kindly helpful to us in St. Peters- burg, that our accidental acquaintance has passed into friendly permanence. We arrived at Abo (pronounced Obo) the morning after leaving Stockholm. An ancient ca- thedral and a more ancient castle, both of some historical interest, stand prominently on the har- bor ; and on a high hill in the town is an obser- vatory well known to scientists. FINLAND. 205 Finland has always occupied the undesirable position of a small country between two large ones, tossed like a ball back and forth, until it finally was grasped by the talons of the double- headed eagle, where it remains, under the title of Grand Duchy. It retains its religious and consti- tutional privileges — under bit and bridle, however, of imperial representatives. It is a watery do- main brimming over with fiords, lakes, and swamps, even its name being derived fromy^w, or morass. With grasping neighbors on either side, pestilence, fires, and famine at various periods, and deadly quarrels among its early tribes, it has had from the beginning a hard struggle for existence. Since the transferrence of the capital to Helsingfors o Abo is a deserted village : a few vessels lie idly in the harbor ; one or two small hotels wait idly on the quay. In the broad, silent streets, the houses, built of wood, are only one story high and very far apart, their doorways level with the ground. 2o6 NORWAY NIGHTS. There is only one thing to be seen — the uncouth Gothic cathedral ; and unless one is in a mood for horrors it may better be avoided, for in the crypt the dead stand dressed in the garb of the living, as they do in the ghastly church of the Capucines at Rome and the cemetery at Palermo. By the captain's advice we decided on a drive to the park of Runsala, four or five miles away, which would at least take us to fresh fields and pastures new. The national "droschkies" are small, narrow, dingy one-horse vehicles which possess unlimited capacity for jolt and rattle ; are started at full gallop, and continued at as breathless a pace as if pursued by a pack of wolves. Re- monstrance was hopeless, for the drivers talked Finnish, and we did not ; and moreover it is the national pace. However, the park was reached without accident ; and though it has no merit of cultivation, it afi"ords pretty views and shaded walks. The restaurant dinner served on the ve- FINLAND. 207 randa was rather eccentric in quality and condi- ment ; but on the whole this excursion is more entertaining than to sit idly on the deck while the steamer pauses in the harbor. Helsingfors, where we stopped the following o day, has been a vampire to Abo and sucked its very life-blood — the university, the population, the seat of government. The approach is very imposing from the sea, for it is guarded by the fortress of Sveaborg, which extends over seven islands ; on the shore opposite stands a large and handsome Russian cathedral with conspicuous white dome and gilded spire. The streets are broad, with much parade of pompous architecture of no dis- tinctive character, relieved by avenues of trees and pleasant walks. As we had seven or eight hours to while away on shore, we first turned our steps to the crowded market in an open square, where a motley crowd, roughly clothed, bought and sold such quantities of meat and fish as precluded all 2o8 NORWAY NIGHTS. ideas of famine in the land, apart from the cart- loads of coarse black bread which looked less like the staff of life than its cudgel. We had sometimes wished we might find some locality not yet penetrated by the ubiquitous ''articles de fantaisie' of Paris — and we did find it in Norway ; but here in Finland it was a tire- some reminder of the ever-decreasing size of this petty planet to be offered by a peasant-woman in the market little bottles of Atkinson's perfumes ! And then we said, "There will be no escape from ' high civilization ' until we go to the fair at Nijni Novgorod. " After a walk to the cathedral, and much admiration of the fine paintings in its gilded Ikonostas, we drove to the very pretty Bruns- park, a gay summer resort with the usual accom- paniments of restaurant, music, and open-air theatre. Our dinner was supplemented by profuse and delicious strawberries, and we wandered under the trees until it was time to return to the steamer. FINLAND. 209 Then we conned till a late hour our Russian phrase-book, and mounted the numeral pyramid from " oden" to "dvatzat, " "tritsat, " "sorok," and " sto/' under the spur of to-morrow's require- ments. The numbers and a few phrases are es- sential in Russia, as elsewhere, unless one is will- ing to be buttoned every instant to a valet de place. Even the guide-books fail to invest Finland with sparkling interest, archaeological or historic ; one infers that, like Fingal's cave and many other places, it may be worth seeing, but is not worth going to see, as all its characteristics, moral and material, are either semi-Swedish or semi-Russ. It finds favor with sporting fishermen, and its cata- racts and most of its lakes tempt artists, though its trees are stunted and the atmosphere is generally cold and dull. However, as a geographical lesson the southern shore breaks very pleasantly the sum- mer traversee to St. Petersburg. RUSSIAN DAYS. Russian Church. RUSSIAN DAYS. CHAPTER I ST. PETERSBURG. DURING the past few years so many lorg- nons and field-glasses have been levelled at Russia with curiosity and criticism ; so many native and foreign wTiters have dramatically pic- tured its past, present, and prospective story, that the entire country is now supposed to stand under the blaze of electric light, with two important ex- ceptions — the plans of the Nihilists and the pro- jects of the Czar. Our innocent Russian days were quite undisturbed by these problems : we merely glanced over the glittering surface like 214 RUSSIAN DAYS. birds briefly perched on a telegraph-wire ; we were thorough optimists, and entered into all the novel- ties of sight and sound with hearty satisfaction. Therefore I do not pretend to add another can- vas to the already crowded gallery ; I merely trace an outline and throw in a few dashes of * ' local color. "' The approach to St. Petersburg on a fine sum- mer morning owes its exceptional attraction to art rather than to nature. There are no rugged shore-rocks resonant to the sea ; no mountains in the distance ; no verdant hills to grace the fore- ground : but the level monotone of earth and sky is broken by many islands and several fortresses on either side, chief of which latter is Cronstadt, with walls of solid granite ten feet thick. It domi- nates a forest of tall masts of men-of-war bearing flags of every color, but principally of the national black and yellow. Then appear on the smooth- water surface dark contrasting masses of merchant- ST. PETERSBURG. 215 ships, of yachts flying before the wind, of heavily laden steam-tugs ; and as our vessel advances, a star shines on the horizon which grows in magni- tude, until it reveals itself as the great gilded dome of the cathedral of St. Isaac. Gradually the sky - outline is broken by other burnished domes, by pale green domes studded with stars of gold, by glittering crosses and arrows of light, which compose the tiara of the city of the Tsar. Yet a little farther onward, and massive granite quays, stately palaces, countless cupolas, lofty watch-towers, and monoliths of red granite proudly pose upon the delta formed by the broad silvery Neva and its outspread branches. Whether we wall or not, this marvellous city which sprung in a brief historic day from an almost arctic swamp compels admiration, as a tour de force if nothing more. ♦ As we landed at the quay of the custom-house, vioujiks with long hair and russet beards trans- 2l6 RUSSIAN DAYS. ferred our luggage to a crowded platform, where our passports were demanded and our impedi- menta very thoroughly scrutinized by civil officers who spoke both French and German. As soon as it was decided that we were innocent of evil intent towards ''la Sainte Russie," we were con- ducted to the omnibus of the Hotel de I'Europe, to which wx had written for rooms. We had a long drive through some of the finest parts of the city, and a glimpse of the great square on which stand the palace of the Admiralty, the Winter Palace, St. Isaac's Cathedral, and the colossal bronze statue of Peter the Great, before we turned into the celebrated Nevski Prospekt, and thence came by a few steps to our hotel. We found excellent quarters in readiness for us ; but the courteous manager, in pursuance of the usual Russian fashion of offering a large choice of rooms, pioneered us over miles of corridors ; for this Gostinmtza, like the Hotel du Louvre in ST. PETERSBURG. 217 Paris, covers an enormous space. We decided on the luxurious suite he had assigned us, and settled down to domesticity under the patronage of the saints whose images appear unobtrusively on the walls of every Russian room. Like the gods of ancient Greece, the pictured saints are more numerous than the people ; no cook would remain an hour in a house where there was not one in the kitchen. The servants who attended us, however, were Germans ; and there are at least two English valets de place, one of whom, named Alexander, we can especially commend. We expected to find Russian vapor-baths in per- fection, but were assured that they are by no means so well appointed as in Paris or New York, at least for ladies. After our luncheon, in which strawberries, melons, and tchai slamonum — tea with thin slices of lemon — pleasantly figured, we started with the eagerness of children for that first general orienta- 2t8 RUSSIAN DAYS. tion which defines the chaos of a new city. We noticed at once the dress of the coachmen, which Russian Coachman. consists of a dark-blue woollen caftan that extends to the feet ; it is plain over the shoulders, and crosses from right to left with large filigree silver ST. PETERSBURG. 219 buttons, and five more on the left side behind ; the skirt falls in full plaits, especially at the back, and a belt somewhat like the border of a cashmere shawl passes round the waist. A flat cloth cap, larger above than below, and high boots over the trousers, which are not visible, complete the cos- tume. The drivers hold one rein in each hand, and guide the horses by the voice rather than the whip. The first thing that strikes one in St. Peters- burg is the prodigality of space and gigantic dimensions of the streets, w^hich give to even four- storied houses an appearance of being built low. The right angles are as rigid as the squares of a chess-board ; there are no narrow, crooked lanes as in other European cities. The pavements are generally bad, owing to the marshy subsoil ; but this is less important, because half the year they are excellently paved with snow. The great 01 Bolshaya Neva River passes through the centre, 220 RUSSIAN DAYS. and with its branch the Uttle or Malaya Neva forms islands, on which other portions are built. Two hundred years ago this river was unknown except to Finnish huntsmen in the untrodden forests through which it flows from Lake Onega to the bay of Finland. It is as broad as the Rhine at Cologne ; its clear, blue waters are not only a beautiful feature, but they supply the wants of the city. At the same time they are a perpetual menace, for, though guarded by massive granite embankments, they are only two feet below the level of the streets ; and when in the spring the north wind blows a gale, from the narrow part of the bay the waters of the Neva are forced back, and, if the ice happens to be breaking up at the same time, inundations are inevitable. There- fore, when warning guns are heard from the fort- ress, those who live in cellars and basements look for safe shelter, and sentries in their boxes are provided for. Numerous handsome bridges span ST. PETERSBURG. 