Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Through the Forest-Region
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Volga, he brought with him his good-natured sociability,
the songs and the legends of his native land. I see him
in the midst of the taiga, whither he has gone alone to
hunt and trap. By-and-by he is subdued by his
surroundings. He feels no inclination to smile, and no songs now
pass his lips—the voice of man sounds too strange in the
death-silence of the endless forest, or is swallowed up by
its wildly roaring music. He sees neither the rising nor
the setting of the sun. It appears to him above one dark,
impenetrable wall, and sets behind another alike sombre
and gloomy. Wherever he looks, his eye only falls upon
the mossy trunks, and the dark branches of the spruce.
And with this his spiritual horizon also becomes more and
more limited. Day by day he finds it more difficult to
break through the dark circle which surrounds him and
his home. The old songs are silenced, the old memories
wither away and die, the old legends are forgotten. He
is no longer the talkative and sociable Russian mujik; he
becomes uncommunicative and gloomy: his look is no longer
open and steady, but shy and restless like that of some
wild beast looking for its prey.
But these first immigrants to the Siberian forests, leading
the life of semi-nomads, had to fight not only with nature,
but also with hostile natives and brigands, which helped
to develop in them the instincts of the wild beast rather
than human feelings. They not only hunted the natives
like wild animals, but, under the influence of drink, often
fought and killed one another for trifles. One of the
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