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Owing to this consideration I was always offered the best milk and kumis, and when the old woman handed me a jug she carefully wiped it with her fingers first, or removed every trace of dirt with her tongue. One day when I called in passing to drink my kumis, I found the 'ohonior' unusually excited; he was not only talkative, but also in very great spirits.
The 'ohonior' and I therefore soon became friends, and when he learned that in addition I was versed in the art of writing and might be employed as secretary to the community and draw up petitions to the 'great master' the 'gubernator' my value was immensely increased, and this respect saved me from too great an intimacy.
One of the many yurtas had taken my fancy, for it was charmingly situated close to the woods in a corner of the raised banks of a long stretch of lake. It belonged to an aged Yakut, well deserving of the honourable designation 'ohonior', given to all the Yakut elders. The old man was living there with his equally aged wife and a young fellow, a distant relation of his.
Two cows and a calf, a few mares and a foal constituted all their wealth. All the Yakuts are very inquisitive and loquacious. But my friend, the honourable 'ohonior , possessed these qualities in an unusually high degree, and as he was able to speak broken Russian, I often took occasion to call in for a little talk.
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