221 the waters, which are animated by fleets of row- boats, yachts, and commercial vessels. In winter these liquid roads are solidly frozen, and sledges supplant the sails. Previous to our journey hither many sugges- tions had been offered that winter is par excel- lence the time to visit this hyperborean capital ; but the fact is that, like the duplicate shield which was gold on one side and silver on the other, St. Petersburg has two totally different aspects. Most alluring we found it in summer, with its verdant parks, blue waters, green and golden domes, and soft, diaphanous nights ; and with such generosity of space and air that in even the warmth of July one is not oppressed as in other cities. We drove up and down the Nevski Pros- pekt, which corresponds as an artery of fashiona- ble commerce with the Alcala in Madrid, Rue de Rivoli in Paris, and Regent's Street in London, but is a melange of shops, palaces, monuments, 2 22 RUSSIAN DAYS. and churches far more imposing than either. The architecture is not distinctive in any part of the city. Neither Peter the Great nor his successors could create a new structural art : they united classic and Renaissance forms with Byzantine domes and decorations. Critics have called it a city of architectural shams, and com- plain that porticos and pillars are of plaster- covered brick, fa9ades are flat, and balconies inconsistent with an arctic climate. But, on the other hand, nowhere else are found such superb or abundant monoliths as those of the Finland red granite, which give color and maj- esty to churches and palaces. The one erected to Alexander I. near the Winter Palace is con- sidered the greatest of modern times — a single shaft eighty-four feet high, beautifully polished, surmounted by a gilded angel bearing a cross ; the base and pedestal, twenty-five feet high, of the same material. ST. PETERSBURG. 223 The houses are built in apartments which ap- parently consist of a series of salons, as they are furnished with luxurious couches converted into beds at night. The ladies' dresses are kept folded in the boxes in which they come from Paris, and other accessories of the toilet are removed from sight ; so that the salons are al- ways en grande tenuc, and the restful privacy of a pretty sleeping-room, so dear to the Anglo-Saxon heart, is an unappreciated luxury. Many of the shops are painted on the outside with representations of their wares : vividly- colored fruits and vegetables, bunches of grapes and flasks of wine, pianos, ladies' cloaks sur- mounted by hats, and many other temptations appeal Lo those who are unable to read. De- cidedly, we were of that illiterate class. We had pored over those perplexing letters until we could pronounce the words with tolerable cor- rectness : but it was another thing to translate them. 2 24 RUSSIAN DAYS. At first sight the signs suggest an alphabetical cyclone ; but their large ornate characters at a Httle distance look like a sculptured frieze of gold on ground of red or blue. It was not the season for parade of equipages, and we saw none that were distinctive. The un- comfortable but convenient little droschkies flew about in swarms, for there are few pedestrians in this city of magnificent distances. Here and there were Cossack soldiers in long blue coats or caftans and high white, red, or blue caps edged with sheepskin, and armed with swords, poniards, pistols, and rifles ; and everywhere moujiks, in red or blue shirts, belted round the waist, extending below the short loose jacket, and loose trousers thrust into big boots. Apropos is a story, se non vero, ben irovato, cited in recent journals, of a reply made by Bismarck to Lord Dufl'erin, who had asked his opinion of the Russian character : '' My dear lord, the Russian is a very good ST. PETERSBURG. 225 fellow until he tucks in his shirt" — a caustic com- ment quite characteristic of the Premier. Cossack Officer. I should put in a deferential protest against his sweeping criticism : the Russians who diffuse 2 26 RUSSIAN DAYS. themselves through various countries have the reputation of being very charming people — viva- cious, friendly, hospitable, highly intelligent and accomplished, and some, of my own intimate ac- quaintance, are as true-hearted and good as the world affords. THE SHOPS. We noticed many little stalls for the sale of pictured saints, holy oil and water ; boxes for sacred offerings at the corners of the streets, on bridges, at the exits of markets; and reverent cross- ings and prostrations before frequent shrines of prayer. In all this was a touch of the Orient ; but we wxre not yet beyond the intrusion of French signs and German merchandise. The road that leads beyond these too-familiar objects is far away from St. Petersburg. But we did visit shops which every feminine heart would appreciate ; one of Russian embroidered costumes, ST. PETERSBURG. 227 towels and table-cloths, and also the exquisitely fine white goat's-wool shawls from Orenburg, made by hand firom threads of fairy texture. The finest of these shawls requires the work of two women for two years ; it was more gossamer than the finest thread lace, a mere mist from a summer cloud, and correspondingly fragile. One of the largest size, three yards square, we saw drawn through a finger-ring, and the fair owner intended to wear it at her wedding instead of the conventional tulle or Brussels lace. A similar shawl was presented to Patti on her last visit to Russia, and she wore it over a white-satin tunic. Even the inferior qualities that cost only eight or ten rubles are as soft as down. Another specialty is the silver-work, which far « exceeds in beauty, as well as in weight, that of other countries. The fabric of enamelled gold and silver gilt is beautiful enough to justify a com- pound fracture of the tenth commandment : it is 2 28 RUSSIAN DAYS. covered with the very finest enamel of various col- ors, principally light blue and ruby, laid on with twisted threads of gold that would pass through a needle's eye. Jewel-caskets, toilet articles, sugar-bowls, spoons, etc., fill one shop exclusive- ly. This fine enamel is rather new, and therefore little known outside of Russia ; but even the older fabric on silver gilt is also beautiful, though not quite so delicate. The best shop is that of Ivan Petrovitch Chlebnekoff, on the Nevski Pros- pekt. The fur-shops are ruinously attractive, espe- cially the sable, which we had never seen so fine and dark. The London merchants declare that they procure some of the very best qualities ; but the Moscow dealers assured us that they never sell those outside of Russia. Sables are always expen- sive because so small a portion of the little animal is of the coveted dark color. The famous Potem- kin had a muff" which cost a thousand guineas. ST. PETERSBURG. 229 Ordinary furs may be bought more reasonably here than elsewhere. There are several shops of Circassian embroi- deries, but we were advised to buy those in Mos- cow. As there are no Leghorn hats made in Leg- horn, and no Venetian blinds in Venice, so there IS no Russian leather in Russia; the raw material being exported to Germany, where it is manu- factured into the universal pocket-books and port- folios. There is a great two-storied bazaar, the Gostinnoi Dvor, which is stocked with all possi- ble articles for household use and old bric-a-brac shops, but very little that a traveller would desire except the Circassian and Caucasian shawls and sashes, better obtained in Moscow. It is, how- ever, all worth a visit of curiosity. A few pounds of the best tea is a desirable pur- chase; for, as it is brought overland through Siberia, the flavor is much more delicate than that which comes by sea. The yellow and the white, made 230 RUSSIAN DAYS. from the first tiny buds of the plant, form a nerve- exciting beverage which should rarely be indulged in. It costs from four or five rubles to fifty a pound (a ruble being generally equivalent to sev- enty-five cents or three shillings sterling, but in the present state of Russian funds a third less). Tchai slamontmi is made from an inferior quality of leaf; but we found it very palatable — a harmless beverage, as universal as beer in Germany and vin ordinaire in France. THE CATHEDRAL. The world- renowned Cathedral of St. Isaac's stands conspicuously in a large open square, sur- rounded by several of the finest edifices and mon- uments in the city. A few words will recall the many descriptions given of it by clever writers. It is a Greek cross in form; the four ends are ter- minated by porticos which are reached by flights of red-granite steps ; above these stand stately pol- ^•7; PETERSBURG. 231 ished columns of the same material, sixty feet high and seven in diameter, with bronze Corin- thian capitals. They support a massive frieze from which rises the dome of bronze overlaid with burnished gold, also sup[)orted by a circle of granite The Neva — The Bridge — St. Isaac's. pillars. From the centre, again, rises the rotunda, or lantern, a miniature repetition of the whole edifice, surmounted by a golden cross. Four smaller domes stand above each end of the arms of the cross and complete the harmony. Each 232 RUSSIAN DAYS. flight of Steps as well as each column is formed of a single block of granite : all of them, as well as hundreds more in other churches and palaces, were conveyed from Finland on rollers, their weight being too great for wheels. The Tsars are as rich as were the Pharaohs in unlimited quarries of marble. Ponderous sculptured brouTie doors lead to the interior, where floor, walls, and supporting pillars are of polished marbles, verde antique. Sienna yel- low, porphyry, and jasper. Gilded angels of vari- ous sizes, pictures of Christ, the Virgin, and saints, ensconced in gilding and jewelled mosaics, gleam through a mystic twilight. Sculptures are for- bidden by the Greek Church, but the command against graven images is not supposed to extend to flat surfaces or bas-reliefs. The choir is raised a few feet above the nave, and separated from it by a balustrade of exquisite marbles. The gold Ikonostas, or screen, shuts off" the "holy of ho- ST. PETERSBURG. 233 lies" by two massive silver doors ; in it are eight colossal pillars, six of malachite and two of lapis lazuli — not solid, however, but laid on iron, as no such solid blocks exist in these materials. Be- tween these pillars in the gilded screen are inserted mosaic pictures of saints. Many other beautiful pictures adorn the walls, all by Russian artists, and one exquisitely fine mosaic, representing a head of the Saviour, is studded with diamonds, the largest of which cost seven thousand pounds sterling. In fact, every available point is filled with mosaics or paintings — around the domes, the brackets for candles, as well as the walls. In connection with them I will relate an anec- dote hitherto unknown. A celebrated artist, presi- dent of one of the highest art-academies in Italy, was engaged to paint six pictures that now orna- ment the vault of one of the cupolas. One of the subjects selected was the Annunciation, and was enlivened by the presence of a host of little angels 234 RUSSIAN DAYS. who floated in the upper air in the innocence of their conventional nudity. When the synod of priests visited the artist's studio to inspect the finished work, they admired everything except the undress of the infants, which they declared inad- missible. The artist protested, but in vain : the angels must conform to the regulations of relig- ious art or be excommunicated. Accordingly, on the next visit of the synod they appeared in full celestial millinery, with broad blue ribbons and shreds of vapory costume. The work was pro- nounced satisfactory ; the pictures were hung un- der the supervision of the artist, but before he left the church they had lost their worldly tissues and circulated again unencumbered around their invisible trapeze. He had painted their draperies in gouache, but, to carry out his own just ideas, he washed them off before elevating the pictures to the vaulted dome ; and the then distant critics were never the wiser ! ST. PETERSBURG. 235 This superb church may well be considered the supreme effort of modern architecture : unlike all other great cathedrals, which were the crystalliza- tion of centuries, it was the work of only forty years, under command of the Emperor Nicholas, who did more than all his predecessors to beau- tify his capital. In order to secure the safety of the foundation, forests of piles were driven into the marshy ground on which it stands, followed 1)\ great blocks of granite : and yet it gradually sinks. Through the kinchiess of the lad\ whose ac- quaintance we made on the Constantifi, we ob- tained privileged places within the choir, one Sun- day morning, during an important ceremonial. The superb teniie of the priests, the marvellous singing and the devoutness of the worshippers, made a profound impression on us all ; but 1 may better attempt to describe a similar and more elab- orate service in the Kazan cathedral, where also 236 RUSSIAN BAYS. our friend conducted us. This edifice, also sup- ported on piles, is built in imitation of St. Peter's at Rome, with exterior colonnades like embracing arms. The interior is sumptuous, though less so than St. Isaac's, and the rich surfaces are broken by -flag-draped monuments and the keys of many fortresses hanging on the walls. Among the tombs is that of General Kutusof, erected on the spot where he knelt in prayer before setting out to meet Napoleon in 181 2. The service that we attended there was con- ducted by the metropt)litan bishop, one of the triad of bishops in the empire. Long before the hour, the vast interior was filled with a standing or kneeling crowd — for no seats are permitted in Rus- sian churches, except by special favor at some un- obtrusive point ; nor is the use of fans allowed. Preceded by Miss M., we took our places in the choir, and chairs were provided for us only a few feet from the doors of the Ikonostas ; thus we ST. PETERSBURG. 