The evening began with a reception and congratulations to the married couples.  Then we had tea and cakes, and then came the dinner.  The party was like the African giant imported in two ships, for it was found impossible to crowd all the guests into one house.  Tables were set in two houses and in the open yard between them.

The Russians have a custom of taking a little lunch just before they begin dinner.  This lunch is upon a side table in the dining room, and consists of cordial, spirits or bitters, with morsels of herring, caviar, and dried meat or fish.  It performs the same office as the American cocktail, but is oftener taken, is more popular and more respectable.  After the lunch we sat down to dinner.  Fish formed the first course and soup the second.  Then we had roast beef and vegetables, followed by veal cutlets.  The feast closed with cake and jelly, and was thoroughly washed down with a dozen kinds of beverages that cheer and inebriate.

The fat priest was at table and took his lunch early.  His first course was a glass of something liquid, and he drank a dozen times before the soup was brought.  Early in the dinner I saw him gesturing toward me.

“He wants to take a glass with you,” said some one at my side.

I poured out some wine, and after a little trouble in touching glasses we drank each other’s health.

Not five minutes later he repeated his gestures.  To satisfy him I filled a glass with sherry, as there was no champagne handy at the moment, and again went through the clinking process.  As my glass was large I put it down after sipping a few drops, but the old fellow objected.  Draining and inverting his glass, he held it as one might suspend a rat by the tail, and motioned me to do the same.  Luckily he soon after conceived a fondness for one of the Wright’s officers, and the twain fell to drinking.  The officer, assisted by three men, went on board late at night, and was reported attempting to wash his face in a tar-bucket and dry it with a chain cable.  About midnight the priest was taken home on a shutter.

[Illustration:  Russian pope at home.]

There were toasts in a large number, with a great deal of cheering, drinking, and smoking.  About ten o’clock the dinner ended, and arrangements were made for a dance.  Dancing was not among my accomplishments, and I retired to the ship, satisfied that on my first day in Asia I had been treated very kindly—­and very often.

For two days more the wedding festivities continued, etiquette requiring the parties to visit all who attended the dinner.  On the third day the hilarity ceased, and the happy couples were left to enjoy the honeymoon with its promise of matrimonial bliss.  May they have many years of it.

CHAPTER IV.