On sledge and horseback to outcast Siberian lepers / [Kate Marsden].

  • Kate Marsden
Date:
[1893]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On sledge and horseback to outcast Siberian lepers / [Kate Marsden]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    how soon the horses’ legs would get entangled in the odds and ends of ropes which were supposed to help in keeping the horses together, when suddenly the second horse disappeared ! The driver gave a lurch forward; the off-horse struggled; there was a bump and a thump asainst the sledge, and then the other horse also disappeared, and we came to a dead-lock. We were both wide-awake in no time, and we heard and felt an ominous knocking against the side ; and on looking out we found both horses entangled in the ropes and on the ground, struggling frantically to get up. The driver called “ Nichivo ” (It is nothing). But no amount of “ nichivoeing ” prevented my feeling uneasy. The soldier by this time had jumped off the box, and there he stood abusing the horses, the driver, and the road; then, finding that this failed to help matters much, he began to spit at the horses. Then driver and soldier stood still, looking helplessly on, not attempting to do anything. I got my friend to translate a rather peremptory order to both men ; and this woke them up to the fact that they must be doing something besides abusing each other. By this time the poor horses were getting tired of being jammed against the sledge and tied up by the ropes, for their struggles became more decided. The soldier quickly stood on one horse’s neck, and the driver set the harness free. The other animal was treated in the same way; but the driver was evidently too angry with it to drive it any more;