237 had a full view of the entire scene. Each person on entering brought a taper and slowly ap- proached a shrine ; then he knelt, bowed his head to the marble pavement, and crossed himself re- peatedly ; he lighted his candle, and set it up in one of the large silver stands provided for that purpose. Again kneeling, he touched his head to the pavement and retired with face towards the altar, continuing his prostrations and crosses dur- ing the entire service. There are no inquisitive gazings around, and no beggars pausing in their prayers to ask alms ; but a fixed earnestness that evidently proceeds from deep religious feeling. Meanwhile the choristers, in white surplices with light-blue collars and cufts, took their places on each side of the Ikonostas : on this occasion the choirs of two cathedrals were engaged. Instru- mental music is forbidden in the Greek Church, but the old hymns are most wonderful ; many of them were brought long ago from Rome, but are 238 RUSSIA A' DAYS. now forgotten there. Through the open doors of the Ikonostas we saw the altar blazing with light ; the priests, archimandrites, and deacons, twenty- four in all, in dazzling vestments of cloth of gold reaching to the feet, with chains and suspended crosses, far more graceful than those of Catholic priests, and more beautiful in quality. The dig- nity of the wearers is enhanced by their long, flowing, ringleted hair, parted in the middle of the forehead ; and with their patriarchal beards and refined Eastern features they might serve as mod- els for prophets and apostles. The Titianesque reddish-gold hair of some of them accorded well with the vestments. Some of the robes were dec- orated with jewels, especially the silver robe of the bishop, who also wore a high-crowned jewelled cap with a gold cross above it. He was a little old man, feeble with the weight of eighty-two }'ears, and required assistants on either side when he advanced to the ed^'e of the dais and returned S7\ PETERSBURG. 239 many times to the altar, while he read aloud, prayed, knelt, and crossed himself, and again with a lighted symbolic candle in either hand blessed the kneeling people. The solos of the Litany were intoned by a dea- con whose hasso profunda of incredible power resounded like the notes of a great organ to the remotest end and all through the domes of the vast building. These voices are peculiar to Rus- sia ; they are sought for through distant provinces, and receive large remuneration. A very earnest and frequent refrain is "" Gospodimi pojuilui'' ("Lord, have mercy on us"), in which choristers join, and prolong the last syllable like the sigh of an ^olian harp. The most solemn moment of all was when the priests, archimandrites, and deacons all retired within the sanctuary, the portals silently closed, and the people knelt during the transub- stantiation ; then the doors were thrown open, and the whole hierarchy, in their superb vestments, 240 RUSSIAN DAYS. "gold in sunlight against gold in shadow," walked forth to the chanting and singing of the most perfect church-music I have ever heard ; deep as thunder, yet most harmonious in tone, the bass rose and poised on waves of grand crescendo, around which floated and fell the soft silvery ca- dence of the sopranos and intermediate parts. It is to the honor of the Greek Church that it has never been intolerant of other creeds, and al- lows public worship in every form. It has been said that "Toleration" Street would be an appro- priate title for the Nevski Prospekt from the num- ber of churches of various persuasions it contains. PALACES AND MUSEUMS. One of the most pleasant things to do in St. Petersburg is to visit the palace of Tsarskoe-Selo, a stately pleasure-dome decreed by Catherine the Great. We went by rail fifteen miles out to a village adjoining the park, where we obtained tick- Sr. PETERSBURG. 241 ets of admission, and thence a carriage conveyed us through the extensive grounds to the palace. The facade is elaborately adorned with statues, carv- ings, and vases, which, with the pedestals and capi- tals of the columns, were originally covered with gold. In the course of a few years the rigors of winter made serious havoc with this decoration, and Murray says that the persons who repaired it offered the Empress fifty thousand pounds sterling for the fragments of gold-leaf, to which she disdainfully replied, '^ ye ne siiis pas dans I' usage de vendre mes vieilles hardes. "' There are no traces of this lavish ornamentation left except on the cupolas of the chapel, the interior of which is painted in bright blue and gold, displeasing to the eye. But the ingenuity of even that reckless age was taxed to the utmost in the long succes- sion of salons, all arranged as if for an immediate court pageant. Gold (not gilded) ceilings, silk- hung walls, floors of costliest inlaid woods in 2 42 R USSIA lY da YS. graceful designs — one of polished ebony inlaid with figures of mother-of-pearl, and walls incrusted with lapis lazuli ; a Chinese room of choicest Celestial furniture : a banqueting-room with a dado nine feet high covered with plates of gold ; the walls of the chamber of Catherine the Great laid in fine porcelain tiles, and supported by pilasters of blue glass, with priceless rock-crystal chandeliers, articles oi vertu, tables and taszas of malachite and lapis lazuli, so profuse as to defy memory and re- cital. There are two ball-rooms, in each of which is a collection of the rarest porcelain vases placed in circular tiers which extend from floor to ceiling; the letter E, for Ekaterina, inscribed on each vase. The gem of all is the Amber Room. Its lofty walls are entirely covered with that exquisite material in architectural designs ; some of them represent the arms of Catherine united with those of Frederick the Great, by whom the amber was presented ; amber groups of figures rest upon an Sr. PETERSBURG. 243 amber ground. Shreds of amber in beads and pipes convey no idea of the soft gleams of mellow light in this poetic room, which but for the realism of some of the designs would seem to have been stolen from a supernatural realm. It was the most unique object we saw in Russia. Even the chairs were of amber, with seats of pale-yellow brocade ; and a set of amber chessmen stood on an amber field. We were interested in the full-length portraits of the Romanoffs, all indicative of their character- istics. The portraits of Alexander I. and Alex- ander II. are particularly pleasing ; their com- manding figures and fine faces express the best qualities of the dynasty, without its faults. The artist who depicted the sensuous beauty of the in- tellectual, arrogant, unscrupulous Catherine 11,, who was not a Romanoif, took good care to put her evil traits in the background. The splendor of the state apartments finds 244 J^ US SI AN DAYS. antithesis in the small, almost monastic rooms of that excellent monarch Alexander I., which are sacredly preserved precisely as he left them for a tour to his southern provinces, where death put an end to his beneficent reign. In one corner is a camp bedstead, on a table a few modest toilet appurtenances, a hand-mirror in a green morocco frame, brushes and comb of the simplest sort, an ordinary pocket-handkerchief, a worn and faded uniform. Very unostentatious also are the living-rooms in a small palace built for him in his youth, but occasionally occupied by the pres- ent imperial family. The high and mighty person- ages whose frequent fate it is "to be perked up in a glistening grief And wear a golden sorrow" are often pleased to relax their pose and become simple ladies and gentlemen. In this palace there is little furniture or decora- ST. PETERSBURG. 245 tion of intrinsic value, and even trifles that woukl be banished from ordinary drawing-rooms as in- significant. But there are children's toys, photo- graphs, and portraits — not for show, but for family love ; and in a large hall is a high inclined plane of polished wood for the children to play at ''to- bogganing " within doors. The Emperor's writ- ing-table was like that of a man of business. In glass cases around one of the rooms are models of cavalry regiments, beautifully executed for the Emperor Nicholas, and many paintings of military manoeuvres. A fusillade of rain prevented us from any ex- tended walk or drive through the stately pleas- aunce in summer green, where are several charm- ing caprices, such as a Chinese village, a Dutch cow-house, artificial ruins, a fountain after Greuze's picture of "La Cruche cassee, '' and many others. The Arsenal of Tsarskoe-Selo is a superb col- lection of armor and antique standards amassed 246 RUSSIAN DAYS. by many sovereigns ; prominent among them are two dazzling saddles, every part of which, together with the bridles, are covered with brilliants. Thence we drove to the village of Pavolsk, where there is another palace, and all sorts of picturesque adjuncts which approaching twilight prevented us from seeing. We dined at a fashionable restaurant there, to the music of an excellent orchestra. We were anxious to hear the National Hymn on its native heath, but never had an opportunity, because it is played only on special occasions and involves the ceremony of the whole audience standing through the performance. One of the dishes at our dinner was a good cabbage-soup, called sichi, served with sour cream ; another was rastigae, pat- ties of the isinglass and flesh of sturgeon ; also a very delicate "sweet,"' — something between jelly and ice. Whence the far-famed Hermitage derives its ST. PETERSBURG. 247 name one fails in perceive on the face of it, for it is neither remote nor secluded ; as well might the Louvre be called a monastic cell. Hut the versatile Catherine built the original as a retreat from state cares in the society of literati and ar- tists, and the modern edifice, finished forty years ago, })reserves the inappropriate name. No museum in Europe is si) beautiful or so costly. A very gorgeous lackey received our cards at the entrance, and two others, equally bedizened, stood at the foot of the stately flight of marble steps. vSixteen red-granite monoliths and ten giants of gray granite support the vestibule, and numerous statues of artists fill niches in the walls. At the head of the three flights which compose the stairway are two magnificent can- delabra stands of violet jasper from Siberia. The decorations of galleries and corridors only faintly indicate the wealth of the empire in marbles, mal- achite, lapis lazuli, crystals, precious stones, and 248 RUSSIAN DAYS. gold. The pictures in the gallery are set off by crimson-silk hangings on the walls ; the floors, of polished wood-mosaic, are uniform in color, with- out lights and shades, and therefore not intrusive on the paintings. Rich crimson -silk -covered chairs and sofas offer rest, and vases and tazzas of jasper and onyx stand upon tables of pink por- phyry and malachite. There are fifteen hundred pictures, beautifully arranged and well lighted. The Spanish collection seemed to me the best out of Spain ; but while rich in specimens of Murillo, it fails to rival the Madrid gallery in Velasquez portraits. There are several Raphaels, Titians, and Tintorettos, but not the masterpieces of those painters, and on the whole the Italian school does not compare with that in Florence. The French pictures are numerous and beautiful, but the Flemish and Dutch collection is the finest of all. However, my opinion, rapidly formed, is ofi'ered as that of an amateur, not a critic ; for weeks of ST. PETERSBURG. 