For the most part they sang what are called in Russia “prison” songs, all well-known ones. One of them, “ In Times Gone By ,” was a comic song, describing how a man had enjoyed himself in the past and lived like a gentleman at large, but now was shut up in prison. It described how he had “flavoured blancmange with champagne” in old days and now:

Cabbage and water they give me to eat

And I gobble it up as though it were sweet.

Cabbage and water they give me to eat And I gobble it up as though it were sweet.

A popular favourite was the hackneyed song: