The post carriages must be changed at every station.  Constant changing is a great trouble, especially if one has much baggage.  In a wet or cold night when you have settled comfortably into a warm nest, and possibly fallen asleep, it is an intolerable nuisance to turn out and transfer.  To remedy this evil one can buy a tarantass, a vehicle on the general principle of the telyaga, but larger, stronger, and better in every way.  When he buys there is a scarcity and the price is high, but when he has finished his journey and wishes to sell, it is astonishing how the market is glutted.  At Stratensk I endeavored to purchase a tarantass, but only one could be had.  This was too rheumatic for the journey, and very groggy in the springs, so at the advice of Lovett I adhered to the telyaga.

The Russians apply the term ‘equipage’ to any vehicle, whether on wheels or runners, and with or without its motive power.  It is a generic definition, and can include anything drawn by horses, dogs, deer, or camels.  The word sounds very well when applied to a fashionable turnout, but less so when speaking of a dirt-cart or wheelbarrow.

The same word, ‘equipage,’ is used in Russian as in French to denote a ship’s crew.  In this connection I heard an amusing story, vouched for as correct.  A few years after the disappearance of Sir John Franklin the English Admiralty requested the Russian government to make inquiries for the lost navigator along the coast and islands of the Arctic Ocean.  An order to that effect was sent to the Siberian authorities, and they in turn commanded all subordinates to inquire and report.  A petty officer some where in Western Siberia was puzzled at the printed order to ’inquire concerning the English Captain, John Franklin, and his equipage.’  In due time he reported: 

“I have made the proper inquiries.  I can learn nothing about Captain Franklin; but in one of my villages there is an old sleigh that no one claims, and it may be his equipage.”

We carried one and sometimes two bells on the yoke of our shaft-horse to signify that we traveled by post.  Every humbler vehicle was required to give us the entire road, at least such was the theory.  Sometimes we obtained it, and sometimes the approaching drivers were asleep, and the horses kept their own way.  When this occurred our driver generally took an opportunity to bring his whip lash upon the sleeper.  It is a privilege he enjoys when driving a post carriage to strike his delinquent fellow man if in reach.  I presume this is a partial consolation for the kicks and blows occasionally showered upon himself.  Humanity in authority is pretty certain to give others the treatment itself has received.  Only great natures will deal charity and kindness when remembering oppression and cruelty.