DOWN THE VOLGA AGAIN.—RUSSIAN RECEPTION CEREMONY.—SIMBIRSK, SAMARA, AND SARATOV.—GERMAN SETTLERS ON THE VOLGA.—DON COSSACKS.—ASTRACHAN.—CURIOUS POPULATION.—VOYAGE ON THE CASPIAN SEA.—THE CASPIAN PETROLEUM REGION.—TANK-STEAMERS.—INTERESTING FACTS AND FIGURES OF THE NEW PETROLIA.—PRESENT PRODUCT OF THE BAKU OIL-FIELDS.—EXCURSION TO BALAKHANI, AND VISIT TO THE OIL-WELLS.—TEMPLES OF THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS.—ANTIQUITY OF THE CASPIAN PETROLEUM REGION.—MARCO POLO AND OTHER AUTHORITIES.  
While our friends were listening to Mr. Hegeman's account of the journey through Siberia, the boat was continuing steadily on her course down the Volga. One of her passengers was a Russian count on the way to his estate, from which he had been absent for nearly two years. He had notified his people of his coming, and when the steamer stopped at the village where he was to land, there was quite an assemblage ready to meet him.
Doctor Bronson ascertained that they would remain at the landing an hour or more, as there was a considerable amount of freight to be put on shore. The party prepared to spend the time on land, and quite unexpectedly Frank and Fred were treated to a curious and interesting spectacle. It was the welcome of the count by his people, in accordance with Russian custom.
As he ascended the bank to the village, he was met by a procession of men, women, and children. It was headed by four venerable men with long, flowing beards, and dressed in the sheepskin coats with which we have been made familiar. One of the men in front carried a dish on which was a loaf of bread, and his comrade had another dish filled with salt. One man of the second couple carried a jug or pitcher of water. The Doctor explained to the youths that the presentation of bread, salt, and water was a ceremonial of Russian hospitality of very ancient date.
 OFFERING OF THE VILLAGERS.
The men bowed low as they approached the count; on his part he urged them to stand upright and regard him as their friend. They halted directly in front of him, and then the bearer of the bread spoke in dignified tones as follows:
[Pg 404]
"We come, most noble master, to give the welcome of our village, and present you such food as we can offer, according to the ancient custom of our country."
In a few kindly words the count thanked them for their hospitality, and wished that their lives would be prosperous and happy. Then he cut a slice out of the loaf of bread and ate it, after dipping it in the salt. Next he drank a glass of the water, pouring it from the pitcher with his own hands. When he had finished he again thanked the men for their hospitality, and asked them to give his good wishes to all the people. This ended the ceremony, and the count was then at liberty to enter the carriage that stood waiting, and ride to his house, some distance back from the river.
Doctor Bronson explained that bread and salt have a prominent place in Russian ceremonials, not only of welcome, but at weddings and on other occasions. The bread is invariably the rye or black bread of the country, and the guest to whom it is offered would show great rudeness if he declined[Pg 405] to partake of it. A knife lies on the top of the loaf; the guest himself cuts the loaf, and must be careful to dip the slice in the salt before placing it in his mouth.
In their descent of the Volga, our friends passed a succession of villages on either bank, and occasionally a town or city of importance. The day after leaving Kazan they stopped at Simbirsk, the capital of the province of the same name, and the centre of a considerable trade. It is on the right bank of the river, and has a population of twenty-five or thirty thousand.
About a hundred miles farther down the Volga is Samara, which generally resembles Simbirsk, but is larger, and possesses a more extensive commerce. A railway extends from Samara to Orenburg, on the frontier of Siberia. On the other side of the Volga Samara is connected with the railway system which has its centre at Moscow. With railway and river to develop its commerce, it is not surprising that the place is prosperous, and has grown rapidly since the middle of the century.
Mr. Hegeman told the youths that many Swiss and Germans were settled along this part of the Volga, and he pointed out some of their villages as the boat steamed on her course. The Government allows them perfect freedom in religious matters, and they have an excellent system of schools which they manage at their own expense and in their own way. In other respects they are under the laws of the Empire, and their industry and enterprise have had a beneficial effect upon their Muscovite neighbors. The first of these settlers came here more than a hundred years ago; their descendants speak both German and Russian, and form quite an important part of the population.
