CHAPTER IX.

NEXT morning Pan Yan woke up fresh, in good health,
and cheerful. The weather was wonderful. The widely
overflowed waters were wrinkled into small ripples by the
warm, light breeze. The banks were in a fog, and were
merged in the plain of waters in one indistinguishable level.
Jendzian, when he woke, rubbed his eyes and was fright-
ened. He looked around with astonishment, and seeing
shore nowhere, cried out, ---

"Oh, for God's sake! my master, we must be out on
the sea."

"It is the swollen river, not the sea," answered Pan
Yan; "you will find the shores when the fog rises."

"I think we shall be travelling before long in the
Turkish land."

"We shall travel there if we are ordered, but you see we
are not sailing alone."

And in the twinkle of an eye were to be seen many
large boats and the narrow Cossack craft, generally called
chaiki, with bulrushes fastened around them. Some of
these were going down the river, borne on by the swift
current; others were being urged laboriously against the
stream with oars and sail. They were carrying fish, wax,
salt, and dried cherries to towns along the river, or return-
ing from inhabited neighborhoods laden with provisions for
Kudak, and goods which found ready sale in the bazaar at
the Saitch. From the mouth of the Psel down the banks of
the Dnieper was a perfect desert, on which only here and
there wintering-posts of the Cossacks whitened. But the
river formed a highway connecting the Saitch with the rest
of the world; therefore there was a considerable movement
on it, especially when the increase of water made it easy
for vessels, and when the Cataracts, with the exception of
Nenasytets, were passable for craft going with the current.

The lieutenant looked with curiosity at that life on the
river. Meanwhile his boats were speeding on quickly to
Kudak. The fog rose and the shore appeared in clear
outline. Over the heads of the travellers flew millions of
water-birds, --- pelicans, wild geese, storks, ducks, gulls,