249 Study would be required to know thoroughly these treasures, to which all the most celebrated painters in Europe have contributed. The room of Russian pictures is very interesting, because national in design, and novel in subject ; the ar- tists receive much encouragement from the gov- ernment, and when they indicate talent are sent off with pensions to study in Paris and Rome. It was unfortunate for us that several private gal- leries were closed for the summer, especially in Moscow, and we thus missed seeing some of the most celebrated Russian creations. The numismatic collection, which is extremely rich and valuable, contains rare coins from Greece and from all the ancient provinces of Russia, many of them earlier than the period of dies, being merely bits of metal chopped from the mass. About one thousand English specimens of the reigns of Canute and Ethelred were excavated in Russia, and doubtless served, as did the large 250 RUSSIAN DAYS. numbers found in Scandinavia, fur commerce in furs. There is a long series of rooms filled with gems, mosaics, precious manuscripts, engraved stones, and cameos, and a curious collection excavated at Kertch in the Crimea, which was a point of Greek civilization 500 b. c. Here are crowns, weapons, and ornaments of gold which had been untouched more than two thousand years ; a priestess of Ceres, who was buried with all her ornaments and four horses, the trappings of which remain ; innumerable bracelets, necklaces, brooches, etc., enriched with enamel, filigree, and precious stones, and finer than all modern work- manship ; gold stirrups and bits ; exquisite ob- jects in colored glass, an art which the Venetians learned from Greece at a later period ; a beautiful head-ornament of ears of wheat ; and silver re- pousse vases and drinking-cups, unrivalled in the world. In truth this collection of classic jewelry S7\ PETERSBURG. 25 I is far more rich and varied than that c^f the Vati- can or the British Museum. Amid all this para- phernalia of beauty and of vanity is a small wooden comb inscribed, " A present from Sister" ! There is also an electrum vase with repousse figures of Scythians mending their weapons, one having a tooth extracted, a third his wounds dressed, and all costumed like the Russian peas- antry of to-day — the shirt outside the trousers, and the trousers inside the boots ! Hard studv for many weeks would scarcely serve to familiarize one with the treasures of the Hermitage ; but, alas ! our " bird of Time had but a little way to flutter, And the Bird was on the wing" ! We turned into the gallery of Peter the Great, and encountered an efiigy of the Iron Tsar, start- lingly realistic and very like his numerous portraits, with pronounced Muscovite features, coal-black 252 RUSSIAN DAYS. hair and mustache, and wide-open eyes gazing at the reHcs of his mundane existence. He is seated in a chair, dressed in a faded and worn blue-silk doublet and hose embroidered by the peasant-wife whom he loved so well, — "my heart's friend," as he called her, — who retained her influence by not changing her native simplicity or putting on airs after she became Tsarina. Peter's massive canes stand near him, and he looks as if he were quite ready to seize one of them according to his wont and lay it across the shoulders of servant or officer who might offend him. A heavy iron one among the number might well leave a lasting souvenir of the irascible owner. There are more credita- ble tokens of his personality in telescopes, mathe- matical instruments, turning-lathes, and imple- ments for wood-carving ; also a wax cast of his face, taken while he lived. In the small palace which he had built for him- self, the first house on the marshes of the Neva, ST. PETERSBURG. 253 the furniture is principally the work of his hands — wardrobes, tables, arm-chairs, and a clock, carved with taste and skill. A wax model in a glass case in this gallery of the Hermitage represents an exceedingly quaint little body who was his house- keeper in Holland ; and a pole seven feet high shows his own stature. Here also are scores of other cases filled with every conceivable device for the display of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires ; snuff-boxes, jewel-coffers, rings, neck- laces, watches, gold goblets, in endless variety ; im- perial crowns ; Potemkin's glittering plume, pre- sented by the Sultan ; Suvaroff's, given by the Shah ; two watches in the shape of ducks, one in the form of an ^^'g ; a small parrot carved from an emerald ; bouquets of flowers made entirely of precious stones ; several jewelled walking-sticks that belonged to Catherine ; and a mechanical clock, also her property, but now out of order, which represents a gilded peacock of life-size, 2,54 J^USSIAN DAYS. whose tail when expanded was studded with sap- phires, emeralds, and diamonds ; a cock that with blazing crest flapped his wings, an owl that rolled his onyx eyes, and a brilliant grasshopper devour- ing an agate mushroom ; fine ivory carvings ; pocket-books of tortoise-shell studded with sap- phires and rubies ; and countless other costly com- binations of jewels, which are not merely marvels of workmanship but are associated with all the illustrious names of the last two centuries. There is a little cottage of two rooms on the Neva which Peter occupied before the erection of the house alluded to above. The small room M'here he ate and slept is now a chapel, completely lined with pictures of saints in gilded shrines, the most important one being a repulsive image of the Saviour, which accompanied Peter wherever he went. It is believed to have wrought many mira- cles, and to be potent against all ills of humanity. The day we were there we noticed a young Sr. PETERSBURG. 255 moiijik kneeling opposite this image ; with inces- sant crossings he prostrated himself on the marble floor, which was swept by his long dark hair ; but his trembling lips and streaming eyes betrayed some stronger emotion than that of ordinary prayer : his gaze was riveted on the unresponsive picture with a pleading agony that meant life or death. We walked slowly around the chapel, and then went out to see the boat which Peter himself created ; we lingered in the porch and watched the devotees who thronged to the shrine : and still he knelt and wept and kissed the sacred stones, as if his utter abandonment of woe must wrest from the symbol or from its antitype a promise or a conso- lation. What cruel reality pressed upon him we could not know ; was it the menaced life of one he loved, or was it — Siberia .f* We could not in- trude upon him, nor could we command his lan- guage ; but we shall never forget that abject peas- ant on the banks of the Neva. 256 RUSSIAN DAYS. Very near this point stand the high battle- mented walls of the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, which is also a prison, and contains the mint, and a cathedral whose pyramidal spire, cov- ered with gold and surmounted, as usual, by an angel and a cross, is the highest in Russia and towers conspicuously above the city. All the Tsars since the time of Peter are buried here, as before they were buried in Moscow. The walls are covered with military trophies, flags, keys of fortresses, etc. , the tokens of various foreign con- quests. The emperors' tombs are of white marble with- out effigies. Above each is a sacred image set with diamonds. The one above Peter the Great rep- resents his stature and breadth at his birth, 5:^ inches by 19^; the image of St. Paul above the Emperor Paul serving a like purpose. Commem- orative wreaths and flowers lay upon the tomb of Alexander II., whose assassination still pervades ST. PETERSBURG. 257 the capital with a tremor of pain and foreboding. In the museum of imperial carriages, which we visited the same day, there was nothing so impres- sive as the one he occupied when the fatal shot was lired. It is a closed carriage of the ordinary style, lined with dark-blue silk. The first bullet tore open half the back and killed the footman ; as every one remembers, the emperor was shot after he stepped out of the vehicle to support his valued servant. A commemorative chapel is now in process of erection on the spot. This museum is one of the essential sights of St. Petersburg. The lower floor is occupied by the ordinary travelling and town equipages of the court, which of course are as handsome and lux- urious as modern art can make them. A flight of stairs lined with beautiful Gobelin tapestries leads to the second story, where forty or fifty immense vehicles create a perfect blaze of splendor. They are all completely covered with gold, even to the 258 RUSSIAN DAYS. spokes of the wheels, which revolve around axles dazzling with Siberian jewels. They are all lined with red-silk velvet ; the panels of several are beautifully painted by French artists, and those belonging to the empresses bear the arms of Rus- sia incrusted with diamonds. The coachman who had the honor of conveying Catherine the Great sat on a box upheld by carved and gilded eagles ; the back of the vehicle is guarded by St. George and the Dragon, and above the roof blazes a jewelled crown. Another, made for the same empress, is painted on gold ground with allegorical designs, — Venus leaving her bath ; Cath- erine as a deity from Olympus, bringing Peace and Plenty, etc., — and the velvet interior is decorated with rich Spanish point-lace. Another contained a small stove and a card-table ; and some of them would hold ten or twelve occupants. They re- quire at least eight horses, and the Russians fre- quently drive four or five abreast. The harnesses ST. PETERSBURG. 259 and saddles exhibit the same lavishness of gold and color, with most elaborate finish and inter- mixture of jewels. Coachmen and footmen are nearly covered with gold lace on their green, blue, or red velvet attire at the coronation of an empe- ror, when all these emblazoned carriages and trap- pings are sent off to Moscow, to figure in the pa- geant. The oldest of them are without springs, are hung very high, and are attached by straps to poles twenty feet long and of great thickness. Again our favorite Tsar, Peter, presents himself through the sledge made by his ingenious hands. It is merely a square box painted some dark color, with mica windows and one hard, uncom- fortable seat ; a small wooden trunk behind held his clothes and provisions for the journey to Arch- angel. No Sybarite was the iron-willed Tsar. The long twilights of July aff"orded us charming drives in the extensive public parks on the islands in the river, where we found many sylvan nooks 26o RUSSIAN DAYS. and picturesque bridges over streams studded with fanciful chalets, each with its own pretty garden. The trees are generally firs and birch, smaller than those in Norway ; but there are also fine oaks. I have outlined with rapid pen only a few of the salient features of this fascinating capital ; but my modest pages approach their limit, and I must yet present a brief kaleidoscopic view of the ancient and beloved city of the Tsars — -'' Holy Moscow.'' The Kremlin — Moscow. CHAPTER IL MOSCOW. WHEN the Emperor Nicholas decreed a rail- way between St. Petersburg and Moscow for military convenience, and with pen in hand drew a straight line, which left out all villages and towns en route, he builded better than he knew, or cared, for the benefit of future tourists. A more flat and desolate intervening country would be difficult to find anywhere ; even more dreary is it than the desert plateau between Bur- gos and Madrid. Therefore one loses nothing by taking the night-train to Moscow, which starts about eight o'clock. We had secured a private compartment the pre- vious day by a few rubles supplementary to the MOSCOW. 263 salary of some prominent official, who greeted us with the high consideration always awarded to such disinterested action. Our small salon, fur- nished with two tables, was convertible into a comfortable bedroom. The road, which was constructed by an Ameri- can engineer, is remarkably smooth, and the car- riages are luxurious. The stations, standing in oases of trees and gardens, are built of red brick and white stone, and are the most spacious and handsome I have ever seen. In each one is a gay little shop for the sale of national trifles, sculp- tured wooden crosses, morocco slippers embroi- dered in silver and gold, Circassian belts, knives in niello work, etc. Waiters in full dress serve excellent refreshments, and the buffets offer fair wines, beer, kvas, a sort of fruit-syrup, leslo/ka, a spirit flavored with black-currant leaves, vodka, which is not a fiery liquid — in small quantities — and more pleasant than brandy, besides all the curious 264 RUSSIAN DAYS. "appetizers," called zakuska. Half an hour or more is allowed at the principal stopping-places, and there are frequent pauses of ten minutes, which give opportunity to scan the coming and going pilgrims as they frequented the stations. As we approached Moscow we noticed officers in dashing uniforms ; long-bearded merchants ; Tartars or Armenians ; Russian peasants in long caftans and long hair ; women with bright-colored handkerchiefs tied at the back of their heads ; a little better class sparkling with chains, bracelets, and all sorts of showy jewelry. No one hastens, for there are three warning bells, and no confusion prevails. The distance to Moscow is about fourteen hours, and in the luminous summer night we had ample opportunity to study the monotonous and dreary landscape. Hour after hour the scene repeats it- self ; now and then appears a cluster of miserable wooden cabins, with a few vegetables struggling MOSCOW. -^^5 out of the earth ; no farms, no paths, no inclos- ures ; sometimes a small white church with green ^^ ^ ■»=*»««" r" -^^= - Russian Costume. cupola indicates that souls as well as bodies in- habit those pitiful abodes. It is said, however, 266 RUSSIAN DAYS. that the peasants are a contented, good-humored race and may be very merry on occasion, espe- cially when in the winter snows, well wrapped in sheep-skins, they disport like polar bears. But the intolerable cold and darkness of six months of the year and the prostrating heat of three months more must dishearten, and the consequence is a continuous flow of population into the cities, where employment of some sort is readily ob- tained, not only to support life, but also to pay the tax to the commune, which since the emanci- pation of the serfs takes the place of that formerly given to the nobles or the State. By the terms of the emancipation law the serfs were divided into communes, which possess the land in common, under a local government ; but any member of the commune may readily obtain from it permission to seek employment in one of the cities, and to pay his tribute in money instead of in labor on the land. We heard from several MOSCOW. 