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	Music of the Waters 263



	For heaving the anchor I have found two songs, one ot which I give in the printed form as it was sent me from Odessa ; the other, of the genuine chanty style, as I took it down from a Russian sailor, of whom I feel a few words of praise are necessary. His knowledge of the national music of his country was extraordinary in a man of his position, and in literature he was not far behind. Mr. Ralston would, I am sure, have felt interested, if not flattered, by the encomiums passed on his book of Russian songs.¹ In spite of his very evident taste for study and the amount of cultivation he possessed, my Russian tar was as quaint a specimen of that everywhere extraordinary species—the genuine salt—as I ever encountered. I had some opportunity for studying his character, for he was obliged while waiting for a certain ship to reside for some time near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. My father, in his capacity

	¹ " Songs of the Russian People." By W. Ralston.