Larger than Simbirsk and Samara rolled into one is Saratov, about a hundred miles below the city we have just described. It contains nearly a hundred thousand inhabitants; its houses are well built and spacious, and its streets are unusually broad, even for Russia. Our friends took a carriage-ride through the city, visited several of its sixteen or eighteen churches, and passed an hour or more in one of the factories devoted to the manufacture of leather goods.
Frank and Fred thought the churches were fully equal to those of any other Russian city they had seen, with the exception of a few of the most celebrated, and they greatly regretted their inability to make a fuller inspection of the place. But they consoled themselves with the reflection that they had seen the principal cities of the Empire, and the smaller ones could not offer many new and distinctive features.
In the province of Saratov they were on the border of the region of[Pg 406] the Don Cossacks, and at some of the landings they had glimpses of this primitive people. Their country did not seem to be well cultivated, and Doctor Bronson told the youths that the Don Cossacks were more noted for skill in horsemanship than for patient industry. They prefer the raising of cattle, sheep, and horses to the labor of the field, and though many of them have accumulated considerable wealth they have little inclination for luxurious living.
 SHOEING AN OX.
An amusing scene at one of the landings was the Cossack method of shoeing an ox. Frank thus describes it:
"The poor beast was flung upon his side and firmly held down by half a dozen men, while his legs were tied together in a bunch. Then he was turned upon his back, so that his feet were uppermost, giving the blacksmith an excellent opportunity to perform his work. The blacksmith's 'helper' sat upon the animal's head to keep him from rising or struggling; the unhappy ox indicated his discomfort and alarm by a steady moaning, to which the operators gave not the least attention.
 KNIFE-WHIP.
"At a shop in one of the villages we bought some souvenirs. Among them was a whip with a short handle and a braided lash, with a flat piece of leather at the end. The leather flap makes a great noise when brought down upon a horse's sides, but does not seem to hurt him much; crackers, like those on American and English whips, seem to be unknown here, at any rate we did not see any.
"The handle of the whip is sometimes utilized as the sheath of a knife. The one we bought contained a knife with a long blade, and reminded us of the sword-canes of more civilized countries."
"We stopped at Tsaritsin," said Fred, in his journal, "and had a short run on shore. At this point the Volga is only forty miles from the river Don, which empties into the Sea of Azof, and is navigable, in time of high water, about eight hundred miles from its mouth. There is a railway connecting the rivers, and also a canal; the latter is much longer than the railway, and was made by utilizing the channels of some little streams tributary to the rivers, and connecting them by a short cut.
"The Don is connected with the Dneiper as well as with the Volga; the three rivers form an important part of the great net-work of water[Pg 407] communication with which Russia is supplied. The Dneiper enters the Black Sea at Kherson, near Odessa; next to the Volga it is the largest river of European Russia, and flows through a fertile country. It is about twelve hundred miles long, and its navigation was formerly much obstructed by rapids and other natural obstacles. Many of these hinderances have been removed by the Government, but the river has lost some of its commercial importance since the railways were established.
"From Tsaritsin to Astrachan there is not much of interest, as the country is generally low and flat, and the towns and villages are few in number. Much of the country bordering the river is a marsh, which is overflowed at the periods of the annual floods, and therefore is of little value except for the pasturage of cattle.
"As we approached the mouth of the Volga we found the river divided into many channels; in this respect it resembles the Nile, the Ganges, the Mississippi, and other great watercourses of the globe. On one of these channels the city of Astrachan is built. It is not on the mainland, but on an island. Another channel passes not far from the one by which we came, and maintains a parallel course for a considerable distance.
 ARMENIAN BISHOP OF ASTRACHAN.