267 sources that the servants are incorrigible pilferers (except the Tartars, who are perfectly honest) ; but Russian Peasant. as an offset they are good-humored, respectful, and obedient. There was a story told many years ago 268 RUSSIAN DAYS. of a soldier on guard in the Winter Palace when it took fire and the whole interior was consumed. A priest who was hurrying from the chapel with some of its sacred vessels warned him to quit his post. "I wait orders," said the man. The priest hurriedly absolved him, and he stood sturdily at his post and was burned to death. The monotony of the road to INIoscow is broken twice by long bridges over streams which wander away through endless plains and between dismal forests, howling in winter with wolves and bears, till they unite with the Volga and are finally lost in the Caspian Sea. About ten o'clock in the morning we passed several rather pretty villages, masses of dark trees, and finally, through the veil of thin, quivering haze, we caught sight of the burnished domes, the pinnacles, crosses, and polychromatic colors of the ancient city of the Tsars. How gay was our excitement ! how hypo- critical our assumed composure ! Moscow : so MOSCOH'\ 269 far from home it sounded ! so like a bit from the Arabian Nights it looked ! The conventionalities of tlie railway station and the appearance of a hybrid Russo-English valet de place from the hotel dispelled the illusion, and we were soon whirling through the labyrinthine streets, which in their confusion of geometry and mad festivity of color resembled a kaleidoscope out of order, until we arrived at the Slavianski Bazaar. This edifice is not a place of merchan- dise, but a comfortable hotel, whose appoint- ments, though composite of Russian and Ger- man, adapt themselves to all seasonable require- ments. There are no tables d'hote in Russia, but for a party of travellers dinner a la carte is always more agreeable. There is an English manager, who attends very civilly to his guests. Two por- ters stand like caryatides at the entrance-door when not engaged in opening and shutting car- riages ; their dress is like that of the guards on 270 RUSSIAN DAYS. the railway — white gloves, full plaited dark wool- len caftans belted around the waist and reaching to the knees, where they meet the loose high boots universal in the low^er classes ; but unlike the guards they wear high evases, cloth caps with the aesthetic appendage of peacock-feathers all around the front. Our suite of rooms had a balcony which over- looked a square thoroughly Oriental, save for the lack of turbans and burnouses. This part of Moscow is the Kilai Gorod, or Chinese City, so called because within its walls merchants formerly sought shelter for the treas- ures they brought from China and other foreign sources. The Slavianski Bazaar was probably a prominent point of traffic. On one side of the square were several churches ; one with clusters of pale-green cupolas surmounted by Greek crosses, and bell-towers shaped like bulbs ; another, more distant, gleaming in various colors of red, blue, MOSCOIV. 27 I green, and silver, like the scales of the fabled dragon ; in front, the turrets and buttresses of the Wine Seller — Moscow Market. wall of the Kitai Gorod ; and between these a market-place crowded with men in blue shirts, 272 RUSSIAN DAYS. red shirts, and patriarchal beards ; a few women in motley wear ; vendors of fish, vegetables, and wine, with baskets on their heads ; rude, unpainted carts, and shaggy, long-haired horses slightly har- nessed with ropes, and a murmur in the air of strange, soft syllables. The Russian language is very pleasant to the ear and pictorial to the eye ; but its grammar, which has no article, bristles with declinations, inflections, and inversions which no foreigner but Mezzofanti could conquer and only Mark Twain conld justly describe. Breakfast was served in our sitting- room — Ichai slamonum and strawberries, of course ; and our brief vocabulary, here as everywhere, proved an essential acquisition, for the servants, with one exception, spoke nothing but Russ ; our chambermaid also was a native and knew only four French words, but made up the deficit with smiles. MOSCOH\ 273 THE STREETS. We soon started Tor a drive, under the leader- ship of Evanson, the va/e/ de p/ace, who was hence- forth our constant attendant. It is best to engage a carriage by the week ; for although the pave- ments are as bad as they well can be, and there is little pleasure in the movement, yet the distances are too great for ladies to walk, and at all events they should never walk unattended. There is as great a contrast between the two capitals of Russia as between its two zones of climate and cultivation, St. Petersburg rises from a flat and marshy delta apparently more water than land ; broad rivers and a sea menace its ex- istence ; its wide, right-angled streets, modern palaces, and general pomp of classic imitation are not in harmony with gilded spires and domes of Muscovite antiquity. Moscow, which is about twenty-five miles in circumference, rises on gently- 274 RUSSIAN DAYS. undulating hills around which glides a small sinuous river ; the irregular streets are built in two concentric zones, the interior of which is the older and more picturesque one. In the centre, on a yet more elevated hill, stands the KremHn, visible from every point within the horizon, and on all sides the sky-line is pierced by sparkling domes, cupolas, spires, and pinnacles, with an effect like aerial chevaux de /rise of gold and silver. After the great conflagration in 1812 the city was re- built on the same tortuous lines, with little change of general aspect except that more gardens were introduced and the houses were more decorated. The Kremlin was much less injured than the city at large, and thus the venerable city retains, except in its modern outstretching boulevards, its ancient prestige. It is the revered Mecca of the Russian peasant, who as soon as he catches sight from afar of the golden cross on the Ivan tower falls on his knees with patriotic devotion. Game Vendor— Moscow Market. 276 RUSSIAN DAYS. It is less than two hundred years since the in- fluence of Western Europe was first known in Russia, and thus far the traditions and customs of the East are not effaced. Long centuries of Byzantine civihzation, which even under Tartar rule was preserved in the convent fortresses, have impressed upon the people great faith in their re- ligion, fidelity to the Tsars, and love for the father- land. All these elements of stability promise well for the future greatness of the empire ; and to these may be added the material dependence of each portion upon the others. The grain-lands of the South, the forests of the North, the sea-coasts of both for the industrial interior, form a mutual and permanent bond of necessity. Only after many days does the eye accustom itself to the bizarre and marvellous variety of form and color in Moscow. Here stands a palace with imposing iron portals painted in red and gold ; there, a white church with a constellation of stars MOSCon\ 277 on the blue ground of its dome : next, a cluster of yellow wooden tenements, then a family man- sion with profuse pillars ; again, we pass an open court or garden entered through a wrought-iron trellised gateway that stands between green and white columns, and within we see a convent, or a church, or a private dwelling, with splashes of red roof, blue roof, green roof, or gilded cupolas : — - as if a mad painter had shaken a gigantic palette full of color over the entire city. Add to this the ornate signs above the shops and the same gay simulacra as at St. Petersburg of fruits, vegetables, wines, etc. The shrines for holy images with perpetual lamps before them are nn^re profuse, and the genuflections and signs of the cross more noticeable, perhaps because the streets are not so wide and the crowd is larger. There are fewer foreigners in Moscow, and odd costumes are frequent. Now and then a Persian or an Armenian in embroidered fez and jacket 278 RUSSIAN DAYS. and creamy silk vest strides with slippered feet along the pavement, or a turbaned Circassian, girt with silver belt from which hangs a scimitar and a yataghan. White-bearded old peasants from the country with serious blue eyes would pose as Abrahams to the delight of an artist, and the hand-worked dresses of the girls with lavish strings of colored beads are extremely tasteful. We took a drive one Sunday afternoon to the Petrovski Park, 'and came upon the Sax Garden, where there was a fine band and restaurant, and a crowd of pleasure-seekers as gay as parrots and peacocks. One costume was a high, gold-em- broidered cap, and a black silk dress with scarlet sleeves, to which were added gold chains, brooches, and necklaces enough to fit out a jeweller's win- dow. But such attire is exceptional ; the usual dress is cosmopolitan, with national variations. Our valet de place, who perhaps had his own in- terest in the matter, conducted us one day to a MOSCOW. 279 small shop of purely Caucasian silks and orna- ments, the master of which was a Persian, and in his becoming native costume a superb speci- men of Oriental manly beauty, with tragic face and reverent ctnirtesy of manner. His creamy silk shawls were as fascinating as himself, and we made several purchases at prices lower than he asked, though not without a feeling that it was almost an insult to his Grandeur to ask a reduc- tion on the wares he condescended to hand over to our Commonplaces. After this, one of my party, whose blue eyes see all in the world that 'is beautiful and good and nothing that is ugly or evil, vanished every day for half an hour, under the protection of Evanson, ostensibly to buy a Bagdad shawl or some bit of Eastern trumpery, but actually, I believe, for the sake of seeing this Persian Magnificence lay his hand on his heart and say in soft syllables, with a voice as deep-toned and sonorous as a Moscow bell, ^' To you, my lady, 28o RUSSIAN DAYS. I would give it for ten rubles ; but, alas ! I cannot for less than fifteen ! Nevertheless, accept it for twelve !" The bells of Moscow ! There may exist such musical intonations elsewhere, but I have never heard them. Every morning at an early hour the bells in the churches near the Slavianski Bazaar lifted their grand voices, not suddenly, in stunning avalanche of sound, but in single successive notes in the same diapason, which filled the air with harmonious pulsations, deep and thrilling as those of a mighty organ. All other bells, even festive bells in other lands, are a jangle and a wTangle forever hereafter, — excepting " Big Ben " of Westminster and St, Mark's in Venice, which in their melodious resonance are akin to those of Moscow. The great bell of the Ivan tower is unequalled in size as well as in timbre ; it was brought from Novgorod the Great, where it once called the population to arms when the Muscovite Ivan Tower, Kremlin— Moscow. 