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'THE FROSTY CAUCASUS'

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LONDON : PRINTED BT

SPOTTISWOODB AND CO., Nii\V-8TUEET SQUABB
AND PARLIAMENT STREET

THE FROSTY CAUCASUS'

AS ACCOUNT OF A. WALK THROUOH FART OP THE RANGE AND
OF AN ABOEHT OF ELBRUZ IN THE SUMUEB OF \«H

F. C: GKOVE

LONDON

LONGMANS, GllEEN, AND CO.

1875

A/i righU Jlltl-vtd

ci

3-^^f3^

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

INTROD UCTORT.
THE JOUENET TO TITLIS AND KUTAI8.

Odessa — ^Voyage thence to the Crimea, and along the Crimean coast
— Kertch — The Eastern shore of the Black Sea — Circassia — Abkhasia
— Soukhoum Kaleh — Sight of Elbruz — The Mingrelian Prince — Poti
— The Rion — Our Dragoman, Paul Bakoua Pipia — Railway from
Poti — The Dead Forest — Kutais — Gori — Tiflis — Prompt assisUince
of the Russian authorities for our projected Journey — Engagement
to meet a Russian officer at the foot of Elbruz— Sketch of the
intended Journey — Tribes of the Western Caucasus — Mohammedans
and Christians — The true Boundary of Europe to the South-east —
Journey back to Kutais — The Story of the Brigand Prince — The Dwarf
who always spoke the Truth — What befell the Brigand — All made
ready for the Journey into the Mountain Country — The Russian

Map . . , PAQB 1

CHAPTER n.

THE UPPER BION.

Start from Kutais— The Rion— The Tsiteli, or Red River— Gelati—
Apparent tranquillity of the Country — The Mamison route — Tkvibula
and the well-meaning People there — Satchori Pass — Strange River
— Nikortzminda — Ruined Castle — The Valley of the Upper Rion — Sori
and its Priest — Utsora — Wilder Coimtry entered — Gebi; its Posi-
tion and Inhabitants — Their Wanderings in the Caucasus and aptitude
at Bargaining — Caucasian Powers of Speech — The Village Parliament
— The Schoolmaster — Departure from Gebi — ^Wrong Path taken early
in the day — The Valley of the Zopkhetiri — Eloquence of the Man of
Gebi — Passage of a ridge — The Rhododendron Wood— Mishaps —
Bivouac by the Rion faoe 45

vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER III.

THE VALLEY OP THE UPPER TCHEREK.

The Source of the Rion — Crossing the Main Chain— Snow and Mist —
Our Followers — Terror of Crevasses — The Two Men of G-ebi and the'ir
Dead Ox — Passage of Glacier Passes by Cattle — Great Glaciers at the
Head of the Tcherek Valley-=-The Guard of the Flocks and Herds —
A Mohammedan Prejudice^The Hunter of Bouquetin and Chamois —
Descent of the Valley — Grandeur of the Mountains surrounding it —
The Glen of the Dych-Su— The Great Icefield—Ascent of the Slope
on its Left Bank — Vast Glacier System — Bad Weather again — An
Evening at a ChAlet — Descent of the Valley to Kunim — Cau-
casian Dwellings — A Cold Reception — Its Cause — Further Descent of
the Valley — Great Flight of Eagles — A Narrow Escape — The Gorge
of the Tcherek — Return to Kunim — Caucasian Curiosity . page 83

CHAPTER IV.

BEZINQI ANI> THE KOTCHAN TAU GROUP.

Prices in the Caucasus — Start from Kunim — Position of Bezingi —
Caucasian Dogs — An unexpected Follower — Arrival at Bezingi —
Difficulty in getting Food — Curiosity of the Villagers— The Invisible
Princess — Delayed a Day by Bad Weather — Start for the Urban
Glacier — Excellent Camping Place found close to it — Dych Tau —
Walk up the Glacier — Wonderful Ice Valley at its Head — Tau
Tetnuld, Djanga, and Kotchan Tau — Question as to the Possibility
of Ascending the last-named Mountain — Tau Tetnuld probably Ac-
cessible — Col to the North-east of Kotchan Tau — Dych Tau and the
Nameless Peak — Bad Weather again— Impossibility in consequence
of passing over ihe Main Chain into Suenetia— Return to the Camp-
ing Place and. to Bezingi . ...... PAGE 118

CHAPTER V.

TCHB6EM AND THE GORGE OF THE DJILKI-STJ.

Departure from Bezingi — The Invisible Princess — The Pass to Tchegem
— Its Resemblance at one part to the Great Scheidegg — Striking
View of the Entrance to a deep Gorge — A Friendly Chief — The
Village of Tchegem — Reception there — The Chiefs informed of our

CONTENTS. yii

probable arrival by General Loris Melikoff— Curiosity of the Men
of Tchegem— Sketch of a Reception by a Caucasian Chief — Absence
of any Attempt to obtain Gifts — The Gorge of the Djilki-Su — Bad
Weather again — Capture of a live Bouquetin — ^A Man of G«bi —
Conversation with an aggrieved Caucasian — Doubt as to there being
just Cause for Complaint page 142

CHAPTER VL

PASS FROM TCHEQEM TO THE BAKSAN VALLEY.
ALPINE AND CAUCASIAN SCENEKY.

Start from Tchegem —Position of a Chief's Guests in the Caucasus —
Character of the Country traversed after leaving the Tchegem Valley
— Comparison between Alpine and Caucasian Scenery — A Farm-
house — Inquisitive Wayfarers — The Top of the Pass — The Koanta
Glen — The Valley of the Baksan — Osrokova — Difficulty of getting
Food and Lodging — Eloquence of the Man of Grebi . . page 162

CHAPTER VIL

URUSBIEH.

Walk up the Valley of the Baksan — Heavy Rain — Sudden Change —
A cordial Chief — Arrival at Urusbieh — Well-ventilated House — The
meek Chief of the Village — His care for his Guests — The elder and
greater Brother — Caucasian Etiquette — A substantial Feast— Diet
and Cookery of the Caucasians of the North -West — Ascent of a
Hillock behind Urusbieh — Valleys of the Adul-Su and Kwirik — Ab-
sence of the Princes of Urusbieh — ^Ismail's Son andHeir — Excitement
of the Villagers on seeing a Pencil used —The Hunter, Sotaef Achia —
Ascent of Tau Sultra — Achia's Dread of Snow — View from the Summit
of Tau Sultra — Elbruz — Usch-Ba, the Double-crested Matterhorn —
Preposterous Story invented by the Suenetians — Return to Urusbieh
— Rejoicings there on account of a Wedding . . . page 182

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ASCENT OF ELBEUZ.

The Valley of the Adul-Su— Achia and the Young Ismail — Necessity of
Starting for Elbruz sooner than we had intended — Time required for

viii CONTENTS.

the Expedition — Minghi-Tau the true name of the Mountain — Deter-
mination of a Chief to come with us — Difficulty about getting Pro-
visions — Domestic Troubles in the Caucasus — Walk up the Valley — A
False Alarm — Bivouac in the Forest — View of the Two Peaks of El-
bruz up a lateral Glen — Pass to the Karatchai Country — A Bouquetin
stalked by Achia — Ascent to the Rock Plateau on the slopes of Elbruz
— Arrival of a Hunter with a Letter from the Russian Officers — A
Difficulty Solved — Tungsorun — Sunset from the Camp — Start for
the Summit — Relative Position of the Two Peaks of the Mountain —
Huge Snow-slopes — A Wonderful Sunrise — Col between the Two
Peaks — Final Incline of the Western Height — ^Peak ascended by Mr.
Freshfield in 1868 found to be the Eastern One — An Extinct Crater
— Doubt as to the Effect of the Rarity of the Air — The Summit
and the View thence page 208

CHAPTER IX.

RETURN TO URU8BIEH — THE WAYS OF THE CAUCASIAlfS.

Descent of Elbruz — Contemplated Ascent of the Mountain by Moore
and the Russian Officers next Day — Descent of the Valley — Caucasian
Chatter — The Evening after a high Ascent — Return to Urusbieh —
Prince Mohammed — The Ways of the Caucasians — Their Powers of
Endurance as compared with those of the Swiss — Caucasian Dress —
Return of the Russian Officers and Moore — Their Expedition on El-
bruz — Prince Mohammed's Account of a great Forest Country — Its
Position — A Delicate Question between us and our Hosts — Their
Farewell page 2^1

CHAPTER X.

THE GREEN COUNTRY NORTH OP ELBRUZ.

Departure from Urusbieh — A useless Horse — The Valley of the Kwirik
— Bad Weather — Singular Grlen — A Shepherd's Camp- -Caucasian
Dogs — A primitive Tent — Bitter Bread a Luxury — The Camp at
Nightfall— Start next Morning — Head Waters of the Malka— The
Eagles — Volcanic Mounds — The great Rolling Down North of Elbruz
— A Salt Spring — The Farewell of our Kunim Follower — Religious
Feeling of the Man of Urusbieh — Col at the end of the great
Down— The Track lost— The Valley of the Khudes-Su— Deserted
ChAlets PAGE 268

CONTENTS. ix

CHAPTER XL

nCHKULAN.

A beautiful Alp — Eapacious Herdsmen — The Valley of the Kuban —
Eltiub — Position of Utehkulan — Cold Reception by the Chief — The
Eussian Clerk— Change on the part of the Chief — Utehkulan Beer —
Attempt to get Porters for the Nakhar Pass — An unlucky Offer —
Exorbitant Demands — ^A difficult Position — Arrival of a Russian
Colonel — Marriasre Festivities at Utehkulan — Porters found for us
by the Chief — His responsibilities as Banker to the Peasants round —
Departure from Utehkulan — Strictness of our Followers in Prayer —
A too early Halt — A Quarrel over a Sheep — The Wrath of the Men
of Utehkulan page 286

CHAPTER XII.

THE NAKHAR PASS AND THE VALLEYS OP THE KLUTCH
AND THE KODOR. — THE LAST MARCH.

Caucasian Dawdling — The Nakhar Pass — Poor View from the Col —
The Southern Side— Great Change— The Valley of the Kliitch—
Magnificent Forests — Descent of the Valley — Extraordinary Grandeur
of the Scenery — A Waterfall — ^A Mineral Spring — The Valley of the
Kodor — Sir John Maundevile and his Account of the Cloud that
covered the Heathen Emperor and his Host — Solitude of the Kodor
Valley — Wonderful Fertility — ^The Tombs of the Warriors of the
Kuban — The Tchkalta — Indolence of our Followers — The Engineers'
Camp— The Farewell of the Men of Utehkulan — Their indifference
to Fasting — Beautiful View of the Valley — Another Camp — Lata —
The Malaria — ^Walk to Zebelda — Its Position — An Exploring Party
— The Journey from Zebelda to Soukhoum Kaleh — the Greek Settle-
ment on the Kelasur — Uncertainty as to the Track — Intense Heat —
Thoughts on Caucasian Travel — The Valleys of Eastern Abkhasia —
The End page 309

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

>o»

Elbruz from the South-East Frofiti

House at Bezingi TUL

The Men of G-ebi to face 2

The Gorge of the Djilki-Su

The Valley of the Baksan

Tungsorun from the Slopes of Elbruz . . . .

Distant View of Elbruz

Hap cU end of v

n

?>

»»

>»

'THE FEOSTY CAUCASUS.'

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

THE JOURNEY TO TIFLIS AND KUTAIS.

Odessa — Voyage thence to the Crimea, and along the Crimean coast
— Kertch — The Eastern shore of the Black Sea — Circassia — Abkhasia
— Soukhoum Kaleh — Sight of Elbruz — The Mingrelian Prince — Poti
—The Rion — Our Dragoman, Paul Bakoua Pipia — Railway from
Poti — The Dead Forest — Kutais — Gori — Tiflis — Prompt assistance
of the Russian authorities for our projected journey — Engagement
to meet a Russian officer at the foot of Elbruz — Sketch of the
intended journey — Tribes of the Western Caucasus — Mohammedans
and Christians — The true boundary of Europe to the South-east—
Jo\urney back to Kutais — The story of the Brigand Prince — The Dwarf
who always spoke the Truth — What befell the Brigand — All made
ready for the journey into the mountain country — The Russian map.

Odessa is famed beyond other cities for its dust.
There is a legend that, in former days, strong winds
^ould raise clouds of it so thick and widely spread
^at mariners expecting .to make the port were able to
see neither harbour nor buildings, and wondered greatly
^tether the land by the Black Sea had suddenly
yawned and swallowed up .for ever Odessa and its
People. Paving the streets has partly diminished this

B

2 INTRODUCTORY,

evil ; but the dust-clouds still rise over the unpaved
suburbs, and had gathered in choking and blinding
force round the railway station on June 23rd, 1874,
when the train from the frontier discharged us among
a struggling crowd of Russian peasants on to the
narrow platform. We were four in number — A. W.
Moore, H. Walker, F. Gardiner, and the writer of
these pages. Our course had been straight from
London, and our object was to get with as little delay-
as possible to Kutais in Trans-Caucasia, whence we
meant to strike into the heart of the great range of
the Caucasus. One of our party, Moore, had been
among these mountains before, having, in company
with two other English travellers, Mr. D. W. Fresh-
field and Mr. C. C. Tucker, explored a large portion
of the chain, but to the rest of us the Caucasus was
new. We were all members of the Alpine Club, and
as we had hopes of ascending a Caucasian peak, and
of going over high Caucasian passes, we had brought
with us a Swiss guide, Peter Knubel, of the well-known
village of St. Nicholas, where every summer so many
weary pilgrims halt on the road from Visp to Zermatt.
Only four days and nights had been required for
the journey from London to Odessa. The best way
had proved to be, not as might have been expected
through Vienna, but through Berlin. Thence we had
gone by Breslau to Mystlowitz, a poor little town
close to the frontiers of Austria and Russia ; from
Mystlowitz, by a train so slow that ragged Polish boys

ODESSA, 3

begging hard were able to keep up with it for awhile,
to the sometime capital, Cracow.

A short stay here gave time for a glimpse of this
famous and now very miserable city, where the Jews
in their long black coats swarmed so that it seemed as
if the place was populated by undertakers, only they
were not undertakers but money-changers, though how
so many of them could make a living where there
seemed to be so little business doing was and is a
mystery. I fear indeed that this, apparently the only
industry of Cracow, is not flourishing, for when one
of us changed a small sum a number of Jews came to
watch the transaction, glaring with hungry looks, as
poor children do through the windows of pastry-cooks-
shops at the happy people who can afford to go in and
huy. From Cracow the way had been past Lemberg
to Pod-Wolcyska, on the Russian frontier, and thence
through the remains of a great forest, and afterwards
over a vast fertile plain, dotted in many places with
windmills, to Odessa.

Some excited droschky-drivers seized us, after a
violent struggle with their fellows, when, somewhat
dazed by the dust, we got outside the station, and tore
with us over the sandy roads into the clearer atmo-
sphere of the city, where good quarters were found in
a hotel placed among the range of large buildings
which overlook the harbour. The remainder of that
day and the next were passed in getting what informa-
tion we could about the Caucasus, and in laying in a

B 2

4 INTRODUCTORY,

small stock of things necessary for travel there. In
both these quests we were much aided by Mr. Hunt,
the English Vice-Consul, to whose kindness we were
most deeply indebted. Without him indeed we should
have fared ill ; for, though there are many foreign
traders at Odessa, the Russians predominate, and con-
trary to the belief usually held, Russians are wonder-
fully given to speaking their own language, of which
difficult tongue we were all unfortunately ignorant.
The spoilt traveller of to-day is moved to some
anger when he finds that a city exists principally for
the people who live in it, and that there has not been
sufficient consideration to provide picturesque streets
or great sights for his amusement. Much could not
be expected from Odessa, which is only some eighty
years old ; and it must be said that it is, from a wan-
derer's point of view, very uninteresting, though
doubtless it is not found dull by those who carry on
a flourishing trade there. According to accounts
sometimes given, there is to be seen in this city, owing
to its mixed population and commerce with the East,
a medley of men of diiferent race and garb as striking
as that which was formerly beheld on the Piazza San
Marco at Venice, but I cannot say that I found this
verified. Civilisation seemed to have exercised its
usual tiresome influence in causing all men to be cla(i
alike in hideous clothes, the only exceptions being the
peasants in their blouses and boots, and the droschky-
drivers, who, for some reason, cling to a national cos-

ODESSA. 6

tume, and are, like other cabmen^ the enemies of man-
kind.

Most of the streets have a poor look, owing to
their width being disproportionate to the height of the
houses. There is nothing distinctive in the shops,
which, save in very few instances, offer only ordinary
European articles ; and if the English traveller is for
a moment gratified at finding that it is thought the
highest recommendation to say of anything that it is of
English make, he is, should he wish to buy, presently
abashed when he discovers that the prices even of
Bond-street or Piccadilly are hugely exceeded ; nor is
there much consolation in being told that things are
still dearer in St. Petersburgh. The discontented man
need not, however, grumble at Odessa, as he will
certainly have no diflSculty in leaving it. There is the
railway, and besides there are from the port two great
lines of steamers — one to the west coast and Constan-
tinople, the other to the Crimea and along the eastern
shores of the Black Sea as far as Poti, whence runs
a railway through Trans- Caucasia to Kutais and
Tiflis. By a steamer belonging to the latter line we
left Odessa on the afternoon of June 25th, with some
prospect of finding the Euxine verify its right to the
title of the * Black,' otherwise the stormy sea.

Very shortly after we got outside the harbour was
this found to be the case by the deck passengers — a
varied crowd of Eussian peasants, Georgians, Greeks,
Jews, and Armenians, such as we had hoped to see.

6 INTRODUCTORY.

but had not seen, in the streets of Odessa. Although
a moderate amount of observation might l:avc told
them that there was a pretty sea up, they began, after
the fashion of deck passengers whose devotion to
cookery is usually incessant, to prepare their food
directl^ they came on board, as though a double-
reefed topsail breeze a point or two before the beam
was just the thing to give an edge to the appetite and
add zest to a meal. Of course they wasted their
eatables, poor people, for the steamer pitched and
rolled heavily, and the common curse was soon on
European and Oriental alike. No better off were the
first-class passengers, except that they were not so
closely packed, and were able to hide their too audible
misery in their berths. The evil did not last long,
however, for in the evening the wind lightened, and
the* sea went down with wonderful quickness. People
came out of their hiding-places, and gathered on the
after-deck. Ladies were condoled with, and each
man tried to look as though, whatever might have
happened to others, he at least had not been sea-sick.
The sea gradually became perfectly calm, and our
craft, albeit not a fast one, made good way during the
night. These steamers coast round the shores of the
Crimea from Eupatoria to Kaffa, and the next day,
after touching at the first-named place, we put into
Sevastopol at about noon. The stay was not long
enough to let travellers see anything of this town, so
intensely interesting to Englishmen, nor, had it been

THE CRIMEAN COAST. 7

otherwise, should I venture on any account of what
has been so often and so well described. One fact
regarding Sevastopol should, however, be mentioned.
It is sometimes said that the rebuilding of the place
is going on rapidly. Eebuilding there certainly is,
but the rapidity can hardly have been of the American
order. Many ruins yet exist, and the great barrack
in the centre is still a mere wreck, to all appearance
untouched since the days of the war.

After Balaklava, which was passed at three o'clock,
the character of the previously dull seaboard quickly
changes, and during the rest of the afternoon the
steamer's course was along the famous south-western
coast of the Crimea, celebrated alike for its beauty
and its gentle climate, and so fondly sought by great
and wealthy Russians. Above are bold cliffs, below
on the slopes which come down to the sea are rich
woodlands, cultivated grounds, and many vineyards,
the vegetation extending to the very water's edge —
altogether a beautiful and fertile coast, much re-
sembling some parts of that which rises over the
Tyrrhenian Sea. There are numerous villas along
this sunny shore, the most famous being Aloupka
built by an Englishman for Prince Woronsow, Ori-
anda belonging to the Grand Duke Constantine, and
liivadia belonging to the Emperor. The last two are
close to the watering-place of Yalta, where we anchored
for a time in the evening.

After touching early the next morning at Kaffa,

8 INTRODUCTORY.

the ancient Theodosia, the steamer coasted along the
flat green shore to the straits and harbour of Kertch,
the latter of which was reached a little after mid-day.
Though of much commercial importance, Kertch seems
a poor, wobegone little town, dirty and evil smelling.
It was famed, however, even before the Crimean war
had made its name familiar, for the ancient remains
discovered in it and its immediate neighbourhood, and,
according to local tradition, it contained the tomb of
Mithridates. Historians, however, gainsaying popu-
lar tradition, as historians usually do, showed that
Mithridates was buried somewhere else. Fortunately
the steamer stopped long enough to enable us to visit
the most famous of the remains which are around
Kertch, the great tomb of some unknown king. The
huge tumulus which contains it is some distance from
the town. Into this tumulus leads a lofty corridor,
the sides of fine masonry and the top vaulted by rows
of stones projecting one beyond the other, their
embedded ends being held down by the weight of the
earth above ; the corridor opens into a large circular
chamber roofed in a similar manner, and with walls
of the like fine stone-work. The sleep of the un-
known king who was laid here was disturbed before
modem explorers broke into his tomb, for they found
it, I believe, empty.

The steamer sailed in the evening, and next day
was passed in running along the wonderfully solitary
coast of Circassia, whence most of the former inhabi-

CIRCASSIA. 9

tants have emigrated to Turkey, where they have, I
fear, found little reason to rejoice in their change of
country. The name Circassian is given in England
very erroneously to all the inhabitants of the Caucasus,
as great an error as it would be to speak of the people
of Great Britain as Highlanders. Circassia is a
region lying on the northern side, and in the western
part of the chain of the Caucasus, and extending
some distance along the shore of the Black Sea.
The people of this district are rightly called after
the country to which they belong; but the many
other tribes who dwell in the valleys on either side of
the range are different races, have distinctive names,
and, though they may all be comprehended under
the general title of Caucasians, cannot properly
be spoken of as Circassians. It may surprise some
English readers to learn that Schamyl was no more a
Circassian than Rob Roy was a Welshman. Now
that we were drawing near the mountain region, we
began to find that there were certain obstacles to
travel in it which would^have to be overcome; ob-
stacles very serious to us on account of the small time
at our disposal. We had left London on June 19,
and for two of us it was necessary to be back on
August 19. From Captain Telfer, R.N., an English
oflScer, who joined the steamer during the passage, we
learnt that it would be almost hopeless to attempt to
travel in the country we desired to see unless we got
orders from the governors of the various provinces, or

10 INTRODUCTORY,

a general order from the authorities at Tiflis requiring
the chiefs of the villages to give us all aid in their
power. If not thus provided, we should probably be
stopped at a very early stage of our journey by some
suspicious chief, who would conceive that he was
doing his duty in barring the way to doubtful travel-
lers. To get an order from each governor would be
impossible, and it was therefore clearly necessary to gc
to Tiflis, though it was certainly doubtful whether the
authorities there would give us what we wanted, seeing
that we had no kind of claim upon them, and that thej
might very well refuse to grant official aid to unknowi
wanderers. Some uncertainty as to succeeding in ou:
journey began, therefore, to arise now that we wer<
close to the actual spurs of the Caucasus.

From Captain Telfer, whose acquaintance witl
Trans-Caucasia is very large, we received much valu
able information about the country ; and we were i:
like manner indebted to several of the passengers, uo\
most of them Russian officers, who, I may add, looke
on tis with some surprise, although they were a greg
deal too courteous to bore strangers with question!
Among those who go by Poti to Kutais and Tifli
travellers for mere travel's sake are rare, and that sue
vagrants should be anxious to reach the seclude
valleys which lie under the great peaks seeme
passing strange ; so the Russians wondered at us, an
indeed their wonder was quite natural.

In Western Europe the traveller lives in a wori

so UKHO UM KALEH, 1 1

which has come into existence to supply his wants, to
amuse and defraud him ; he is all-important to the
section of the community among whom for the time he
lives, and that people should travel for pleasure seems
as much part of the natural order of things as that
there should be commerce or agriculture. The ordi-
nary wanderer in France, Switzerland, or Italy, would
be as much astonished if asked why he travelled, as a
peer would be if an usher in the House of Lords were
to question him as to the advantage of an hereditary
chamber; but when the region of couriers, ober-
kellnei's, guides, and ciceroni, is left behind, the ap-
pearance of an idle stranger journeying with no appa-
rent object sometimes causes wonder, and there is a
little curiosity to know what can have led him to roam
80 far. It is astonishing what difficulty he discovers
in definino^ his reasons for travel.

We anchored early next morning off Soukhoum
Kaleh, the principal Russian station on the eastern
coast of the Black Sea, a cheerv little town standing
at the foot of wooded hills on the shore of a pleasant
Day. The place being a foreign settlement, there is
liothing specially characteristic in its houses, most of
"lem being white buildings of recent date, some of them
^^ungalows; but the Caucasian dress is seen in the
streets, so that local colour is not wanting. Soukhoum
Kaleh is on the seaboard of magnificent solitary Abk-
"asia, now in parts utterly deserted, there having been,
Since the serious revolt which occurred in August 1866,

12 INTRODUCTORY,

a large emigration from this fertile and beautiful land.
Of the journey which we contemplated making in the
Caucasus, the last part was to be through Abkhasia,
and the question of its population had a practical
interest for us, as men cannot live on mountain beauty-
even though it be of the highest order, and where
there are no inhabitants it may usually be taken for
granted that there is no food. Our march was to end
at Soukhoum Kaleh, whence we intended to return by
sea to Odessa.

Towards the south, oif Poti, the waters of the
Black Sea shoal considerably, and passengers usually
change at Soukhoum Kaleh from the steamer which
has brought them thus far to a smaller one drawing
much less water. On this occasion, however, the craft
which should have been ready for us had, we were
told, fixed herself securely and comfortably in the mud
somewhere a long way off, and not even the captain ot
our vessel seemed to know how those bound for Pot
and Tiflis were to be taken across the shallow waters
The day was therefore passed in wearisome uncer
tainty, during which our little world on board tli^
steamer imitated the greater world very closely ii
persisting in giving shape to the unknown. Suspens*
is such a hard thing to bear that men prefer inventing
stories and then believing them, to remaining alto
gether uncertain ; and there were that day four circuax
stantial accounts — all of them erroneous — of what ha<
happened to the missing steamer, and four definite anc

SIGHT OF ELBRUZ, 13

precise statements, based on nothing whatever, that
another vessel had been sent for the passengers and
was within an hour of Soukhoum Kaleh. After a long
hesitation, our captain at last determined to put to sea
on the chance of a smaller steamer meeting him some-
where down the coast. If this did not happen, we had
the agreeable prospect of coming back and spending a
week or so on the Abkhasian shore.

To everybody's great delight, however, a little
steamer, which was sighted next morning, made for us,
and, with much gasping and roaring, managed to lay
herself alongside. The passengers were at once sent
on board her, to their great contentment. For us,
indeed, there was double cause for exultation. A
portion of the western range of the Caucasus is admi-
rably seen from the part of the Black Sea we had now
reached, and, as a most happy omen, the snow-peaks
that morning were all clear, double-headed Elbruz,
the highest of the range, being easily distinguished from
J^is lesser brethren. To the south, over a great space
of sea and land, were seen the mountains of Armenia.
There were some Georgian musicians on board the
Kttle steamer, who at first would play nothing but
brassy French airs, which, with the vitality belonging
to things bad and vulgar, had travelled thus far
East. Persuaded, after some time, to quit this
tawdry stuff, they sang a Georgian love- song to a
strange wailing melody, exceedingly mournful and
somewhat pretty. By the kindness of one of our

14 INTRODUCTORY,

fellow-travellers, I got a translation of the principal
verse of this dittj, a very old one I was told ; I can-
not say, however, that it has any character or colour.
The lover tells his mistress that he desires nothing
more beautiful and perfect than herself, that his heart
has no misgiving about her, that his eyes are weak,
dazzled by her beauty. A good many lovers all over
the world have said much the same.

After the song the musicians played a Kussian
national dance, which brought about far more vivid
and picturesque love-making than that of the feeble
lay. There had come on board at Kertch a stately
Mingrelian prince, singularly handsome, standing some
six feet three, a very splendid-looking creature in the
beautiful Caucasian dress. He had been filled with
much admiration for a Russian lady, one of the pas-
sengers, and had devoted himself to her with great
assiduity, without, I am bound to say, any response or
encouragement whatever. Hearing the music now, he
implored her to dance, which she absolutely refusing,
he placed himself in front of her and there danced for
some time with much energy and dignity, whereat I
think she was a little moved, and indeed any woman
must have been at such divine audacity. What poor,
cramped, self-conscious man of the West would dare to
show his devotion by dancing alone before his idol
among a shipload of passengers ; or, if he ventured to
do 80, would fail to make himself ridiculous ? But the
Mingrelian was not at all ridiculous, and, after dancing

THE RION. 15

very well, sat down amid some admiration . He took

his seat, as it happened, next to me, and shortly made

to me a long speech in Mingrelian, which, unless I

much mistook the meaning of his frequent bows and

smiles, was full of goodwill. I knew not a word of his

language, but I was very unwilling to be behindhand

in courtesy, so I followed the precedent of the Foreign

Office, and replied to him at considerable length in

English, wishing him all peace, health, happiness, and

prosperity, I think he was gratified, for he told a Kus-

Bian on board that he was pleased with me and conceived

me to be of gentle blood, but that he had never heard

such extraordinary sounds come from any lips before.

The time had slipped away pleasantly enough on
Wrd the little steamer, and we found ourselves,
sooner than we expected, abreast of the mouth of the
river and close to Poti, where the water was to be
quitted for what could hardly be called dry land, since
Poti stands in a charming morass. I need hardly tell
tte reader that the Rion is the stream down which came
Jason and the Argonauts, and, considering how long it
^ been in uae, this waterway is certfiinly in a
shocking state. At the mouth of the river is a bar,
varying in size according to the condition of the
stream and the winds that have lately prevailed. At
times there is on this bar less than three feet of water,
*^d at such a happy period had we arrived. Great
efforts have, I was told, been made by the Russians to
^prove, for purposes of navigation, the entrance to

I

16 INTRODUCTORY.

the Rion, but hitherto without success, the bar forming
again as fast as it was dredged away.

To land at Poti it is necessary to enter the river,
and the steamer we were on board, small as it was,
could not pass through the shallow waters. A flat-
bottomed craft was to come out to receive the passen-
gers, and we were told that she might come that after-
noon, or that night, or next morning or evening;
everyone grumbled, of course, but such delays, if not
exactly liked at the time, are excellent lessons for men
belonging to a country where people write to the
newspapers to complain if an express is not absolutely
punctual We were not sorely visited, for the flat-
bottomed steamer came alongside after we had been
four or five hours at anchor, and, rather dangerously^
loaded, took us to Poti.

I can only repeat a comparison already made of
this place to the Eden of ' Martin Chuzzlewit,* as-
suming that settlement to have prospered and grown
larger. The marsh in which it is situated is on the
left bank of the Rion by its mouth, and the level of
the ground is below that of the river, which is strongly
embanked. The one-storied houses are in most cases
built on piles, and there are many of them, for Poti is
a place of considerable importance. It is terribly un-
healthy in the summer time, fever, as might be ex-
pected, being common.

At Poti we were to meet our interpreter or drago-
man, a person of the highest importance to us, as^

PAUL BAKOUA PIPIA, 17

strange to say, there was only one man in the country
who could fill this post for Western travellers, unless
they possessed some knowledge of Russian. There
were men to be found speaking several of the native dia-
lects, and also speaking Kussiau, but what we required
was a dragoman who, in addition to the native tongues,
commanded either French, German, or Italian, and
there was only one such in the land, a Mingrelian,
Paul Bakoua Pipia, by name, who had formerly
travelled with Mr. Palgrave,. and had subsequently
acted as dragoman to Mr. Freshfield and his com-
panions, of whose journey through the country mention
has already been made. Paul Bakoua Pipia, hence-
forth called in these pages Paul, speaks Georgian and
its dialects, Russian, Turkish, and French. Georgian
and its dialects sufiice for the southern side ; Turkish
is usually understood on the northern, the chiefs some-
times speaking Russian. In describing the conversa-
tions held through Paul's aid with the natives, his
interpretation, as recorded at the time, will be given,
without in each case repeating the statement that in-
terpretation was necessary, and as the constant reitera-
tion of praise is wearisome, I will say here, once for all,
that he is a man of incorruptible honesty, always pains-
taking, and devoted to the inierest of those whom he
serves. In addition to his knowledge of tongues, he
Possesses the rare qualification of being a good travel-
ling cook, able to do well with very simple means.
Si^ce the journey with Mr. Freshfield he had been

c

18 INTRODUCTORY,

lost sight of, and though Mr. Gardner, the Vice-Con-
sul at Poti, discovered that he was somewhere in the
neighbourhood of that place, we had been obliged tci
leave England without the certainty of getting this
irreplaceable dragoman. On arriving at Poti, how-
ever, we found that, owing to the great kindness ol
Mr. Gardner, who had given himself much trouble ir
the matter, Paul had been found, and that he was
willing to go to the wilds with us.

The Rion, a wide and powerful river, rushes dowr
to the sea with so swift a current that the Argonauts
must have found it easy work to pull down stream^
though possibly the coxswain's work was trying. It
seems hard that there should be a railway station on
its banks ; but that ugly sign of civilisation exists on
its northern shore, to which travellers have or had to
cross by boat or steamer, no bridge spanning the Kion
at Poti when we were there, though there was one in
course of construction. While waiting at this station,
where the Orientals lost their apathy and dignity,
struggling and shouting like a crowd of cockneys, it
was pleasant to see that the Mingrelians and Georgians
still held to the garb of their forefathers, and that rich
and poor wore alike the noble Caucasian costume.