"Astrachan is the most cosmopolitan city we have seen in Russia, even more so than Kazan. The character of its seventy or eighty thousand inhabitants may be understood when I tell you that it has thirty-seven Greek churches, two Roman Catholic, two Armenian, and one Protestant, and is the seat of a Greek archbishop and an Armenian bishop. Then it has an Indian temple, fifteen mosques, and a Chinese pagoda. It has a botanical garden, an ecclesiastical school, schools of all the grades peculiar to the large towns of Russia, a naval academy, and I don't know how many other institutions. Books are printed here in Russian, Tartar, and other languages, and as you walk through the bazaars your ears are greeted by nearly all the tongues of Europe and Asia.
"To get at the cosmopolitan peculiarities of the city we were obliged to go through narrow and dirty streets, which somewhat marred the pleasure of our visit. In this respect Astrachan is more Oriental than Russian; its history dates beyond the time of the Russian occupation of the lower Volga, and therefore we must expect it to have Oriental features in preponderance.
[Pg 408]
"In commercial matters Astrachan is important, as it stands between Europe and Central Asia, and exchanges their goods. Great quantities of raw and embroidered silks, drugs, rhubarb, hides, sheepskins, tallow, and other Asiatic products come here, and in return for them the Russians dispose of cotton and other manufactures suited to the wants of their Kirghese and Turcoman subjects or neighbors.
"We are told that there are more than a hundred manufacturing establishments in Astrachan. Vast quantities of salt are made here or in the immediate vicinity, and the fisheries of the Volga and the Caspian Sea, which is only twenty miles away, are among the most important in the world. Unfortunately the harbor is so much obstructed by sand that only vessels of light draught can reach it from the Caspian. Since the opening of the railway connecting the Caspian with the Black Sea, much of the commerce which formerly came to Astrachan is diverted to the new route.
"We landed from the steamer and were taken to a hotel which promised very poorly, and fully sustained its promise. But any lodging was better than none at all, and as we were to remain only long enough to get away, it didn't much matter. We breakfasted on the steamer just before leaving it, and had no use for the hotel for several hours.
 A TARTAR KHAN.
"In our sight-seeing we went to a Tartar khan, or inn, a large building two stories high and built around a court-yard, in accordance with the Tartar custom. The court-yard receives wagons and horses, while the rooms that front upon it are rented to merchants and others who desire them. The master of the place will supply food to those who expressly ask for it, and pay accordingly, but he is not expected to do so.
"Travellers pick up their food at the restaurants in the neighborhood, and either bring it to their quarters or devour it at the place of purchase.[Pg 409] A corridor runs around each story of the khan, and the rooms open upon this corridor.
 TARTAR POSTILIONS.
"Under one of the stair-ways there is a room for the Tartar postilions who care for the horses of travellers. With their round caps, loose garments, and long pipes they formed a picturesque group around a fire where one of their number was watching the boiling of a pot which probably contained their dinner.
 TARTAR PALACES IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA.
"In the last few years Astrachan has developed quite an important trade in petroleum, in consequence of the working of the wells at Baku, on the western shore of the Caspian. Steamers and sailing-vessels bring it here in immense quantities, and from Astrachan it is shipped by the Volga to all parts of Russia, and also to Germany and other countries. There are several machine-shops for the repair of steamships, steamboats, and barges engaged in the oil trade. The oil business of the Caspian region is growing very rapidly, and promises to make a serious inroad upon the petroleum industry of the United States.
 GYPSY FAMILY AT ASTRACHAN.
"There is a line of steamers on the Caspian Sea for the transport of petroleum; they are constructed with tanks in which the oil is carried in bulk, and their engines are run by petroleum instead of coal. Their accommodations for passengers are limited, but as the voyage is made in a[Pg 410] couple of days we were not particular, and took places on the first vessel that offered.
"Owing to the shallowness of the lower Volga the oil-steamers, excepting some of the smaller ones, do not come to Astrachan, but transfer their cargoes at 'Diavet Foot' (Nine Feet), which is so called from its depth of water. Diavet Foot is eighty miles from Astrachan, and on a shoal which spreads out like a fan beyond the mouth of the Volga. A small steamer having several barges in tow took us to the shoal, where we were transferred to the Koran, a handsome steamer two hundred and fifty-two feet long and twenty-eight feet broad. There was a large fleet of river-boats, barges, and sea-steamers at Diavet Foot, and we watched with much interest the process of transferring kerosene from the tank-steamers which had brought it from Baku to the barges for conveyance up the river."