282 RUSSIAN DAYS. Grand Dukes threatened their freedom. There are thirty-two more bells in the Ivan tower, two of them made of silver, and the oldest one bears the date of 1550. There are 345 churches in Mos- cow, and as doubtless they all have bells, the flood of melodious sound on Christmas and Easter morning may be imagined. At the foot of the Ivan tower stands on a low granite pedestal the colossal Tsar Kolokol, or King of Bells, which weighs about five hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Its date is unknown, for it fell and was recast several times, and each time gained essentially in weight. In 1733 it was last recast, and the ladies of Moscow commem- orated the occasion by throwing into the liquid metal many jewels and gold and silver ornaments, which probably weakened its strength, for it fell again five years later, and remained half-buried for a century. This tower of brass with walls two feet thick, capable of holding twenty-five or thirty MO SCO M'. 283 men, will probably never again fulfil its mission as a bell, but now poses as a monument and a failure. The clustered bells that ring successive notes in the same diapason remind me of an anecdote of a certain princess who was accustomed to enter- tain her guests by the instrumental performance of a number of her serfs, who were trained, ac- cording to a prevailing custom, to sound each his single note in the proper place in the harmony. One evening the musicians were not forthcoming as usual, and on the princess being asked the rea- son, she replied, ' ' I am sorry that you can have no music to-night, but my C sharp has received forty lashes of the knout to-day, and is therefore unable to sound his note. " THE KREMLIN. The Kremlin, or ancient citadel, dating back of the XV. centur}', was repeatedly destroyed by fire in 284 RUSSIAN DAYS. its earlier days, and has existed in its present form only one hundred and fifty years. Its crenelated walls, pierced by five great archways of entrance, embrace a triangular space of two square miles, and are flanked by enormous towers of every con- ceivable shape and size, round and square, light and graceful as minarets, or solid as bastions, surmounted by steep scaly roofs, brilliant as the hues of a tropical serpent. Below the ramparts lie verdant terraces, around the foot of which winds the lovely Moskva River. Formerly, watch- men on these battlements were constantly on the look-out, and when they saw clouds of dust sweeping over the flat plains of the south they knew that the Tartar hordes of the Crimea were at hand with devastating purpose. Then the great bell of the Ivan tower sounded the call of warning, and every one fled for safety to the forti- fied monasteries or the palace, at whose gates the wild horsemen battered in vain. The Kremlin, AIOSCOW. 285 which is the arsenal of the army, the centre of the most sacred churches and of the royal palaces, is the Acropolis of Russia, and has been com- pared to the Alhambra. But the Alhambra has no such opulence of clustered domes and pinnacles, no such lavishment of golden reflections ; the shadows of a gifted and injured people rest upon its massive bastions ; the last sigh of Boabdil lin- gers in the Hall of Lions, and modern restora- tions of its delicate polychromatic tracery cannot chase the phantoms of sad sultanas, whose lutes once vibrated to laughter and the silvery fall of fountains. The Kremlin has no similar pathos in its history. The race that created it is the race of to-day, in full progress of development, and its rev- erence for the past combines with the love and hope of the present. I believe that one reason why our tour through Norway and Russia was so full of en- joyment was because we were not called upon to sigh over mouldering palaces and be-poetized ruins. Spasski (Redeemer) Gate — Kremlin. MOSCOW. 287 The most grandiose gate leading into the Krem- lin is the Spasski (Redeemer) Gate, so called be- cause above the arch of entrance on the inner side is a sacred picture of the Saviour, which is one of the most revered in the city. No one, from Tsar to peasant, ever goes by without saluting it, and strangers are warned to follow that example — not only to uncover the head, but to leave it uncov- ered until they have passed through the deep arch- way : a requisition which, when the thermometer is ten or fifteen degrees below zero, must be rather conducive to sudden influenza. There is a legend that once when the Tartars attacked the Kremlin, such a mist came suddenly from the picture that they were unable to find the entrance. Criminals formerly executed in the large square outside always offered it their last prayers. There is another gate called the Nicholas, over which is suspended a miraculous image of St. Nicholas. Napoleon ordered the destruction of RUSSIAN DAYS. this tower, but it escaped with only a cleft that ex- tended to the frame of the picture, and not even the glass before it, or the hanging-lamp, was in- jured. After passing through the Spasski Gate we are on the elevated esplanade that overlooks the city, and surrounded by palaces, monasteries, and churches from which rise fantasic minarets and arrowy stems supporting crown-like golden domes, and clusters of larger domes which from certain angles reflect on their burnished surfaces clouds above and trees below. Beyond spreads the broad panorama. From the summit of the Ivan tower, which we ascended, there is a view as dazzling as a scene of enchantment. The eye sweeps over gardens, buildings with gay-colored roofs, and the thou- sand domes and countless Greek crosses which group in dark rich masses or spring in airy bright- ness under the play of sunshine and shadow. MOSCOW. 289 THE KREMLIN PALACES. We went every day to the Kremlin, and the days were all too few. We had only ten ; but they began early and ended late, and fortunately the usual warmth of summer was tempered by a daily shower. We awoke early each morning to the sound of those glorious bells, and we always sprang to the balcony to assure ourselves that the mise-en-scene had not vanished in the night. We passed two long mornings at the Imperial Palace and the adjoining one of the ancient Tsars. Their details are fixed on my memory, but I hesi- tate to attempt description. The New Palace built by Nicholas presents externally a mixture of architecture quite incongruous with the Byzantine edifices around it, but the interior has all the os- tentation of space resplendent with gold and color that delisrhts the Russian eve. The vestibule is supported by the usual monoliths, which here 290 RUSSIAN DAYS. are of gray marble, and the lofty staircase is of the same material. Two superb crystal vases stand on either side at the top, and the wall is nearly covered by a vigorous painting of the victory of Dimitry of the Don over the Tartars, in 1380 — a ruinous victory, as he began with four hundred thousand men and ended with forty thousand. A good monarch, say historians, was this same Dimitry, just and kindly, but the victim of Tartar invasion at last. From this picture we pass through ante-rooms and corridors, until we reach the chastely beautiful Hall of St. George, two hundred feet long and proportionally wide and high, all in gold and white ; the floors of exquisite marquetrie, the walls inscribed with the names in gold of the members of the Order. The crystal chandeliers hold 3,200 candles ; but the next room en suite, the Alexander Hall, w^hich is only half as long, is lighted by 4,500. This superb room in pink and MOSCOW. 291 gold is filled with pictures relating to the life of St. Alexander Nevsky. Then follows the Hall of St. Andrew, vaulted like a Gothic cathedral, with walls of pale-blue silk and gold ; and the thrones of the emperor and empress at the end are su- perbly carved and gilded, with jewelled crowns and a jewelled letter A resting above the gold-em- broidered crimson velvet which cushions them ; the dais and the steps leading to it are covered with cloth of gold. We proceed to other state drawing-rooms and state bedrooms adorned with brocaded walls, jas- per mantelpieces, verde-antique pilasters, mirrors in silver frames, etc., until we are sated with mod- ern splendor, and gladly descend by an inner pas- sage to the ancient palace of the Tsars, which is so fantastic and bizarre that we seem to have been led blindfold to Ispahan or Bagdad. 1 cannrt picture all these most curious rooms ; but the banqueting-room where the emperor and 292 RUSSIAN DAYS. empress dine the day of their coronation will suffice to give an idea of the others. The ceiling is formed of gilded vaultings which meet in the centre, and are upheld by an enormous pillar around which stands in prandial pomp, on these occasions, a massive and ancient silver service. Geometric figures of frowning colors overlie the gold of the walls, and, following the lines of the arches, dark inscriptions in old Sclavonic letters bear to a stranger's eye a mysterious menace like that of the writing on Belshazzar's wall. The newly-crowned sovereigns in the pomp of their regalia sit on thrones under a canopy of cloth of gold bordered with ermine, and drink to the health of their subjects, while crowned heads only share their repast. The highest functionaries and superior clergy are seated at side tables, always facing the imperial party. The carpet in this room is like Persian em- broideries, a wonderful massing of brilliant bits MOSCOW. 293 of cloth sewed into apertures cut in the ground- work ; the colors very bright, but quite in har- mony with the principles of that sort of art. Very interesting is the Terem, or suite of rooms in the upper stories set apart for the wives and children of the Tsars, to which the ascent is by a narrow twisted stairway with carved stone balus- trade ; the rooms are small and vaulted, ceilings and walls overlaid with ornate and elaborate arabesques ; red predominates in one room, blue in another, green in a third ; frescoes intermingled present sacred subjects, and the narrow painted windows repeat the mural colors. The light as it came through them was dim and cloistered even that summer day, and must have been lugubrious indeed to the royal ladies who were once restricted to these narrow limits. One wonders how they passed the interminable hours : the wife of Peter the Great in her modest home in St. Petersburg embroidered her husband's doublet and superin- 2 94 J^USSIAN DAYS. tended his dinner. The furniture is Asiatic in fashion, very odd but unostentatious ; a cushion and rug that He at the foot of the uncomfortable wooden arm-chair of the Tsar Michael were worked by one of his daughters, but their bar- baric combinations of color would scarcely find favor in our art-schools. There is a charming, quaint simplicity in the ancient Romanoff house outside of the Kremlin, where we felt introduced into a princely Russian household of three centuries past. It would leave much to desire in this luxurious age, in size, light, and comfort ; but as the small, low rooms are made of carved wood, dark brown with age, they contrast restfully with the opulence of decoration in other royal abodes. It has even now a look of home life ; we could almost see the sturdy Romanoff children playing with the toys and primers which are preserved in a glass case since they were laid there two hundred years ago, — such MOSCOW. 295 toys and primers as our babies would laugh to scorn, — and we could fancy the grandfather of our friend Peter shuffling about in the half-worn yellow-leather slippers that have survived him, and the Tsarina complacent with her extremely coarse linen chemise — embroidered all the same — now yellow with the tints of time. THE KREMLIN CHURCHES. The most characteristic church in Moscow is the Cathedral of the Assumption, in the Kremlin, where the Tsars have always been crowned. Its dark and sumptuous interior recalls the gleaming cavern of St. Mark's, but does not, like that, stretch into mystical indistinctness. Four im- mense square pillars supporting the central cu- pola are flanked by four smaller ones. On the golden ground which covers every inch of the walls, as well as of the pillars, are depicted hun- dreds of sombre, archaic saints, martyrs, and even 296 RUSSIAN BAYS. the Eternal Father in guise of an old man with sweeping white hair and beard — a pantheon of nimbussed gods whose sad, fixed eyes and ex- tended hands seem to menace rather than bless. The lofty gold wall of the Ikonostas reaches almost to the ceiling ; on its fayade stand five rows of saints, one above the other, their aureoles studded with diamonds, while bracelets and neck- laces of rubies, sapphires, pearls, emeralds, and amethysts sparkle around their brown necks and hands. The more uncouth in mien and color these images, the more they are esteemed ; those of most ancient and holy repute are nearly black, like the Madonnas of St. Luke. Their accom- paniments of burning lamps, candles, jewels, and gold seem little removed from pagan idolatry ; but we remember that these symbols appeal to the imagination : that flame is a token of the presence of the Holy Spirit, and lavishness of ornament bestowed represents the abnegation of the givers. MOSCOW. 