The great army of travellers for pleasure, commonly
called tourists, has not yet sought the railway from
Poti to Tiflis, but probably no very long period wiF
pass before portions of the vast hordes which an
nually overrun great part of Europe and spread t^

JtAILWAY FROM POTL 19

Egypt and Palestine begin to seek the road through
Trans- Caucasia. In the summer of 1874 the railway
from Moscow had nearly reached Vladikaf kaz, on the
northern side of the Caucasus^ and is now, I believe,
open to that place. Many years will probably not go
by before a line over the Dariel Pass unites Vladi-
kafkaz with Tiflis, so that from the eastern shores of
the Black Sea there will be communication through
Trans-Caucasia and over the Caucasus with the
Russian railways. A tourists' route between Constan-
tinople and Moscow will probably then be established,
and the journey is, for many reasons, likely to be-
come a popular one ; but atpresent travellers for mere
amusement are few and far between; indeed their
presence, as I have already said, excites some surprise,
and they are treated with a courtesy which it is to be
hoped they will not forfeit when they have become
wore common and are better known.

After leaving Poti the way was first over a morass
ty the side of the wonderfully rapid and powerful
stream of the Rion, and then through that saddest
scene, a dead forest. The marshy ground from which
the trees spring drained formerly into the Rion, but
^ow the railway embankment lying between the
^^ver and the woods has stopped the flow of the
haters, so that they have gathered round the trees,
^hich have thus, if the words may be allowed, been
^^owned, and very piteous they looked, still standing,
W aU dead.

c 2

20 INTRODUCTORY.

After the forest had been passed, and we had j
something further on our way, there came in sic
some of the snow-peaks of the Caucasus, which j
admirably seen from this part of the railway, a
perhaps in future times the view will be hailed w:
acclamations such as are heard when Mont Blanc
first looked on from the line to Geneva. The mou
tains, some of which are very beautiful, continued
sight until we drew near Kutais, whence later on ^
were to start for the high country, if it pleased t
authorities at Tiflis to take us on our own valuati
and treat us as respectable persons. At the static
which is some distance from the town, we now L
behind Peter Knubel and Paul, with instructions
the latter to obtain all the information he could, or,
other words, to pick up all possible gossip, of whi
we found on our return that he had got together
very respectable stock.

After leaving Kutais the journey was at fii
through a rich cultivated country, and then came
long and slow climb to reach the high saddle whi<
marks the watershed between the Black Sea ai
Caspian. The valley through which the railway ru
deepens and narrows in parts to a gorge, and is h
without beauty; but the view from the saddle wh<
reached is uninteresting. Either the railway has be(
very lightly made, or else the inclines are exceptional^
steep, for the upward course to the col and the dowi
ward course thence were wondrous slow. Almof

GORL 21

everything on the line was of English manufacture,
and we were drawn by a marvellous Fairlie engine — a
very double-headed nightingale among locomotives, for
it consisted apparently of two ordinary engines joined
together by their boiler ends.

Towards the evening we passed the curious old
city of Gori, built on the side of a hillock, on the top
of which is an ancient Georgian fort, consisting of a
high skirting wall with towers at intervals, much
resembling a feudal fortress, except that there is appa-
rently no keep. Beyond Gori the hills are dotted for
some distance with the entrances to the cave dwellings
of some remote time, which seem scarcely to have
received the attention they deserve in these days,
when the traces of prehistoric man are studied so care-
fully and so minutely. The entrances to these caves,
arch-shaped at the top, are obviously artificial, and I
Was informed by a Russian oflScer of Engineers, who
Was in the train, that the caverns were of great extent
and very numerous, there being at one place a perfect
Village of them. They must have held in their day a
l^rge population ; but the engineer could not tell me
whether any human remains or flint weapons had been
found, the caves having, it would seem, been hitherto
examined with little care. The Caucasus is frequently
spoken of as the cradle of the European race, and as
sonie of the Caucasians probably sprang from the in-
habitants of these caves, it would surely be becoming
^ the zealous students of our time to pay some little

22 INTRODUCTORY.

attention to the residences of their remote ancestors.
There would be a family interest in the task.

After passing a famous old village bearing the
easily pronounceable name of Mtskheti, and founded,
according to Georgian tradition, by Noah's grandson,
we arrived late at night at Tiflis, where the pleasure
of ending a tedious journey was abated by having to
say good-bye to some Kussian officers whose acquaint-
ance we had made on board the steamer, and who had
come on from Poti by the same train we had taken.
We had been much indebted to their kindness and
courtesy for aid in the difficulties which beset travellers
in a country the language of which is unknown to
them. This was as pleasant as it was surprising to
us, accustomed to the bustling selfishness of crowded
Western travel ; but we found afterwards that it was
no exception ; all the Russian officers we met showed
the same genial desire to do the honours of their
country well, and to be of use to those who were
strangers in the land.

Among the high officials there was certainly every
disposition to aid travellers. The Governor- General
of the Caucasus is the Grand Duke Michael, who was
away from Tiflis at the time we were there, affiiirs
being administered in his absence by the head of his
staff, Baron Nicolai. It was thought that Moore's
name might be known to the authorities, as he had
made a journey in the country before, and there being
no time for a letter to be sent, he had telegraphed from.

THE RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES. 23

Poti to the Baron's secretary. General Pribil, asking

if the Government would give us the order necessary

to ensure good reception in the mountain villages.

Without this, as I have already said, travel in the

unfrequented districts would be impossible. On the

day after our arrival at Tiflis, Moore was informed

that the application had been laid before Baron

Nicolai, and that the order would be immediately

given. Nor did the prompt kindness of the authorities

stop here. After having explained where our journey

was to be, Moore was told that a letter would be

written to the officer in command at Vladikaf kaz,

through whose district we should pass, bidding him

give us any aid he could; also that a similar letter

would be written to the General in command at

Soukhoum Kaleh, in whose province the last part of

our course would be. As will be subsequently seen,

both these promises were faithfully kept.

It would be difficult to acknowledge too warmly
such kindness and consideration on the part of those
who, occupied with important affairs, could yet find
time to attend to the requests of passing travellers.
The facts I have given speak for themselves, and it is
no trifling evidence of the good government of the
Caucasus that the authorities are so willing to assist
foreigners to travel in any or every part of it. We
could hardly have complained if the order had been
refused us, as we had no claim to any special privilege ;
but this most necessary warrant was granted without

24 INTROD UCTOR Y,

difficulty or delay, and with ready goodwill further
help was given. This business was transacted so
quickly by the Russian officials that Moore was free
before the morning was half spent, and the rest of the
day was passed in wandering to and fro in the crowded
streets. Tiflis, capital of Georgia and chief city of
Trans-Caucasia, has now been in possession of the
Russians for upwards of seventy years, and, as might
be expected, has lost much of the colour and character
of the East. It may seem flippant to speak with dis-
respect of so ancient and famous a place, but neverthe-
less it must be said of Tiflis, to use well-known words,
that it is worth seeing, but not worth going to see,
that is, not worth going so far to see. The new part of
the city, built since the Russian occupation, is of course
much like an ordinary European town ; but old Tiflis,
with its nari'ow streets and balconies, tells to some ex-
tent of Oriental life, and the long-ruined Georgian
citadel gives a suggestion, if a faint one, of historic
greatness. This sometime stronghold is on a height
which dominates the town ; towers, alternately round
and square, connected together by a strong wall, sur-
round the crest of the hill, turret and curtain being
built of large flat bricks much resembling Roman bricks,
and arrayed in courses alternately horizontal and ver-
tical, which give a quaint look to the decayed old fast-
ness. In fit keeping with the ruin was the huge carcass
of an ox, which lay at the foot of one of the walls.
The shops or bazaar of an Eastern town are,, it

THE BAZAAR AT TIFLI8. 26

must be confessed, nearly as interesting to some tra-
vallers as its ruins, and Tiflis has two products specially
its own, being rich in coloured embroideries and silver-
work. To the former much praise cannot be given,
for, though they show some ingenuity in design, the
fatal effect of European taste is but too evident in* the
hard garish colours which have supplanted the rich
but subdued tones in which the uncorrupted Oriental
delights ; but the silver-work is of great beauty, as yet
unmarred by foreign influence. It is for men that this
handiwork exists. The Caucasian almost always wears
a huge poniard, and he loves much, if he can afford it,
to have for this a silver sheath and to hang it from a
silver belt. At Tiflis sheaths and belts are principally
made, great variety being shown in the designs of the
latter, and both being ornamented with black inlaid
work, which is sometimes of singular grace and deli-
cacy. One street in the crowded bazaar which yet
keeps its Eastern character is called Silver-street, and
IS tenanted by silversmiths whose craft, plied entirely
for natives, still retains its old glory.

Full of many-coloured life it is, that bazaar, with
1^8 small open shops wherein the sellers loudly chant
^"6 value of their wares, and the varied throng of
Georgians, Mingrelians, Caucasian dandies, wild herds-
men, Armenians, and Persians in its narrow ways.
Many were the strange and picturesque types ; but of
^U we admired most a gigantic Persian, whom we
Pondered at greatly, and decided at last to be au

f

I

)

26 INTRODUCTORY,

armourer carrying his stock-in-trade on his person, for
thus alone could be explained his marvellous accoutre-
ments. He was of immense size and strength, and
carried two guns, three pistols, three knives, and a
sword ; just the man, in fact, to vote for an unpopular
candidate in Tipperary.

While wandering about the bazaar we met Lieu-
tenant Kwitka, an oflBcer in the Imperial Guard, whose
acquaintance we had made on board the steamer, and
to whom we had been indebted for much friendly aid
in translating for us, as he spoke English exceedingly
well. It was our desire during the journey which we
contemplated in the mountain country to ascend or
attempt the ascent of Elbruz, the highest peak of the
chain, and we had told Lieutenant Kwitka that we
should be much gratified if some Russian officer would
join us in our attempt to gain this summit. He now
introduced us to his friend Lieutenant Bemoff, who
was anxious to grapple with the snows of the great
mountain. Under any circumstances, the companion-
ship of a Russian officer would have been a pleasure to
us, but there were some special reasons for what we^
had said to Lieutenant Kwitka, which may be of int
rest to English readers.

In the year 1868 Mr. Freshfield, Mr. Moore, an
Mr. Tucker, in the journey to which I shall seve
times have occasion to refer, made the first ascents
the famous Mount Kasbek, which rises over the DarLel
Pass, and of the eastern peak of double-headed Elbrix^.

MR. FRESHFIELUS ASCENTS, 27

That the travellers should succeed in those two ex-
peditious was not wonderful, for they had all three
been long accustomed to mountain work in Switzerland,
and they had with them a skilful Chamouni guide ;
but I regret to say that, without any reason whatever,
some doubt was expressed at Tiflis as to whether these
ascents had really been made. That this expression
of doubt came from Russian officers, I do not for an
instant believe. Jealous of their own honour, they
would respect that of others, and probably the sense-
less suspicion was due to some small scribes such as are
occasionally found in the capitals of outlying depen-
dencies. It has now, 1 believe, disaj)peared, and I
certainly shall not insult my countrymen by needlessly
vindicating them from the puerile and contemptible
aspersion. There can be no more doubt that they
ascended the two summits named than that those
summits exist ; and the more the mountains are explored
the more strongly will the truth of the English tra-
vellers' statements be confirmed. Indeed, witness has
already been borne to the accuracy of Mr. Freshfield's
account of Kasbek by a Russian gentleman, who made
the second ascent of that mountain.

We were exceedingly anxious to escape, in the
^vent of our ascending Elbruz, any such unpleasant
^^putation as had been cast on those who had pre-
ceded us, and also to put the fact of their ascent of
^j Elbruz beyond any possibility of doubt on the part of
ui the Russians. We mshed, therefore, much to induce

28 INTRODUCTORY,

a Russian officer to accompany us, which, besides pre-
venting any doubt being thrown on the expedition,
would have the additional advantage of giving us a
pleasant companion on the mountain. Lieutenant
Bernoff hearing from Kwitka of our wish and the
reason for it, immediately said that he should much like
to scale the great peak ; and shortly after we had
made his acquaintance it was settled that we should
meet at the village of Urusbieh, in the valley of the
Baksan, whence the ascent of Elbruz was to be
attempted. We told him that we should not leave
the village before July 28, and he said that he would
be there on the 26th. Lieutenant Kwitka was not
sure whether it would be in his power to come also.

We found that evening that the order for the
chiefs of the villages would not be ready until next
day, as it had to be sent some distance for Baron
Nicolai's signature. It was settled, therefore, that
Moore should wait at Tiflis to receive it, and that
Walker, Gardiner, and I should go to Kutais to make
all ready for a start thence into the mountain country.
At Kutais would begin the journey for which we had
come out, and this would be, in great part, through a
secluded and untravelled country, some of which we
believed we should be the first Englishmen to see.
With the mountvin of Prometheus and his vulture, we
should have, alas, nothing to do, for, though a very
similar myth exists about Elbruz, the scene of Jove's
vengeance was, according to local tradition, on Kasbek>

THE INTENDED JOURNEY, 29

and our projected course Would be far west of that
peak. On the southern side of the chain our wander-
ings were to be in Mingrelia, possibly in Suenetia and
in Abkhasia; on the northern side, from Balkar to
that part of the Tcherkess territory, which is known
as the Karatchai country. A sketch of the line we
intended to take may here perhaps be given with
advantage. It is divided into stages, but not accord-
ing to each day's march, as to do this would make the
account tediously minute. Our projected route, then,
was as follows : —

1. From Kutais over the subsidiary range of the
Nakerala mountains to Nikortzminda, and thence to
Oni on the Rion.

2. From Onl to Gebi, higher up the river.

3. From Gebi to the source of the Rion, and
thence over the main chain to the head of the Tcherek,
on the northern side.

4. From the head of the valley down it to the
village of Kunim and the gorge of the Tcherek.

5. From Kunim to the village of Bezingi.

6. Thence to explore the great mountain group at
the head of the valley, and, if possible, to pass over the
^ain chain to Suenetia, on the southern side, return-
ing to Bezingi if this could not be done.

7. Bezingi to the village of Tchegem.

8. Tchegem to Urusbieh.

9. Thence to the summit of Elbruz (we hoped),
and back therefrom.

so INTROD UCTOR Y,

10. From Urusbieh (round Elbruz) to Utchkulan,
in the Karatchai country.

11. Thence over the Nakhar Pass, and down the
valleys of the Kliitch and the Kodor to the Kussian
post at Lata.

12. From Lata to another Russian post at Zebelda.

13. From Zebelda to Soukhoum Kaleh.

Much of the ground thus to be traversed was, to
the best of our knowledge, new to Englishmen. The
only English travellers who had before 1874 explored
the high country between the Dariel Pass and Elbruz
were, so far as I am aware, those already mentioned,
namely, Mr. Freshfield, Mr. A. W. Moore (now of
our number), and Mr. Tucker, who made in 1868 the
long and difficult journey on each side of the range,
which Mr. Freshfield has described in his graphic and
interesting work, ^ The Central Caucasus and Bashan.'
An English sportsman was many years ago in the
valley of the Kodor, passed thence to the northern side,
and went a little way up Elbruz, but I have been
unable to ascertain where he crossed the chain. Mr.
Freshfield, during his journey, was at the villages of
Gebi, Kunim, and Urusbieh, but he approached and
left these places by routes different from those which
we intended to follow, and, for the greater part of the
way, our line of travel would be through country as
yet untraversed by any Englishman, but very little
explored by travellers of other countries, and in parts

TRIBES OF THE WESTERN CAUCASUS, 31

rarely visited by the Russians. As to the people with
whom we should have to do, they would be, on the
southern side, the Mingrelians, possibly the Suenetians,
and the men of Abkhasia, if any. should be found in that
much deserted land. On the northern side we should
be among the dwellers by the Tcherek and the
Baksan, and the inhabitants of the Karatchai country.
These different tribes vary greatly in character. The
Mingrelians, though honest men are to be found
amongst them, are said to be usually lying and un-
trustworthy, besides being excessively indolent. They
are not, however, a violent people, and I imagine that
the traveller in their country is commonly in no
danger from them. They certainly do not bear a good
character ; and Malte-Brun, quoted by Mr. Freshfield,
goes so far as to say of them^ that ^they live sur-
rounded by women who lead a life of debauchery, often
eat with their fingers, and bring up their children to
lying, pillage, and maraudage,' which is very terrible ;
but I am afraid that the writer, if he had visited cer-
tain parts in our own country, might have said that
the inhabitants habitually dropped the letter H^ and
sometimes kicked their wives to death. The Suenetians
are a race of much darker type than the Mingrelians.
Liars and pilferers all of them, they are also, when
they dare, robbers and assassins. Their country,
though perhaps rivalled by some parts of Abkhasia, is
generally considered the most beautiful in the whole

32 INTRODUCTORY.

raDge. Those who have visited it never fail to grow
enthusiastic when they speak of its magnificent valleys,
its noble forests, its almost tropical vegetation, and its
vast, natural flower gardens sometimes covering whole
hill- sides. But according to all accounts heard in the
Caucasus, this earthly paradise is inhabited by the
most barbarous of the Caucasian tribes. The Suene-
tian will lie, cheat, insult, plunder, and if he is in a
bad humour, assassinate ; indeed, in some parts of their
country, murder seems to be a habit rather than an
excess. They kill each other freely, and though the
traveller will usually be safe among them, owing
to the dread of Russian punishment, their natural
ferocity may now and then overpower this considera-
tion, and Mr. Fresh field and his companions were in
some danger from thiem in 1868. An event which
happened in one of their valleys a short time before we
were in the country shows the character of the Suene-
tian touch. A priest, having failed to cure a cow
which had fallen ill, was beheaded by its owner amid
the applause of a circle of sympathising friends.

A very different order of men are the Moham-
medans, who dwell on the northern side of the chain,
among whom we were likely to be for some time. As
I shall afterwards have to speak at length of this
people, I will now merely say that they bear in the
Caucasus the repute of being a peaceful and fairly
honest race, possessing sometimes considerable wealth
in flocks and herds, though leading a most simple and

MOHAMMEDANS AND CHRISTIANS. 33

primitive life. With regard to the natives of the
western province, the Abkhasians, they are for the
most part, to use a hackneyed phrase, conspicuous by
their absence. Since the revolt of August 1866 there
has been a great emigration to Turkey from this region,
and some parts of it covered by a dense forest seem to
have been for a long space of time completely un-
inhabited.

Throughout the Western Caucasus the superiority
of the Mohammedan tribes on the northern side of the
range to the Christians on the southern slopes is
strongly marked. The future historian of the country
will no doubt trace and explain the reasons of this
great difference- At present it must suffice to say
that it exists.

The Caucasians of the north are as yet a fine
example of a simple pastoral race, and still follow in
their secluded valleys the patriarchal life of their fore-
fathers. Although now a perfectly peaceful people,
they still adhere to some of the habits of more warlike
days, and in all else their ways are unchanged from
those of the generations which have gone before. But
it is to be feared that this cannot be for much longer.
This little fragment of primitive life will soon be
absorbed by the great civilised country on the borders
of which it exists. Already the railway is drawing
close — it has advanced one step since last summer —
and with the railway will come the civilisation of our
day, which will rapidly weaken and destroy that which

34 INTRODUCTORY,

is characteristic in the life and ways of this ancient
race of warlike shepherds. As few, very few travel-
lers from the West have yet been among them, and as
they may soon change or disappear, it is hoped that
the attempt to give a sketch of their life and ways, of
which part of this book consists, may not be without
reason. It should be added that their region lies
under the noblest peaks in the whole range of the
Caucasus.

Whether the boundary of Europe is to be held to
lie along the crest of that range, or whether it must be
drawn further north, is a question of much geographical
interest, on which opinions do not even now seem to be
altogether unanimous, although almost all the weight
of modern authority is on one side. In a letter
written to the ^ Times * after our return from the
Caucasus, I spoke of Elbruz, which stands at the end
of a spur on the northern side of the chain, as being
undoubtedly in Europe. This was questioned by some
Alpine critics whose letters showed so slight a know-
ledge of eastern geography as not to require any
answer. Trivial, however, as the remarks made were,
they nevertheless indicated that some difference of
opinion still exists on the subject; and, in order to
avoid apparent dogmatism, it may be well to state
shortly the reasons for considering Elbruz to be in
Europe, at the risk of giving what may be to many
readers very trite geographical information.

Various boundary lines for eastern and south-

THE SOUTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY OF EUROPE, 36

eastern Europe have been at different times proposed
by geographers. To describe all the divisions sug-
gested would require more space than it is advisable to
give, but perhaps the proposal best known and com-
manding most attention was that which had, or rather
was supposed to have, the authority of the Imperial
Academy of St. Petersburg. That learned body, in
what was, to use their own language, a * prospectus '
of a proposed description of the Russian Empire, sug-
gested in 1778 as the boundary of Europe to the south-
east a line drawn from the end of the Ural mountains
along the Obtschei Sirt range, and from the end of
this to the Sea of Azof. This line would cross the
Volga and apparently the Don ; but neither of these
rivers is mentioned in the description of the proposed
demarcation in the records of the Academy,^ the
passage being indeed so vague that it is by no means
easy to understand from it, where, for the greater part
of its course, the boundary was to lie. This was not
astonishing in what was merely a ^ prospectus,* not a
complete work or treatise issued by the Imperial
Academy ; but, even if the full academical sanction
had been given, it could hardly have established the
proposed boundary against the just objection which
has been taken to it of being in great part an alto-

* *Acta Academige Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae,' 1778.
Prospectus d'une description g6n6rale, topographiqiie et physique, de
TEmpire de Bussie projetee par TAcad^mie Imp^riale des Sciences de
St P^tersbourg.

D 2

30 INTROD UCTOR Y.

gether arbitrary line not marked by any natural
feature whatever, and moreover, of dividing great
rivers so as to place the upper part of their course in one
continent, the lower in another, a thing surely repugnant
to all ideas of a continent. No continuous natural fea-
ture marking the limits of Europe to the south-east
can be found north of the Caucasian range, and the
watershed of this great chain of mountains has there-
fore been suggested as the only possible boundary-line
of Europe and Asia between the Black Sea and the
Caspian. This view was held by the late Mr. A.
Keith Johnston, a high authority on such a subject, as
need hardly be said, and may be considered to be that
of modem geographers generally, save that some of
them go still further, and place the boundary of
Europe south of the Caucasian range. ^ It may perhaps
be urged that theoretically a continent must be
bounded by water ; but to this argument there is the
suflScing answer that such a boundary is in many
places wanting between Europe and Asia, and that an
arbitrary line marked by no natural features whatever
are a purely artificial boundary, and assuredly worse
therefore than a great mountain chain. Which seems
the most fitting limit to Europe ? the mighty wall of
the Caucasus, or an artificial line drawn across country

* See the maps of Wi eland and Kiepert, Weimar, 1866 ; Pfeiffer,
Nuremberg ; Bru6, Paris, 1869; Chartier, Paris, 1869 ; A. Keith John-
ston,. London, edition, corrected to 1871 ; Magin and Pericot, Paris,
1874; Saganson, Paris, 1874; T. Schade, Glogau, 1874; B. Kozenn,
Vienna, 1874.

JOURNEY BACK TO KUTAIS, 37

precisely the same on either side of it ? Surely it is a
reductio ad absurdum to oppose to the acceptance of
the Caucasian watershed as a border line an interpreta-
tion at once pedantic and doubtful of the word conti-
nent which would leave parts of Europe without any
boundary at all. It may then be assumed that the
limit of Europe cannot be placed north of the crest of
the Caucasus^ and in that case Elbruz^ standing some
distance north of the chain^ is undoubtedly the highest
mountain in Europe; for to admit that Elbruz and
Mont Blanc are both in the Western continent, but to
assert that the latter is the highest European moun-
tain, is merely to talk nonsense rather than abandon a
cherished error.*

But I must now return to my fellow-travellers,
whom I have had to quit for awhile. Having stopped
a day at Tiflis, Walker, Gardiner, and I, travelled back
on the next (July 3) to Kutais, Moore remaining behind
to wait for the Bussian order. The inhabitants of the
capital of Mingrelia, for such Kutais is, showed, res-
pecting the railway, an intelligence not unlike that
of some of the rulers of our county towns, if the
story told in the country is true. The easiest line to
follow ran, it is said, a little distance south of Kutais,
but the projectors of the railway were willing to carry

' If^ however, it is thought esBential that a continent should be
bounded by water, perhaps the best limit co Europe would be the
Terek and the Kuban. A line drawn from the source of one river to
that of another would leave Elbruz in Europe, so that, even with this
boundary, the supremacy of Mont Blanc would no longer be maintained.

38 INTR OD UCTOR Y,

it to the town, or to make a branch, if the people of the
place would contribute a moderate sum. This, how-
ever, they absolutely refused to do, so the easiest line
was followed, and now Kutais, we were told, was going
to pay a much larger sum than that first asked to have
a branch made. With railways, as with other things,
history repeats itself.

With all the impartiality of discontented travellers,
we condemned severely the narrow economy of the
local authorities as we drove in heavy rain from the
station to Kutais; but our attention was soon dis-
tracted from railway arrangements, for Paul, who met
us, had collected for us in the little town a very re-
spectable amount of gossip of immediate interest to our-
selves. There were grave difficulties in the way of
our journey, it seemed. The rain had been heavy,
and the rivers were flooded ; bridges had been carried
away, and streams usually fordable could not be
passed. A Russian who had started the morning
before for Suenetia had come back, and wise men in
Kutais said that the same thing would happen to us.
But the floods were a small e\'il compared to another
which threatened the unwary traveller. There was a
brigand lurking by the road between Kutais and Oni ;
a brigand of unusual ferocity and determination. Said
Paul, ^ He is a Mingrelian prince who, having com-
mitted more than one murder, was seized by the
Russians and condemned to be exiled to Siberia. A
guard was taking him from Kutais to Tiflis, when, being

THE BRIGAND PRINCE, 39

a man of extraordinary strength and activity, he sud-
denly struck down the soldier on each side of him, and
jumped out of the carriage. He was immediately lost
sight of in the forest, and pursuit was unavailing. He
allied himself with one or two other bandits, and is now
robbing travellers on the road to Oni. We shall have
a fight on the way for certain.'

We endeavoured to console Paul by some rellec-
tions on the exaggerated nature of local gossip and the
excellence of English revolvers ; the latter subject of
discourse producing a much greater impression on him
than the former. The sight of some ball cartridges
added to his happiness, and he was in a fairly cheerful
state of mind when we reached the dirty little inn
which receives travellers at Kutais. We had told him
to hire, while waiting for us, a couple of pack-horses.
As a general rule, the traveller in the Caucasus does
best to buy any horses he may want and to sell them at
the end of his journey, as hiring them is not common,
and is therefore disproportionately expensive and very
troublesome. It was not advisable, however, for us to
buy animals, as we intended crossing the main chain
twice at least by passes which probably would not prove
practicable for horses. Accordingly it was necessary
to hire, and the day after our arrival at Kutais Paul
brought to us a strange little hump-backed Mingre-
lian dwarf, who was willing to accompany us with his
two horses to Oni. As became a dwarf, he had a good
deal to say for himself. After an exordium in

40 INTRODUCTORY.

which he stated that he was a man of no common merit,
and always spoke the truth, he proceeded to give an
account of the brigand prince, whom he made out
rather blacker t)jan Paul had painted him. Being
interrupted after he had continued on this subject for
some time, and asked what he demanded for the
journey to Oni, be named an absurd sum.
Paul — That is too much by a great deal.
The Dwai'f—'Not in the least. Let the gentlemen
understand I never speak anything but the truth.
You see there is this brigand in the way. For any
danger to myself I care nothing, being a man to whom
fear is unknown, as many will testify. If the brigand
should attack us, I shall probably make him prisoner.
But remember my horses may be injured. If they
are killed, I must replace them, and for the danger to
them it is just I should be paid.

We were sceptical as to the existence of the bri-
gand prince ; but we found that the people of the inn
believed in him, and the dwarfs terms were agreed to ;
whereupon, assuring us that such horses as his were
rarely to be found, and such a man as himself never,
he bowed himself out with much stateliness. He was
the very ideal of an Eastern dwarf.

We were exceedingly glad to meet at Kutais
Captain Telfer, who was preparing for a journey into
Suenetia with the chief of the district recently ap-
pointed by the Russian Government. In this expedi-
dition Captain Telfer was, I believe, subsequently

COUNT LEVACHOFF, 41

perfectly successful, seeing much of this most inte-
resting country. We hoped at the time to meet him
in it, as we intended crossing into Suenetia from the
northern side of the range.

I had an interview during the afternoon with Count
Levachoff, the Governor of Mingrelia, who, with great
kindness, gave me much information as to the districts
best worth exploring, and ordered two letters to be
drawn up for our benefit, addressed to two local chiefs
of considerable importance. This was exceedingly
courteous on his part, as he was overwhelmed with
work at the time, being on the point of leaving Kutais,
and I had hardly hoped that he would be able to attend
to a passing stranger. Late in the afternoon Moore
arrived, bringing with him the Russian letter duly
signed, and imperative on all whom it might concern,
and we passed the evening in destroying, to our own
entire satisfaction, the brigand whom we clearly proved,
according to the best principles of German criticism, to
be a fictitious person, produced by the accretion of
myths — a creature having but a subjective existence
in the minds of the people of Kutais.

But we discovered next morning the mistake of
applying the historic method meant to be used re-
specting things that happened long ago, concerning
which hardly anything can ever be known for cer-
tain, to existing facts which may at any moment show
themselves in ugly opposition to the best constructed
hypothesis. The brigand prince was proved to be a

42 INTRODUCTORY,

reality by being captured and brought into Kutais
next morning. We heard the news from Captain
Telfer, who had seen the soldiers bring in the bandit,
who was badly wounded. There was a curious story
about this brigand prince, showing a simple state
of society. He and his father had each sworn to take
the other's life. The father went on the logical ground
that, being responsible for the existence of so mis-
chievous a person, he was bound, as a gentleman, to rid
the community of him. I do not know whether the son
would justify his desire by equally sound reasoning.

Presently there came to the inn the Dwarf much
excited. * Have you heard the news T he said to Paul.

Paul — What news ?

The Dwarf — The robber is taken.

PawZ— Is he ? Who took him ?

The Dwarf — I myself, none other. (The bri-
gand had been captured by soldiers some way outside
Kutais). Did I not tell you I was a man without fear ?

Paul (coming to business) — I suppose, now that
there is no danger, you will not want so much for your
horses ?

Tlie Dwarf — On the contrary. The price I named
yesterday was the proper price for the journey to Oni
and nothing more, for I am ever just in my dealings,
and would scorn to raise my price to strangers for
robbers or aught else. But now, as there is no
danger on the road, there are many people going to
Oni, and, one of my horses being ill, I have to hire

THE RUSSIAN MAP, 43

another at great cost. Let the gentlemen understand
that I am one who always speaks the truth.

He was got rid of with some trouble and other
horses were found, but not until it was too late to start
that day. All difficulties were now, however, happily
over, and it was decided to march at daybreak next
morning. Travelling accoutrements were put in order,
which indeed was not difficult, as they were of the
simplest kind, for Moore's experience had taught him
that it was desirable to have as little baggage as pos-
sible ; and we had therefore so reduced our luggage that
it would almost have been carried free on a French rail-
way. To avoid weight we brought no tent, but each
man had a mackintosh bag lined with flannel for sleep-
ing out. We had a cooking pot — an absolute neces-
sity in the Caucasus — and a very small stock of
provisions. We all four carried revolvers, as need
hardly be said.

Moore fortunately had in his possession the sheets
for the Western Caucasus of the Russian official map,
made on the scale of five versts (about three miles and
a third) to the inch, and commonly called the five-verst
map. It gives fairly well the features of the green
country, but is often inaccurate, sometimes altogether
wrong, in its rendering of the high peaks, ridges, and
glaciers, and of the heads of the valleys immediately
under the great chain. This, however, is in no way
the fault of the officers who were charged with the
survey, as, at the time when it was made, to survey

44 INTRODUCTORY,

the country at all was a work of great difficulty and
dangler.

I gladly take this opportunity of acknowledging
my deep debt to Moore, who has kindly brought to
my aid in the preparation of this book his extensive
and minute knowledge of the intricate topography of
the Western Caucasus.

45

CHAPTER IL

THE UPPER RION.

Start from Kutais— The Rion— The Tsiteli, op Red River—Gelati—
Apparent tranquillity of the country — The Mamison route — Tkyibula
and the well-meaning people there — Satchori Pass — Strange river
— Nikortzminda — Ruined castle — The Valley of the Upper Rion —
Sori and its priest — Utsora — Wilder country entered — Gebi ; its posi-
tion and inhabitants — Their wanderings in the Caucasus and aptitude
at bargaining — Caucasian powers of speech — The Village Parliament
— The Schoolmaster — Departure from Gebi — ^Wrong path taken early
in the day — The valley of the Zopkhetiri — Eloquence of the Man of
Gebi — Passage of a ridge — The Rhododendron Wood — Mishaps —
Bivouac by the Rion.

There is a story, of course an Eastern one, of a prince
who, having at the command of a magician or genie
dipped his head into a bucket of water, lost all recol-
lection of his former existence, and began a new life
full of varied effort and struggle. He waged war, lost
and won, loved and was beloved, until, after fifty years
of changeful fortune, he suddenly found himself stand-
ing by the bucket of water with the enchanter by his
side, and discovered that he had but dipped his head
for a moment, and that what had seemed a life of ad-
venture had been contained in an instant of time.

