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covered with black small-pox. I suggested that these ought to
be removed at once, and the Countess replied that it would be
done as soon as possible, but as there were no hospitals, and
almost every house was infected, it was not easy to isolate the
sick. These poor children had been brought to the school,
“because it was warm there.”
Leaving the Countess to attend to the school and eating-room,
I went through part of the village from house to house.
In izba No. 1 I found one cow, three elderly people, one of
whom was lying on top of the oven, sick with typhus, by the
side of two children in the last stages of black small-pox.
In No. 2 was a child with black small-pox, an old man with
typhus, and two women whose bodies were all swollen. No
cattle—all starved; no fuel, no food.
In No. 3 a curious sight met my eyes. When I entered
the small hut, the earthen floor of which was frozen hard, I
saluted, but got no reply, nor could I see anyone. I was about
to go, but heard heavy breathing, and a sound like sweeping
proceeding out of the oven. All at once a pair of feet
wrapped with rags protruded, and in a moment a big mushik
crept out of the opening, followed by a sickly-looking woman,
shivering and pressing her right hand on her brow. I asked
what was the matter. “Golova bolit” (my head aches), she
answered. "Have you no children?” “ Yes: look here!” she
said, bursting into tears and pointing to what looked like a
bundle of rags on top of the oven. It proved to be two
children, one on the point of death from hunger or consumption,
and the other in the extremes of black small-pox. The man,
tall and strongly built, stood with drawn stony face and hollow
eyes, his tangled hair sticking out in all directions, motionless
on the frozen floor, a picture of hopeless apathy. No cattle,
no food, but what was given from outside.
No. 4. Two grown people and two children, both ill. As
she moved the rags that covered one of the children the
mother burst into tears, and I saw great drops rolling down the
cheeks of the poor disfigured girl herself. Something stuck
in my own throat as, unable to utter a word, I gave the poor
woman a silver coin and passed out.
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