297 But although the first effect of these Russian churches dazzles the eye and kindles the fancy, we recur with increased admiration to the ' ' petri- fied music " of Gothic architecture, the perspec- tive of ''long-drawn aisle and fretted vault," and the personality of sculptured saints and apostles. As an example of the realistic impression of the latter, I recall the solemnly dramatic burial of Pius IX. in St, Peter's, which I had the privilege of witnessing. It was at night, and the vast edi- fice was in darkness save for the constellation of lamps that always burn around the tomb of the apostle, a few great candles that stood here and there on pedestals, and those borne by the mourn- ful procession. Their gleams fell fitfully on white monuments in the indefinite recesses of aisles and chapels, and cast Rembrandt-like shadows and lights on sculptured hierarchs and apostles. The uncofiined body of the dead high-priest, robed in scarlet and crowned with the tiara, was borne 298 RUSSIAN DAYS. down the central nave and around the balda- chin of St. Peter to the chapel of the choir, fol- lowed by the helmeted ' ' Noble Guard, " ermined cardinals, empurpled monsignori, and a few favored spectators in deep black. In the fore- ground, majestic in form and attitude, stood St. Mark upon his pedestal, with outstretched hand pointing to the mural recess far above the tessel- lated pavement, and revealed by a solitary taper inside, where a departed pope sleeps until his successor claims his place. At every one of these rites, for centuries past, the inexorable hand of the marble apostle relegates to rest the marble pontiff. No such startling realism can be offered by the flatness of paint and sheen of gilding in the Greek Church. But, on the other hand, the music of the latter is far grander and more artistic than that of the Roman Church ; and the habiliments of the priests, the details of the service, and the devout- ness of the people make an effect superior in MOSCOW. 299 grace, dignity, and impressiveness. It would re- quire a volume to describe the relics and sacerdo- tal ornaments which we saw in the Church of the Assumption and others within the Kremlin. Prominent among them was a book of gospels presented by the mother of Peter the Great, in binding of solid gold studded with precious stones, valued at ^^50, 000 ; it weighs one hun- dred pounds, and requires two men to lift it. We were carried back to the days of the Emperor Constahtine when we looked at the great gold cross incrusted with emeralds, rubies, etc., which belonged to him, and pageants of all earthly pomp were figured in the coronation-crowns and gorgeous vestments of patriarchs and bishops. The latter are principally in the sacristy of the Holy Synod ; chief among them is a crimson- velvet robe worn by the patriarchs of Moscow when they were consecrated, thickly embroidered with pearls and precious stones, and plates of 300 RUSSIAN DAYS. gold with sacred devices in niello work are inter- spersed, making the entire weight of the vestment fifty-four pounds. Ivan the Terrible, one of the worst of the early Tsars, presented it in expiation of the murder of his own son ! Very many of the sacred vestments and vessels are expiatory offerings of sovereigns, or gifts to prove their piety. Some of the robes are covered with pictorial representations of the whole sacred drama, from the Annunciation to the Ascen- sion. The mitres are like domes surmounted by or- nate crosses ; one of them has a ground of blue damask, bordered with ermine ; the Saviour, the Virgin, and numerous saints, in gold, pearls, and stones, decorate the surface, and inscriptions in pearls fill the intervening spaces. Two of them run thus : ' ' Look down upon us from Thy heavens, O Lord !" "I put all my confidence in thee. Mother of God ; take me under thy holy protection." MOSCOW. 301 All the precious stones added to this mitre give it the weight of five and a half pounds. I pass by the beautiful crosses of every sort — the pectorals, the altar-crosses, and those carried in processions with banners of such bulk and won- drous color and design as never are seen out of Russia ; but I pause a moment at the glass cases within which are the rare and \o\Q\y pa?iagias, or pectoral images worn by bishops. Some of them are of enamelled gold ornamented with rubies and pearls, and cameo figures of saints in the centre ; another is a sardonyx nearly four inches long, cut in three strata, — on the upper one being the Virgin and Child, in Byzantine design ; a third is a superb ruby engraved with the Annunciation, set in gold and diamonds ; and the fourth, a jasper encircled with colored jewels, presents a bas-relief of the Madonna among clouds, with arms upraised in prayer. Before leaving the churches of the Kremlin, 302 RUSSIAN DAYS. the marvel and the beauty of which I have but touched with the tip of a flying wing, I return for a moment to the Cathedral of the Assumption, where I must mention a miracle-working Virgin, attributed to St. Luke. It found its way hither from Kief in the twelfth century, is believed to have forced the flight of Tamerlane from Russia, and its jewels, estimated at ^45,000 (one emerald alone being worth ;^i 0,000), gleam in the twi- light of the edifice with an almost supernatural light. At the approach of the French army all the most precious articles from the churches were secreted by the priests ; but nevertheless the sol- diers carried oif from this one alone five tons of silver and five hundred pounds in gold. Oblong tombs of patriarchs and bishops stand around the walls ; those most highly venerated are in the four corners, the place of honor here as in the Orient ; without effigy or sculpture, these sarcophagi re- Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel — In the Kremlin. 304 RUSSIAN DAYS. semble, as Gautier said, ''great trunks made for the journey of eternity. " Turning from the splendor of these ' ' lamps of sacrifice," we drove to the spacious Foundling Hospital, which stands in its own pretty park. We sent our cards to the Superior, who received us courteously, and conversed in fluent French while she escorted us through the well-ordered establish- ment. The rooms are all of great size, clean and airy, but very simply and scantily furnished. In the first one a number of neatly-dressed children, from five to ten years old, were at dinner. They rose and saluted us like little ladies and gentlemen as they were — orphans, we were told, of good birth and property, but without relatives, and therefore sent here until old enough for school-education. We then walked through five or six long rooms, in each of which there were at least sixty babies — the ' ' foundlings, " proper. Only two of them could be called pretty ; and their unattractiveness MOSCOW. 305 of type was emphasized by the look of weary im- becility and old age that many new-born infants wear. Sixteen thousand are received every year ; about a third are illegitimate, and the remainder are brought by parents too poor to take care of them. Their tiny cribs were ranged in two long rows down the centre of the rooms ; and in front of them stood two rows of nurses, wearing short white sleeves, many strings of beads on their bare necks, and high white caps from which hung streamers of red or blue ribbons. Russian nurses wear blue when the baby in charge is a boy, and red when it is a girl. These peasant-women were in grattde tenue that day, as it was Sunday, when vis- itors are expected (the every-day dress is doubtless less coquettish), but their irregular Calmuck feat- ures were stolid and unresponsive. Those who had not babies at their breasts bowed very low, according to the fashion of the country, as we ap- 3o6 RUSSIAN DAYS. proached. The Matron was anxious to exhibit every part of the institution, and we could not with poHteness decline ; and thus we were shown the chapel, where the infants are baptized imme- diately on arrival, if that rite has not been pre- viously performed ; the book in which their num- bers and names are recorded, when a correspond- ing label is tied around the infant neck ; baths of copper lined with thick flannel ; presses full of coarse but soft linen, and down-pillows on which they are dressed. Excellent physicians are pro- vided, and every comfort for the little waifs dur- ing the four weeks of their stay ; after that they are sent, together with their nurses, to the villages where the latter belong. About two rubles a month (from a dollar to a dollar and a half) are allowed for their maintenance, but more than half of them die from the rigor of the-climate and un- suitable food. With all reverence for the gentle humanity of MOSCOM'. 307 this hospital, the sight of these helpless, homeless little beings was most pitiful. The four weeks within those sheltering walls are doubtless to ver\- many the least wretched of their lives. KUSSIAX MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS. Monasteries and convents are much alike everv- where since they have ceased to be receptacles of learning or refuges from outside barbarism ; but in order to compare those in Russia with others in Western Europe, we visited two of the oldest and most revered. The Devichi Convent in ]Moscow has been for three hundred and fifty years a sanct- uary for Tsarinas and other high-born ladies, many of whom are buried within its fortressed walls. Passing through a grand gateway, we entered a cemetery of tombs more or less pretentious, in- closed in gilded iron railings, and guarded by crosses and images of saints. Intermingled are several churches in the usual ornate stvle. the 3o8 RUSSIAN DAYS. dwellings of the nuns, and simpler graves in every available spot, abundant flowers on the surface, but the ' ' conqueror worm"' beneath, revelling in his own domain. It was the hour for morning Mass in the principal chapel, and we obtained places near the choir, which was composed entirely of nuns. Their voices had neither sweetness nor power, and they were very unattractive women, sallow, dark, and of ascetic pallor. Perhaps their hideous veils were partly responsible ; few faces could stand the test of thick black serge, standing high and rigid on the head like an iron crown, and falling in long folds over a dress of the same funereal character. An abbess received us in her simple parlor with much courtesy, and led us the usual round of the pharmacy, the hospital, and the refectory. The nuns whom we saw without veils had pleasant faces ; the wooden floors were clean, tables and beds covered with white linen, pictured saints and MOSCOW. 309 burning lamps in every room, but no evidence of occupation except in the work-room, where were many specimens of embroidery on musUn, not original and rather expensive. In the dark crypt- like refectory were long, narrow tables set with the conventual coarse linen and iron spoons, and with bread of dark unsifted wheat, not unpalatable and doubtless more wholesome than the fine quality now disapproved by medical science. The abbess proudly led us through a cavernous brick passage to the kitchen, which was in fine order for exhibition that day, as it offered the un- usual luxury of a meat-soup and an insipid pink jelly, in honor of the fete-day of the Superior. We asked whether the nuns visit the sick or in- struct children ; and the reply was, ' ' No : they say their prayers and embroider." Thus the pallid lives of these well-born ladies are not even bright- ened by the gracious tints of charity and good works. 3IO RUSSIAA^ DAYS. Among other gentle amenities of the French invasion was the attempt to destroy this convent by putting barrels of gunpowder in the crypt of the principal church and igniting a stream of spir- its which they directed towards it. Several coura- geous nuns succeeded in extinguishing the flames. We started at eight o'clock one morning to take the train for Troitsa, in order to pass a few hours at the celebrated monastery of St. Sergius. It was always a pleasure, except for the atrocious pavements, to drive through the streets of this fascinating city. Moujiks alone were astir, more in harmony with the scene than their conven- tional masters. No women were visible, and in truth the old Asiatic habit of seclusion still retains a certain influence. We passed the large white station of the Siberia railway, and shuddered at thought of the agonized exiles to whom it has been a portal of despair. Lasciate ogm' speranza, voi cJi' entrate qui. Moscoir. 