Now there is a grain of truth suggested in the wild
extravagance of this fantastic fable. To most men, I

46 THE UPPER RIOK

think, time seems to have passed according to the im-
pressions received, to the number of images, so to
speak, on the retina of the mind, rather than according
to its actual duration ; and a few days of unaccustomed
travel appear, with their many vivid recollections, to
separate one further from the days which have gone
before than do weeks or months of habitual, mono-
tonous life. Thus it certainly seemed to us when
we found ourselves at last ready to start from
Kutais with the all-important order in our hands, the
brigand prince laid, the lying dwarf dismissed, and a
couple of honest horsemen hired. The little inci-
dents of travel had been so many and to a great extent
so new, the change from Western life was so complete,
that it was hard to believe that only seventeen days
had passed since we left London. It seemed rather as
though there had been a journey of two or three months
or so, and, in like manner, the little difficulties which
had beset us appeared in the light of great obstacles
now at last overcome. WofuUy disproportionate this
was ; but I do not think that we were singular in this
respect, and perhaps much greater travellers would
admit that they also have made the mistake of seeing
everything that affected their journey through a mental
magnifying glass of no inconsiderable power.

I trust that we had not indulged over-much in this
feeling, and had not been unduly cast down when there
seemed to be a chance of serious delay, but we cer-
tainly were very joyful when we found that there was

SNARLEY'YOW. 47

BO longer impediment of any kind, and that we could
make straight for the wilds. We held such moderate
revel as the means of the hotel and a regard for walk-
ing condition allowed ; said good-bye with great regret
to Captain Telfer, who had to wait some two or three
days for the chief of Suenetia, and went to bed hoping
the best for the weather, for which we had to hope, as
the Marchioness made believe, very much. We were
to get off, if possible, at daylight.

There was a kind of snarley-yow, a dog-fiend, at
the hotel, who lay asleep all day when his noise would
not have mattered, and ran about the house barking
hideously for the greater part of the night. The brute
had not even the time-honoured excuse of baying the
moon, for the sky was black as ink, and he can only
have acted as he did from utter viciousness, in which,
indeed he was a type of the Caucasian dog, the ugliest,
the most savage, and at the same time the most
cowardly of the dog tribe. This evil beast selected
our door for special attention on this evening, attracted
by one of Gardiner's boots which he thought he should
like ; but even his teeth were turned by the tough cow-
hide, so he barked and howled at our threshold for the
entire night. It was then for once a pleasure to get
up at daylight, an act which, except under some such
special circumstances, I believe always has been and
always will be detestable to man.

Very cold, poor daylight it was, albeit this was
July 6, and there was an ominous look of rain to come

48 THE UPPER RION.

in the dull sky ; but, fair weather or foul, it was cheer-
ing to start, so the horses were laden with small
delay, and at a little after six we were able to leave
the inn, with all manner of good wishes from the
frowsy host, whose very extortionate bill had not been
disputed. I lingered behind for a moment, nominally
to sliake hands with a Georgian servant, but really to
throw a stone at the dog-fiend, which, I am glad to
say, hit him. I then followed the others through the
muddy street.

After leaving the town, our way lay for awhile
along the left bank of the Kion by a wide and goodly
path. Very pretty was Kutais as seen on looking
back from various places in the windings of the river.
On the right bank, a height dominating the town is
crowned by a ruined castle which, with the cheerful-
looking houses round it, is pleasantly suggestive, as
such ruins often are, of evil times gone by, and of
present peace and prosperity. To the north of us lay
the hill country through which the Rion twisted and
turned after the manner of rivers. We were not to
follow its windings for long, our road lying to the north-
east, so, at no great distance from Kutais, turning
sharply to the right and crossing the spur of a hill, we
left the valley of the Rion, which we were not to see
again until we had drawn much nearer to the source
of that stately river. With the Red River, or Tsiteli,
swollen and impassable according to the Kutais people,
we now had to do, as, after crossing the spur, we de-

QELATL 49

Bcended into the rich valley through which that stream
flows down to the Kvirila, a powerful tributary of the
Rion. Just opposite us, as we came into the valley,
was Gelati, the great monastery of the Southern Cau-
casus. An edifice more admirably placed it would be
hard to find. Unlike our own monastic buildings,
which are commonly on low ground, Gelati, high up
on a magnificently wooded slope, just under a bold
crest, seems placed there to rule the beautiful valley
below. The white walls and light-green roofs which
mark the Greek Church stand out brightly from the
dark mass behind, and, being under the ridge and not
on it, the monastery has all the dignity which comes
from a lofty site without the look of bleakness and ex-
posure belonging to buildings which on a lofty ridge
stand out against the sky line. The difficulties of
transport must be considerable, but labour is cheap in
the country, horses are many, and perhaps the monks
of Gelati are not so hard to please as others have been.
I believe that, in the Greek Church, a married priest
whose wife dies must enter the monastic order. There
must therefore be a large number of widowers in a
Greek monastery, and men who have been married
are notoriously less particular about meat and drink
than confirmed bachelors.

The signs of security and moderate prosperity
were to be plainly seen as we went on. The country
was largely cultivated. The peasants whom we met
were many of them unarmed, not even wearing the

E

60 THE UPPER RION.

gi'eat poniard universal in all the other mountain
districts ; and we did not see during the whole day a
man carrying either gun or pistol. Wayfarers were
many, and of pack-horses we saw not a few. The
brigand prince must have been an exceptional inflic-
tion, for he who ran might read that the country was
safe. As the morning advanced, it became more and
more diflScult to form any idea of the configuration of
the district we were passing through, owing partly to
the great intricacy of the tortuous valleys, and partly
to the extreme badness of the weather. From the
first the day was sullen, and as it wore on the heavy
clouds grew darker, and the clammy mist stole further
and further down the hill-sides, hiding ridges and sum-
mits, so that we were in much obscurity as to the
course we were following, while we could learn little
from the map, which is extremely vague in its render-
ing of this part of the Caucasus. For some time we
kept to the Red River, which we crossed thrice — once
by a bridge, and twice by fording. Leaving this
stream, after passing it the third time, we traversed a
low col, and descended into what was apparently a
small lateral valley leading to a greater one, along
the base of which we walked for awhile, and then
struck up one side of it, making for the col at its
head, as we afterwards found out ; but the thick mist
and the rain which had now for some time been fall-
ing, hid everything so completely that we might have
been blind for any knowledge we could get of the

THE MAMISON MO UTE, 51

valley system through which we were passing, and of
the scenery we could only judge by occasional glimpses
through the mist. These revealed densely wooded
hill-sides, which seemed to bear some resemblance to
those in the more picturesque valleys of the Jura.
We were on the route of the Mamison Pass from
Kutais to Vladikafkaz, an important line of communi-
cation between the Northern and Southern Caucasus.
Some trouble had obviously been taken with the road,
which has been carried skilfully along the bases and
slopes of the valleys, and is wide enough not only
for horses but even for small carts. Its state, how-
ever, was something indescribable. It had never
been metalled, and the soil is clay. Two months'
continuous rain had produced a puddled mass, more
holding than anything I have ever toiled through
even in Sussex. Just at nightfall we were wallowing
knee-deep in the miry way which led up the side of
the valley, when a friendly native who was travelling
by the same road overtook us, and told us that there
was still a considerable ascent to the col we had to
pass, and that from it to Nikortzminda, the village
where we had hoped to pass the night, was six miles
well told. He had, as it afterwards proved, an in-
terest in saying this, but nevertheless spoke the
truth. Shortly after he joined us we halted at a
group of very wretched looking chdlets, one of which
was what, for want of a better name, must be called
an inn. We had passed two such during the day,

B 2

52 THE UPPER RION.

and, humble as they were, we afterwards found that
they indicated an advance on any other of the moun-
tain districts we passed through, for it was only on the
Mamison route that the number of travellers seemed
to be sufficient to call into existence any kind of
resting-place for wayfarers.

Our halting place was called Tkvibula, and the inn
or cantine which offered shelter, and the coarsest pos-
sible food and drink, was exactly like the others we
saw — a rough shed with an earthen floor, no chimney,
and only one window. The latter, which of course was
unglazed, answered the purpose of a bar, for behind it
was a closet in which were kept a small store of vodka^
a barrel of acid wine, and a few loaves. Such was
the entertainment for man. As for beasts, they were
at liberty to browse about the place as they could,
unless some kindly native could be induced to give
them house-room with his own family, which, on this
occasion, one hospitable Caucasian did.

It was rough lodging, but better, very much better
than la clef des champs ^ -which was the only alternative.
Our friendly adviser as to the way turned out to be
the landlord, who had not, as we afterwards found, at
all gone beyond the truth in what he said of the dis-
tance to Nikortzminda. Other natives who had been
hanging about outside the shed with a cow-like in-
difference to rain, crowded into the place when they
discovered we were going to stop. They were very
dirty, and very willing to be useful. Everybody,

TKVIBULA. 63

indeed, was most zealous in the service of the strangers,
though obviously wondering greatly who the strangers
were, and what their business might be. One boy
waited on us the whole evening, considering himself
quite repaid for his services by having the privilege
of a closer stare than the rest. Others blew the wood
fire with indiscriminate and blinding vigour. Our
host, indeed, carried his zeal rather too far, for, having
been asked by Moore to wash the boots, he did so,
and then in addition filled them with water, and left
them standing like so many black-jacks, under the
impression that he had done his work with praise-
worthy thoroughness. But, if there were some mis-
takes, there was goodwill all round, and even some of
the roughest and dirtiest peasants who settled down
to supper grinned at us from time to time, as though
to intimate that we were strange people to look at,
but nevertheless welcome. The rain grew, if pos-
sible, heavier after nightfall, but the roof was for the
most part watertight, and nothing lulls so pleasantly
to sleep those who have found cover from the storm
as the sound of the pitiless downfall outside^

Paul, crooning over the fire like a witch, and
looking ghastly enough for one in the flickering light,
first met my eyes on waking in the morning. I was
soon aware that the rain was falling as steadily as it
had been the evening before, but somehow the sound did
not seem so pleasant as it had done, and, as we shook
off flea-troubled slumbers, and huddled round the

64 THE UPPER RIOK

scanty fire, we felt much sympathy with the excellent
Paul, who was keeping up a current of bilingual
swearing, in which French and Mingrelian were to
each other as complementary colours. It was all over
the innocent work of tea-making ; but to make tea
over a half-lighted wood fire sending its pungent
smoke into your face, whichever side you sit, is, as
anyone who has tried it will bear witness, a labour
full of vexation. It was finished at last, however,
and the tea having been drunk before a rapt circle
which had hastily assembled on hearing that the
strangers were up, we started again over the hold-
ing clay, with the mist thicker than ever, and rain
falling heavily enough to put out a volcano. To tell
how we came to a stream which aroused that repug-
nance in the mild steeds bearing our burdens which,
for some reason, horses always show to water; how
knee-deep in mud we toiled up zig-zags ; how, reach-
ing the top of the pass, we saw nothing, were only to
tell the story of a wet journey much alike in most
mountain countries. We had, however, accomplished
a stage, for we had reached the summit of the Satchori
Pass, 3,972 feet high, a part of the Mamison route
leading over the Sub-Caucasian range of the Nakerala
mountains. The fog became less thick as the day
went on } and after we had passed the col and begun
to descend, we came to some of that woodland beauty
which is the glory of the southern side of the great
chain. A stream springing out a little below the top

THE MY8TERI0 US RIVER. 65

of the pass^ and widening with wonderful rapidity,
wound through a stately forest. Some short way
down a bridge crossed it, and from this point the rivu-
let, already become wide and even, flowed away in
gentle curves through a vista of high trees which
arched over it, as pleasant a sight In the greenwood as
could be sought or desired. Very strange is the course
of this mountain stream which, after showing great
precocity in youth, and strengthening almost into a
river while yet but a little distance from its source,
seems to die early, like a too promising child. Near
Nikortzminda, a few miles further on, it suddenly
disappears into a hole in the earth, and is seen no
more ; at least so the natives say. The Russian map
marks it as coming to light again some distance from
the place where it plunges underground ; but the map
is not to be altogether relied on for this part of the
Caucasus, and I am inclined to trust the native
account. Sometimes the hole into which the stream
plunges gets choked up, and then it floods the country,
doing great harm. This abruptly terminated river is
called the Sharaula.

Passing over some rather tame country after leav-
ing the forest, we met three native women, who kept
shyly oflf our path. They wore short skirts, with, I
regret to say, trousers, and their faces were partly
concealed by mufllers covering the mouth. What
was visible, however, made one think that they were
wise in thus partially veiling themselves. Shortly

66 THE UPPER RIOK

after meeting these women, we came to the village of
Nikortzminda, prettily placed on the hill-side, and
dominated by a large, handsome church.

We entered here the considerable valley of the
Khotevi, by which we were to descend to the Rion.
Very wide, with gently sloping sides, studded every-
where with chalets and small villages, it much resembles
some of the richer and tamer parts of Switzerland,
pleasing to the eyes of the peasant in exact propor-
tion as they are dull to those of the traveller.
Peaceful and prosperous the country clearly was, but
the signs of different times in the past were not
wanting. Some little distance below Nikortzminda a
ruined castle stands close by the way, having been
placed there, no doubt, with a strictly dishonest pur-
pose, as the pass we were traversing is one which, in
all probability, has been much used from a remote
time. A great writer of our day has said that he could
not live in a country where there were no castles ; but
then he, as a modern traveller, has been fortunate
enough to see them only in their ruined state. No one
has recorded that the wayfarers of other times, who
passed the feudal fortress in fear and trembling, saw
anything the least beautiful in it, and probably they
would have been only too happy to live in a country
without a castle on the face of it. I have never
heard that Hindoo peasants are the least enamoured
of the strength or beauty of the tiger.

It was a remarkable thing about this castle, and

THE VALLEY OF THE UPPER RIOK 67

also about several others which we saw in the Southern
Caucasus, that they seemed to have been in ruins for
a long period, as long to all appearance as those of
Western Europe. Now, it might be thought that the
time was not so very remote when Caucasian strong-
holds were likely to be of great practical use to their
owners, and well worth keeping in repair ; but they
certainly look like very old ruins. We arrived at
about three in the afternoon at the place where the
valley of the Khotevi opened into that of the Kion,
which stream we were now to follow to its source.
Much swollen by the rains, it was roaring angrily
down the magnificent valley, but fortunately the bridge
was beyond the strength of its summer fury, and, cross-
ing to the right bank of the river, we made what speed
we could, hoping against hope that we should get that
night to Oni, a large village, which we had expected
to reach in two days from Kutais. It had seemed
practicable enough to do so when we looked at the
map before starting, but we had not enough borne in
mind the smallness of its scale, and the consequent
necessary imperfection of the drawing. The road was
laid down for the whole way, but there was many a
curve which could not possibly be indicated, so that
what was a straight line on paper was found to be full
of twists and bends, to say nothing of ups and downs.
How much that added to the way need not be told ;
and very painfully clear it became to us that we were
not likely to reach Oni that night, as we walked up

68 THE UPPER RIOK

the valley, of which the great size was less pleasing
than it should have been to men who declared them-
selves lovers of mountain scenery. The path was good,
and from time to time led over stretches of soft turf,
where oak and box-trees grew thickly. The slopes on
either side were steep and lofty — bold and precipitous
above, densely wooded below. It was a noble valley,
perhaps a beautiful one, but we were agreed at the
time that these great vales did not yield so pure a
pleasure as those moulded on a smaller scale. Paul
began early to hint that there was, nine miles short of
Oni, a village called Sori, where quarters for the night
could probably be found. At first he was scoffed at,
but when, just before dark, we came in sight of this
village, there was a unanimous opinion that it was not
advisable to proceed further that night.

Just outside the place a group of villagers were in
voluble discourse, but became mute and full of amaze-
ment when they saw us, wondering much who we were,
as perhaps was natural. Singling out one of them
who wore a flowing black robe and a kind of green
turban, who, it seemed, was a priest, Paul informed him
that we were most honourable and estimable persons
travelling under the protection of the Russian Go-
vernment, and asked him whether, considering this
circumstance, he would give us lodging for the night.
The priest, a business-like man, who came to the point
at once, answered that he doubted not we were of
high degree, and that he should be very happy to take

80RI AND ITS PRIEST. 59

us into his house if we would pay him for it ; but that
otherwise, being but a poor pastor, the honour of the
thing alone would hardly be a sufficient recompense
to him. Assurance satisfactory on this point being
given, he led the way to his mansion, which was at some
height on the slope outside and beyond the village. Most
of the cottages in the place were poor one-storied shan-
ties, but the priest's dwelling was of more consideration.
It might even be called three stories high. There were
a lower floor, used apparently for stores, perhaps at times
for pigs ; a main story of two large rooms with a wide
verandah behind, and an attic above. Into one of the
large rooms we were shown. It possessed two divans
and a small table — a great deal of furniture for the
Caucasus — and would have been a comfortable place
enough had there not already been in possession many
herds of eager fleas, who, like creatures of a higher or-
ganisation, seemed very much pleased with a change of
diet. Quietly and unofficiously the priest did his best to
get us what we wanted, aided by his son, a lad some
sixteen years old ; but whether the female sex have less
curiosity in the Caucasus than elsewhere, or whether
they are kept in better order, certain it is that of the
priest's wife and daughter we saw nothing, though
Paul, who found out everything, assured us of their
existence. It is to be hoped that there was a wife,
for, besides the son, there was a baby, of whose life and
vigour we soon became aware ; not that the poor little
thing's howling mattered much, for the priest's dog — a

60 THE UPPER RION.

savage brute, who had tried to pin one of the horse-
men — walked up and down the verandah, and barked
without ceasing during the whole of that weary night.

Two hours' walk the next morning brought us in
sight of Oni, which is a place of some importance in
this part of the Caucasus, and may be said to mark
the limits of civilisation. It is a large compact vil-
lage, situated on the left bank of the Rion, a little
below the junction of that river and the Sakaura ; and
though the houses are mostly one-storied chalets, there
is an imposing stone building in the middle of the
village, and here and there are what an Oni auctioneer
would probably call first-class mansions. Around
everything was trim, orderly, and well-kept ; gardens,
fields surrounded by strong fences, many vineyards ;
telling of good husbandry and a thriving people.
Covering a great part of the wide base of the valley
were some huge fields of barley, which, despite the bad
weather, seemed fairly forward, considering that they
was grown nearly three thousand feet above the sea.

At Kutais we had been contemptuously told that
there were many Jews at Oni. This was spoken of
as a great infliction on the village ; but men of that
energetic race are not much given to abiding where
there is little to be made, and their presence at Oni is
perhaps as good a sign as the community can desire.
As to there being many of them in this part of the
country, we had indeed abundant proof, although we
did not enter Oni, which lay a little out of our way.

UTSORA. 61

At Utsora, a little distance further on, where we halted
for a while, the Jewish type was as common as in the
Ghetto. One unmistakable old Israelite, wrinkled as
only a Jew can be, showed all the readiness and in-
genuity of his people, for he constituted himself our
laquais de place, which certainly was a proof of wonder-
ful quickness on his part, since foreigners at Utsora must
be rarer than four-leaved shamrocks. This ingenious
old man, who, if he lived in Paris instead of Utsora,
would probably die worth half a million, took us to a
cantine, assured the host on his own responsibility that
we were most worthy men, and then bustled off to get us
some water from a mineral spring which it is the pride
of Utsora to possess, and a draught of which, it was
apparently thought, could not fail in some way or
other to do good to strangers. The master of the
cantine was also a Jew, as were the greater part of a
host of friends who gathered together to stare at
the travellers, but it should be said, that here, as in
other parts of the Caucasus, the resemblance between
the Jewish and Caucasian types was great, and that
to distinguish them was often by no means an easy
task.

We were now entering on the really wild and un-
travelled land, as the district we were approaching is
seldom visited by the Russians, and hardly ever by
travellers from any other country. So far as Oni we
had been amid comparative civilisation, and following a
much-traversed track. There had been nothing, there-

62 THE UPPER RION.

fore, very strongly to impress the traveller from the
West. The vile weather had prevented us from seeing
much of the country, and the life of the peasants had
not seemed materially different from what it is in the
poorer parts of Switzerland and the Tyrol. Their
dwellings are one-storied chdlets with large verandahs
in front, inferior to the Swiss ch&lets, but much re-
sembling them. Barley and maize are largely culti-
vated, and the fields and the gardens of the cottages are
sometimes surrounded by immense fences made of huge
laths intertwisted diagonally. These strong barriers are
a necessary protection against the wild boars which
abound in parts of the country. One isolated farm-
house which I saw was skirted by a massive palisade,
some six or seven feet high, and the entrance was
through a roofed gate so large and strong that it might
have belonged to an English country-house. There
was no sign, however, of defence being necessary
against anything more formidable than the boars, for
all we saw gave the idea of perfect security, and there
was no reason to think that the brigand prince was at
all a common character on the road. Mention has
already been made of the cantines, in which the tra-
veller can find cover and get some sort of very rough
food. The last of them was at Utsora which might
be considered to mark the limit of Russian civilisation.
Henceforth our course was to be through the wild
untravelled country.

From this village we continued our way up the

A RUSSIAN SOLDIER. 63

valley of the Rion. TVe were still on the track of the
Mamison Pass ; but after entering a magnificent forest
some distance above Utsora we came to the place
where the path to Gebi turns towards the NNW.,
that of the Mamison running towards the East^
Gebi being our destination, we took the first-named
track, and went on in rather straggling order through
the wood. Loitering behind the others, I saw a
man fishing in a small stream, and, peering through
the thicket, I made out that he wore a dirty Kus-
Bian uniform, but there was not time for much ob-
servation, for he was suddenly aware of me, and
vanished like a roebuck. He may have done so from
instinctive modesty; but neither that quality nor
timidity are common amongst Russian soldiers, and
I inclined to the opinion that he was a deserter, which
seemed the more likely when I remember that there was
no Russian post at hand from which a man was likely
to come for a day's fishing. It would have been bad
taste to have sought acquaintance with a stranger,
perhaps armed, who obviously did not desire it, so I
made no attempt to follow the Russian, but did my
best to hope, as I went on, that he was not really a
deserter, and was not condemened to a wretched life
full of hardship and terror in those solitary woods.
After passing through a noble gorge, the forest all
around and above us, we came to an open alp, where
some women were hard at work gathering store of
firewood. Not so shy as those we had before met, they

04 THE UPPER RIOK

spoke to us at once, but Paul was some distance ofF,
and the curse of Babel was between those women and
ourselves. Following the same course as before with
the Mingrelian prince, I answered them in English,
which I am afraid struck them as the most absurd
series of sounds they had ever heard, for I have never
seen women laugh more. One, the youngest and best
looking, was obliged to sit down to have it out ; but
even she left off laughing at last, and, an exchange of
ideas being unfortunately impossible, they returned
to their firewood and we went on our way. We passed
the village of Tchiora, which lay some distance from
us on the northern side of the valley, had a desper-
ate engagement with some sheep-dogs who showed a
strong desire to pull Walker down, and finally sighted
Gebi late in the afternoon. After crossing the Rion
by a bridge so bad that the horses had to be left be-
hind, we marched about half an hour before sunset into
the village. It is so singular a place, and the good-
tempered scamps who inhabit it play so marked a part
in Caucasian life, that, before describing our reception,
I must try to give some account of Gebi and of those
who dwell there.

The village is beautifully placed on the left bank
of the Rion, at a point where the valley bends round to
the north. Apart from beauty, of which the founders
probably thought as much as they did of animal mag-
netism, a better site could hardly be chosen. Below
the valley opens out to a great width ; above it

GEBL 65

grows so narrow that Gebi commands it. To reach
from the south the pass over the main chain at the
head of the valley of the Rion, or to descend from it
into the southern country, it would be necessary to
go past the village, and this would also be a necessity
for those traversing the Gebi-vtsek pass between Gebi
and the valley of the Uruch, In former days then,
when the Caucasus was less peaceable than it is now,
the goodwill of the villagers must have been highly
desirable for those who sought to journey by either of
these ways ; and unless the ancestors of the present
men of Gebi were singularly different from their de-
scendants, payment must frequently have been the best,
if not the only means of securing that goodwill. To
what extent, in bygone times, men may have traversed
snow passes it is impossible to say ; but to traverse a
snow pass was, and is still, in much of the country,
the only way of getting from one side of the chain to
the other, and certain it is that the site of Gebi has
been admirably chosen for commanding two important
lines of communication between the Southern and
Northern Caucasus.

Occasionally it might happen, of course, that there
came a party of travellers sufficiently strong to despise
the goodwill of the men of Gebi. In that case pro-
bably Gebi itself would have something to fear, and
accordingly there rise among its hovels numerous
strong towers which, though they would be useless as
card houses against the lightest form of modem ar-

F

66 THE UPPER ETON.

tillery, were perfectly suited for the mountain warfare
of other days. What the village had to fear was not
a foe who would bombard it from afar, but marauders
who would plunder and bum the houses, and these
towers, with openings for musketry under a series of
small arches running round the top of each, gave posts
of vantage from which a terrible fire might be main-
tained on those below; and, as the towers are distri-
buted all over the village, the sacking it must have
been a work such as murderous Suenetian or even stout
Mussulman from the north can have been little likely
to attempt or accomplish. Command of the two passes
the men of Gebi still have ; not because they hold
the key to both, for the days when that would have
enabled them to stop the way to others are long past ;
but by reason of their industry and enterprise. They
are the pedlers of the North-western Caucasus, their
practice being to cross the main chain and travel about
the Mohammedan country during the summer months,
doing such business as they can. In every village we
visited on the northern side we found a man from
Gebi come to sell light merchandise, or to buy the
coarse home-spun stuffs of the place, and generally
looked upon by the natives as an authority on matters
of trade. Amusing fellows they were too, these pil-
grims of business, having much of the vanity and
mouthiness proper to the jack-pudding. They were
ready to offer the most liberal terms for what they
knew was not for sale, and it was pleasing to hear how

GEBL Q7

strongly they urged that we should be hospitably
treated at the cost of others. If we had not seen them
in their own home, we might have thought them a
disinterested set of men, whose principal work it was
to soften the manners and open the purses of those
whom they found in their wanderings to be churlish
or miserly. Unfortunately, before reaching the
Northern Caucasus, we had, as schoolboys say, known
them at home, that is, we had visited them in their
own village, and found them as greedy a set of scamps
as ever cheated travellers.

Not a very alluring place when entered was the
home of these Caucasian hucksters, striking though its
appearance was from the valley. The inhabitants do
not, in all probability, return empty-handed from their
long summer rambles ; but all signs of their gains are
carefully hidden. They live in poor, dirty hovels,
and are themselves certainly dirty, and, to all appear-
ance, poor ; but there must be a considerable number
of men amongst them who have put by what are for
the country good, round sums of money.

We were not long in discovering that we were in a
place where the strictest commercial principles pre-
vailed. On our arrival we found the chief of the
village taking a very leisurely lounge, one of the
principal functions, as we afterwards discovered, of the
head of a Caucasian village. To this great man we
showed an order written in his own language, which
Count Levachoff had kindly given us, enjoining the

V 2

68 THE UPPER EIOK

chiefs of Oni and Gebi to yield us all assistance in their
power. Something impressed by this, the chief imme-
diately showed us into a large two-storied house, the
only one of the kind in the place, and used as a school-
house. It had a room apparently set apart for strangers
of distinction, and in this the chief installed us ; havinsr
done which he told us that he knew us to be persons of
consideration, and begged us to accept the assurance of
his entire goodwill and friendship, the offer of which in
the Southern Caucasus, as elsewhere, means that no-
thing more is forthcoming. We did indeed, being
very hungry, try to draw something tangible from
these gentle words, asking him if he would help us to
buy bread and meat ; but he suddenly remembered a
pressing engagement to meet a friend at the other end
of the village, and was gone in the twinkling of an
eye, leaving us with a number of grimy villagers who
had followed him into the room. There was a mo-
ment's excitement after he had gone, for a hoary-
headed old fellow, who had, it seemed, been one of Mr.
Freshfield's porters, recognised Moore as having been
at Gebi before, and welcomed him as warmly and as
fondly as though he had been the lost darling of the
hamlet; but, rejoicing in his discovery, the old man
shortly went out to tell of this remarkable event to a
quickly-gathered circle of intimate friends, and we were
at liberty to concentrate our minds on bargaining with
his fellow- villagers. Quite ready to bargain they were,
long practice at that art having made them perfect.

HIGH PRICES, 69

Time mattered nothing to them, and they liked
the work ; moreover, they saw with instinctive quick-
ness that we were famished, and that the longer they
kept us waiting the more hungry we should be and
the more inclined to come round to their prices; sfi
they haggled and fought, and declared again and
again that what they asked was just, was too little
indeed, and that they were treating us as friends ; in
support of which assertions they appealed to those
saintly personages who for some reason seem always to
be regarded by rogues as their tutelary deities. The
prices asked, and only abated after more than an hour
of wearisome chaffer, were as follows: — a quart of
milk, 2s, 2d. ; a loaf of black bread, equal in quantity
to perhaps a third of a quartern, 9c?. ; a pound of
butter, 2^. 6rf. As for meat, a lamb was offered for
IZ. 2*. vdth a wisely vague proviso that we were not to
object if it was small. When an agreement was come
to, the adherence to the system of immediate payment
was most rigid. Nothing was given up unless the money
was handed over. Thus a man having come to terms
as to the price of a dozen eggs, insisted on beii g paid
for one which he had brought with him, and then ap-
peared at intervals with the remaining eleven in three
instalments, for each of which separate payment was
required. It was weary work beating down their big
demands, but it was necessary, as, if acceded to,
they would be doubled or quadrupled the next day.
Finding myself, however, of no use to either Moore or

70 THE UPPER RION.

Paul, who were fighting the battle, I went out to look
about me before daylight was over, and came imme-
diately upon the village parliament, an institution not
indeed peculiar to Gebi, but full of life and strength
there, and, like a greater parliament, affording much
innocent pleasure to those who compose it.

During our whole journey through the Caucasus
we were much struck by the extraordinary powers of
talk shown by the natives. Seldom did their conver-
sation flag. Carrying burdens up a steep incline
under a burning sun, tramping along through mist and
heavy rain, or pushing their way through the thick
underwood of a forest, they rarely suspended their
speech. Vicious comments are sometimes heard at
home on the power women are said to possess of main-
taining a prolonged conversation without too severe a
strain on the mind, but the males of the Caucasus are,
I venture to say, the equals of any women in the
world for unceasing flow of words. If Mr. Carlyle
had addressed himself to Caucasians, he would have
required far more than thirty volumes to impress on
them the divine nature of silence.

Now in the enjoyment of this beautiful gift of
speech the men of Gebi seemed to us the most blessed
of all those we met. The inhabitants of Utchkulan,
whom we saw at the end of our journey, came near to,
but scarcely equalled, these South Caucasians in their
power of discourse. On looking back, I think we
gave the palm to the latter; and it was in their

THE VILLAGE PARLIAMENT. 71

village parliament that the conversational vigour of
the sons of Gebi best displayed itself. The place of
meeting was a small grassy mound^ close to the house
where we lodged, and here of an afternoon it was the
custom of the villagers to meet for some two or three
hours of animated talk. On going out from the bar-
gaining I found them at what was, I imagine, that day
the most interesting period of the debate, for the
assembly was engrossed in a conversational duel
between an authoritative man — ^the Dr. Johnson, I
should say, of Gebi — and a thin old fellow who had
perhaps been advocating Whig opinions, and who, in
public opinion apparently, was being crushed. The
chief had got back from his engagement at the other
end of the village, and acted seemingly as a kind of
moderator, for, when the two citizens so far forgot the
amenities of conversation as to spit at each other, he
intervened with some remarks which, unless I am
much mistaken, were like those of the conciliatory
friend who tells the disputants that there is a great
deal to be said on both sides, and that each has ex-
pressed himself admirably.

I attended the parliament again next day, when
the harangues were so long, were marked by such
action and emphasis, and were listened to with interest
so intense, that I thought some important municipal
question was being considered, but found, on inquiry
through Paul, that the villagers were only having
their ordinary chat, and that every afternoon saw them

72 THE UPPER RIOK

thus employed. The rain, which was falling heavily on
both days, disturbed them no more than it would a group
of beavers. We were likely to have some experience of
the conversational powers of the men of Gebi, for we
had to find porters among them to cross the main
chain with us by the pass leading from the head of the
Rion to that of the Tcherek valley, and to go as far as
Kunim or one of the adjacent villages, in all a three or
four days' journey. It had at first been our intention to
attempt, before starting for the pass, the ascent of Tau
Burdisula, a fine peak about 14,000 feet high, rising
to the north-east of the Gebi, and to do this we had
meant to walk up the lateral valley leading to the foot
of the peak the day after our arrival at the village, to
sleep out that night, and to try the ascent next
morning. But in mountain expeditions, more than in
almost any others, men are subject to the condition
* wind and weather permitting,' and during our jour-
ney we had frequent opportunity of appreciating how
much those words mean in a high country. The rain
began to fall while Paul was yet chaffering with
the natives on the evening of our arrival, grew thicker
as night came down, and the last sounds we heard
were of falling water. Next morning the weather was
confirmed in evil. The ridges and hills around were
covered with mist which came far down the slopes ; it
was raining heavily, and the barometer was falling. One
might as well have put to sea in a jolly-boat as tried an
unknown mountain under such conditions ; and, our

THE CHIEF, 73

time being limited^ there was nothing for it but to
abandon Tau Burdisula, and make ready for our
journey to the northern side of the chain ; so the chief
was sent for, and was told to find men to go with us.
He was bound to render us this service under the
order we held from the Russian authorities, and he set
to work at once, assuring us that he would get stout
fellows who could carry burdens, and whose moral
character stood high.