An English gentleman, who was connected with the petroleum works at Baku, kindly gave the youths the following information:
[Pg 411]
 AN OIL-STEAMER ON THE CASPIAN SEA.
"There are nearly a hundred steamers on the Caspian engaged in the oil traffic. They are of iron or steel, average about two hundred and fifty feet in length by twenty-seven or twenty-eight in breadth, and carry from seven hundred to eight hundred tons (two hundred thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand gallons) of petroleum in their tanks. Their engines are of one hundred and twenty horse-power, and make a speed of ten knots an hour; they use petroleum for fuel, and it is estimated that their running expenses are less than half what they would be if coal were burned instead of oil. The steamers were built in Sweden or England, and brought through from St. Petersburg by means of the canals connecting the Volga with the Neva. Some of the largest steamers were cut in two for the passage of the canals, the sections being united at Astrachan or Baku.
"The oil-steamers for river work are from sixty to one hundred and fifty feet long; they are fitted with tanks, like the sea-steamers, and are powerful enough for towing tank-barges in addition to the transport of their own loads. They run from Diavet Foot to Tsaritsin, four hundred miles up the Volga, the first point where there is railway connection to Western Europe. Some of them proceed to Kazan, Nijni Novgorod, and other points on the upper Volga, and also through the canals to St. Petersburg, but the greater part of them land their cargoes at Tsaritsin.
"When you get to Baku you will see how rapidly the loading of the steamers is performed. When a steamer is ready for her cargo, an eight-inch pipe pours the kerosene into her tanks, and fills her in about four[Pg 412] hours. Then she starts for Diavet Foot, where the oil is pumped into the river steamers and barges; she fills her tanks with fresh water, partly in order to ballast her properly, and partly because water is very scarce at Baku, and then starts on her return. Five or six days make a round trip, including the loading and unloading at either end of the route.
"At Baku the water is pumped into reservoirs, to be used in the refineries or for irrigating the soil in the vicinity of the works, and then the steamer is ready for her load again. From Tsaritsin the oil is carried in tank-cars similar to those you have in America. I can't say exactly how many tank-cars are in use, but think the number is not much below three thousand. Twenty-five cars make an oil-train, and these oil-trains are in constant circulation all over the railways of Russia and Western Europe."
Frank asked if the enterprise was conducted by the Government or by individuals.
"It is in the hands of private parties," said the gentleman, "who are[Pg 413] generally organized into companies. The leading company was founded by two Swedes, Nobel Brothers, who have spent most of their lives in Russia, and are famous for their ingenuity and enterprise. The petroleum industry of Baku was practically developed by them; they originated the idea of transporting the Baku petroleum in bulk, and the first tank-steamer on the Caspian was built by them in 1879, according to the plans of the elder brother.
 TANKS AT A STORAGE DEPOT.
"Bear in mind that the Volga is frozen for four months in the year, at the very time when kerosene is most in demand for light. Nobel Brothers arranged for a system of depots throughout Russia and Germany, where oil could be stored in summer for distribution in winter. The largest of these depots is at Orel, and there are four other large depots at St. Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, and Saratov.
[Pg 414]
"The depot at Orel can receive eighteen million gallons, and the four other large depots about three million gallons each. The smaller depots, together with the depot at Tsaritsin, make a total storage capacity of between fifty and sixty million gallons of petroleum available for use when the Volga is frozen and traffic suspended.
 VIEW IN AN OIL REGION.
"All this was done before the completion of the railway between the Caspian and Black seas. The line from Batoum, on the Black Sea, by way of Tiflis to Baku, on the Caspian, was opened in 1883, and immediately about two hundred tank-cars were set to carrying oil to where it could be loaded into steamers for transportation to the ports of the Mediterranean and to England. A pipe-line similar to what you have in America[Pg............