311 From another station our train took us north- ward forty miles through a pretty undulating country marked by villages, gardens, and green- domed churches. The first appearance of the "holy, ancient, and monastic pile" is very strik- ing ; on a slightly elevated hill a quadrilateral, with very high white walls twenty feet thick, and eight fortified towers, incloses an imposing group of domed churches resplendent with the usual decorations. It was built more than five hun- dred years ago by St. Sergius — a man so eminent for piety that potentates came from afar to seek his blessing, and native sovereigns in return enriched the monastery with large grants of land. In the last century it owned a hundred thousand serfs, and the treasures within are unaccountable. It with- stood several sieges of Tartars and Poles, was a refuge for innumerable pilgrims, as well as for Peter the Great during the insurrection of the Streltzi, and fortunately the French never found ,12 RUSSIAN DAYS. their way here — all which exemptions are attributed to the miracle-working portrait of St. Sergius. Within the walls is a miniature city, more brilHantly Oriental than the Orient itself : ten churches, the palaces of the Tsar and the Archimandrite, the refectory, cells of the monks, and treasure-rooms are planted without regularity, at any convenient point. There are no cloisters, but no hue of the rainbow is lacking : bright blue, red, pale green, and profuse gold inside, and outside, under the blue of the sky, the gold of the sun and the opaque white of the walls make a dizzy riot of color which, here as in Moscow, when gently toned by time is continually renewed. Service was proceeding in the Church of the Trinity, and we made our way, through the most picturesque and evil-smelHng crowd we had yet encountered, to the most weird of all interiors. The same long rows of unearthly figures on gold backgrounds stretch in perspective down the jiioscow. 313 walls, stand on pillars, or start like phantoms from angles, revealed by a sudden light and shrinking back as it retires. The Ikonostas, which rises to the vaulted ceiling, is incomparably rich in precious stones around the aureoles of sainted hierarchs ; in close proximity is the silver- gilt tomb of St. Sergius, glittering with lamps and a canopy supported by four columns all of the same metal : around it knelt a group of pilgrims with long white beards and some noble faces illumined with faith and fervor ; desolate beggars in brown rags with yellow lights, their legs bound in rags strapped on like a classic cothurnus ; moujiks in dull reds and blues, prostrating, sign- ing the cross, kissing the sacred tomb ; while above them scintillated the prismatic hues of rubies, sapphires, and diamonds, irradiating here and there an uplifted head or a suppliant hand — a most typical picture which nothing in West- ern Europe can repeat. We visited the rooms 314 RUSSIAN DAYS. where monks were copying with patient fideUty pictures of saints in colored draperies and golden glories, the shop where they are sold, and the treasuries of priestly paraphernalia presented by high personages, and not inferior to those in the Kremlin. Again are vestments embroidered with pearls and precious stones, forming flowers, figures, and Sclavonic inscriptions ; Bibles and liturgies en- amelled in arabesque patterns overlaid with rubies, emeralds, and sapphires of great size and splendor ; sacred vessels of gold with rims of diamonds ; strings of pearls, and crowns, crosses, caskets, vases, chandeliers : a Nile-like overflow of riches, each object the expression of a spiritual sentiment — of gratitude, of faith, or of remorse. But we could not linger in these rooms ; the windows seemed to have been sealed for centuries, and to the asphyxiating atmosphere was added the intolerable odor from an unwashed crowd. It is said that cholera and plague have never entered MOSCOH\ 315 these holy walls ; and if that is true, Science may as well burn its books on cleanUness and ventila- tion. The fraternity live the same self-centred lives as the nuns of the convent Devichi ; painting takes the place of embroidery — voila tout ! A few miles distant are some old catacombs in- habited by men who have vowed seclusion from the light of day and the face of man : needless to say, we did not disturb their enjoyment. IN GENERAL. There seems no end to the sights of Moscow : museums, private picture-galleries, drives to parks, and excursions outside, as well as theatres where, even when ignorant of the language, the costumes and manners of the country will entertain. The Gostinnoi Dvor, or Bazaar, is a labyrinth of shops as small as those on* the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, filled with cheap wares from all the provinces of the empire ; in the silversmiths' row 3i6 /RUSSIAN DAYS. are pretty trifles for souvenirs, for which, however, one must bargain or pay extortionately. Very near the Bazaar is the most extraordinary church in Moscow ; nor does another Uke it exist in any part of the world. At evening it seems a fantastic mirage or the architecture of cloud-land painted by sunset. It is a sort of Hindoo pagoda, containing nine chapels linked together internally by a maze of narrow corridors ; it has no centre, and each part is different from and independent of all the others. One cupola is carved like an artichoke, another like a pineapple, a third resem- bles a melon, a fourth a Turkish turban, and five more are of various designs, — all colored, as well as the body of the edifice, with the entire chro- matic scale, enhanced by silver and gold. This wild creation, which is called the Church of St. Basil, the patron saint of idiots, or the Vasili Blajennoi, was another of the expiatory offerings of John the Terrible for the murder of his son— Church of St. Basil — Moscow. 3l8 RUSSIAN DAYS. much on the principle of the monumental effigies with folded hands "Who seek for life-long evil to atone By ceaseless orisons in stone." The climax of all the dazzling and half-barbaric opulence of historic and hereditary souvenirs is found in the Imperial Treasury. From the palace of the Tsars an immense staircase closed by a trel- lised iron gate leads to this receptacle of gifts from sultans and shahs, tributes of alliance with wild Asiatic chiefs, tokens of commercial traffic, — in short, the assembled Lares and Penates of all centuries past. We enter first the Armory, where four sentinels in old Sclavonic armor, mounted on strangely- caparisoned horses, never leave their posts, but guard with perpetual vigilance the trophies, flags, standards, and fire-arms which are grouped on walls and around pillars that support the vaulted MO s com: 319 roof. I have seen the finest armories in Europe ; but none equals the interest of this, because it bears the stamp of a different civihzation. The art is lost of making the damascened blades and helmets accumulated here ; the banners are most pictorial and superb : one of the sixteenth century exhibits on a star-spangled field an image of Christ with a host of saints and seraphim on horseback (!) and a cloud of heavenly witnesses in the background. There are coats of mail en- graved with texts from the Koran ; scimitars and daggers with handles incrusted with turquoises and precious stones. In another room we salute the entire Romanoff family, with whose positive features and tall, mus- cular forms we have now become familiar, Peter the Great was our favorite ; his bluff, swarthy face, keen black eyes, and resolute mouth show the indomitable will, overflow of brain, and rough self-assertion that rank him as Ursus Major in the 320 RUSSIAN DAYS. planisphere of sovereigns. Every object that illus- trates his life is interesting, from his big boots to the miniature carriage with mica windows in which as a child he was driven around the paternal park ; and we admire for his sake, even more than all the other resplendent crowns in this treasury, the one he had made for his peasant- wife, which contains 2536 diamonds, besides a ruby of almost inestimable value. The room of royal insignia contains an op- pressive mass of gold, precious stones, and gor- geous apparel. There are the Kazan and Astra- khan crowns before they were united with Russia, and that of Vladimir Monomaque, whose wife was the daughter of Harold, king of England, at the time of the battle of Hastings — compounds of pearls and jewels counted by the hundreds, and held together by filigree gold with Greek crosses at the top. The sceptre of Vladimir, about a yard in length. MOSCOW. 321 contains 270 large diamonds and 300 rubies and emeralds. Another crown possesses 900 dia- monds, and the cross rises from an immense ruby. Among the regalia now used at coronations is a girdle of large diamonds ; a sceptre containing the great diamond Lazaref, one of the largest known ; the emperor's crown, made entirely of diamonds, a row of immense pearls, and an uncut ruby an inch long. The empress's crown is equally rich, but smaller, and is fastened on with diamond hair-pins. A curious relic is the chain of Michael, the first of the Romanoffs, composed of ninety-nine rings, each of which is engraved with one of his titles, accompanied by a short prayer. The beauty of workmanship in all these baubles is as remarkable as their value. The velvet state robes are as ornate as those in the sacristy of the Synod, and thrones of ancient date might verify the biblical stories of "King Solomon in all his glory." One that came from 322 RUSSIAN DAYS. Persia is of ivory studded with 875 diamonds, 1223 rubies, besides turquoises and pearls innu- merable. One great room is devoted to many hundred articles of all ages and countries, for state use and decoration, in the way of pitchers, goblets, vases, candelabra, etc. , of gold and silver with everv wild variation of ornamentation, hio;-h and low relief In view of the accumulated wealth in churches, palaces, monasteries, and treasuries throughout the empire, Monte Cristo's caves and Schehere- zade's fables appear very credible possibilities ; and though tolerably familiar with similar collections in other countries, we said a few^ days later, as we sauntered through the Green Vaults at Dresden, ''There is nothing really splendid outside of Russia." However, everything has its point of advantage ; we were sated with splendor ; we de- clared we never wanted to see another diamond ; and swinging the pendulum to the extreme tip MOSCOM^\ 323 of its arc, we exclaimed, " Give us love in a hut, with water and a crust !' No one can study IMoscow for even a few days without feeling an interest and admiration that few cities can inspire. Others are palimpsests of change and perhaps progression ; ]\Ioscow re- sists new inscriptions and clings to its sacred past. We were more than ever sympathetic with it when we looked down from the "Sparrows" Hill," four miles distant, on the broad panorama of its stately architecture with its golden fringe of minarets and domes. This was the view which first met the eyes of Napoleon when he stood on this hill, seventy- four years ago, and watched the advance of his eager battalions from three different points. But no Russian forces appeared to contest the way, and an ominous stillness pervaded the air. The em- peror galloped with his staff to one of the barriers and halted there, expecting to receive the keys of the city. He might as well have waited for her- ;24 RUSSIAN DAYS. aids from a city of the dead : three hundred thou- sand inhabitants were flying northward, and only sufferers in hospitals and prisoners in dungeons remained to mock the entrance of ''la grande an?iee." Then began the holocaust previously prepared by the Muscovites of their beloved and revered city ; the conflagration lasted three days, and the mortified invader found himself the mark of the scorn and reproach of all Europe. The familiar details of the tragedy are recalled by the traveller with painful realism. We returned to St. Petersburg for a day, and then took the rail for Berlin. As far as the German frontier at Eydkuhnen, twenty-four hours, the car- riages, the stations, and rail afford entire com- fort, though the scenery has no interest ; the re- maining twelve hours the railway is very rough. Our Russian Days had ceased to be, and our Norway Nights were poems of the past. Sun, MOSCOW. 325 moon, and stars resumed possession of the sky ; we had come back to the tyranny of dates and divisions of time ; the Hour to Retire walked in with his lamp, the Hour to Rise threw open the window. No longer, for the year of grace 1886, could be found the gladsome inconsequence of ''Theure qui plait a voire Majeste" r, ^i; <-> £/ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Ip 020 677 6523