He was by no means a bad sort of man this chief,
although he had not tried to make himself useful when
we wanted food ; but I think that, with regard to this
matter, a horrible dread had haunted him that we
might call upon him to supply us with what we re-
quired at fair market rates. The order we had re-
ceived at Kutais might possibly be construed to give
us some such power, and the idea quite unnerved the
head of Gebi. When he found, however, that we
made no such claim, he became full of goodwill
towards us, really exerted himself to get us porters,
and was anxious to be useful in any way he could with-
out putting himself in danger of having to sell at a
small profit. We had some talk with him during the
afternoon, and he told us how he had been a soldier,
and had fought in two campaigns against Schamyl ;
also how Gebi was governed by six elders, of whom he
was the head. What authority this body as a whole
may have exercised I cannot tell, but that of the chief
appeared to me to be very slight ; indeed, throughout

74 THE UPPER RION.

the Caucasus, the chiefs of the villages, though
showing with some dignity before strangers, seemed to
us to wield very small power. ^ I am sorry to say one
of the party was so irreverent as to compare their
office to that of the Lord Mayor. For one municipal
institution about which we questioned the chief, the
men of Gebi certainly deserve, if he spoke the truth,
much praise. I have said that we were lodged in the
schoolhouse ; the schoolroom was next to ours, and
here a meek Georgian teacher ruled over a class of
little boys whom, without any very severe discipline,
he seemed to keep in fairly good order. Our presence,
however, was an unfair test, under which schoolboy
and schoolmaster failed alike. As we went through
the schoolroom on the morning after our arrival, we
were conscious of the sudden hushing of some twenty
shrill voices, and of twenty pairs of piercing black eyes
steadily fixed on us. The teacher began from his desk
what, unless I much mistook his tones, was an ex-
hortation to the youngsters to mind their books, but it
stopped abruptly when Moore drew out a gold re-
peater to show to an inquisitive native, and the school-
master, being frail, fell — that is, he came to look. I
wonder if Dr. Hornby would go on with a dissertation
on accent and quantity, if four Caucasian chiefs were
to sweep through his class-room.

The youngsters were taught to read and write their

* The chiefs of villages are appointed for limited periods by the
fiussian Government.

PHOTOGRAPH OF THE VILLAGERS. 76

own language, i.e., Georgian. The house, according
to the chief, had been built, and the school was main-
tained, entirely at the expense of the village, the Go-
vernment contributing nothing. We applauded the
inhabitants for this, but hoped they did not under-
feed the meek schoolmaster — he looked wofully thin.
It is the fashion at Gebi to eat only once a day, so
that short-commons there must mean but one meal in
forty-eight hours, the thought of which is horrible. I
am afraid that we seemed to the villagers to go the other
extreme, for they confided to Paul that they could not
understand how men could eat three times a day.
Nothing about us, they said, surprised them so much
as these unheard-of appetites.

A few short gleams of sunlight, breaking at inter-
vals through the heavy clouds of a hopeless day, en-
abled Walker to photograph a group of the inhabi-
tants. For this we picked out the most characteristic-
looking ragamuffins, who were not a little pleased at
the honour done them, though something uncertain
whether their after-lives might not be affected by
what they submitted to ; we did our best to set their
minds at rest. They received, when we set them free,
the wondering congratulations of their friends, as be-
came naen who had been singled out for honour, and
who might have been running unknown risk. A crowd
of villagers had watched the process, and indeed a
crowd watched all that we did. Local curiosity was
intense, and abated not during our stay. Throughout

76 THE UPPER RION,

the day the verandah outside our lodging was thronged,
as our room would have been, had we not shut and
barricaded the door, and used the window for going in
and out. The sons of Gebi would not have hesitated
to swarm in through the door, but drew the line at
the window. Manners existed, if in an early stage of
development.

The day went down in mist and rain, but things
were a little better next morning (July 10), and at an
early hour we began our struggles with one of the
great difficulties of Caucasian travel —the dawdling
habits of the natives. The chief had found us eight
men, who assembled by degrees in front of the house,
and conversed pleasantly for more than an hour, treat-
ing our repeated statements that the baggage was
ready for them as irrelevant and in bad taste. Induced
at last to come indoors, they took another hour in dis-
cussing how the packs should be carried, and it was only
by energetic remonstrance with the chief that we got
them at last under way. The males of the village, with
unabated curiosity, assembled to see us off, two of the
elders accompanying us for some distance. The por-
ters at first seemed to go well, and, exultant at having
started, we thought that the morning would see good
progress made. Vain hope : after about an hour's
walk from the village, our men told us that we must
cross to the right bank of the Rion, which here flowed
through many shallow channels. Higher up, the river
is narrower, deeper, and impassable. Accordingly,

WRONG PATH TAKEN. 77

Moore and one of the elders got, both of them, on a
horse which had been brought for the purpose, and
went over as pioneers. They did not seem to meet
with any great diflSiculty, but there was some little
trouble in making the passage; and, when they had
reached the other side, they were called back by the
porters, who now determined to keep to the left bank.
Crossing the river involved some effort at the moment.
By continuing our way along the side on which we
were we avoided this, but, as we afterwards found,
much iucreased the length and labour of the journey
to the foot of the pass ; getting rid of the difficulty of
the instant was, however, all the porters cared for, and
they went the wrong way in perfect peace of mind.

Up the valley for a while, by the side of the roar-
ing stream, then over a steep spur covered by a noble
forest, and down into meadow-land, where the magnifi-
cent vegetation rose above our heads, we followed our
foolish leaders, greatly admiring what we saw, and
trusting that we were on the right path, till, when
midday was long past, we had to awaken to the hard
reality that the beautiful valley we were in was the
wrong one, and that we should probably have to camp
some distance from the foot of the pass. Moore, partly
from what he found in the rather vague map, partly
from an almost instinctive power of understanding
mountain country, which many years' travel in the
Alps has given him, discovered that, after crossing the
spur, the porters, instead of taking us back to the

78 THE UPPER RIOK

valley of the Rion, had led us into that of its tri-
butary, the Zopkhetiri, and that a high ridge lay be-
tween us and the source of the first-named stream,
which we hoped to reach that night. The reason for
this course had clearly been our having kept to the
Rion's left bank, along which the river could not be
followed beyond a certain point, the shore rising in
places abruptly from the stream. The chief of the
Gebi porters, on being questioned about it, spoke as
follows : —

The man of Gebi. — The gentlemen are quite
right. This is the Zopkhetiri valley, but it is the best
way.

Moore, — How then can you take us to-night to the
foot of the pass as you promised ? How can there be
time when the day is so far spent ? You would not
cross the river at the proper place this morning ; now
you have brought us over a great spur, and will have
to take us over a ridge, both of which the true path
avoids.

The man of Gebi (becoming frantic with excite-
ment when he discovered how well Moore had guessed
the country.) — No, no, no ! this is the right way. Do
the gentlemen think I would deceive them ? We will
reach the foot of the pass to-night. I promise it ! I
swear it 1 If we do not, let the gentlemen bind me
hand and foot, and take my head off, thus (drawing his
finger round his throat). If we do not, may the
twelve blessed Apostles band together to refuse me

FORDING THE ZOPKHETIRL 79

entrance into heaven when I die, and cast me forth for
all eternity. (Here a murmur came from the others
to the effect that their chief had spoken well.)

Uow the effect of this discussion and of the excite-
ment it caused, was to get our men on a great deal
further than they had intended to go. They had fully
meant to have passed the night in the valley of the
Zopkhetiri, but the temporal and spiritual penalties
invoked by their head man being of a serious nature,
they set to work in earnest to cross into the other
valley before darkness came on. There was some
work to be done and scant time to do it. First, the
Zopkhetiri had to be forded. In ordinary seasons
this would probably be easy enough; but the river
was much swollen by the long and heavy rains, and
the current was hard to stem. Each man had a
struggle when he got to the middle of the stream, and
felt the annoyance of being in considerable danger and
of looking extremely ridiculous at the same time, which
is irritating even in a secluded valley. Every one got
across safely, however ; but then came a second obstacle
in the shape of a long, steep slope, about 2,000 feet
in height, which had to be ascended. The shepherds
had trodden a track through the dense herbage, but
the broken stems which covered the way were slippery
as if greased, and as we struggled on the ridge seemed,
after the fashion of ridges, to recede steadily. While
we were on the way up, we saw for a time the fine
glacier in which the Zopkhetiri has its source. A well-

80 THE UPPER RION.

marked medial moraine divides this glacier into two
branches, its lowest part being, according to such
rough estimate as we were able to make, about 6,500
feet above the sea ; but the waning afternoon gave us
scant time for observation, warning us to grapple with
the slope. When at last we reached the crest, there was
but small daylight left to descend to the base of the
valley below, so we halted only a few minutes, and then
plunged down through the rain which had been falling
for some time, and grew much heavier as night ap-
proached.

Now that descent was something never to be for-
gotten. It is not often that the beauties of nature
vdll cause forgetfulness of bodily discomfort. A man
is full of appreciation in his easy-chair, with his pen in
his hand, when he can in pleasant and leisurely fashion
dilate on the rapture he felt; but how often would
severe truthfulness compel him who has wandered in the
mountains to say that, cold, hungry and tired, he longed
only to get to his journey's end, and cared nothing for
the majesty of the great peaks, the grace of the wind-
ing river, or the infinite variety of the smiling valley.
Most mountain travellers would, I think, confess that
it has been so with them many a time ; yet there
are, nevertheless, moments when the sense of beauty
struggles successfully with physical fatigue, and, going
down that hill- side, it was possible to forget weariness,
cold, and hunger in the exceeding loveliness of all
around. Our way lay through a wood of white rhodo-

MISHAPS. 81

dendrons in full flower, so thick and strong in bloom
that they clothed the whole hill-side ; while their ra-
diant brightness was spangled everywhere with other
flowers, many-coloured and brilliant, like gems on a
king's mantle- There was no sign of man, or of any
kind of life, in this wonderful garden of nature's tend-
ing, which was of such extent that we were near an
hour in passing through it. The rhododendrons were
those bearing the large blossom, not the dwarf variety
so common in the Alps.

Going through a wood below the flowers, we
reached the base of the valley in rather doleful plight.
Moore, on the rhododendron slope, had given a severe
twist to his shoulder, which reproduced for a moment
an old dislocation and gave him great pain. Walker,
deceived by a treacherous boulder, had taken a plunge
in the clear mountain stream, a thing delightful at
times, but annoying at that instant. The rest of us
indeed were more or less wet through, and the rain
was falling with almost tropical intensity; there was
very little to eat ; but those who travel in wild countries
have to smile under much worse hardships than these,
and we were kept from any tendency to grumble by
the example of the natives, who seemed to be nearly
as happy as when gathered together at their village
parliament. Though very trying in some respects,
they certainly were most good-tempered fellows, and
possessed delightfully even spirits. Having picked up
some dead wood in the forest, they made a fire with

G

82 THE UPPER RION,

wonderful quickness, drew round it, steaming Kke
potatoes fresh from the pot, and plunged with un-
abated vigour into the delights of social talk. Imitating
their cheerfulness as well as we could, we prophesied
better things for the morrow, and got into the sleeping
bags, both the bags and ourselves being so damp that I
thought we should come out in the morning covered
with a blue, furry mould. I am not sure but what
one of us did.

For long, long after we had made ourselves as snug
as we could, the Gebi men continued their talk. The
fire threw its strong light on the wild figures, which
stood out against the utter blackness of the forest
behind, the whole making what is commonly called such
a scene as Rembrandt would have loved to paint. I
believe myself that Rembrandt would not have loved
to do anything of the kind, but would have very much
preferred stopping at home, for the heavy rain never
ceased for an instant, its monotonous patter outlasting
even the voices of the Gebi men, and continuing all
through the hours of darkness.

83

CHAPTER III.

THE VALLEY OP THE UPPER TCHEREK.

The Source of the Rion — Crossing the Main Chain — Snow and Mist —
Our Followers — Terror of Crevasses — The Two Men of Gebi and their
Dead Ox — Passage of Glacier Passes by Cattle — Great Glaciers at the
Head of the Tcherek Valley — The Guard of the Flocks and Herds —
A Mohammedan Prejudice — The Hunter of Bouquetin and Chamois —
Descent of the Valley — Grandeur of the Mountains surrounding it —
The Glen of the Dych-Su— The Great Icefield— Ascent of the Slope
on its Left Bank — Vast Glacier System — Bad Weather again — An
Evening at a Chalet — Descent of the Valley to Kunim — Cau-
casian Dwellings — A Cold Reception — Its Cause — Further Descent
of the Valley — Great Flight of Eagles — A Narrow Escape — The
Gorge of the Tcherek — Return to Kunim — Caucasian Curiosity.

The next day brought no change. The rain never
ceased, the clouds never lifted, and all we could do was
to move a short way up the valley to a place where,
under the slight shelter afforded by some rocks, the
Gebi men usually spend the night before crossing
the pass. Our porters, who thoroughly understood
camping out, cut down some small trees, and propped
them against the rocks in such a way as to give very
good cover ; and there being nothing for it but to hope
better things for the morrow, each man hoped to the
best of his ability.

o 2

84 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TOKEEEK.

Well, sometimes —

* Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates.'

The rain ceased during the night, and next morning,
though there were mists covering the ridges, the sky-
overhead was clear. There had been delay enough,
even for the porters, so we started for the pass without
any dawdling, the men of Gebi seeing that it was
worth while to take advantage of what might be but
a short span of fine weather.

On the eastern side of the valley, close to where
we had camped, was the foot of a great glacier, source
of the Western Rion. The eastern branch, which joins
this some distance above Utsora, is a powerful stream ;
but the western arm must clearly be regarded as the
true river. We were, I believe, the first travellers
from the West who have seen the Rion issue from its
parent ice, and we pleased ourselves by deciding that
we had completed the work of exploration which Jason
and the Argonauts began rather a long time ago.

The glacier does not fill up the head of the valley,
which is a vast, sombre cirque^ and this we entered,
leaving on our right the foot of the glacier. The pass
lies over its upper snows, but the ice-fall in which it
ends, of which the mist allowed us to see only a part,
is impracticable, and the course pursued is to ascend
the slopes of the valley leading to the edge of the cliffs
which overhang the right bank of the glacier, to walk

CEOSSINO THE MAIN CHAIN. 86

along these to the place where the glacier rises level
with them, and then to strike the n^ve.

Immediately after entering the cirque therefore,
we began ascending the slopes of its north-eastern side,
and as we toiled up them were met more than half way
by the mist, which was so dense that it prevented us
from getting any idea of the country round as we rose.
In addition the snow began to fall before long, and we
had to make the rest of our way to the col in dark-
ness and tribulation.

After a rather tiring walk up the steep slopes we
reached the edge of the cliffs, which we followed to
the place where the glacier rose level with them. We
had struck snow while still in the cirque, but it was
only what came from the heavy fall of the last two or
three days. Along the edge of the cliffs it was very
thick, and, strange as it may seem to Alpine readers,
we were unable to tell precisely when we reached the
n6v6 of the glacier. A small, but unmistakeable
crevasse, however, showed us that we were on ice
shortly after the time when, as we guessed, we had
left the cliffs, and after we had walked for some time
over gently undulating snow slopes, a break in the
mist revealed the col at no great distance, to the huge
delight of our porters, who were getting a little puzzled,
although they had shown remarkable local knowledge.
A short walk up a gentle slope took us to the top of
the pass. There we longed much, Uke the dying poet,
for more light. The break had been but momentary,

86 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK.

and now the fog was, if anything, more dense than
before, so that, standing in the watershed of Europe
and Asia, we could see nothing but thickly falling
snow. There was no use, however, in waiting for
clear weather, which might not come for a week, so
we got ready to descend at once. Our porters, who
had not walked badly, uncovered, crossed themselves,
and uttered a short thanksgiving for having got thus
far safely ; then as we began the descent a diflSculty
arose. The men had told us that on the northern side
of the pass there were holes in the ice into which
people sometimes fell and were killed — in other words,
crevasses, and it was therefore advisable to put on the
rope ; but the porters, who had some idea of the use of
it, now proposed to take it all for themselves, leaving
us to follow in their footsteps. Our refusal to ac-
quiesce in this modest and thoughtful suggestion pro-
duced a hubbub as of twenty fishwives, and we started
down a slope of moderately steep neve with each man
giving forth his ideas with all the power he possessed.
We paid no attention to them, however, so they shortly
left off disputing, and began all of them to use their
voices in the much better work of saying their prayers,
which they continued to do steadily while they re-
mained with us ; not that they remained very long.
The fog lifted after we got a little distance from the
col, and we were able to see our way down the glacier.
It was obvious that the shortest journey would be
made by keeping to the left and threading our way

TERROR OF CREVASSES, 87

through some crevasses of small intricacy offering
hardly any diflSculty. But near these crevasses none
of the porters would go, save one old fellow who had
some belief in us, but was frightened out of his wits
nevertheless, and whose prayers, though he kept with
us, became even more fast and fervent than before.
The others, with profusion of angry speech, made off,
yelling to their comrade : ^ Idiot, since you wish to be
killed with those madmen, go your ways.' However,
the madmen and the idiot got to the lower part of the
glacier a great while before the rest, who went a
long way round by the right bank, and when our fol-
lower saw how much we had outstripped them, and
that what he had thought dangerous had been safely
passed, he left off saying his prayers and tried to look
as if he had not been afraid, with no more success than
usually attends that well-meant effort.

After an easy walk along the lower part of the
glacier, we got into the grass slopes at the head of
the valley of the Tcherek, and here we found two
men of Gebi who were about to cross the pass from
the north, philosophically reposing each of them with a
bundle by his side as big as Christian's burden in
the old pictures of the ^ Pilgrim's Progress.' They
had intended to drive across the pass a bullock, which
I trust they had come by honestly ; but the animal
being much fatigued, and not likely to live over the
snow, they had promptly killed him and cut him up,
and were going to carry as much of him as they could

88 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK

to Gebi; at least such was their story. They offered
us a leg for a trifling sum, but not feeling quite sure
that the beast had died by steel, we declined. It
seemed strange to us that cattle should be driven over
such a pass as that which we had just crossed, for,
though not difficult from a mountaineer's point of
view, it is far worse than any glacier passage which
the Swiss would think of using for oxen or mules.
Cattle, however, undoubtedly are driven over it, for
we saw traces of them on the col itself, and here were
our friends who had contemplated getting an ox over
as quite an ordinary piece of work. Indeed, we had
further proof of the pass being used for this purpose.
In the Tcherek valley two guards are stationed dur-
tag.be ™„„er for L p4o.e of preveoUog ca«e-
lifting by men from the southern side of the chain, and
it was clear that the pass principally used by robbers
for driving cattle over to the south was that which we
traversed. On the southern side a route longer and
easier than that we had taken is followed, but on the
northern side the animals pass over the glacier by
which we had descended; a strange place, certainly,
for large four-footed beasts.

What the Caucasians do in this respect may, per-
haps, explain the legends still heard in some parts of
Switzerland of cattle having been driven over passes
now thought difficult for men. In the old days, when
roads and paths were few, cattle might be worth next
to nothing on one side of a range, and selling for a fair

GREAT GLACIERS. 89

price on the other. Horses, mules, and oxen were
then probably driven over places where no one would
dream of taking them now. There was no other way
of getting them to the district where they were wanted ;
if they died on the way the loss was small ; if they
got over safely the gain was considerable. When
the cattle had been lifted there was, of course, all
the more reason for running risk. With advancing
civilisation cattle-lifting disappears, and better means
of communication gradually equalise prices, and do
away with the necessity of using these rough routes ;
but the legend of their having been used remains, and,
like most legends, grows by degrees very much be-
yond the truth, until passes taxing the best energies
of chamois-hunters are spoken of as having, in more
adventurous times, been often crossed by skilful herds-
men with their cattle.

The head of the Tcherek valley, which is of
wonderful wildness and grandeur, is filled by two
huge glaciers. One of these we had just descended.
Though not very long, it is of immense width, and
appeared to us to be divided at the head into two bays
by a ridge of rocks running down the centre. To
the west of this is another mighty ice-stream, which
seemed to be divided, like the first, by a ridge, and
was apparently of equal extent, but we could see but
little of the upper snows of either, the cruel mist
lifting for so few moments, and then shrouding all so
closely that we could get only a vague idea of the

90 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK.

great glacier system at the head of this magnificent
valley. It is quite possible that what seemed to us
to be two glaciers may flow from the same snowfield,
and that the ridge which divides them does not reach
the watershed of the chain ; but with regard to this
we were reduced to mere guesswork, the very short
breaks in the mist not allowing us to catch more than
a glimpse of the upper regions, or to set down any-
thing with certainty. From what was seen, however,
I can testify that the head of the Tcherek valley is of
extraordinary nobility and grandeur ; and I can con-
ceive no place more interesting to the explorer of
mountains, or indeed to any who care for the sternest
beauty of snowfield and crag. The five-verst map so
completely fails here to render the features of the
chain, that I cannot but think that the portion of it
representing the head of the valley must have been
laid down from hearsay.

After halting for some time at the foot of the
glacier, we went our way down the vale under heavy
rain. At one place we had to clamber close to the
stream round some rocks, which, though not diflScult
for men, were, it seemed to us, impossible for horses
and Oxen, and we vainly endeavoured to find out from
the porters whether there was another track by which
cattle were driven. Before coming to this passage we
had seen on the western side of the valley, a short
distance below the great icefields, the end of a large
glacier, much resembling the Glacier des Bossons, as

THE GUARD OF THE HERDS. 91

it appears when the clouds are low on the flanks of
Mont Blanc. After about three hours* walking we
reached, towards evening, a wide, open space in the
vale where the broken meadow-land of the grassy floor
was pleasantly dotted with trees, while some rocks
gave promise of shelter for the night. On the western
slope a mighty glacier descended ; to the east opened
a noble, lateral valley, thick forest on its southern
side ; on its northern a great stretch of upland pas-
ture, where herds of horses and oxen were grazing.
It was a beautiful and striking pastoral scene, sugges-
tive of a primitive life which was probably scarcely
changed from what a traveller would have found it in
the days of Marco Polo. That there was life besides
that of the beasts of the field we shortly discovered,
for we came to a chalet built of stone, but otherwise
much resembling a Swiss chalet, and from this abode
the shouts of the porters brought out its occupant, a
magnificent Titan, who seemed beside the Gebi men
as a bouquetin beside chamois. This splendid fellow
was the guard of the head of the valley, being placed
there to prevent cattle-lifting from the South.

His reception of us, without being surly, was not
gracious, and on the porters he seemed to look with no
friendly eye. He bade us enter and be seated, how-
ever, and no doubt would have become more pliable
after a little talk, if talk had been possible, but, alas,
there was room only for the most constrained speech,
as he spoke a barbarous dialect of Turkish which

92 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK,

Paul could only in very small degree understand.
One of the porters was able to translate it to some
extent, but conversation filtered through a double
interpretation was so tedious and uncertain that it
could hardly lead to much increase of geniality. We
were able, however, to make the unfailing appeal to
man's best feeling by telling him that, if he would let
us occupy his chalet for the night, we would pay him
for it. He was softened by this, and seemed to
become less suspicious. Three of our porters, who
could not speak a syllable of his dialect, talked to him
in their own for some time from pure love of art, as
they knew perfectly well that he could not understand
a word they said.

Being hungry we set to work to get some food ready,
and in doing so managed to run our heads hard against
a Mohanamedan prejudice, the only prejudice, as we
afterwards found, at all likely to give trouble to travel-
lers in the Northern valleys. The true believer may.
not touch the flesh of an animal killed by unbelievers'
hands, and ought not even to allow it to be brought
into his house. All the food we had was part of a
sheep which our porters had slaughtered for us, and
when Paul proceeded to cook some of this the guard
looked on with an expression such as a Presbyterian
might wear when gazing at a Kitualist service. At
last he interfered, as a pious man might to check an
unseemly conversation, saying that really he could
not stand it ; that the frying-pan might be held over

A MOHAMMEDAN PREJUDICE. 93

the fire with the meat in it, but that not the smallest
morsel must be allowed to fall into the flame, and that
none of the flesh must touch the walls of the house.
Even in this qualified toleration of the cooking I am
afraid that he compromised a little with conscience,
for he seemed to me uneasy in his mind.

Other guests besides ourselves arrived during the
evening : two fine-looking fellows, who, we were told,
were chamois-hunters, and a young shepherd. As
happens often in a Swiss chalet, the conversation
lasted till late, and when at length the men went to
sleep there came a chorus from many noses which
sounded all through the night, while at intervals was
heard the melody of the inevitable Caucasian dog who
barked and howled outside.

It was a real pleasure therefore when the pale
daylight, stealing through the chinks of the rude hut,
summoned the sleepers to awake and get them on their
way. Moore and Gardiner, driven forth by the wood
smoke, had slept under a rock, and on going out I
found them already up, rejoicing in a fine morning,
and gazing admiringly at the peak of Dych-Tau,
which towered over the ridges to the north, a beauti-
ful cone of marvellous steepness, and all dazzling with
fresh snow. We departed with small delay. There
was no time to light a fire for cooking mutton, and we
had nothing else, so breakfast was dispensed with, a
measure I cannot too highly recommend to those who
wish to make an early start ; and as the porters were

94 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK,

also without food and In nowise sorry to be off, we
waited only a few minutes to say farewell to the two
hunters who came forth to wish us good-speed on our
journey. Pleasant, genial fellows they were ; and
when in answer to a respectful request that they might
see our firearms, a breech-loading revolver was shown
to them, and then was loaded and fired, they were full
of amazement and admiration, appealing vigorously to
Sheitan, z.e., Satan, who for some reason seems, in
most parts of the world, to be invoked by men when
they are very much surprised. Lingering for a minute
or two behind the others, I asked the younger hunter
throuo:h Paul what orame he killed : —

The Hunter, — The two kinds of mountain goat.

Myself. — How two kinds ?

The Hunter. — Why the big and the little (clearly
the chamois and the bouquetin).

Myself. — How many do you kill in a year ?

The Hunter. — About a hundred, (then, being
obviously a truthful man), I did not kill as many as
that last year, which was a bad one, but, taking one
year with another, I kill a hundred. Down there by
Dych-Tau is a wonderful place for game. Great big
rocks difficult to go on — ^but a wonderful place, both
for the big and the little.

Myself — What is the best time of the year for
hunting ?

The Hunter. — Now: it is as good a time as
any.

DESCENT OF THE VALLEY. 05

This last answer seemed strange. It was the 13th
of July, so that we were well in the period when, ac-
cording to the Swiss, chamois should be let alone.
However, I give the hunter's answers as they were
given to me. His description was certainly tempting,
and as I talked with him I remembered how, some
years before, having asked Melchior Auderegg, prince
of Oberland chamois-hunters, what number he had
killed the previous winter, I was told four ; that was all
he had bagged; and here this good fellow in the Tcherek
valley, probably inferior as a shot, certainly inferior as
a mountaineer to Melchior, looked upon a hundred as
an average year's shooting. Surely there must be
some English sportsmen who would like to see what
chamois and bouquetin hunting really are : and why
should not such men try the country about the Upper
Tcherek ? But there will be more to be said on this
subject hereafter.

Under a bright sky, the first which had shone on
us for some time, we sped down the valley of the
Upper Tcherek, and were able to admire a grandeur
surpassing that of the Alps. The vale is of huge
size, the wide base often well-nigh level, and the sides
very lofty and steep. Above these immense grass walls
rise mountains of the greatest majesty and beauty ; vast
cliffs on which the snow may not rest ; white pinnacles
jutting far up against the sky, more abrupt than
the Alps, seeming to tower far higher, and girding the
fair valley with defences mightier even than the noble

96 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK

peaks which rise by the waters of the Visp and the
Arve.

For naked grandeur of mountain form the Tcherek
valley is probably unequalled in Europe. In the far
recesses of the Himalayas or Andes, perhaps in the
Caucasus itself, though it is little likely, some vale
may be found of yet more sublime and commanding
beauty; but In the Alps there is nothing so great
to behold. We were none of us anxious to leave
the worship of our youth, or hastily to run after new
gods. I shall have to say later on, that in many
ways the Northern Caucasus is below the beautjr of
Switzerland; but no fond memory of early admira-
tion, no sympathetic prejudice in favour of the land
where we had wandered so long, could blind us to
the greater splendour of this Tcherek valley. Half
admiring, half reluctant, we felt the presence of a
mountain glory beyond any we had known.

The hugfe peaks and ridges which are seen rise
around the valley, with the exception of Dych-Tau,
which shows admirably from some points, but is at a
considerable distance to the north-west. The beautiful
snow cone of this great mountain, though exceedingly
steep, does not seem to oflFer any such obstacle as
would stop a bold and skilful climber, and Dych-
Tau therefore, when looked at from afar, with its
lower part hidden by intervening ridges, appears not
impossible ; but, between the base and the cone, the
mountain is guarded by terrible precipices, which on

QLEN OF THE DYCH-SU. 97

a near view seem absolutely to bar the way to the
summit. There may be a way through them by some
channel or gully, but it may safely be predicted that
this will be hard to find and hard to climb.

Three hours' march from our sleeping-place, the
path led past the mouth of a mysterious glen opening
opposite a noble pinnacle of steepest crag rising to
the height of some 16,000 feet, and known by the
simple and sweet-sounding name of Tsatchartikomi-
konkh. A sketch of this peak appears in Mr. Fresh-
field's book. Just by the end of the glen the
Tcllerek is crossed by a bridge, in the middle whereof
is a stone door, which, as we afterwards found, was
locked and barred every night as a precaution against
cattle-lifters, whose marauding visits to the valley
would seem to be frequent. Close to this bridge, on
the left bank of the stream, is a chalet, the dwelling of
a second guard against the disturbers of pastoral rest.
The inmate of this place of defence greeted us with
great civility, though with much wonder as to who we
were ; so we made haste to assure him that we were men
of peace, which was certainly true, for, had we been ever
so much inclined towards cattle-lifting, not one of us
would have known how to set about it. The tempta-
tion of the glen was such that we determined to give
up the day to exploring it, and to pass the night at the
chalet, if the occupant would consent, which he did on
being promised payment ; so we sent Paul with the
porters on to Kunim, and immediately began to make

H

98 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK.

our way up the glen, the powerful stream of which
takes from its parent glacier the name of Dych-Su.

We desired to explore it, not only because it was
of great beauty and wildness, but because we knew
that it would lead us to the threshold of the greatest
glacier system in the Caucasus, for it was certain that
the torrent which roared down this glen or lateral
valley came from a mighty icefield lying to the east
of the great peak of Kotchan Tau, an icefield as yet al-
together unexplored, though Mr. Freshfield and his
companions had seen it from the ridge which in the
lower part of its area forms its northern bank. *

Sheep had made some sort of track up the valley,
but it was a rough and stony path, and we experienced
in all its fulness one of the drawbacks to a Caucasian
walk. The upper parts of the valleys are often
covered with boulders and stones of every possible
shape and size. Sometimes they are bare ; sometimes
grass-grown; but always vexatious, wearisome, and
shin-breaking. The most sublime scenery cannot be
enjoyed, indeed can hardly be looSked at, by a man who
has to pick his steps among treacherous rocks, and
who is continually finding himself in the position which
may sometimes be seen in the streets of London when
an unlucky passenger has stepped on the unsecured
lid of a coal-cellar.

The glen was of wonderful grandeur; rugged,
steep sides towering up to a vast height above the
furious stream which roared down its base ; just oppo-

THE GREAT ICE-FIELD. 99

site its opening the magnificent peak with the unut-
terable name, which had that morning a fitful glory
playing over its noble outline ; for though down in
the vale it was calm as married love, up above a furious
wind was raging, and from the crest of the mountain
there streamed away the snow raised by the tempest,
a wavering but beautiful halo made all golden by the
rays of the eastern sun. From one nook, whence it
seemed as if the base of the mountain must be close
upon us at the foot of the gkn, the view could only
be described by the often misused word sublime. We
halted, silent and impressed, to contemplate the won-
derful sight. It was a moment never to be forgotten,
certainly not likely to be forgotten by me, for at that
place I had to divide a mutton-chop into four, a task
of some difficulty, and performed by me in such a way
as to discontent every one. Continuing our way, we
came to the head of the Dych-Su valley, about two
hours after entering it. The stream here flowed from
the base of a steep mass of ice, the abrupt end of a
glacier. Mounting on to this by the moraine on its
right bank, we found ourselves on the edge of a vast
icefield.

We had indeed reached the extremity of what I have
described as the greatest glacier system in the whole
Caucasian chain. From the point we had attained the
huge sheet of ice extended for some eight or ten miles
apparently, to the north-east, where it was surrounded
at the head by an immense cirque, beyond which, tower-

h2

100 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK,

ing over several other summits, rose an immense
peak. The longest axis of the icefield or glacier was
from the south-western end which we had reached to
the north-east. The breadth may have been from three
to four miles in the widest part. The ridge bounding
the glacier to the south was cut by a great gap,
through which flowed down to the main glacier, from
a huge unseen reservoir, a stream of broken seracs.

Now this vast, grim icefield, solitary as a Polar
Sea, untraversed, almost unknown, was of all others
the place most tempting for those who love to learn
the secrets of mountain regions. What an interest
there would be in exploring these mighty untrodden
glaciers, and who could say what weird beauty might
not reveal itself in these silent ice-rivers flowing
by the mighty hills ? Probably none but native
hunters and shepherds had ever set foot even on the
edge of the huge icefield, and the greater part of it was
unknown alike to natives and Russians. Very anxious
were we to ascend to its head ; and, scant as our time
was, we would willingly have sacrificed part of our
intended journey, and given two or three days to
examining this region ; but beyond the threshold we
were not allowed to tread. To explore unknown gla-
ciers in mist, rain, and snow were like seeking to
pronounce on different colours in the dark ; and that
mist, rain, and snow were at hand it was impossible
to doubt on the day when we made our way up the
valley of the Dych-Su.

ASCENT OF A SLOPE, 101

The morning had been magnificent, but the baro-
meter, which had been falKng for some days past,
instead of rising for the fine weather, had fallen yet
more ; and as we ascended the valley numerous
clouds began to steal over the hill-sides. Standing at
the end of the glacier, we could see the peaks near its
head, but evil mists were already gathering on their
flanks, so much indeed that we could not be absolutely
certain whether we saw the head of the glacier or not.
The fair weather had been but a momentary respite.
The black tempests of the Caucasus were coming down
on us again, and with the little time we had it was
clearly impossible for us to wait until the weather
should clear enough for us to explore the great ice-
field ; so we sadly determined that we must go on our
way the next day, leaving the huge glacier to be
studied by some more fortunate or less hurried travel-
lers. We determined, however, to see what we could
at the time, and for this purpose we crossed the ice
close to its end, and toiled up the long and steep slope
on the left or northern bank of the glacier. Very
trying this slope was, as such places commonly are.
Who that has been in the mountains does not know
the weariness and spleen that come of ascending a
monotonous incline, where the hard and prolonged
labour, with little for a time to break its monotony,
causes a man sometimes to indulge in heretical specu-
lation, and ask himself foolishly whether there will be
anything to repay him for this drudgery, and whether

102 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK

going up high places be not after all an error. Per-
haps, considering how silliness of this kind fills a mind
which is unfortunately idle, it may be considered as a
kindly contrivance of nature that, in the ascent of a
long grass slope, several successive crests are seen,
each of which seems, from a little way below, to be
the top of the ridge, and each of which, when reached,
proves to be commanded by something greatly higher ;
so that wholesome excitement, and equally wholesome
disappointment, distract the mind from too much in-
dulgence in evil thoughts.

^Vhen, after floundering up an unusually steep
slope, we reached at last the crest of the glacier's left
bank, we looked on a sight of great beauty, though
full of evil meaning for us. The mists had gathered
closely and heavily round the mountains, revealing,
however, here and there sharp peaks and vast escarped
sides, with all that wonderful look of immense height
and distance which summits and precipices have when
seen above a great belt of cloud. But grand as the
effect of the partly-gathered mist was, beautiful as
were the glimpses of far off, and for us, alas, inacces-
sible mountain-tops, we read in the steadily increasing
clouds the sign that bad weather was imminent, and
that it was gathering for a long course.

The great glacier system on si portion of which we
were looking down is supposed by Moore, from what
he saw from the spot we had reached and from other
places attained during his journey in 1868, to be

GREAT GLACIER SYSTEM, 103

divided into two parts. One is the huge icefield of
which we had touched the edge, and on which we were
now looking down. The other, which is also probably
of great extent, lies to the south of the first, separated
from it by a bold ridge, and sending a stream of seracs
into it through the gap which I have mentioned. Of
the southern icefield I cannot speak from personal
observation, as we could see nothing of it save the
icefall which filled the gap. The Russian map gives
scarcely any indication of the existence of either of
those mighty glaciers. Turning as sadly as Moses on
his mountain from the contemplation of the vast,
untrodden solitudes which it was not to be our good
fortune to explore, we ran down the slopes on the
opposite side of the ridge to that by which we had
ascendied, and returned to the Tcherek valley by a
small lateral ^len. Ascending by this glen, Mr. Fresh-
field and his companions had reached, in 1868, the
same point on the ridge which we had attained from
the opposite side.

The rain which had long threatened, and promised
(nor promised vainly) long to last, was falling heavily
when we got back to the hut. Its old guardian, who
had been out himself and got in a few minutes after we
did, was welcomed with a warmth which puzzled him,
he being apparently unacquainted with the deep form
of human affection known as cupboard love. Without
him, indeed, we could get nothing at all to eat that
afternoon^ and mountain air and continuous exercise

104 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK.

enable a man to digest a whole quarter of a mutton-
chop, and even to feel anxious for something else dur-
ing the day. Such is the bracing effect on debilitated
London systems of Alpine or Caucasian life. Very
simple was the food which the old man gave us, but
worth describing, for the fashion in which he cooked it
was most likely the same as prevailed in the days of
Abraham and Isaac> Out of a paste of brown flour and
water he kneaded cakes about the size of a Bath bun.
These were browned round the wood fire, and were
then buried in the hot ashes for some ten minutes, after
which they were taken out thoroughly baked, or rather
roasted, and as gooii as anything man could desire.
With these he gave fresh milk, but this was a conces-
sion to our degraded tastes, for fresh milk is not what a
Caucasian loves, or will touch if he can help it. His
habitual drink is a mixture of sour milk and water,
which later on will be described.

The old man was, I believe, a guard of the herds,
but only a subordinate one, for towards the evening
the cheery, stalwart hunter with whom' I had talked at
the upper chalet came in, and it was obvious that he
was lord of the place. Conversation with him was
unfortunately impossible, for, as Paul had gone on
with the porters, we could do nothing on either side
but express our goodwill by signs which, on such
occasions, are usually found to be by no means so
ready and fertile a language as travellers' tales would
lead one to believe. It is curious how often a dis-

DESCENT TO KUNIM, 105

appointed look comes over the face of a man thus con-
versed with, showing but too clearly that a false im-
pression has been given. A few tiny juggling tricks
amused and hugely bewildered the honest hunter and a
young shepherd, seemingly free of the place, who came
in after dark. A very bad return the latter made for
* what he certainly enjoyed. Not among Swiss guides,
Scotch gillies, or British seamen, have I ever heard
such a snore as came from that youth. There was an
agonising sostenuto about it which was very torture
to a would-be sleeper.

We were off early next morning, wishing to get to
Kunim by the middle of the day,, and during the first
part of our walk saw as much to admire as there had
been higher up in the valley. I wish I could give
some description of the snow region in this part of the
Caucasus ; but this cannot be done, for the excellent
reason that scarcely anything is known of topo-
graphy of the high country in this district. The map
is worse than vague, telling hardly anything. Even
the native hunters do not seem to trust themselves on
the glaciers, and the great peaks and ice-wilds which
compass the valley are as yet wrapped in virginal
mystery.

Some two hours' march from the hut the valley
loses its beauty. The high mountains are seen no
more, and the grass slopes on either side are dull and
uninteresting. Curiously rapid and curiously complete
the change is from magnificence to dreariness. The

106 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK.

valley again becomes beautiful, though in a different
way, below the villages, where great limestone cliffs
rise above the rushing waters of the Tcherek ; but for
two or three hours above Kunim there is nothing: to
gladden the eye of the wayfarer.

After about five hours' walk we came in sight of
the first of a group of villages which stand in a part of
the vale where it widens greatly, some large lateral
valleys here opening into it. The village we first saw
was Shkanti, on the right bank of the stream. Oppo-
site this, but hidden from us for a while by a projecting
shoulder, was Kunim, our resting-place for the day.
Below this were Mul^hol (visited by Mr. Freshfield in
186S), Tsegitel, and Kurdenet.

We had got then to the dwellings of the Moham-
medan tribes on the northern side of the great chain,
and I doubt whether anything stranger can meet men's
eyes than these houses when seen for the first time.
Deserted cow-sheds, vast empty dog-kennels, the home
of some animal constructive like the beaver, but on a
much larger scale; anything but the habitations of
men do these strange hamlets seem to the traveller.
They usually appear at first to be completely empty,
why I cannot tell, for there are plenty of people in
them ; but perhaps it is because they are so utterly
unlike the dwellings of human beings that the eye
does not look for men, and therefore of course does
not find them. On nearer approach, however, num-
bers of men, women, and children are found, and the

CAUCASIAN DWELLINGS. 107

traveller discovers to his astonishment that these poor
sheds are inhabited by a well-to-do and orderly race,
remarkably handsome, stately in bearing, self-respect-
ing, partly civilised in their ways, and sometimes very
richly clad. With Eastern fixity, however, they cling
to the dwellings which were good enough for their
forefathers.

A description of the ordinary Caucasian house in
the country we traversed on the northern side of the
chain will show how exceedingly primitive the native
fashion of building is. The walls are usually made of
large, loose stones, and the roof of exceedingly massive
timber, covered with earth, on which the grass grows
thick and luxuriant. The hill-side cut away vertically
forms often one side of the house, the ground being, of
course, cut horizontally for the floor. There is never
more than one storey. The houses generally possess a
fireplace and chimney, that part of the latter which
rises above the roof being made of wicker-work, plas-
tered over with clay so as to prevent it from taking
fire. The floor is commonly the bare ground, it not
being the custom in the Caucasus, save in exceptionally
luxurious dwellings, to board the earth over, or even
to cover it with matting or straw. There is usually a
verandah in front of the house, and the one or two tiny
windows generally open into this. They are not
glazed, being closed at night or in bad weather by
shutters, and, owing to their very small size, the Cau-
casian interiors are exceedingly dark. Even at mid-

108 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK,

day they are gloomy, and in early evening they become
as cellars for light. What the Caucasians would do in
the winter time was to us a wonder never diminished.
Candles are very scarce, and men, however well-dis-
posed, cannot sleep eighteen hours a day. Perhaps
the abnormal powers of conversation which we fre-
quently noticed have been produced by the necessity
of getting through time ; for absolute indolence is a
beatified state which in this world man does not seem
to be able to attain.

Such description as I have been able to give will
perhaps explain the cave-like look which was so
noticeable in the dwellings in this part of the valley.
The houses, partly scooped out of the hill-side, grass-
grown as to the roofs, appeared rather to belong to
those who burrow in the earth than to those who
build on it, and seemed to suggest a race abiding, like
Hamlet's father, in the cellarage. What manner of
people they were who were content thus to dwell we
were now to discover.

Passing the buttress which hid Kunim from our
view until we were close upon it, we entered the
strange place. Men, women, and children, and many
of them gathered about our way, very curious, a good
deal amused, and wondering much, but not in the
least ill disposed. A man had been sent some distance
up the valley to meet us, and led us to a place where
we found gathered together Paul, the chief of the
village, and a group of the local aristocracy. Said

A COLD RECEPTIOK 109

Paul to the chief on our arrival : — These are the gentle-
men whose coming I announced to you yesterday.

The Chief (very coldly). — They are welcome. A
house has been got ready for them. Bid them go in.

Paul (rather abashed). — They are very worthy
men, and are indeed persons of note and importance.
They are under the protection of the Kussian authori-
ties, who esteem them highly.

The Chief (quite unmoved). — I doubt not, and
have much regard for the gentlemen myself, but, as I
have various pressing matters on hand, they will
doubtless excuse me if I now leave them. — And with a
very stiff salute the chief was off.

Now this was a cold reception ; of evil augury too
in the first Mohammedan village we entered, where we
looked for that grave kindliness which the Mussulman
is said to show the stranger within his gates. But it
was entirely our own fault. We had committed a
cardinal error, and we learnt a practical lesson which
we did not forget. When Paul had been sent on the
evening before, we had neglected to give him the
Russian order on the chiefs of the villages, desiring
them to render us all aid. Now this order was valu-
able in two ways. First, it obliged the chiefs to find
us those two necessary things, food and lodging, which
would often be hard to get without their assistance.
Secondly, it had the subordinate but very important
effect of making them think that we were travellers of
some importance and worthy of good treatment. Nor

110 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK,

is this a matter of small moment, for the chiefs, natu-
rally enough, are not disposed to give themselves any
trouble about ordinary wanderers, who may be mere
pedlers or vagabonds. There is a strong aristocratic
feeling in these remote valleys, but also a strong
feeling of hospitality ; and once let the chief think that
he is dealing with equals, with men who from his point
of view are gentlemen, and then with the Mohammedan
sense of what is due to a guest, he will be exceedingly
anxious that the travellers shall fare well at his hands,
and to that end will exert himself not a little ; other-
wise he will take but small pains. Nor can one say
that he is wrpng. An English country gentleman
would not greatly bestir himself in order to do the
honours of his house to a bagman or an exciseman.

The chief of Kunim then did not fjpel himself
called on to pay us any special attention, though, being
a just man, he took care that some provision should be
made for us. His brother-in-law found us house-room
and helped us to get what we wanted, so, being fairly
well off, we consoled ourselves for our jfrigid reception
by drawing a moral, which was, that on the north side
of the Caucasian chain a man must be willing to blow
his own trumpet now and then, and must not be afraid
of blowing it loudly.

But we gave small time to deductions, sound or
unsound. There was nothing to keep us at Kunim, so
we determined to get on our way next day, but we
had the afternoon to spape^ and within an easy ride

DESCENT OF THE VALLEY. Ill

was the great gorge of the Tcherek, the Via Mala of
the Caucasus. For this accordingly, shortly after our
arrival, Gardiner and I started on two Caucasian
ponies, such rough trotters that I can only compare
riding one of them to going down a moraine on a
sledge. After descending the narrow streets of the
village we came to the meadow-land forming the base
of the valley, which here widens greatly, though it
contracts rapidly lower down the stream. It would, I
think, be hard to find anything uglier than this part
of the vale. Vast, monotonous, green hills, poor in
outline and little broken by crag or forest, rise all
round, cultivation marking their flanks with hard
straight lines. A valley leads away to the east,
another to the west, but they are of the same dull, un-
varying green, and in neither of them can aught be
seen on which the eye loves to dwell for an instant. I
believe that in Dauphine there are valleys to be found
as ill favoured, but never in Switzerland have I seen
such ugliness, or anything thereto approaching. It
can only be compared to a dreary bit of hill country
in Lancashire, the Caucasian scale being of course
some ten times greater. One 'redeeming feature, in-
deed, there was in the beautiful flowers which crim-
soned some of the fields through which we passed, a
frequent delight in the Caucasus, for many times after-
wards did we suddenly come upon a like crimson,
golden, or purple tapestry on meadow or hill-side.
After leaving the prairie thus radiant with colour.

112 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK,

crossing an ugly grip, and then the main stream, we
were out of the dull monotonous country, and entered
a different region. The valley began to narrow, or
rather, I should say, became a true valley again. On
our right was a high grass-covered hill ; on our left a
mighty wall of red cliff. At one part of this there was
a flight of eagles such as we had neither of us ever
seen before, and have small hope ever to see again.
They were sailing to and fro in front of the great ram-
part of rock, where probably are ledges and holes
fitted for their eyries. At least only thus can I
account for the large number of them. I counted
twelve on the wing close together, and there were
many more under weigh; some flying low down
with their peculiar undulating sweep, often near
enough to enable us to realise what the vast spread
of their wings was ; others flitting half way up the
cliff, while far above it a few could be seen wheeling
ceaselessly round and round, as the eagle usually does
at great heights. Wonderful to watch is the strong
and stately flight of these huge birds, but what an im-
pression of weariness and hunger they leave. Their
long sweeps close to the ground with their heads hung
down, or that circular course for hours and hours up
aloft, seem always to tell so plainly of the incessant
quest for food and of an existence of hardest toil and
frequent famine. They are stately, but seem very
dismal nevertheless. Can any one imagine an eagle
amusing himself as smaller birds do, or making the
most of himself for his mate to admire him ?

' A NARROW ESCAPE. 113

But I was suddenly withdrawn from the contem-
plation of eagles and their ways. My pony was, as I
have said, the roughest of trotters, and certainly not
remarkable for shape, but he had a courage worthy of
a winner of the Grand National, and, yielding to the
pleasure of letting the plucky little animal take the
constant ups and downs of the road at his own pace, I
got some short way ahead of my companion. Coming
to the top of one rather steep bit, I looked round and
saw no one, called loudly and got no answer. I was
just turning to go back, when suddenly appeared
Gardiner's pony, riderless, without a saddle, and
wearing that peculiarly amiable expression which
horses have when they have got rid of a human being
and greatly damaged him in doing so. Visions of a
broken girth, and of a friend kicked into the roaring
Tcherek, rose in the instant. Or were there robbers in
this savage valley, and had the horse got away in the
struggle ? Perhaps blood was calling from the ground
for vengeance ; so I rode back, realising, in the most
definite manner, how very disagreeable it would be
to be neatly picked off from behind a stone, with-
out getting even a chance of returning the bullet. It
must be unpleasant to be shot, but doubly so to be
shot in an unsportsmanlike manner. However, all was
well, for Gardiner, alive and vigorous, bearing like a
jockey his saddle about him, came in sight as I went
round a bend of the road. His horse had been loosely
girthed at starting, and of course the girths had got

I

114 VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK,

looser and looser as we went on, until at last, when the
animal came to a steep incline, both saddle and rider
had unavoidably gone over his tail, the rider being
dropped just on the outer edge of the path with some
eighty feet of desperately steep bank between him and
the river. One kick, one tiny kick, would have sent
him into the Tcherek, and by that waterway to eter-
nity ; but the kindly animal refrained, and, disen-
tangling its feet from the girths, walked quietly on.
Gardiner saved himself with some difficulty from going
over the edge, picked up his saddle and followed, not
in the smallest degree daunted by his very narrow
escape. The horse was caught, and so tightly girthed
this time that I am afraid he must have sadly reflected
— this is the return I get for not kicking a man into
the river when I could have done so with ease.

Closer and closer were the great sides of the gorge
as we went on. The huge wall on our left continued,
and the other bank became nearly as precipitous. The
path came close down to the furious stream, which we
crossed twice on frail bridges, and the gloom grew deep
as we got further in the great mountain cleft. Rising
a little presently on the left bank of the stream we
reached the place where the gorge is narrowest.

The Tcherek, here streaming through what seems
scarcely more than a rift in the mountains, is turned in
this part of its course by a bold hill, leaving but small
space for the waters to flow. Still further to narrow
the torrent, a great rock on the right bank nearly bars

THE GORGE OF THE TCHEREK, 115

the channel, and by the base of this the river forces
with great struggle its angry way. It will have the
best of the rock in the long run, but at present it has
much trouble to get past, and roars and hisses after
the fashion of rivers checked and turned in their course.
The rock which here blocks the gorge approaches the
left bank so closely as nearly to touch it, only some
five or six feet of bridge being required to carry the
path over. Far, far below this bridge the seething
water struggles through the narrow channel. On the
other side of the rock is a deep cleft, now dry, but
through which the river has at one time flowed, for in-
deed it has fought hard against its enemy. Going
up the steep right bank of the gorge, we looked to the
south on some thickly-wooded country, not of any
great beauty. The stream was lost and could be seen
no more.

It was growing late, and we made such haste as we
could back to the village, near which we met some
women who, after the candid but disrespectful fashion
of women, laughed at us — laughed at us a great deal.
They were themselves remarkable in one way, for
though they were wretchedly dressed, almost in rags,
each of them wore a wide zone, the front of which
was of silver, partly gilt. Their laughter may have
prejudiced me against them, but I did not think them
comely.

Getting back to the house where the chief had

I 2

TIG VALLEY OF THE UPPER TCHEREK,

quartered us, we found it half full of curious villagers
who had come to see what the strangers were like,
and had thus our first experience of a practice rather
trying to travellers in the Caucasus, though they have
to learn from absolute necessity to tolerate it. The
Northern Caucasians are a good-tempered race, well-
disposed towards travellers, and rarely intentionally
rude ; but they are also, like a mastiff in a butcher's
shop, more free and easy than is pleasant. That their
presence can ever be a bore to those who come
among them, that these latter can ever wish to be
alone, are ide.as which never enter their heads. The
traveller finds that all day long the room in which he
is lodged is crowded with stately natives, who watch
him with a curiosity which nothing seems to abate.
They are present at his getting up and at his lying
down, at his eating and drinking, at his going forth
and at his coming in. They discuss all he does in a
language of course unintelligible to him, but their
tones seem to indicate the keenest interest, and that
interest never appears to flag. We found in the
villages we visited that, as with the old kings of
France, the lever and coucher were public ; that men
stared hard to see the last of us when we went out,
and gathered immediately on our coming back ; that
while we stayed indoors we had, if the expression may
be allowed, a perpetual ^ at home,' the reception
only ending when the lights were put out. Then at

CAUCASIAN CURIOSITY. 117

last the visitors dispersed ; that is to say, our servants
gently turned them out, and often would their voices
be afterwards heard outside discussing the strangers —
let it be hoped in a genial and laudatory spirit.

118

CHAPTER IV.

BEZINGI AND THE KOTCHAN TAU GROUP.

Prices in the Caucasus — Start from Kunim — Position of Bezingi —
Caucasian Dogs — An unexpected Follower — Arrival at Bezingi —
Difficulty in getting Food — Curiosity of the Villagers— The In-
visible Princess — Delayed a Day by Bad Weather — Start for the
Urban Glacier — Excellent Camping Place found close to it — Dych
Tau — Walk up the Glacier — Wonderful Ice Valley at its Head —
Tau Tetnuld, Djanga, and Kotchan Tau — Question as to the Possi-
bility of Ascending the last-named Mountain — Tau Tetnuld pro-
bably Accessible — Col to the North-east of Kotchan Tau — Dych Tau
and the Nameless Peak — Bad Weather again— Impossibility in
consequence of passing over ihe Main Chain into Suenetia — Beturn
to the Camping Place and to Bezingi.

The next morning, July 15, promised ill, and we made
ready to start, feeling nearly certain that we should see
next to nothing of the country. We were rather
melancholy therefore when getting off, Paul being
especially sad. For the provisions he had bought the
day before he had been obliged to pay what he con-
sidered a great deal too much, and he attributed this to
the Gebi porters, who had, he imagined, told the men
of Kunim the prices which we had paid at Gebi This
Paul resented quite as much as if he had been parting
Avith his own money, and he swore terribly therefore

PRICES IN THE CAUCASUS. 119

in the Georgian tongue. We bore the extortion with
more philosophy than our honest servant, for such
things had happened to us in our travels before, and
besides the loss was not great. Whether great or
little, however, we had to make up our minds this
time, as often afterwards on our journey, not to fume
much at being overcharged, for when we had to buy
things overcharged we always were.

The Northern Caucasians are a primitive people,
leading in the seclusion of their great valleys that pas-
toral life which is commonly associated with honesty,
simplicity, and truthfulness. Far above the grade of
mere barbarians who are dishonest in the same way
as a dog is dishonest, civilised to some extent, but not
enough to have learnt the innumerable wiles and
trickeries which accompany civilisation and commerce,
they should surely present an example of that straight^
forwardness and fair dealing which we believe to have
prevailed in earlier days, and in a more simple state of
society. To some extent they do ; in some ways they
are good people. Theft seems to be almost unknown
amongst them, and murder or violence, if not un-
known, are exceedingly rare ; but in matters of sale
they are nearly as sharp and as ready to take advan-
tage of a stranger as tradesmen and innkeepers nearer
home. The chiefs usually got us what we wanted,
and their position did not allow them to demand any-
thing for their cheer, though of course we took care that
they were no losers ; but when we bought for ourselves

120 BEZINGI AND THE KOTCHAN TAU GROUP.

we almost always had to pay a great deal too much,
a state of things which was annoying at the time, but
had its good side, as tending to make one less im-
patient of the constant struggle against imposition
which has to be maintained at home, and less inclined
to believe that one lives in specially fraudulent days.
The desire to take an unfair advantage of a fellow-
creature in a bargain seems to be a natural instinct of
man, found in him whatever his sort or condition, and
as deeply rooted in the breast of the simple shepherd
as of the keenest speculator on the Stock Exchange.

We saw, however, the better side of the Caucasian
character just before starting, for a pleasant young
chief with whom we had talked the evening before
came with two or three friends to say good-bye, and to
wish us very cordially a successful journey. He was a
relation of the princes of Urusbieh, where in good time
we hoped to be, and gave us a letter to one of them
commending us to his good oflSces. At the last moment
the chief of the village appeared, but he had abated
nothing of his coldness, and it was obvious that he
thought us but small deer ; so assuming a manner as
haughty as our very disreputable appearance would
allow, and tendering him the most frigid thanks which
Paul could put into Turkish, we went on our way,
impressing him, I think, somewhat by our severity, as
will appear shortly. The lesson he had taught us was
not lost upon us during our subsequent journey, but at
the moment we were not much concerned about his

CAUCASIAN DOGS. 121

views, as we were thinking rather what the way to
Bezingi would be like, for to Bezingi were we now
bound.

That village is situated in what may be best de-
scribed as the valley of the Western Tcherek. The
stream which flows past Bezingi is called the Urban,
but is, in fact, the upper part of the western branch
of the river Tcherek. The eastern branch, which we
were just quitting, is somewhat the greater of the
two, and therefore the true river ; but they are both
rapid and powerful mountain torrents.

Our course lay at first nearly due north, over the
green slopes on the north-western side of the valley-
The day, bad from the beginning, became rapidly
worse. The sky grew blacker and blacker, and the
mist gathered over hill-top and ridge. Kain and dark-
ness were coming, and, a good deal dejected by the
bad weather, I got considerably behind my three com-
panions, and was walking along pondering over the
moistness of things when I was startled by a terrific
din, and, turning round, saw the faithful Paul in sore
danger from a combined attack of three unprincipled
dogs. One huge brute had tried to pin him, and had
been driven off with stones ; but the moment after
two other dogs came furiously out upon him, and
while he was making fight against them the original
aggressor stole up behind him, intending, with con-
siderable cunning, to take him in the rear while he
was defending himself from the onslaught in front.

122 BEZINGI AND THE KOT CHAN TAXI GROUP.

If the crafty beast had succeeded, and Paul had been
brought to the ground, as very likely he would have
been, things might have gone ill with him, as it would
have been exceedingly difficult to have shot the dogs
without imminent risk of shooting the man. Fortu-
nately I succeeded, for once, in sending a heavy stone
straight which, I believe, broke the jaw of the dog
who was coming up behind ; at all events it sent him
howling away, and we then drove off the other two.
Now this may seem a very trifling incident to record,
but in truth Paul was in considerable danger, and at
different times so were others of us from the Caucasian
dogs, jackal-like brutes, not resembling any breed
known in England. Exceedingly savage, and with
even more than the usual hatred of dogs for strangers,
they have a good deal of the cunning of the wild beast.
Constantly, when going into or out of a village, or
approaching a shepherd's camp, the traveller is set
upon by three or four of these ill-conditioned hounds,
who often make a combined attack on him with con-
siderable craft. He cannot shoot them, as to do so
might breed a serious quarrel with the villagers, and
he must trust to the straight delivery of big pebbles,
unless, like Mr. Pelham in the gutter, he is content
to stand still and scream for assistance, which certainly
will not come. It is an ignoble and ridiculous form
of danger, but a real danger nevertheless. Another
vice almost as trying as the desire to flesh themselves
on foreigners have the Caucasian dogs. They bark

AN UNEXPECTED FOLLOWER. 123

all night long, and of the many curses which the
wanderer in the Caucasus breathes, few are more
deep and sincere than those with which he devotes to
destruction the noisy curs who rob him of the sleep
which, with some reason perhaps, he thinks he has
earned.

The dogs got rid of, Paul and I joined the others,
and we plodded together along the path which, after
rising for some distance, led us into a desolate glen
with high, treeless sides of grass, and a strong stream
roaring down through it. We crossed by a frail
bridge, and making our way up the steep valley-side,
were soon enveloped in a dense mist. Suddenly there
appeared through it a phantom horseman, who shortly
overtook us, and with many expressions of goodwill
thrust his companionship on us, and whose doings
during that day and the two following ones were to
us a mystery and a wonder. His story, which he un-
folded to the very unwilling ears of Paul, was that
the chief of Kunim, reflecting after we had gone
that we knew nothing of the country, had sent him
after us to act as a sort of courier or dragoman, and
to tell the men of Bezingi of our worth and nobility.
Certainly during three days he did what was possible
in the way of bustling about without being of the
slightest use, of telling us that everything was ready
when he knew perfectly well that nothing was, and of
getting in everybody's way, while he never tired of
informing us that he had told the people about what

124 BEZINGI AND THE KOTCHAN TAU GROUP,

considerable persons we were, and how worthy of
respect. Paul believed him to be a mere scamp who
had joined us to get what he could from us for his
very unnecessary services, and we were much exer-
cised in our minds as to whether he had been sent
by the chief or not. I believe myself that he waB
and that the head of Kunim, reflecting after our de-
parture that he had shown scant courtesy, and that
perhaps he had badly entertained great men unawares,
had despatched this fellow as an act of civility.
Our coldness on leaving the village may have had
some effect. It is worth remarking, that sending a
man to attend on a stranger is a very cheap piece of
hospitality on the part of a Caucasian chief, for the
follower thus sent expects to be paid, and well paid,
for anything he does. If he accompanies the stranger
for a short walk he considers it a day's work, and
much the best course is to get rid of him with urba-
nity, but as soon as possible. Of course it is diflfe-
rent when the man is worth keeping for anything he
can do, as, for instance, when he is a hunter acquainted
with the mountain tracks. Through a thick mist,
hiding everything and wetting us through, we went
on. Our path lay up the side of the valley we had
entered, and then, as it appeared to me, over the
ridges at the heads of two other valleys, but, with a
fog which hid things twenty paces off, any attempt
to form an idea of our course was mere guesswork.
Presently we found ourselves on what was apparently

ARRIVAL AT BEZINGL 125

a great rolling down, and after walking over two
undulations of this, we began to descend rapidly by
some steep zigzags. When we had gone a short way
down these, we suddenly passed out of the dense mist
and saw Bezingi beneath us ; a quaint, little collec-
tion of half-burrowed huts, just like those of Kunim,
creeping up the hill-side, and made to nestle against it
where that was possible. The place had a wobegone
look, and the valley was hideous. Going rapidly
down its high and steep bank by a well-contrived
path, we made, being wet and dejected, but a very
tame entry into Bezingi.

Our day's march is over, and we have reached our
resting-place for the time, but, as is often the case in
Caucasian villages, it appears at first as though things
were not going to be pleasant. After some question-
ing we learn that the chief and another who rules
under him are both away, and though we are shown
into the house used for guests, the chance of obtain-
ing food seems faint and remote. Matters look un-
pleasant for hungry men. The oflScious aid from
Kunim declares that he will get us all we want, and
disappears. After a time come some natives who have
provisions to sell, but for these of course they demand
exorbitant prices, and on poor, hardworked Paul de-
volves the long and weary task of beating them down.
A crowd which has collected divides its rapt attention
between us and the bargaining, but I fairly carry the
day and become the attraction, for when I sit down

126 BEZINGI AND THE KOTCHAN TAU GROUP.

under the verandah and begin to write some notes, I
cause an excitement even greater than that produced
by the haggling over the price of a fowl.

A strange group it is which wondering and volu-
ble gathers round me. First, there is an ^ old, very
old' man, clad in a sheepskin coat, with the wool
turned inwards. Age has dimmed his eye, drawn
wrinkles innumerable on his face, bent his once power-
ful frame, but has in no way dulled his more than
feminine curiosity. Sidling gradually up, he first takes
off my hat and examines it carefully, until indignant
dumb-show causes him to return it. Then he watches
the writing for some time over my shoulder, satisfies
himself as to the texture of a tweed coat, and winds
up with a careful examination of a hobnailed boot, al-
ways an object of great wonder to Caucasians. Closely
following this senior's minute investigation are two stal-
wart fellows in full national costume, silver-sheathed
poniard at the belt, silver cartridge cases on the breast,
bearing themselves, despite their very petty curiosity,
with the dignity which never forsakes a Caucasian of
the higher ranks. Behind them is a host of natives of
less degree talking to each other with wonderful volu-
bility, and much envying the old man his thorough
overhaul of the stranger. It is, however, apparently
considered a privilege of age, for, happily for me, no
one else attempts it.

There was one man who puzzled me much. He
was continually coming, taking a good stare^ and

THE INVISIBLE PRINCESS, 127

then going away, returning shortly afterwards,
having another gaze, and again departing, as though
a very grubby Englishman shone, like Moses on
the Mount, too much to be borne for long. I found
out afterwards the cause of his intermittent watching.
He was a servant of the chiefs two wives, the great
ladies of the village, and as, by no possibility, would
Mohammedan rules allow them to come and look at
us themselves, this special reporter was sent down
to observe us, and bring up information bit by bit.

A very good creature indeed was the elder and
more important of these two princesses, and most
zealously did she strive in her husband's absence to
do the honours of her house. She was, I imagine,
rather scared when she first heard of our arrival, and
preparations for entertainment are not quickly made in
a Caucasian hamlet, so nothing appeared for a while,
and Paul, thinking that nothing was forthcoming,
bought what he could from the natives. But the good
woman was working for us all the time. After some
delay, only natural in such circumstances, she sent tea
and cakes, the invariable first offering of Caucasian
hospitality, and much later, when we had dined com-
fortably enough on what Paul had got, we heard to
our horror that the princess had caused a sheep to be
killed, and that we were shortly to feast thereon. Now
men who travel on foot in the mountains are capable
of much eating, and I think we were good examples of
what Englishmen can do in that way ; but a whole

128 BEZIXQI AND THJET KOTCHAN TAU GROUP.

sheep by way of dessert — it was too much. We sent a
prayer to the princess to stay her too hospitable hand,
and went to bed, thus intrenching ourselves, so to
speak, against the mutton.

Next morning was dull and watery, and the mist
came down nearly to the base of the valley. A crowd
of natives collected directly we began to stir, and
watched us all the forenoon with untiring zeal. We
were hailed as old friends by a very dirty man from
Gebi, who had joined us in the woods at the head of
the Kion, and had crossed the pass with us. He was,
we were informed, a pedlar, but he did not seem to
have much to part with, except vermin, and that, I am
afraid, must be a drug at Bezingi. He was really
glad to see us, as Caucasians commonly are if they
have travelled with one for awhile, and I hope he
made his money in the village ; but as he had nothing
to sell, and the villagers had nothing to buy with,
there must have been some difficulty in doing business,
modern principles of finance not having been yet
mastered in the Caucasus.

We strolled a little way up the valley in the
afternoon, but the fog came far down the hill-sides,
and we could see nought of the country, so we
returned early to our mansion, of which a woodcut
taken from a photograph appears on the title-page.
This house was a fair specimen of an ordinary Cau-
casian dwelling on the northern side of the chain.
The morning of the next day, however, was, to

START FOR THE GLACIER. 129

our great astonishment, fine, so preparation was made
for an early start. We knew that the head of the
valley was filled by a glacier, and we determined to
go to the foot of this, to find some sleeping-place
among the rocks close to it, and to devote next day to
exploring lis apper fields. We thought that we should
perhaps be able, after a preliminary survey, to ascend
Tau Tetnuld, a great peak rising at the head of the
glacier, whence the Urban or Western Tcherek flows,
and to descend on the southern side of the chain into
Suenetia, if only the weather were fair ; but as to this
essential condition we had to hope strenuously, for the
aneroid showed no recovery, though the sun was
shining in a clear sky. The needle pointed low, as it
had done for some time, and would not rise for the
most cunning taps, but the barometer is now and then
behind the weather and a prophet after the facts, so
each man stated without the least believing it, that
he was convinced the aneroid was a laggard this
time; and Walker, Gardiner, and I started up the
barren valley, Moore taking as usual the most dis-
agreeable work, and remaining behind to collect the
provisions, which of course were not ready at the
time for which they were promised. We wanted only
bread for two days, but this, though ordered the day
before, could not be got without a couple of hours'
delay and a good deal of energetic remonstrance. The
invisible princess did all she could to help us, but even
she, excellent creature though she was, had no more

K

130 BEZINQI Aim THE KOTCHAN TAU GROUP.

idea of punctuality than the rest, and Paul and Moore
had chafed sore before her loaves — very good ones
by the way — came.

While they were sending imploring messages, we
walked slowly up the Bezingi valley, which certainly
is, as Johnson said of the actor Sheridan, dull, very
dull. Accustomed to the Alps, which are never with-
out a certain beauty, it seemed strange to us to find, in
the heart of the mountains, anything so ugly. Some
minor peaks began to show, it is true, but the vale
itself was hideous ; high monotonous walls of grass,
broken here and there by dull crags ; no beauty of
form ; very little variety of colour ; a general sameness
aqd dreariness ; such are the characteristics of the val-
ley of Bezingi, which, by a strange contradiction, leads
to a mountain solitude of almost indescribable gran-
deur. Of the glories which lay beyond this ugly
trench we soon got some inkling. After about two
hours' walk from the village, we came in sight of a
mighty wall of snow cliffs at the head of a great
glacier. This wall was in fact the main chain of the
Caucasus, the barrier between Europe and Asia here
suddenly disclosed. The glacier falls but very little
in its course, so that nothing is visible between its end
and the huge cliffs at its head. They rise as from the
sea.

We halted to look at the great wall, and while we
were yet gazing Moore joined us, having with him
Paul exhausted by much swearing at tardy villagers.

EXCELLENT CAMPING PLACE. 131

and a gigantic fellow called Mohammed, who drove
with much dignity two tiny donkeys, on which were
our sleeping bags, and the provisions which it had
taken so much trouble to get. Sure thus of some
sort of cover for the night and of food — two things
absolutely necessary even for the most zealous moun-
taineer — we went contentedly on. There was much
to observe round our path, for the traces of the gra-
dual retreat of a great glacier up the valley were
many and clear. I can best describe the upper part of
it by saying that old moraine and moraine debris
seemed entirely to cover its base. Some four hours
from the village we reached a place from which the
ice must have retreated at a comparatively recent
time, the floor being here a desert of loose stones,
through which we passed to the extremity of the
glacier itself. This was the usual dirty stone-laden
promontory of ice, in which these strange works of
nature, so beautiful in their upper portions, are apt in-
congruously to end. Round its base there was much
debris.

Our donkey-driver now proved a good and true
man. He had said that he would take us to a place
where we could camp for the night, and he led us over
a mass of unstable stones, where his donkeys scrambled
painfully along, to a spot on the left bank of the
glacier close to its end, on arriving at which we re-
joiced much, for it was indeed perfect for a bivouac.
A little round dell, grass-grown, with a tiny waterfall

X 2

132 BEZINGI AND THE KOTCHANTAU GROUP.

dropping into it and sending a beautiful stream through
it, surrounded by the most savage desolation, it seemed
a sweet oasis in the mountain wilderness. It was ob-
viously a regular resting-place for hunters, for in one
part a wall of loose stones had been raised as some
protection against the wind, and there were signs of
recent encampmjent. Here we made things as com-
fortable as we could — that is to say, we picked all the
big stones out of the ground, so that we might have, as
far as possible, the soft earth to lie on. Protection
against the rain of course there was none, but in a
mountain camp it was no small luxury to have a level
surface on which to sleep. Opposite this camping
place, on the other side of the great ice-stream, was a
lateral glacier, and at the head of the ravine down
which this struggled rose Dych Tau. Now Dych
Tau is a wonderful mountain. The beautiful snow
cone which forms the summit is, as has been said, cut
away from the lower country by tremendous cliffs.
These look all but absolutely vertical. Gullies and
ledges may be found amongst them, but when seen
from a distance they appear to rise as straight as a
mainmast, and seem about as practicable for human
beings as the shrouds of a mainmast might be for
horses. At the head of the wild gorge down which
the lateral glacier came, these gigantic precipices
crowned by the graceful snow-cone were magnificent
to look on, but we were not allowed to look on
them long, for the jealous mist stole up from the

THE URBAN GLACIER, 133

valley below and hid everything, so as there was
nothing to see we worked until nightfall at picking the
ground with our axes so as to bring it to a pleasant
state of softness. The fine morning had not kept its
promise, but the evening, which was foul, did. It
rained and snowed during the night, and at 3,30 a.m.,
when we were to have started, the mist was as thick as
a London fog. After two hours of darkness and
damp things looked better, so we left the camp,
getting at once on to the glacier, up which we struck
a south-westerly course for the mountains at its head.

The great Urban glacier, which we were now
traversing, has its origin in the snowfields which lie
under Tau Tetnuld and Kotchan Tau. These moun-
tains, united by a vast curtain of cliff, which the natives
call Djanga, are, roughly speaking, east and west
of each other, Kotchan Tau being the easterly sum-
mit. The ice-streams which descend on their northern
sides, hemmed in for awhile by rocky barriers opposite
the two great mountains, meet and unite under
Djanga, forming the Urban glacier, which pours down
through the wide valley opening opposite the great
curtain of cliff. The course of this glacier is about
N.N.E. and S.S.W., and is at right angles to that
of the two parent ice-streams which meet under the
mighty precipices of Djanga. We did not at the time
when we started know anything of the sources of the
Urban glacier, the map being vague and almost worth-
less. The short description just given is drawn from

134 BEZINGI AND THE KOTCUAN TAU GROUP.

what we discovered during the day ; but it was obvious
from the first that, by ascending the glacier to its head,
we should command the snowfields from which it is
fed, and that, standing in the heart of the noblest
mountain region in the Caucasus, we should be able to
form some idea of the true position of Tau Tetnuld
and of the mighty Kotchan Tau, perhaps even to see a
way to the summit of one or both of these great peaks.

To ascending the glacier therefore we addressed
ourselves, and very easy work it was. Walking first
of all on nearly level ice, we passed the wild ravine
leading towards Dych Tau, a deep, gloomy gorge, with
a precipitous col at the head of it, beyond which rose
the huge crags of the mountain the third in height of
Caucasian peaks. After passing the ravine, our
course lay for two hours along the nearly level glacier.
There is no icefall, and the rise is very gentle, but as
we went on we came to a maze of crevasses, so we
got with small trouble on to the left bank, and after
scrambling for awhile across the stony hill-side, came lo
a grass-grown moraine, along which we walked for a
considerable distance, until, being near the head of the
glacier, we descended on to the ice, now quite free
from crevasses, and went on towards Djanga as over a
high road.

The glacier valley of which we had now traversed
the greater part, belongs to the severest style of
mountain grandeur ; on the left bank are some grass
slopes, and then a huge wall of crag ; on the right is

TAU TETNULD AND DJANGA, 135

unrelieved crag rising sharply from the glacier to a great
height, and surmounted by a bold and beautiful pin-
nacle. Leaving this on our left, we passed, some four
hours after leaving the sleeping-place, through the
vast gap by which the Urban glacier flows forth, and
stood presently under the heights of Djanga.

The wonderful sight which we now looked on, I
despair of being able in any degree to render in words.
It was not merely the beauty and majesty of the great
mountains which caused wonder and admiration ; it
was even more, the utter wildness and strangeness of
the valley over which they rose ; its complete unlike-
ness to anything I had ever seen in the course of many
years' wandering in the high Alps. It was indeed a
mountain fastness, so secluded and so stern that it
seemed not only as if man had never entered it, but as
if man was never meant to enter or invade its beautiful
but terrible solitude.

To our right was Tau Tetnuld, a * tall pyramid
with wedge sublime,' towering over a broad glacier
which, in an undulating icefall, descended between it
and a rocky barrier opposite. Uniting Tau Tetnuld
to Kotchan Tau was the great curtain of Djanga, a
vast wall of rock and snow, looking, as we stood in
front of it, almost vertical. Of course it was not so,
but standing there under its shadow, the cliffs seemed
to rise with a marvellous abruptness, which was all the
more striking that they sprang straight from the level
glacier at their base, unbroken by slope or shoulder.

]3e BEZINGI AND THE KOTCHAN TAU GROUP,

Literally it seemed as though a man standing on the
glacier might put his hand against the wall which
rose straight some four or five thousand feet above
him.

At the end of this barrier, bearing S.E. from us,
rose Kotchan Tau, highest after Elbruz of Caucasian
peaks, and even as we were 'looking, the mist which
had clothed the upper part of the mighty mountain
cleared away, and it was revealed to us in all its grace
and nobleness of form. Tier after tier of steepest
escarped cliffs rose on its side, and above them was a
fan-like ridge, so thin seemingly that its huge rock
articulations looked to me from below like the delicate
fibres and veins in a leaf. Above these was the crest
of the mountain, a sharp arete marked by a series of
gentle curves of great length covered with a new
garment of fresh snow. Kotchan Tau shone with
dazzling brightness under the eastern sun, and I think
the eye of man could hardly rest on a more noble and
beautiful mountain than it looked on that summer
morning.

And will the master ever come for the virgin so
clad in bridal array ? Is the great peak accessible ?
Will cragsman ever stand on the highest point of that
keen ridge and look down from it on lovely Suenetia
on the one hand, and the wild Tcherkess country on
the other ? Well, of mountains yet unattacked, as of
ladies yet unwooed, it is exceedingly difficult to predict
anything, but certainly going up Kotchan Tau will be

KOTCHANTAU, 137

no work for the timorous, or for those weak of limb or
unsure of foot. From a col to the east of where we
stood, to which snow slopes of small difficulty lead,
rises the north-eastern arete of the mountain, for some
distance not impracticable. This then could, with
much step-cutting, be climbed up to a certain point,
and a considerable height on the mountain reached,
but the higher part of the arete is irregular and
broken, looking altogether impossible for human feet,
while the slopes below are of terrible steepness, the
final ridge being also apparently of extraordinary diffi-
culty. Owing to its gentle curves, it might be very
hard for a man to know when he had reached the
summit of the mountain. We certainly could see
no way thither, but still ways have been found
over places which, from below, seemed quite im-
passable, and there are peaks in Switzerland now fre-
quently ascended which, no very long time ago, were
deemed altogether beyond the powers of man, so I am
not prepared to say that, with two first-rate guides, a
good mountaineer able to give plenty of time to the
peak, willing to sleep out many nights, and to perse-
vere after unsuccessful attempts, might not, if blessed
with perfect weather, reach the summit of Kotchan
Tau; provided always that he could get supplies of
food sent up from the village, which he would find by
no means a very simple or easy task.

As to Tau Tetnuld, the case is different. There
seems to be no reason why that mountain should not

138 BEZINGI AND THE KOTCHAN TAU GROUP,

be ascended, and very likely the ascent would prove to
be of no excessive difficulty. An icefall, clearly
practicable, which has been already mentioned, de-
scends between the northern side of the mountain and
the cliffs opposite. From the level glacier on which
we stood this icefall could be reached with ease, and
then threading a way among crevasses and seracs, the
traveller could get to a col under the final peak of Tau
Tetnuld. So far indeed the way is occasionally
though rarely traversed, for the col marks a pass to
Suenetia, which has been crossed at times by the
hunters of Bezingi. From this col the top of Tet-
nuld's cone could seemingly be reached, and a very
fine peak Tau Tetnuld is, though from this side it
hardly looks as fine as it should, for Kotchan Tau is
such a much higher and grander mountain that poor
Tetnuld is sadly dwarfed by the comparison. To
ascend or attempt either of these peaks, it would be
necessary to sleep out a good deal higher than we did,
and for this we found a perfect place. Near the end
of the grassy ridge which we traversed on the left
bank of the Urban glacier is a beautiful little dell,
much resembling that in which we camped lower
down, being sheltered, as that is, from the wind, and
watered by a little torrent.

The col which has been described as lying at the
foot of the north-eastern arSte of Kotchan Tau looks
down on the further side on the great icefield of the
Dych-Su glacier. Over the col a pass to this glacier

BAD WEATHER AGAIN. 139

might probably be made, but Moore, who had seen the.
other side during his journey in 1868, was of opinion
that the descent on to the Dych-Su would be far from
easy. About N.N.E. of the col rises a nameless peak
of great height, not marked in the Russian map, and
beyond this is Dych Tau. We could not, however,
see either of these peaks from the place we reached on
the glacier, as they were hidden by intervening cliffs.
We had intended to attempt the ascent of Tau Tet-
nuld, and to pass into Suenetia. We could not have
done so on the day I am now describing, as there was
not time for more than a preliminary survey, but we
meant, if there was any promise in the weather, and if
we found a sleeping-place high up, to carry our little
baggage up there, and thence to try pass and moun-
tain. A camping-place we found, also there was
promise in the weather, but it was promise of the
wrong kind. While we were yet gazing on Kotchan
Tau, the clouds, which had lifted for but a short
space, again wrapped its noble summit, and behind us
the mist was stealing slowly but steadily up the great
Urban glacier, looking, as is often said of fog-banks at
sea, like the side of a house. In a few minutes it was
on us, and Tau Tetnuld, and Djanga, and mighty
Kotchan Tau were hidden, to be seen no more by us
save from afar. There was nothing for it but to get
home, so in the vile half darkness we plodded our
weary way back, going first by the grassy ridge, and
then, as the crevassed part of the glacier could not be

140 BEZINGI AND THE EOT CHAN TAU GROUP,

passed in the fog, along the base of the moraine, over
an abomination of loose stones. When we reached our
resting-place, the weather seemed, and indeed was,
hopeless. The mist was dense ; snow was beginning
to come down, and the barometer had fallen greatly.
It was obvious that in such weather as was coming
one might as well go and delve in the crags for gold,
as seek to go up an unknown peak, or over an un-
known pass, so we came to the sad conclusion that it
was reserved for more fortunate wanderers to occupy
the further dell, and from it to ascend Tau Tetnuld,
or, if very ambitious, to attempt Kotchan Tau and
reach its top, or break their necks, as chance might
befall. We determined to go back to Bezingi, and
well that we did so, for the night was a savage one ;
well also that we gave up our expedition, for it rained
in the valleys and snowed in the mountains for the
next four days.

To Bezingi therefore we strode back through
drenching rain, which, I am sorry to say, was the
cause of harm to our excellent servant Paul, for, being
wet through, he set to work to cook on arriving,
without changing anything, and thereby got a cough
which was troubling him much at the time when he
left us. Our absence seemed to have sharpened the
curiosity of the natives, who crowded round us won-
dering as though they had never seen us before, and
when the time came for going to sleep, there was con-
siderable diflSculty in getting rid of the good-tempered

AN EVIL NIGHT, 141

but chattering and tiresome crowd. It was a wild
night, with heavy rain and furious gusts of wind. We
should have fared ill if we had stayed at our sleeping-
place by the glacier.

142

CHAPTER V.

TCHEGEM AND THE GORGE OF THE DJILKI-SU.

Departure from Bezingi — The Invisible Princess — The Pass to Tchegem
— Its Resemblance at one part to the Great Scheidegg — Striking
View of the Entrance to a deep Grorge — A Friendly Chief — The
Village of Tchegem — Reception there — The Chiefs informed of our
probable arrival by General Loris Melikoff— Curiosity of the Men
of Tchegem— Sketch of a Reception by a Caucasian Chief — Absence
of any Attempt to obtain Gifts — The Gorge of the Djilki-Su —
Bad Weather again — Capture of a live Bouquetin — A Man of Gobi
— Conversation with an aggrieved Caucasian — Doubt as to there
being just Cause for Complaint.

Early on the morning of the next day (July 19th),
we bade farewell to Bezingi. The princess of course
remained invisible. A man leaving an English country
house, of which the hostess was in bed, would not
startle British propriety more by proposing to go up-
stairs to say good-bye to her, than we should have
offended agrinst decorum if we had said that we should
like to thank the princess ourselves. Such a thing could
not be, but funnily enough, though she could not see
us, she could see our servant, so Paul went on an
embassy to her, paid her for our entertainment in the
manner which will be described later on, and presented
her with what seemed the very inappropriate gift of an

THE PASS TO TCHEGEM, 143

eight-bladed knife. We had nothing else to give her,
and I am glad to say that the good matron was de-
lighted. She had never seen such a thing before, and
showed it immediately to the younger wife, who felt
and expressed the same pleasure as an English lady
would who saw her step-sister very much better dressed
than herself. So primitive are the people of Bezingi
that this knife was a great success. The brother of
the chief, who saw it before it was given, took Paul
aside to tell him that there was no occasion to pay any-
thing to his sister-in-law, but that it would be quite
enough if we would give him a similar knife. As he
had done nothing whatever for us, we did not fall in
with this considerate view, but we were truly glad to
please the invisible princess who had indeed been an
excellent hostess, showing in her poor village, and from
her mud hut of a house, the true spirit of the noble
Mohammedan hospitality of which the tradition is not
yet pale among this simple and kindly race.

Leaving Bezingi, we struck up the left bank of the
valley, getting glimpses of some parts of it to the north,
which seemed much finer than the dull banks which
rise above the village. After walking over easy grass
slopes for about an hour and a half, we came in sight
of the highest point of the pass to the adjoining valley
of Tchegem, for which we were now bound, and were
much struck by the resemblance of this part of the way
to the great Scheidegg, as seen from the slopes above
Grindelwald. The mighty cliffs of the Wetterhom, it

144 TCHEGEM AND THE DJILKI-SU GORGE.

is true, were wanting. So were the numerous cantines
of the Swiss route. The Caucasians are a benighted
and abstemious race^ content with a moderate amount
of food, and allowing long intervals between their
meals. I wished much, as our way brought the well-
known pass to my mind, that I could have transported
one of the Bezingi men thither, and shown the igno-
rant shepherd how, where advanced civilisation prevails,
men are expected, indeed urgently begged, to eat and
drink ten times in the course of a two hours' walk.

That jackal-like dogs endeavoured to cut off the
stragglers of the party ; that the rain came down in
torrents; that, when we reached the top of the pass,
we were enveloped in dense mist, were things natural
and to be anticipated. We bore them with philo-
sophy — that is to say, we grumbled and swore with
the secret underlying pleasure which an Englishman
always feels at having something to grumble and
swear about; but our. repining was soon silenced, for
descending a little, and getting out of the mist, we
looked on a strange, weird country, quite unlike any
we had ever seen in previous travel. Before us was
a wide valley making a large sweep just opposite
the place where we stood, and trending away to-
wards the south-west. Then, at the part where the
turn began, there was on the further side of this valley
a great opening in its side, a vast portal of tremen-
dous cliffs, beyond which lay a deep, mysterious gorge,
very sombre from its narrowness and from the great

A DEEP GORGE, 146

height of its precipitous sides. We could trace this vast
gloomy ravine far back among the hills. Anything so
strange as the entrance to it no man of us had ever seen,
and I can only compare it to one of those weird moun-
tain recesses which Dor6 has imagined ; indeed, looking
at that strange gateway, it seemed easy for once to be-
lieve in the supernatural. Those huge portals might
have been opened by some mighty spell, and in that
gloomy gorge running into the heart of the mountains
surely there might be dragons or great serpents crawl-
ing in dark recesses where the sun never came ; some
unholy mystery at the end ; an enchanted castle, or a
warlock's haunt. At the foot of this great opening in
the valley-side lies the village of Tchegem, which, how-
ever, we could not see for some time, it being hidden
by rising ground in front of us. On our right, as we
descended, rose a noble limestone precipice, in front
of which the eagles were flying to and fro, and we
seemed to excite the curiosity of one huge bird, for he
flitted over our heads for a time with perfect and, I
am bound to say, justifiable contempt for the revolver
shots which we fired at him. Before getting to Tche-
gem we had to pass another village standing on the
right bank of the lateral valley we were descending.
The inhabitants stared at us witli their usual intense
but good-tempered curiosity, and a handsome, well-
dressed horseman rode up to Gardiner and myself, who
were lagging behind the others, and made us a long
speech, which I doubt not was amicable. Of course

L

148 TCHEOEM AND THE DJILKI-SU,

we could not understand a word of it, and Paul was
some distance ahead, so I adopted the course I had
before once or twice followed under similar circum-
stances, and replied to him at some length in English.
He listened with great attention, then with many
smiles shook us both warmly by the hand and
p(alloped away. They are a friendly race.

Getting down to the base of the great valley we
saw Tchegem, which is situated at the end of the
gorge on the north bank of the stream running through
it. A great cliff rises above the village, and it would
be diflScult perhaps for the traveller to find a sight
more striking than this group of houses clustered on
the barren slope at the mouth of that strange ravine
with the towering cliffs above them. Most genial was
our reception. The authorities at Tiflis, with the
consideration which they showed in everything, had
written to General Loris-Melikoff, the Governor of
Yladikafkaz, requesting him to give us all aid, and he
had taken the trouble to send word to Tchegem that
we were to be well treated, an act of kindness on his
part which it would be difficult to acknowlege too
warmly, and for which, to our great regret, we had no
opportunity of thanking him. A small squadron of
boys, who had apparently taken on themselves the
office of scouts, came out from the village and escorted
us in. On arriving we found a crowd already assem-
bled, from which two handsome fellows stepped forth
and bade us welcome. They were two of the chiefs

NATIVE CURIOSITY. 147

of Tcbegem, which was governed apparently by a
triumvirate of three brothers, the eldest and most
important of whom was, we were informed, absent; but
we missed him not, for the two younger ones did the
honours of their village with much grace and hospi-
tality. We were shown into the house got ready for
us, which was of sufficient dignity to have a courtyard
in front of it. Into both poured the crowd after us,
and we found that in the matter of curiosity the in-
habitants of Tchegem were in no degree behind those
of Kunim or Bezingi. Something superior to the men
of both those places they seemed to us in face and
stature. I do not think I have ever seen so many
handsome and stalwart fellows together as those who
were looking at us with more than a schoolboy's
curiosity. So anxious were they to see everything,
that not only did they fill the room, but even the
little window was packed with the heads of grave and
bearded Mussulmen. Although they were perfectly
good-tempered, it must be said that this persistent
curiosity, allowing one no respite from the public
gaze; was irritating, and I was inwardly cursing the
inquisitiveness of the villagers when an idea occurred
to me which made me hesitate and doubt whether I
had any right whatever to be angry. If the case were
reversed, I thought. If a Caucasian chief in the
national costume — to wit, a long robe with silver car-
touche cases on the breast, a great lambswool cap, a
huge poniard hanging from his belt, leggings and

L 2

148 TCUEGEM AND THE DJILKI-SU,

mocassins — were to ride suddenly one evening into a
Surrey village and seek lodging there, what sort of
treatment would he receive from the boors who would
probably be assembled at the public-house door ? At
first they would most likely be silent from a dull asto-
nishment. After a short time they would begin heavy
chaff and jokes with each other about the stranger,
whom they would designate by the foulest words known
to the English language. In a short time more the chaff
would be addressed to him, and as he would certainly
be utterly bewildered by it, indignation would be
roused, and the coarsest insults would follow. In
the end, the unhappy Caucasian would probably be
subjected to some horseplay, and possibly even be
well thrashed, on the simple ground that he was quite
unlike any one whom the villagers had ever seen
before. In some places in the North of England he
might be half kicked to death. Now these things
might happen in our own dear land — it is not long
since some men riding bicycles through an English
village were pelted with big stones by the inhabitants
— and reflection, therefore, went far to reconcile me to
the keen and abiding curiosity of the good-tempered
Caucasians.

After we had waited some time, tea and cakes, the
certain first-offering of a chief's hospitality, appeared,
and here perhaps may be given a slight sketch of the
reception and treatment of travellers in a village of the
north-western Caucasus.

RECEPTION BY A CHIEF. 140

They were received by the chief, to whom they
present the general order obtained from the Russian
authorities, which renders it obligatory on him to give
them all reasonable aid. His own sense of hospitality
will cause him to construe this in a liberal sense, and
the strangers forthwith find themselves in the pleasant
position of honoured guests. After a short delay they
are shown into a house which is set apart for them
during their stay, or perhaps, though this is less likely,
into a room in the chiePs own dwelling. Then, after a
much longer delay, which is only natural considering the
limited resources of the host, a servant appears bearing
the huge samovar, a teapot, loaf sugar, and small cakes
made from brown flour which are often excellent.
But the tea and the white sugar are real luxuries. It
need hardly be said that they are not to be bought in
these remote villages, only a very small stock being
possessed by the well-to-do inhabitants, and the chief
when he bestows these things on his guests is doing
quite as liberal a thing as the Englishman who has up
from his cellar his best and most costly dry cham-
pagne. The chief will most likely be present at this
preliminary eating and drinking, standing in the pre-
sence of his guests, and, in accordance with the stately
spirit of Oriental courtesy, declining: to be seated
unless much pressed. Afternoon tea over he with-
draws, that is to say, withdraws as host, but he will
very likely return almost immediately as a private
spectator. Now comes a pause, a very long pause,

150 TCHEGEM AND THE DJILKI-SU,

during which the travellers write their notes, clean
their arms, discuss what shall be done next day, specu-
late as to the weather, do anything in fact to get
through the time, growing at last wofuUy hungry in
spite of the tea and cakes, and beginning to doubt
whether any dinner is coming, and whether it would
not be best to roll themselves up and ^ take it out in
sleep.' But just as they are getting quite famished
and hopeless a blessed sight appears. There enters a
servant bearing a small, three-legged table, very like
what the English upholsterers beautifully call an
^ occasional ' table. It has already served for the tea
and cakes, but now bears a much more substantial
load. When the cloth, which is laid over the dinner,
not under it, as in the West, has been taken off, there
appears the greater part of a sheep boiled, and neatly
arranged on flat loaves. Very likely there is served
with it a kind of mutton broth. Well cared for thus,
the travellers fall to, and when they have done, their
servants, joined for good-fellowship's sake by the
servants of the chief, may be relied on to finish every
scrap that remains. Mattresses and coverings are
then sent in by the host, who probably comes to say
good-night, and the guests go to sleep, so far as seems
good to the village dogs, and to the insects, inevitable
bedfellows.

After the the dChonneur was over on this evening,
we let the curiosity of the villagers have full swing,
and it really seemed to surpass even that of the

NO GIFTS DEMANDED. 161

people of Bezingi. They handled everything they
could, and talked over each object with infinite volu-
bility. Aneroid, revolvers, watches, telescopes, all
excited the most intense interest, and yet with some of
these things they must have been acquainted, for the
place is now and then visited by Kussian officers, and
men from the village go sometimes to the Kussian post
at Vladikafkaz. As to revolvers, indeed, the youngest
chief carried a small one in his belt. Nevertheless, I
do not think that in Central Africa the inhabitants
could have shown more curiosity ; but with all this
inquisitiveness, which made them almost take the
things out of our hands to examine them, these singular
people were not wanting in dignity, or in the feeling of
what was due to strangers. They pawed everything
we would let them paw, but they asked for nothing ;
and so we found it in other places. During the whole
of our journey on the northern side, I do not recollect
a single instance of a Caucasian's asking for any of the
things we carried with us. As for stealing from us, I do
not believe that such an idea ever entered their heads.
Kain fell during the night, and the morning was
dull and threatening with heavy mists hanging over
the hills. We determined to give up the day to ex-
ploring the great gorge, now darker than ever under
the lowering sky, and started early in the forenoon,
following a slightly marked track on the left bank of
the stream. It was certainly a wonderful defile. At
first the limestone clifis on our right, that is, on the

152 TCHEGEM AND THE DJILKI-SU.

northern side of the gorge, were all but absolutely
vertical, and further on the sides of the ravine, though
sloping enough to ^low of vegetation, were niarvel-^
lously steep. The stream which flowed along the
base was small, but of great beauty, and sprang,
the natives had told us, from a glacier at the head of
the ravine. The rivulet is called the Djilki-Su, and
gives its name to the great gorge, of which Walker
took a photograph from a point a little above Tchegem.
From this photograph the engraving on the opposite
page has been taken. We had hoped to explore the
whole of the huge cleft and reach the glacier of which
the natives had spoken, but we soon found that
there was no possibility of our seeing anything if we
did so, for the mist gathered over the ridges on each
side, and then came steadily down until it seemed like
a roof over our heads. There was no chance of its
lifting that day.

Shepherds or hunters had made the faint track,
which sometimes rose a little on the steep slope, some-
times ran by the stream. After following this line for
Bome time, we came to a rough bridge spanning the
little torrent at a place of singular wildness and
beauty. About a hundred yards higher up there was a
turn in the gorge, and just at this point we saw a
young bouquetin feeding on a tiny bit of level ground
at the foot of the cliffs on the left bank of the stream.
Paul is not a hunter, never having had the opportunity
of becoming one, but he has all a hunters' instinct, and

CAPTUEE OF A BOUQUETIN. 153

he was off in an instant, rushing along the right bank,
under cover of brushwood, to head the animal. This
he did, and dashed across the rivulet just above the
bouquetin, who immediatelj turned to go down
stream, but seeing me on the bridge, where I had
mounted guard with my revolver, and having no
means of knowing that with the said revolver I should
certainly have missed him, hesitated for a moment,
looked at the cliffs on the left bank which were clearly
impossible even for a bouquetin, and then at those
on the right, by which he could certainly have got
away if only he could have found courage to cross the
rivulet, but this, strange to say, he would not do,
though at that point the stream was shallow enough.
Twice he looked at it; twice, like a horse bad at
water, refused; then tried to scramble up between
Paul and the left bank, but Paul promptly knocked
him over with a big stick, and then grappled him by
the horns. The bouquetin struggled desperately, as
well he might, but the Mingrelian was not to be
shaken off, and Peter Knubel shortly coming up, the
two bound the hapless beast.

Now a bouquetin is a sufficiently difficult animal
to kill with a good rifle after a long and wary stalk, but
to catch a bouquetin alive is certainly not an every-day
performance, and there was reason, I think, for some
little exultation. The abominable state of the weather
made it useless to ascend the gorge any further, as we
could have seen nothing, so we determined to go back

154 TCHEGEM AND THE BJILKI-SU.

to Tchegem with the captured animal. We returned
thither accordingly, our two men alternately carrying
the beast, and as I observed what hard work it was
for them, I wondered greatly how a man who is fortu-
nate enough to kill a full-grown bouquetin manages to
bring it back from a long distance, and over places of
real difficulty, perhaps of danger. It must test to the
utmost mountaineering skill and strength. We left
the gorge with great regret at not having been able
better to explore it. Although there is a track and a
bridge over the stream, the fact that a bouquetin was
feeding so low down, shows how rarely men penetrate
the great ravine.

We had thought it impossible for the sons of
Tchegem together assembled to talk more than they
had done the night before; but we were mistaken.
The bouquetin — and they were much astonished at
our having got him alive — excited even greater volu-
bility than that of the previous evening, and as this
became rather tiresome, and as, moreover, each man
considered himself entitled to examine, in his own way,
the unhappy brute, we thought it best to decree his
execution rather than let him be gradually done to
death by the curious. His throat was accordingly cut,
and I was much struck by the wonderfully bright
colour of the blood ; also by the vigorous circulation
which these animals possess. From an artery in the
throat the blood jetted to a distance of more than ten
feet. Of course we should much have liked to have
kept the poor bouquetin alive, and taken him with us.

A MAN OF GEBL 166

but with the long journey we still had before us that
was obviously an impossibility. A man from Gebi,
however — of course there was one in the village — put
us to shame^ for when the animal was dead he stepped
forward and said that he would have given ten roubles
for it to take back alive to his village. Now, as he
had just watched the killing of the poor beast with
amusement and complacency, there was a naked auda-
city in this statement which much increased my respect
for the lights of the men of Gebi.

There appeared this afternoon the eldest brother of
the three, principal chief of the village, a splendid
fellow, some six feet three or four high, and singularly
handsome, save that he was marked with the small-
pox. We noticed this disfigurement in a large proportion
of the inhabitants of Tchegem. In the evening we
dallied with a * trifling foolish banquet ' of a whole
sheep, enlivened by a discussion which was of some
interest, though, like most discussions, it did not
change opinion. Moore maintained, somewhere about
the period of the fourth or fifth chop, that the great
drawback to mountain excursions was the habit of
eating to which men are prone ; that by energy,
perseverance, and self-denial, it would be possible to
subdue, ultimately perhaps almost to get rid of this
failing, and that in time a man might walk over
glacier and mountain undisturbed by the craving for
food which adherence to a vicious practice causes most
people to feel. I maintained the opposite of this, and
though I did not succeed in convincing Moore, I am

156 TCHEGEM AND THE DJILKI-SU.

glad in the interest of mountaineers to say that the
invaluable ex-Secretary of the Alpine Club has not
yet attempted to put his views in practice, resembling
in this manner of treating his doctrine some eminent
people of our time who have contented themselves
with preaching moral excellence.

We had some interesting talk during the evening
with a very pleasant and intelligent Caucasian, who
was, like ourselves, on his travels, for he was merely
passing through Tchegem, to which village he did not
belong ; indeed, it was not known to our hosts, the
chiefs, of what district he was. He began by asking
us if we could tell him to whom ought to be attributed
some curious steps in the rocks, and some caves,
partly artificial, which he had been told were to be
found in the neighbourhood, for, he said, — ^ The fore-
fathers of the men of Tchegem did not make these.
They are the work of some people who before in-
habited this country. Can you, who are more learned
than I am, tell me who these people were ? ' We gave
him such faint sket<»h as was possible of prehistoric
man, and he then talked to us for some time about our
journey, the state of the country, and so forth. Pre-
sently there was an interesting conversation between
him and one of our party, who, I should say, leaned to
conservative views.

Said the Englishman — Are you and the people
about you content with the Russian Government?
Does it treat you well ?

AN AGGRIEVED CAUCASIAN, 167

The Caucasian.— No, it does not. The Russian
Government does not deal justly with us. It is now
confiscating much of the property of the proprietors
(he was speaking, of course, of the native aristocracy),
and in its conduct towards them does not, having
strength on its side, consider what is fair. But this
is indeed to be expected, for the Russian Government
is a bad sort of government. Everything depends oa
one man, and one man all alone is veiy likely to make
mistakes. How can he know all about the people he
rules when they are of many races ? Now with you it
is different. You are governed by a great council (I
wonder how on earth he knew this), and a great
council of many men is not so likely to make a mistake
as one man. Then they will know better what is
right for different parts of the country.

The Englishman (carried away for the moment by
Tory feeling). — Not always, by any means. Parliament
may sometimes be very bad. The last Parliament we
had wanted to change everything that was established
in the land.

The Caucasian. — I cannot tell about that; but
this I say, that a council of many men is less likely to
make mistakes than one man alone, who may err
grossly at any moment (and here, I think, the chief
had the best of it). The Russian Government does
not respect the rights men have hitherto had. There
are some in constant dread of having their property
confiscated. There is Prince Ismail of Urusbieh.

168 TCHEGEM AND THE DJILKI-SU.

He has a great forest which has always belonged to
his family. The Government is going to confiscate
that^ which surely is as unjust as anything can be. He
is now at Vladikaf kaz seeking to prevent this. I say
that the rights which men in a country have always
possessed should be respected by the Government, and
the Russian Government does not respect ours. For-
merly we had slaves of our own who did our work for
nothing ; now this is not allowed, and we have to pay
men to work for us.

This was a sad falling off. The Caucasian had
seemed at first to speak like a respectable Liberal,
pointing out the essential vice of a despotic govern-
ment, and here he was lamenting the abolition of
slavery. I wish his views had been more symmetrical
and consistent, because then he would have presented
a much prettier picture of an intelligent and liberal
native aristocrat ; but I give his words as they were
translated to me.

Whether there was any truth in the charges of
injustice and confiscation which he made against the
Russian Government, I had no means of judging. In
all countries complaints against rulers are made, and
are generally stronger when the rulers are of alien
race. Certainly, if the inhabitants of the northern
side of the chain are in any way oppressed, the op-
pression must be marvellously concealed, for during
the whole time we were in the valleys no Russians
did we see, save two young officers who came from

CAUSE FOR COMPLAINT DOUBTFUL. 169

Patigorsk expressly to join us on an expedition, a
Colonel, who happened to be passing through Uteh-
kulan, and a poor fellow, clerk to a native chief of
the same place. So far as I could judge, the villagers
were let alone as much as any men could possibly
desire to be, living, I should say, precisely after the
fashion of their forefathers, and in nowise hindered
from so doing. Taxation seemed to be very light.
The Caucasian who complained admitted that all they
had to pay was a house-tax, so moderate as not to
press hard on any one. They also have to keep the
paths in order, but this surely it would be advisable
for them to do under any circumstances. As to inter-
ference with their religion, I should have great
difficulty in believing that anything of the kind is
attempted. Each village had its priest, who, we were
told, said prayers at certain times. The inhabitants
never attended, but of course they could have done so
if they had liked. The Greek Church is usually sup-
posed not to seek proselytes, and certainly, if it has any
missionaries in the northern valleys, they must surpass
even the famous missionaries of the Roman Catholic
Church in the skill with which they make themselves
like unto the natives.

As to confiscating the property of the chiefs, no
doubt, if the Russian authorities are doing such a
thing, they are perpetrating a great injustice. It
would be as iniquitous as it would be impolitic to take
the estates of men not guilty of any offence, and not

ICO TCHEGEM AND THE BJILEJ-SU.

disaffected to the Government, but it is hardly necessary
to say that the statement of this one man could not
for a moment be considered as proving that any such
measures were being carried out or contemplated. The
questions which arise respecting the tenure of land
where the rulers and the ruled are of different races,
and have inherited utterly different laws and traditions,
are of great difficulty, as has often enough been found
in India, and it is quite possible that a Caucasian
might regard as confiscation what to a man from the
West might seem merely a stringent but necessary
law. There was certainly some question pending
between the Government and the princes of Urusbieh,
as we found when we visited that village ; but so far as
we could make out, the Government was only enforcing
some measure to prevent the unlimited felling of trees
which is going on in the few forests now remaining in
the Northern Caucasus. To a Caucasian such a pro-
ceeding would very likely appear to be confiscation.
I have recorded the conversation with the aggrieved
man because there was, as it seemed to me, consider-
able interest in hearing what an intelligent native had
to say of the Government under which he lived. As I
have already said, I could form no judgment on the
justice of his complaints. In some other instances we
saw evidence of a certain discontent with the Govern-
ment, but it would be the height of vanity for a
traveller, on the strength of a rapid journey through
part of the Caucasus, and of conversations necessarily

LAW OF MILITARY SERVICE, 161

conducted through an interpreter, to give an opinion
on the diflScult questions which must arise between the
Russians and the mountain tribes. It should be re-
membered that at the time of which I am speaking the
law of universal military service was not enforced in
the Caucasus. Should it be applied there, it is possible
that the Caucasians may have very real and grave
causes for discontent.

M

162

CHAPTER VI.

PASS FROM TCHEGEM TO THE BAKSAN VALLEY.
ALPINE AND CAUCASIAN SCENERY.

Start from Tchegem — Position of a Chiefs Guests in the Caucasus-
Character of the Country traversed after leaving the Tchegem Valley
— Comparison between Alpine and Caucasian Scenery — ^A Farm-
house—Inquisitive Wayfarers — The Top of the Pass— The Koanta
Glen — The Valley of the Baksan — Osrokova — ^Difficulty of getting
Food and Lodging — Eloquence of the Man of Gebi.

There was some faint promise of fine weather the
next morning (July 21), and being ready soon after
daybreak we said good-bye to the pleasant chiefs of
Tchegem, and had to go through the rather delicate
business of paying them for their good cheer. The
lodging and food provided by the chief in a northern
village, are, in accordance with Mohammedan ideas,
supposed to be freely given. The chief is a friend and
host, not a landlord, and would not think for a moment
of demanding money from the man he has entertained,
who might go away without paying anything whatever
if he were mean enough to do so. I hope I need not
say that we never allowed the chiefs to be losers by
their good treatment of us, but there was always a

A CHIEF'S QUESTS, 163

slight hesitation on their part about receiving money.
We estimated in each case what we had cost the head
of the village, and then proffered him a sum rather
above the amount. This offer was usually met by a
courteous assurance that no payment was necessary,
and that everything had been freely given, not sold.
We answered this by a request that, as a favour to
ourselves, the money might be taken, and it was then
pocketed without more ado. I believe that some
present was always expected ; in fact, it could hardly
be otherwise ; for why should these men provide
gratuitously for utter strangers ? But I am not sure
that the chiefs were always best pleased with money,
although they took it. Some gift which would have
made the transaction seem rather less mercantile
would, I think, have gratified them more. Having
nothing else, however, money we always gave. After
quitting the village our way lay down the Tchegem
valley, which is not without a certain beauty, though
rather monotonous from that absence of trees which
characterizes so much of the Northern Caucasus.
Some two or three hours from the village the valley
opens into a greater one, and here we struck towards
the north-west, our path lying through wild and grand
country, very strange to our eyes ; on the south, a
great wall of limestone cliffs; to the north, vast
rolling slopes of grass, and beyond them huge ridges,
covered from base to crest by the like unchanging
mantle, rising above sombre valleys. Same in colour,

M 2

164 TCHEOEM TO THE BAK8AN VALLEY.

of no great beauty of form, this wilderness of grass-
covered slopes is nevertheless of much grandeur, and
possesses a stamp and character of its own which make
it different altogether from those mountain countries
which most Englishmen know. The mind naturally
seeks some standard of comparison, and during our
journey through the chain we constantly sought to
compare what we saw with the Alps, but only to feel
more completely the unlikeness of the hiUs and valleys
we were traversing to those where we had wandered so
often. The Caucasus indeed is not as Switzerland is.
Whether more or less beautiful, it is different from the
Alpine chain ; as different, if it may be permitted to
compare mountains to human beings, as are the Cau-
casian hunters and shepherds from the peasants of the
Valais or the Oberland.

But is it more or less beautiful ? Which region is
the noblest ? Which leaves the deepest impression on
the mind ? One country, however different from ano-
ther, must either exceed it or fall below it in beauty,
after all; and mountain districts necessarily have
much in common which makes a comparison between
them possible. Is then the Caucasus on the whole
finer than Switzerland, or is it not ? Such questions
would be naturally put by any one who cared for
mountains. Perhaps, before trying to answer, I may
be allowed to give an instance showing the difficulty of
judging even man's work.

The Venus of Milo has long been admired as one

CRITICAL JUnOMENT, 166

of the very few works of a good period of Greek art
which has come down to us. Critics have examined,
discussed, extolled it, explained it to the throng, proved
to their own satisfaction the precise position of the
missing arms, made it the subject of careful scrutiny
and of much disquisition. It might well be thought
that it had been fully appreciated, and that the ex-
amination of it had been exhaustive.

And what was the fact? When the statue was
brought back to its place in the Louvre, after having
been concealed during the siege of Paris, it was
found that, owing to the clumsiness of the men who
set it up on its first arrival in France, the two blocks
of marble of which it is composed had not been pro-
perly joined, and that consequently it had been thrown
out of its proper line, and a cant given to the body
above the waist, at variance alike with truth to nature
and with the intention of the sculptor who fashioned
the work. And this elementary fault had remained
undiscovered. Critics had been ready to explain what
must have been the position of the lost arms, had ob-
served a slight difference between the two sides of the
face, but not one had detected this gross, it might
almost be thought, this palpable error. Now when it
is found that a coarse mistake of this kind has escaped
the observation of those whose faculties were supposed
to be the keenest and the most highly trained, that
men who were giving opinions on all that is most
subtle an(J delicate in the treatment of a figure, had

166 TCHEQEM TO THE BAK8AN VALLEY.

failed to see this vital flaw, it is perhaps no unfair
inference that critical judgment in matters of beauty is
but a poor, weak thing at best, possessing by no means
the value usually given to it, and that certainty in
deciding on things beautiful is so far from being at-
tainable, even by the most cultivated, that they are
liable at any moment to make quite childish blunders.
But if there be ground for thinking critical judgment
of little worth when the limited and comparatively
simple work of men's hands has to be considered, how
pauch weight can be given to it in any attempt to
decide on the infinite glories of nature ? Is it of much
avail to try to rate and define the manifold beauties of
mountain, glacier, and valley, and say which of two
great regions is the fairest? Is not the task too
diflScult, perhaps impossible ? I believe that the more
a man studies nature, the less he will feel inclined to
speak dogmatically of the beauty of one country as
compared with another. Each may have produced a
deep and lasting impression on him, but he cannot
mark the points which admiration for them should
reach, as an engineer marks the pressure of steam.
We are not yet able to appraise beauty.

If, then, I make any attempt shortly to compare
the Northern Caucasus with Switzerland, I do so with
the feeling that such a comparison would be worth
little, even if made by one gifted with rare powers of
observation, and that from a mere ordinary traveller
its value must be small indeed; but those who are

ALPINE AND CAUCASIAN SCENERY, 167

likely to be most interested in the Caucasus are those
who already know and love Switzerland, and they may
naturally ask which country is the grander and the
more striking ; whether, by going to the Caucasus a
man sees things beyond aught he can find betweem
Lake Leman and the Ortler Spitz ; mountains more
abrupt than the Matterhom, or more beautiful than
the Jungfrau ; valleys more varied or impressive than
the Saas Thai or the Val d'Anniviers. With a strong
sense of the worthlessness of any answer I can give, I
will endeavour to reply. Of course it is necessary
here, as in other parts of the book, to speak positively,
as it would be wearisome to fence every statement
with an expression of distrust.

The part of the Caucasus which we were traversing
is that in which the highest and noblest peaks rise, and
the comparison should be made between the northern
side of this portion of the range and Switzerland.
The southern side should be contrasted with or
likened to the southern valleys of the Alps. With
regard then to the northern side of the chain, it may
be briefly said that the valley scenery is inferior both
in beauty and variety to that of Switzerland, but that,
on the other hand, the snow mountains are grander
and more striking than those of the Alpine range.
The Caucasian valleys indeed are often dull, some-
times exceedingly ugly. A description has already
been given of the lower portion of the valley of the
Tcherek, and of the vale of Bezingi. Scarcely more

168 TCHEOEM TO THE BAKSAN VALLEY,

pleasing to the eye than either of these is the country
through which for a considerable distance the Baksan
flows, and the valley of the Kuban below Utchkulan
is only remarkable for its size. There is generally
great monotony of colour, sometimes poverty of form ;
but it is the want of forests which most dulls the
Northern Caucasus. There are pine woods, it is true,
but they are usually just under the mountains, and are
few and small for so mighty a hill country. The great
valleys and high ridges are often bare of trees, and it
is not till a man has travelled in a land thus naked
that he knows how much of the beauty of the mountain
region below glacier and snow is due to the woodland,
or how deadening to hill and dale the absence of it may
be. Too often no forests clothe the sides of those
great, blank ridges, and if any one would realise what
this vacancy is, let him try to conceive what the fairest
Swiss valley would be without those pines which come
down to the water's edge and stretch far up on distant
slopes, which spring from narrow ledges, crown the
brows of great crags, and find holding ground even on
the boulders which have rolled down from above,
being, indeed, a part so essential of mountain beauty
that scarcely an Alpine scene can be called to memory
without the recollection of those forests which girdle
the everlasting hills.

In Caucasian valleys, often very impressive, but
generally grim, the traveller, generally speaking, does
not find rock, wood, and stream yielding a series of

ALPINE AND CAUCASIAN SCENERY. 169

entrancing pictures, as in the more favoured Swiss
vales. The Caucasian scenery is less varied and more
Harsh, though owing to the vast scale on which the
country is moulded it is sometimes of impressive
grandeur. There is nothing in Switzerland so striking
as Tchegem. In its upper part the valley of the
Tcherek is more imposing than any in the Alps ; but
in colour, in softness, in varied beauty, in those things
which men love, and come back year after year to gaze
on, the valleys of the Northern Caucasus are inferior
to those of Switzerland, and would not, I believe, if
they were equally easy to reach, be cared for as the
latter are.

As to the southern side of the chain, it is probably
otherwise. I saw so little of it that I cannot speak
with any authority, but, from what I did look on, I
should say that even the Italian valleys of the Alps are
not of such prodigal and gorgeous richness as some
parts of the South Caucasus. Those who have been
in Suenetia describe it as a paradise — inhabited un-
fortunately by demons, but that is nought to the
present purpose ; and in the western province of
Abkhasia I saw, at the end of our journey, scenes of
beauty surpassing to my mind anything I had ever
before beheld. The wonderful vegetation of the
southern slopes is beyond that of the Italian side of
the Alps, and generally nature seems to have worked
in a larger and grander fashion. I believe that future
travellers will say that the valleys of Suenetia and

170 TCHEOEM TO THE BAKSAN VALLEY.

Abkhasia transcend even those on the southern side of
Monte Kosa.

The huge snow-peaks which rise between these
luxuriant slopes and the stern northern country, are
nobler than those of the Alps. In the first place they
are greater, and their size is made appreciable by
the wonderful steepness, which is the main charac-
teristic of the chain* In this they surpass the Alps.
It is no exaggeration to say that a mountain or ridge
which would seem specially precipitous in Switzerland
would be nothing out of the common in the Caucasus.
There is an escarped look about the vast sides of these
Eastern heights, and of the curtains connecting them,
which adds greatly to their apparent size, and tells of
abrupt cliffs which will be very terrible to the climber
when it is sought to set foot on Caucasian crests. It is
true that the slopes of Elbruz, the highest mountain in
the chain, are gentle and gradual, but of no other great
peak in the Western Caucasus can this, I believe, be
said. During the time we were in the country we saw
a way up one for certain and up two others possibly.
The first was the mountain just named, which we
ascended ; the other two were Tau Tetnuld and Tung-
sorun, which stands at the head of the Urusbieh
valley. Very likely, with time and trouble, paths
would be found to many of the summits, but with such
inspection as we were able to give we could see no
way up the precipitous and jagged cliffs of the high
mountains. What is most remarkable in Caucasian

ALPINE AND CAUCASIAN SCENERY. 171

peaks, then, is their sheer rise. Now it is not by any
means desirable that great heights should be looked at
only with a climber's eyes, and that nothing should be
thought magnificent which is not seemingly impossible ;
but nevertheless it is generally true that no mountains
produce so great an effect on men as those which are
apparently inaccessible, those of which the mighty
precipices seem to defy any efforts human beings can
make to reach the unassailable crests. This no doubt
is due in part to the great boldness of form which
marks such mountains, and to their absolute difference
from anything seen in lowlands ; but it is also due in
part, perhaps, to this appearance of impregnability.
The ordinary spectator may not keenly scrutinize the
inclination of cliffs and the texture of rocks to see
whether there is any possible line by which the highest
point can be gained ; but nevertheless he is deeply
impressed by that which is apparently beyond the
reach of the best of his fellows, by those high places
which look as if they must be for ever virgin to man's
tread. Who that cares for mountains can forget how
he has admired and wondered at those which were
seemingly beyond all human effort ? Now, as I have
said, the peaks of the Caucasus are far more abrupt
than those of Switzerland. Their sides are steeper, '
and their crests are more keen. In appearance of
inaccessibility and in boldness of form they are beyond
the Alps, and probably, when they are better known,
they will be thought grander and more majestic than

172 TCHEQEM TO THE BAKSAN VALLEY.

the Alps, both by those who love to scale mountains
and by those who are well content with mountain
beauty as seen from below.

Whether they are really impossible of ascent or
not, I cannot attempt to decide. Many an Alpine
peak, the regular tariff price of which is now, so to
speak, the badge of its subjugation, was at one time
deemed inaccessible, and it is almost a matter of faith
with some of the Alpine Club that a way is to be
found to the summit of every mountain, if only men
will seek long and strive hard. Others will discover
whether the Caucasus justifies this belief, but it may
safely be predicted that the high peaks of the chain
will not be won without very great effort, and the
exercise of the highest mountaineering skill.

I must now return to the grass slopes where I left
my companions to give this brief and imperfect sketch
of Caucasian as contrasted with Alpine scenery. Our
way lay over a great rolling down, which formed the
base of the huge valley we had entered from that of
Tchegem. It was a wild, sad place, but one thing re-
deemed the severity of the view. There were cattle
grazing on some of the hill-sides, and this told of
peaceful human occupation and of settled life in this
seeming wilderness. Soon there was still better
evidence of this, for we came to a farmhouse whence
issued the inhabitants, after we had as usual battled
with jackal-like dogs. I am bound to say that, al-
though Mohammedans, they were as dirty as dustmen.

A CAUCASIAN FAMILY. 173

There was a tall fellow, stately in spite of his filthy
rags, the head of the family, and with him were a mob
of children, a wife or so, and two or three lusty young
men. All stared at us as though we had dropped from
the clouds, and asked questions with true Caucasian
curiosity ; but they were kindly people, if inquisitive,
bringing sour milk and curds in abundance, and not, I
think, expecting any payment, though of course
something was given them. They wished us a good
journey with much cordiality, and a dog would cer-
tainly have got hold of my leg as I was waving fare-
well, had not an interposition of providence in the
shape of a kick from one of our horses sent the brute
ho>vling away. I say one of our horses, for though we
ourselves were foot travellers all through the journey,
we had with us at this time two baggage animals,
which, with a couple of men to drive them, we had
hired at Kunim. After a slight attempt to cheat us —
a proceeding which often seems an essential pre-
liminary to a good understanding between employer
and employed — the men had become very fair servants,
one of them afterwards proving quite devoted, for he
informed us later on in our journey, that having taken
a fancy to us, he would stay with us for any wages we
pleased to give him ; strange to say, he meant it. On
this day, however, though bent on making a long
stage, they were, unfortunately for us, in a very
conversational mood, and, as we met several wayfarers,
we were much delayed by that inveterate talkativeness

174 TCHEQEM TO THE BAKSAN VALLEY,

in which I verily believe a Caucasian would beat a hair-
dresser or a monthly nurse. The dialogue repeated
with every fresh traveller ran something in this
fashion : —

The Traveller, — Good morning. All greetings to
you. Who are these with you ?

One of our Men, — They are strangers; very
honourable persons of good degree, travelling under
the protection of the Russians.

The Traveller, — Why do they go on foot ?

Our Man. — They are strangers, and it so pleases
them. It is the way of their country. They are rich
men, and could have horses in plenty if they would,
but they will not.

The Traveller. — That is indeed curious. Where
are they going ?

Our Man, — To Urusbieh.

The Traveller. — What do they want there ?

Our Man. — I do not know.

The Traveller, — It is most curious they should go
on foot !

Our Man. — It is in truth. They could well
afford to ride if they pleased, but you see they are
strangers, and in their country.

Paul (interposing with fury). — Do you think the
gentlemen have nothing to do but to stand here and
listen to you prating with any one you meet ? Go on,
I say, and do the work you are paid for, you lazy
vagabonds.

A LONG STAGE, 175

Both our Men together. — Lazy vagabonds ! We
are as good men as you, and indeed much better than
you (here a violent personal altercation lasting some
* time).

"With episodes of this kind, we trudged over the
long and dull way to the top of the grass pass we had
to cross, and got to the col in fair time in spite of the
pauses for talk. The Caucasians, though usually very
fond of short halts on a march, can, if they please,
make long stages, and seem to care very little when
they eat, going for six or seven hours without any
apparent necessity for food. I believe that, if re-
quired, they could walk all day without a meal, and
suffer little from the fasting. In this respect they
present a favourable contrast to Swiss guides, the
strongest of whom can rarely go for more than five
hours without meat and drink, and who frequently
stop at shorter intervals. On this occasion our horse-
drivers were very reluctant to let us halt for food on
the top of the pass, though it was seven good hours
since we had left Tchegem, and pointed out to us,
when told to pull up, that we had already several times
rebuked them for stopping. We replied that, so far
as we knew, bread was a necessity for man, but that
chatter was not ; but we had no opportunity of learning
what their views were on this point, for the discussion
here diverged into two separate channels. Paul, by a
direct argumentum ad homineniy engaged each of the
horse-drivers in a discussion as to his own personal

176 TCREQEM TO THE BAKSAN VALLEY.

merits and those of some of his relations. We got in-
volved in a debate less acrid, but almost equally
animated. Moore, much struck by the conduct of the
Caucasians, recurred to his favourite thesis that daily
eating was a bad habit which could be almost got rid
of by resolution and perseverance. These men, he
said, can do without food for eight or nine hours;
thence it would be easy to get to ten or twelve, then
by degrees to twenty-four, and so on until a bi-weekly
dinner was all that was required to sustain human
energy. We contested this, declaring that we wanted
to dine then, should want to sup that night, and that
we had every reason to suppose that these wants would
recur with distressing regularity. The discussion
lasted some time, and Moore, I think, got the best of
the argument ; but, in justice to ourselves, I must say
that we carried out our views in practice, and that he
did not. I ought to add, however, that his power
of going without food for long periods is considerable,
and only matched by a corresponding ability for
devouring it when others set him a good example.
The col we had reached was marked by a stone pillar,
and it would therefore seem that the pass is one of
some importance. The country during the latter part
of the ascent had been very dull, but from the * Tau,'
as the Caucasians call the top of either pass or
mountain, the view to the north-west was somewhat
impressive, commanding part of the great valley of the
Baksan, which, softened by distance, and seen from

THE KOANTA OLEN. 177

above, did not appear to be without beauty, though it
was a dismal place enough when entered. That rain
had fallen during the morning it is hardly necessary to
say, but fortunately there was no mist, so that we
could see the green country in front of us, though
none of the high mountains were visible. In de-
scending we wound round a concave hill-side, and
entered a pretty little glen which led to a secluded
valley of great beauty, to all seeming an utter soli-
tude. It was narrow, with lofty sides, and in the
upper part the splendid grass- slopes were, save in
their steepness, like those of an English park, a small
forest being placed just where the most cunning land-
scape-gardener would have desired it. It was a lovely
vale with the true Caucasian loneliness, but without
the Caucasian dulness.

The Koanta stream which comes down this glen
flows into the Baksan, and a short walk brought us to
the great valley through which the course of that
river lies. It would not be easy in a mountain country
to find anything less interesting than this vast trough.
It has a wide, nearly level floor of grass-land ; sides,
perhaps of some height, but dwarfed by the great
width of the floor, and without beauty or variety of
form. With a lowering sky giving promise of a
coming tempest, the scene was most dreary, and the
more depressing to us that we were quite uncertaiu
which way to go, or whether we should find any
shelter from the storm. We had been told that there

N

178 TCHEQEM TO THE BAKSAN VALLEY.

was a village wher^ we could pass the night, but now
our men did not seem to know whether it was up
stream or down stream of us, and could do nothing but
make foolish and contradictory suggestions. Fortu-
nately, Moore had with his usual prevision made careful
enquiries at Tchegem, and from what he had learnt
there, and from a minute observation of the country
we had passed through, he was able to lead the
Caucasians in their own land, thinking quite rightly
that the village of Osrokova, which we were seeking,
was probably below the point where we had struck the
valley. Certainty, however, on this point was im-
possible until we could actually see the village, al-
though there was all possible certainty as to a vile
night. Osrokova was therefore looked for with a
perhaps pardonable anxiety.

It was but a short journey to it. Our way lay,
first over dull grass plains, and then along the gently
sloping southern side of the valley, here marked by a
series of small rounded projections. While passing
along them we could observe that the meadows in the
'plain below were watered by an elaborate system ot
irrigation, a thing hardly to be expected in a region
with so very thin a population. Indeed, it was a matter
of some wonder where the people could be who thus
carefully cultivated the land, and the wonder was
hardly lessened when we reached Osrokova, a small,
very miserable village, placed some distance up the
southern slope of the valley at the mouth of a little

OSkOKO VA. 179

glen, of which the stream, indescribablj filthy from
receiving every kind of refuse, flowed sluggishly past
the wretched-looking houses. These were even ruder
than those generally found in the country, and the in-
habitants were, most of them, squalid dirty creatures,
though, as is always the case in the nortji-westem
Caucasus, there were some handsome, well-dressed
fellows amongst them. Immediately on our arrival a
crowd gathered round us, headed by the village priest,
who seemed privileged to be the most inquisitive
of the community, and, according to Caucasian cus-
tom, everybody talked at once, and stared as though
we were caged beasts. To this we were getting ac-
customed, but in spite of Moore's precepts we had not
yet got accustomed to going without food, and we
much desired to find cover as the storm was beginning.
We were therefore something dismayed to discover
that the villagers were not apparently inclined to give
us any aid whatever. Paul read the Kussian letter,
and said that we were not small people, and that it
would be a serious matter if we were not well treated ;
but there was no chief, nobody whose duty it was to
receive strangers ; and as therefore not a man in the
crowd felt any individual responsibility, Paul's state-
ment fell, I am sorry to say, a little flat, and we might
have had some difficulty in getting what we wanted, had
there not been in the throng that never-failing visitor to
a Caucasian village, one of the energetic men of Gebi.
Now I hope I made it clear in my description of that

N 2

180 TCHEGEM TO THE BAKSAN VALLEY,

place that the inhabitants have no dislike to the sound
of their own voices, and this time the man of Gebi
certainly did, if the expression may be allowed, im-
prove the occasion, speaking to those around him to
this eflTect : — ^ Now look you, these are considerable
men. I know all about them, for I have friends all
over the country, and hear of everything that goes
on. These travellers are much thought of, and are
under the special protection of the Russians, so you
will do well to treat them with respect. That one
(pointing to Moore) is the chief, a man of much
dignity. Those two (Walker and myself), are his sub-
ordinates ; and that tall, comely one (pointing to Gar-
diner, who was mending a rent in his trousers), is also
a chief of some importance. Treat them well, I advise
you, for they are worthy of it. Moreover,' added the
man of Gebi, ^ they will pay for all they get.'

Now this exhortation, and more especially the con-
cluding sentence of it, told on the villagers, and when
it was translated to us we felt warmly towards the
man of Gebi, who acted in a purely impartial spirit,
seeing that he could not be called on to run any risk
himself. The throng was so far impressed by what he
said that, on the Russian letter being again read, a
house was found for us, and one bold speculator rushed
off to his dwelling, returning with a basket of eggs.
Payment being immediate, to his great delight, he
started at once to spread the news on Osrokova Change
that the price quoted for eggs was a copeck apiece or

08R0K0VA, 181

about three for a penny, which was cheap enough no
doubt, but perhaps eight or nine times what they were
worth in the village. The result was wonderful.
Men who the moment before had declared that they
had nothing to give us, suddenly remembered that
their hens had been laying that day, and eggs enough
came in to make a whole boarding-school bilious.
Thirty ahead or so seemed to be our estimated con-
sumption, it being apparently thought that righteous
men who paid cash on delivery must be enormous
eaters. It was long before we got rid of the noisy
crowd, but they went at last, and we listened in peace
to the beating of a furious storm, not an unpleasant
sound for us now that we had a roof over our heads ;
but it would have been a sorry night on the hill-side.

182 URUSBIEH,

CHAPTEE VIL

URURBIEH.

Walk up the Valley of the Baksan — Heavy Rain — Sudden Change
— ^A cordial Chief — Arrival at Urusbieh — "Well-ventilated House
— The meek Chief of the Village — His care for his guests — The
elder and greater brother — Caucasian Etiquette — A substantial
Feast — Diet and Cookery of the Caucasians of the North-West —
Ascent of a hillock behind Urusbieh — Valleys of the Adul-Su and
Kwirik — Absence of the Princes of Urusbieh — Ismail's Son and Heir
— Excitement of the villagers on seeing a pencil used — The Hunter,
Sotaef Achia — Ascent of Tau Sultra — ^Achia's dread of snow — View
from the summit of Tau Sultra — ^Elbruz — Usch-Ba, the double-
crested Matterhom — Preposterous story invented by the Suenetians
— Return to Urusbieh — Rejoicings there on account of a wedding.

Heavy rain was still falling when the day broke on
July 22, but a walk under any downpour was far
better than a sojourn in filthy Osrokova ; so we started
early, and trudged up the dull valley on which the
very floodgates of heaven seemed to be opened. It
was not a pleasant morning certainly, with that
familiar but ever-detestable infliction of wet, perhaps
more teasing among the hills than anywhere else, for
few things are more tiresome than a walk through
mountain country in thoroughly bad weather. The
rain, driven by the wind, finds chinks and weak places

HEAVY HAIN. 183

in the most cunningly contrived armour of mackintosh,
and gets through in wicked little streams, making a
man feel as though snails were crawling over him.
Around are gloom and vapour ; overhead is a thick pall
of mist ; the hill-sides are wrapt in the densest clouds ;
all that is visible in the valley is made indistinct and
blurred ; a melancholy greyness is everywhere. As-
suredly, if mountain regions are pleasant beyond all
others in fine weather, none are so dolesome in bad.

Some signs of a prosperity beyond that of other
places we had visited in the Northern Caucasus we
could see as we walked along the soaked meadows.
The road was suited for carts, and after we had gone
some way we came to a perfect caravan of these on
their way up the valley. They were two- wheeled, of
very rough make, and drawn by oxen. At the time
we overtook them the drivers were occupied in the
not very easy task of getting cattle and carts over a
frail bridge which crossed the turbid Baksan. Seeing
that the Caucasians make roads which are, all things
considered, very good, it is strange how little pains
they give themselves about bridges. Frequently the
streams have to be forded, and when there are bridges
they are usually but rickety constructions, labour on
them being evidently grudged; a thing not easy to un-
derstand, in a country where so much trouble is taken
with the roads.

It had seemed when we started as though the
bad weather must last all day at least, but after a

i

184 URUSBIEH,

long downfall there came in the afternoon one of
those rapid changes which are sometimes seen in a
mountain land. The rain got lighter and then ceased^
the mist overhead opened, and blue sky appeared.
The clouds began to rise on the hillsides, and within
half an hour of the time when w^e had been in deepest
gloom the sun was shining brightly, the ridges on
either side were clear, and we could see a great moun-
tain at the head of the valley afar off. It was a Avon-
derfully quick passage from foul to fair. I never
remember seeing the mists quit the hills in so short a
space. Strange to say, the fine weather which came
thus suddenly was no mere passing gleam, but lasted
steadily for eight days. The Caucasus seems to have
atmospheric laws of its own.

The valley of the Baksan improves much as its
upper part is reached and Urusbieh approached. The
hills on each side are bolder, the base is narrower, while
at the head is seen the mighty mass of the great
mountain Tungsorun. There are trees on the slopes ;
not as yet in large forests, but enough nevertheless
to be very grateful to the eyes of men weary of a
monotony of grass wilderness. This improvement in
the coimtry, joined to the sunshine, made us hope for
pleasant days at Urusbieh, and we went on our way,
if not rejoicing, at all events in a fair state of cheerful-
ness, while we steamed like apple-dumplings under the
strong sun. The warmth was grateful, but being
rough dried was a disagreeable process notwith-

A CORDIAL CHIEF. 186

standing. When near the village we met a chiet
with his attendant trotting down the valley. He was
extremely cordial, after the fashion of the genial
people who dwell by the Upper Baksan, shook hands,
and insisted on addressing, or rather on attempting to
address, us in Russian, without the slightest advantage
to us, it being no more intelligible to us than his own
tongue, but with much ill-usage, I fear, of the Russian
language, which according to Paul he mangled
frightfully. If his grammar was bad, his manners
were good, and gave a pleasing augury of the people
amongst whom we were going, which, unlike most
pleasing auguries, came true. Not very long after we
had met this chief we sighted Urusbieh, which is
prettily placed on the slopes on the western side of the
valley. Behind is a glen from which a powerful
stream flows through the village down to the Baksan,
and on the opposite side of the valley, another glen — a
very noble one, as we afterwards discovered — opens out
the south. The whole scene under that bright sun
seemed to us very pleasing, but the beauty of hill and
dale is, lik^ other beauty, often relative. When Mr.
Freshfield and his companions arrived at Urusbieh in
1868, the scenery round the place struck them as being
dull, if not ugly ; while to us, as we neared the village,
the valley seemed very fair to look on, but then the
earlier travellers came fresh from beautiful Suenetia,
which must surely be one of the loveliest countries in
the world ; while our wanderings had been through the

186 URUSBIEH,

stem and oft^n sombre valleys of the north, so that
what appeared to us varied and pretty had seemed to
them harsh and colourless.

The floor of the valley about Urusbieh is mainly
flat, and in parts the Baksan spreads over a con-
siderable portion of it. The sides rise boldly, and the
vale is fitly dominated by the huge Tungsorun, a
mountain not possessing the usual Caucasian sharpness
of form, but imposing from its vastness. Our way lay
on the eastern side of the stream until we were just
opposite the village, where a bridge, rather better made
than usual, crosses the river. The engraving on the
opposite page of the valley of the Upper Baksan and
of Tungsoinin, is from a photograph taken from the
Urusbieh end of this bridge. Crossing its exceptionally
firm planks we marched up to the houses, and found a
group of young men, the youthful aristocracy of the
place, as we afterwards discovered, engaged in that
conversation which seems to be the principal object of
a well-to-do Caucasian life. They looked at us at first
with wonder and a little distrust, but Paul having
explained who we were and read the Russian letter,
two of them stepped forward, bade us welcome, and
pointed out a house close by, which they said we
might occupy, and we accordingly entered it. Now it
was a very good house, just built, and one of the best
in the village, but nevertheless we felt, like the Irish-
man in the sedan-chair, that, barring the dignity of
the thing, we were not particularly well oflT, for the

WELL-VENTILATED HOUSE, 187

dweUing, like many in more civilised countries, owed
considerable discomfort to the ambition of the builder.
The mansion was meant to have the very unusual
luxury of glass windo,ws, for which neat frames had
been fitted. But then unfortunately the glass was
wanting, and through large openings the wind made
merry, searching every comer. I think that most
travellers will agree with me that a night in the open
is often better than a night in a house with large gaps
in the walls making so many cold blasts on the
sleepers ; so we were rather unhappy in our grandeur,
as people often are, but all was speedily put to rights
by the appearance of the chief, who had been fetched
by one of the group we had found discoursing when we
entered the village, and who now came with all hasto
to receive the strangers. He was a very young man
of meek bearing, and, as it seemed to me, rather
frightened at his own position ; but we looked on him
with favour, for he told us that we were not to stop in
the aerated house, as he had caused other lodging to be
got ready for us, having been warned of our coming by
the inestimable govemer of Vladikafkaz, who had sent
a message to Urusbieh, as he had done to Tchegem.
We followed the chief, and a crowd which had now
gathered followed us to a house about a hundred
paces from that we had first entered, and the meek
head-man duly installed us. The crowd of course
came in after us, and all the best places for observation
were taken at once, the curiosity of the men of

188 URUSBIEH,

Urusbieh being quite as ardent and insatiable as that
of other Caucasians.

We had not yet lodged on the northern side of the
chain in a house so good as that which we now occu*
pied. It had two rooms, in the better of which a con-
siderable portion of the floor was covered by a low
platform — it could hardly be called a divan — of planks^
very much better for sleeping on than the cold ground.
There were also in this well-found dwelling a huge
bedstead big enough to hold three — a piece of furniture
no doubt very useful in a Mohammedan menage — a
great cooking-pot, a three-branched iron candlestick,
and a small table, so that we found ourselves in more
luxury than is perhaps good for travellers in a wild
country, though I cannot say that any reflection on
this score caused us uneasiness at the time. The
mild chief was urbanity itself, taking such trouble to
dispense the tea when it arrived that it pained us to
see him, and we implored him to sit down and have
some with us. Here, however, we unwittingly raised
a delicate point of Caucasian etiquette. There was a
whispered conversation between Paul and the chief of
such length as made it clear that some awkward
question had arisen. Hoping that no solecism on our
part had annoyed our attentive host, we waited rather
impatiently until Paul came and told us that the chief
would be delighted to sit and drink with us, but that
there was in the room his elder brother, a much greater
man than he, son plus grand frerey as Paul called him.

THE ELDER AND- GREATER BROTHER, 189

and that, without a terrible breach of family manners,
the chief could not sit down or take food or drink
until after the greater brother had been asked to seat
himself and break bread. This greater brother was a
handsome, well-dressed young fellow, whom we had
noticed on entering the village prominent in the group
of talkers. He joined us now cordially enough, and
had some tea and cakes, to which he was accustomed,
also a cigar, to which he was not accustomed, and he
smoked it, I think, with no small discomfort, but was
immensely pleased with it nevertheless, as being some-
thing unusual and a tribute to his position. After he
had been seated, and his tea given to him, the chief
sat down below him.

Now after this observance of a severe etiquette, it
astonished us not a little, later in the evening, to see
the elder brother sit down and play cards with his own
servant, and have apparently a very animated and
interesting game with him. It seemed a funny con-
trast certainly, that where social rules were so strict
that a younger brother would not sit down before an
elder, an aristocrat could play cards with his servant
without seemingly doing anything in the least deroga-
tory to his dignity; but so it was. Manners are, I
suppose, in all countries a puzzle to strangers.

The ideas of the young chief as to hospitality were
certainly large. After the usual tea and cakes came a
considerable quantity of excellent mutton, which we
imagined to be dinner, but which proved to be only a

190 URUSBIEH,

preliminary morsel intended to prepare the guests for
a mass of boiled meat covering a table which ap-
peared afterwards. This remarkable whet to the
appetite deserved notice, as 1 think that the practice of
giving something of the same kind to guests obtained
once in England, when what we should now consider
as very substantial food was served as a forerunner to
the feast which came an hour or so later. Unless
marked by some peculiarity of this kind, a traveller's
meals, though of considerable consequence to himself,
are of the smallest possible interest to readers, and
writers on Alpine exploration have been accused of
relating with unnecessary unction how they ate three
times a day, forgetting that the practice is far from
uncommon. Even a very slight sketch of the people
of the north-western Caucasus would, however, be im-
perfect without some account of their cookery, and it
may not be amiss to take this opportunity of telling
how the Caucasians prepare their food. Happily the
subject admits of very brief treatment.

The bread all through the country is baked in
large round flat loaves, made from barley or wheat
meal, into which all the husk is apparently ground.
The loaves or cakes are, however, essentially brown
bread, quite different from the black bread of the
Alps, and, so far as taste is concerned, are usually
excellent, though unfortunately they are exceedingly
indigestible, being hardly ever baked through, and
having almost always a stratum of dough in the

CAUCASIAN DIET. 191

middle ; but the traveller in a wild country must not
expect to find everything exactly according to his
wants^ and if the bread is pleasant to eat he can
hardly hope that it will be wholesome too. Like other
indigestible kinds of food, it will not disagree with a
man if he eats it only when decidedly hungry, and
then only eats a little. There is a better kind of
bread made from a selected and sifted fiour, and baked
with care, which is as good as anything that can be
desired, but this being for native means very dear,
is rarely made, and is offered only as a special favour.
The meat which the traveller obtains during the sum-
mer is invariably mutton. Seeing that there were
large herds of cattle, I wondered at this in my stu-
pidity, and asked one of the chiefs at Urusbieh why it
was that the people always killed sheep and never oxen,
whereupon he told me in answer what a very moderate
amount of ingenuity would have enabled me to guess.
Said he : — ' If a man were to kill an ox in the summer,
a good deal of the flesh would be bad before he and his
family could eat it, but this of course would not be
the case with a sheep, which is so much smaller. In
the winter, on the contrary, the flesh of an ox will
keep long enough for a family to eat it all, and there-
fore we eat mutton in the summer and beef in the
winter.' As has been said, this answer might have
been guessed, but nevertheless it was interesting, as
showing the extremely simple and patriarchal life of
these people. It did not seem to strike the chief that

192 URU8BIEH,

a man might sell to his neighbour a part of the ox he
killed. Each family lives apparently on its own flock
and herd. The mutton is very good. The sheep are
larger than the Welsh, though considerably under the
size of the ordinary English animal. They have short
curly wool, frequently black or grey, and are of the
breed which furnishes the skins largely sold in
England as cheap Astrakhan. The Caucasians are
not at all particular about hanging their meat, but
after killing a sheep usually skin it and cut it up at
once with wonderful quickness, and then cook it
immediately. There is an old saying to the effect that
flesh cooked while still warm will be found quite
tender, and this our experience altogether confirmed,
for we found that mutton which had been thus rapidly
dealt with was never tough. The native way of
cooking was nearly always to boil. At Urusbieh
there was an enlightened cook (probably a princess)
who was acquainted with a form of pie, and could
even make rissoles^ but with this exception we found
that the natives when in the villages never prepared
their meat in any other way than by boiling it. They
made excellent broth from the water in which it was
boiled, which they were given to flavouring with a very
strong kind of onion. As a favour to us they roasted
meat for us, and when they were not able on an ex-
pedition to take one of their great cooking-pots with
them, they were very clever at broiling over a wood
fire, but in the villages, when left to their own ways,

CAUCASIAN DIET, 193

they invariably boiled their meat, with the one excep-
tion of the Urusbieh cook I have mentioned.

Meat, brown bread, and a kind of cheese, are the
staple of Caucasian diet, the first being the food of
which they consume the most, and it is probably owing
to the preponderance of flesh in their fare that they
owe the slim supple figures on which the native dress
sits so well. I was struck at first by the remarkable
absence of fat men, but when I became acquainted
with the Caucasian way of living my wonder ceased.
Of course there are some things besides bread and
meat. Poultry, and its necessary consequence eggs,
are usually to be found in the villages, and are, as
need hardly be said, eaten by the natives ; but their
main reliance is on mutton in the summer and beef i^i
the winter. Potatoes we found grown in small quanti-
ties near Urusbieh. Of sweet food there seems to be
none whatever. The rich men keep a small quantity
of sugar for their great delicacy, tea, but with this ex-
ception nothing sweet seems ever to be taken.

Alcoholic drinks of any kind are all but absolutely
unknown. At Urusbieh there was some stuff* called
beer, but it was a horribly acid decoction, having no
taste of beer in it, and containing, as it seemed to
me, no alcohol whatever. At Utchkulan the chief
gave us, as a special favour, a beer rather better
than this, and it may possibly have contained some
tiny percentage of alcohol; but, with these two ex-
ceptions, we never found in the northern Caucasus

o

194 URUSBIEH.

a drink which either was, or was supposed to be, in
the slightest degree alcoholic; and I believe that in
most of the villages a great majority of the inhabi-
tants are as completely unacquainted with the taste
of anything spirituous as Englishmen are with bang.
The Caucasians obey the precepts of the Prophet in
this respect, whether from religious feeling, or because
what is forbidden is also unattainable, we had no
means of discovering. The universal drink in the
northern valleys is sour milk, mixed with water. Fresh
milk the natives rarely touch, their custom being to
curdle it with rennet, and when the curds are acid to
add water to them, stirring the mixture till it is quite
fluid. The thin drink thus produced is commonly kept
in skins, like wine, and is taken by the Caucasians at
all their meals. Decidedly nasty it seems at first, but
after a time there comes a liking for it, and certainly
we all ended by becoming excessively fond of what
we began by thinking almost nauseous. I have never
known any drink so good as this for quenching that
feverish thirst which comes of a hard walk on a hot
day. So far as we could ascertain, it is exceedingly
wholesome, being far more digestible than fresh milk,
and as it is very easy to make I would suggest taking
it in hot weather to those who have discovered that,
where long-sustained physical effort has to be made,
non-alcoholic drinks are the best. Lait Aigre^ which
is drunk in some parts of the Valaisy is almost the
same as the Caucasian drink.

CAUCASIAN DIET. 196

A coarse kind of white cheese, something between
yellow and cream cheese in consistency, is largely
made. It has little flavour, good or bad, and has to be
eaten by strangers with caution, as it is very apt to
disagree with those who are not accustomed to it. To
eat some of this cheese with the underbaked part of
one of the brown loaves, is no bad test of a traveller's
digestion. He may be ill afterwards; but if he is
not, he may rest assured that few things will come
amiss to him.

It will be seen then that sugar and alcohol, two
things usually found essential by civilised men, form
no part of the diet of the Caucasians, and excellent
well they seem to thrive without them. Very fine
men they certainly are; to all appearance healthy,
and, though exceedingly lazy, capable of severe and
prolonged labour when they think fit to exert them-
selves. I should add that they are very moderate
eaters — nothing astonished them more than our appe-
tites — and that, though assuredly far removed from
savages, they seem to have preserved some of the
savage's power of going without food. Of this we
saw a remarkable instance at the end of our journey.

The traveller, it will have been seen, fares well in
a Caucasian village. Brown bread, excellent mutton,
fowls and eggs sometimes, and frequent tea and cakes,
are as good food as man can desire, and better than he
has any right to expect among a primitive people.
Considerable diflSculty occurs, however, when, either

o 2

196 URUSBIEH,

for a mountain expedition or for a journey across
country where there are no villages, a stock of pro-
visions sufficient to last two or three days is required.
Owing to the dawdling and indolent habits of the
natives, it is excessively hard to get them to prepare
the necessary amount of food, especially to bake
bread enough. Everything is promised, and then at
the time when all ought to be ready, a quarter or
a third of the necessary quantity is forthcoming. A
good deal of persuasion and a little bullying usually
^et what is wanted at last, but it is tiresome work.

Next morning's sun shone brightly on Urusbieh,
and we ascended during the forenoon a hillock behind
the village, whence we looked into the valley of the
Adul-Su, which opens opposite Urusbieh to the south-
east. Two bold snow-peaks rise on the western side
of this valley, and at its head is a lofty ridge with the
escarped look so common in the Caucasus. On the
northern, or, to be quite accurate, the north-western
side of the Baksan valley, two glens unite a little way
above Urusbieh. One leads to the glacier at the foot
of a mountain called Tau Sultra, the other is the nar-
row ending of the valley of the Kwirik, through
which we subsequently passed on our way to Utchku-
lan. It will be seen then that Urusbieh stands at the
•place where two considerable valleys open into that of
the Baksan. Of these the Kwirik vale is dull and
bleak, but the Adul-Su is of great beauty, and there is
fltill left in it a large forest, where, alas, the villagers

THE PRINCES OF URUSBIEH, 197

are making sad havoc. Which was the forest belong-
ing to Prince Ismail, and whether he was threatened
with confiscation of it, or only with some limitation of
the right of felling, we could not discover ; but certain
it is that he and his two brothers were, at the time
of our arrival, away from Urusbieh on business of
importance relating to their property. One of the
brothers we afterwards saw, but Ismail did not return
during our stay, and we were noi able therefore to
make acquaintance with the principal man of Urus-
bieh, who had given so genial a welcome to Mr. Fresh-
field and his companions in 1868. The chief who en-
tertained us was related to Ismail, but his family was
of less degree.

We did not, as has been said, succeed in discover-
ing what was the question which had arisen between
the Russian authorities and the princes of Urusbieh,
though we learnt that the matter was a very serious
one for them. Not knowing anything of the case, there-
fore, it would be a piece of wanton impertinence on
my part to impute anything like unjust dealing to the
Russians ; but recollecting the hospitality shown to the
English travellers in 1868 by Ismail and his brothers,
and having heard much about thetn in their village, it
may be permissible to express a hope that no harsh
measures have been used towards men so kindly, so
liberal, and so much respected by all around them as
the princes of Urusbieh.

One representative of the principal family there

198 URUSBIEH,

was in the place — a charming youngster, some fifteen
or sixteen years old, eldest son and heir of Ismail. It
was amusing, and at the same time very pleasing, to
see how clearly the boy felt that in his father's
absence it was his duty to pay every possible attention
to strangers, who, had Ismail been at home, would
probably have been his guests. * Sir,' said he once to
Moore when the latter was speaking of the journey
from Urusbieh to Utchkulan, * if my father had been
here, not only would he have deemed himself honoured
by receiving you in his house, but he would have ac-
companied you to Utchkulan.' Perhaps he was a
little overpledging the paternal goodwill. The kindest
host could hardly be expected to follow his guest on a
three days' journey, but the speech, if marked by
boyish exaggeration, came from real warmth of feeling,
and from a graceful zeal for the honour of his house.
The lad had received some education at a Russian
school, and, as was natural, sought a little to imitate
the conquering race in dress and manner, but much
that was good in the native character remained, and
he was an admirable specimen of the people of Urus-
bieh, the most intelligent and the most kindly of the
inhabitants of the north-western Caucasus.

After the exceedingly moderate labour of ascending
and descending the hillock, we gave up the rest of the
day to that basking indolence which is so pleasant when
the sun shines at last after many days of heavy rain.
Very agreeable was this mood of ours to the natives.

NATIVE CURIOSITY. 199

Urusbieh is occasionally visited by Russians, and is
only two days' journey from Patigorsk, a fashionable
watering-place ; but the villagers were just as curious
as those who dwelt in more secluded valleys, and our
idleness gave the men of Urusbieh a good opportunity
for prolonged observation. One instance will show
how intensely inquisitive they were. In all the vil-
lages writing is known, and at Urusbieh several of the
leading men wrote quickly and easily. On this after-
noon the chief of the village was busy writing letters
jn the house we occupied, when I sat down on a bench
"outside to scribble some pencil notes. Men gathered
round me at once, and those who were observing Gar-
diner and Walker in the house, hearing of what was
going on, came out immediately. In Patagonia the
natives could not have been more wonderingly inqui-
sitive. One man, under pretence of holding down the
page, sat down by my side, and nearly got his head
between me and the note-book. Two more leant on
my shoulder, and the rest pressed me so closely that I
had at last to give up writing and go away, where-
upon they discussed the matter amongst each other for
an hour or so ; and this with one of their own people
writing letters four yards off. It is possible that the
pencil was a novelty, but truly they are a strange race.
From the hillock we had ascended we had seen to-
wards the north a minor peak, from the crest of which
it seemed likely that we should get an extensive view
of the main chain, and a near look at Elbruz. To

200 URUSBIEH,

ascending this peak therefore^ we determined to give
up the next day. We had not the slightest doubt
that we could find out the way for ourselves ; but the
chief, discovering what we intended doing, insisted,
with the somewhat onerous politeness which has been
before described, on sending a man with us, and told
off for this purpose the hunter Sotaef Achia. Now
Achia deserves a word.

He is the great hunter of Urusbieh, and probably
possesses a better knowledge of the surrounding glens
and ridges than any other man in the village. Of
what lies beyond the snow-line he knows very little ;
but ignorance in this respect is common to all Cauca-
sians, who rarely set foot on the snow save when they
have to cross a pass. The game of the country, far
less hunted than that of Switzerland, is not nearly so
shy, and has not to be followed into such remote sanc-
tuaries as those which the Swiss chamois-hunter is
obliged to invade. Great mountaineering skill is
therefore not required for following game in the Cau-
casus. What the hunter there must possess — in addi-
tion, of course, to the power of holding his gun straight,
which all hunters must possess — are a thorough know-
ledge of the lower slopes of the mountains, a great
capacity for quick hill-walking, and almost literally
the eye of a hawk. Now these qualifications Achia
had in a high degree. That he knew the country
well, I have said ; what his powers of walking were we
soon discovered, as Mr. Freshfield did in 1868. Spare,

SOTAEF ACHIA, 201

sinewy, strong, his action was so easy that he seemed
to be going quite leisurely along the hill-side, when
his real pace was such as to make it difficult for a man
of average power to keep up with him ; and he could,
if necessary, maintain this rate of going for the whole
of a long expedition. His eyesight was extraordinary.
I saw him discover a bouquetin among rocks of a
colour very like its own, so far off that when he sub-
sequently reached the place himself several of our
party could not see him, in spite of the advantage
which his dark dress gave them ; and subsequently he
saw us on Elbruz at a distance which I should have
thought quite beyond the range of the naked eye. He
ascended the eastern peaks of that mountain in 1868
with Mr. Freshfield and his companions, and acquired
on that occasion a holy horror of snow ; for, wearing
no spectacles, he suffered not a little from snow-blind-
ness after the ascent. For high mountain work, in-
deed, he seemed to me to possess no qualification
beyond that of being an admirable walker, but as a
hunter he is still, I believe, unrivalled in the district,
and any one going to Urusbieh for sport should cer-
tainly engage him. I cannot say that I thought him
a pleasant companion, and when with travellers he
expects to be treated very much as the chiefs are, with
this important difference however, that the chiefs are
not paid, and he is.

This mighty hunter then, who had greeted Moore

warmly as an old friend, was to be our guide to the

202 URUSBIEH.

top of Tau Sultra, for the ascent of which we got up
on the morning of Friday, July 24, at that detestable
hour which mountaineering so often makes necessary,
namely, two in the morning. We started a little after
three, Achia not having yet made his appearance, and
after passing through the village, wherein all was dead
for the time save two or three ever-watchful dogs, we
struck up the slopes lying to the west of it, and shortly
entered the more western of the two glens which unite
above Urusbieh. Following a path which led through
a pine forest, we were seized as day dawned with a fit
of that laziness which is not uncommon when men have
to be walking at the time usually given to sleep, and
were wandering along in that state of dreamy indiffe-
rence which may mar a mountain day as completely as
indolence in early life may m^r a man's whole career,
when, fortunately for us, we were aroused to better
doings. We saw a figure below us on the slopes, and
knew that our hunter was coming. For men who had
journeyed from England in the hope of ascending El-
bruz, to be found by a Caucasian dawdling away in-
valuable hours in an easy valley, would not be well,
so we braced ourselves to better action and fell into
the regular mountain step, which did not, however,
prevent Achia from overtaking us with small apparent
effort. He was a beautiful walker certainly, having a
strong, steady, elastic gait, rare even amongst good
mountaineers.

There was no possible difficulty as to the line to be

ASCENT OF TAU SULTRA, 203

taken, but we sent our hunter to the front, and under
his guidance continued our way up the glen. Coming
out of the wood we passed over a high alp, and stopped
for a moment to talk to some shepherds, pleasant and
genial as was natural to Urusbieh men. After the
pastures came a vile wilderness of stones, through
which we struggled to the head of the valley, a steep
bank of grass thickly strewn with the same abominable
stones. Climbing this we reached a beautiful frozen
lake, lying in a little level space high up in the moun-
tains, and saw Tau Sultra rising beyond this tarn
to the west. The way to the top of the mountain was
easy enough. We had to take to the glacier which
rose from the lake, and to traverse its gentle gradients
to the foot of a somewhat steeper incline, leading to the
final slope of the mountain. The summit, which was of
the ridge order, would then be reached, either by
ascending an easy snow-bank, or by going up a tongue
of rocks which ran nearly to the crest. We took to the
glacier, therefore, but had to say good-bye for a time to
Achia, who, seeing that by making a long circuit he
could avoid the much detested snow, would not be
tempted to come with us ; so parting, to meet again on
the top, we walked over the slopes, ascended the
tongue of rocks which, though broken and treacherous
as only rocks on a high mountain can be presented no
difficulty, and reached with small labour the snow-
ridge which constitutes the summit of Tau Sultra.
This we struck close to its highest point, and gain-

204 URU8BIEH,

ing it we finished our easy morning's work, and gazed
on a view which would have been a noble reward
for a really difficult ascent. On one side was the
eastern peak of Elbruz, the vast size of which could be
realised from this place so near to it. A strange
mountain it looked : not beautiful or commanding, and
yet not ugly, not commonplace. Gardiner exclaimed
directly he saw it that it was like the often seen
picture of a summit on a Japanese tea-tray, and this
indeed it perfectly resembled; nor am I able to give
any better description of it than to compare it to
that well-known type. It should be remembered that
the Japanese drawing represents a volcanic peak, and
it was on an extinct volcano that we were now looking.
On the other side the spectacle was in truth wonderful
and magnificent, for all the glories of the main chain
were before us, and we gazed on snow-peaks which
seemed to us of unparalleled majesty and beauty. More
remarkable than ever was their extremely steep and
precipitous character, and as I looked on them it
appeared to me as though they were to the Alps what
fourteenth century Gothic is to Norman architecture.
Even the most abrupt and imposing mountain of the
Alpine range, that which seems, from wherever seen,
to be sui generis and of a different family from the
rest of the chain, is surpassed by the mighty Usch-Ba
or rain-peak, the double-crested Matterhorn of the
Caucasus. If the mountain which rises over Zermatt
were greater and steeper; if close to its eastern face

USCH-BA, 205

rose another peak altogether resembling it ; if the two
were united by a vast curtain of precipitous rocks
ending some distance below the summits ; then would
the likeness of Usch-Ba be presented to the eyes of
travellers in Switzerland, and the overtopped Cervin
be considered only as second to the mightier mountain.
Perhaps in time, as approaching the Caucasus becomes
easier and easier, the rain-peak will have many wor-
shippers, such as have gathered long round the Pennine
height ; but let it be hoped that, if this be so, great
Usch-Ba will escape one degradation which the Matter-
horn has suffered, and will not be made the subject of
fine writing. Perhaps it will be so difficult to say any-
thing nonsensical about a mountain which has not
already been said about the Matterhorn, that from very
inability to invent new rhapsodies men will be obliged
to admire in silence.

There is a curious story connected with Usch-Ba
which shows what ridiculous legends are in a wild
country invented concerning travellers, and also how
these legends are sometimes believed by those who
ought to know their real worth. At the time when we
were journeying through the Northern Caucasus,
Captain Telfer, R.N., the English officer whom we
had met on board the Black Sea steamer, and after-
wards at Kutais, was travelling in Suenetia. He saw
and admired Usch-Ba from the southern side, and
when talking of the mountain to a Russian officer in
command of an outpost, was gravely informed that, six

206 VRUSBIEH,

years before, three English travellers with some
Suenetians had attempted the ascent of one of the
peaks ; that they had failed utterly, and that they had
thereupon paid the natives ten roubles apiece to say
that they had reached the desired summit. This silly
fable of Suenetian invention referred to Mr. Freshfield
and his companions, who, I need hardly say, never
attempted the ascent of Usch-Ba — never thought of
attempting it. Any one with the smallest knowledge
of mountaineering might be certain, after looking at the
rain-peak, that it was not a mountain on which three
travellers with one guide were likely to make an
assault in the course of a rapid journey through the
country. If Usch-Ba ever is ascended, it will be
by a traveller who takes with him two or three first-
class Swiss guides, and is able to give one or two
seasons to a careful examination of the mountain.
Men on duty in the Caucasus must find great diflSculty
in passing their time if they are driven to listen to and
repeat the idiotic chatter of the natives, and surely
must have discovered for themselves that the Suene-
tian barbarians are almost incapable of speaking the
truth. What should we think of an Englishman who
believed in the native gossip about a Russian travel-
ling in a remote part of India ?

The descent of Tau Sultra was even easier than
the ascent. Achia, who had joined us on the top,
came down with us, but was much disquieted in going
over the snow. If he ever ascends again he will pro-

A WEDDING, 207

bably be happier, for I think that, in a fine summer,
the slope leading to the crest will generally have little
or no snow upon it, and that what we found there was
due to the very bad weather which had recently pre-
vailed. We halted for a little while to admire the
frozen lake, and then passed through the stony wilder-
ness, the pleasant pastures, and the forest to Urus-
bieh. Paul and the chief had managed to fall out
during our absence, and the chief had declined to pro-
vide for us any further, which made us feel rather
downcast, for we did not see how we were to start for
Elbruz without his aid ; but the difiiculty, which
might have been a serious one, was soon got rid of, as
the elder and greater brother hearing that we were
thus ^ left out in the cold,' declared that it was a dis-
honour to his family, and that he would be our host
himself; and a very good one he was, save when a
droll, housekeeping perplexity arose, of which later on
I shall have to speak. There had been a wedding in
the village that day, and there was merry-making after
the Urusbieh fashion during the evening. This
seemed principally to consist in the men's assembling
for conversational purposes on the roof of a house, but
there was more pronounced rejoicing late in the night,
for some of us were awakened by an indescribably
dreary sound as of revellers. Muskets were also fired
off at intervals, the Caucasians having, like the Nea-
politans, this rather heavy-handed way of showing
their joyfulness.

208 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ.

The valley of the Adul-Su — Achia and the young Ismail — Necessity of
starting for Elbruz sooner than we had intended — ^Time required for
the expedition — Minghi-Tau the true name of the mountain —
Determination of a Chief to come with us — Difficulty about getting
provisions — Domestic troubles in the Caucasus — Walk up the valley
— A false alarm — Bivouac in the forest — View of the two peaks of
Elbruz up a lateral glen — Pass to the Karatchai country — A bou-
quetin stalked by Achia — Ascent to the rock plateau on the slopes of
Elbruz— Arrival of a hunter with a letter from the Russian officers
— A difficulty solved— Tungsorun — Sunset from the camp— Start
for the summit — Relative position of the two peaks of the mountain —
Huge snow-slopes — A wonderful sunrise — Col between the two peaks —
Final incline of the western height — Peak ascended by Mr. Freshfield
in 1868 found to be the eastern one — An extinct crater — Doubt as to
the effect of the rarity of the air— The summit and the view thence.

The next day (July 25) was given to a ramble
through the beautiful valley of the Adul-Su, in which
we were accompanied by Achia and our sworn friend
the young Ismail. There is still much forest left in
this vale ; but felling is going on at a fearful rate, and
probably before long the hill-sides will be as bare as so
many others are throughout the country. The walls
of the Urusbieh houses are built, not of stone, as in
other parts of the northern Caucasus, but of large

THE ADUL-SU VALLEY. 209

baulks of timber, so that the demand for wood is great,
and the Adul-Su forest being the nearest is preyed on
ruthlessly. We saw one considerable slope, on which
all the trees had quite lately been felled. The valley
is of great beauty, and, according to Achia, game is to
be found in it, although the village is close at hand.
Traces of this game he set to work to discover, but
we troubled ourselves little about the tracks of a bou-
quetin — albeit they were only two or three hours old
— being of opinion that, even with less start than this,
we might fail to catch the animal, and gave ourselves
up to admiring the valley of the Adul-Su, which was,
after that of the Upper Tcherek, the finest we saw
on the northern side. High peaks of bold Caucasian
outline rise from its western bank ; the base and slopes
are richly wooded, and at the head is a snow-clad
ridge, lofty and very steep. A pass leads from this
valley over the main chain into the Suenetian country.

After an easy ramble we got back to the village
early, leaving Achia and the young Ismail to follow
their examination of the bouquetiu's tracks by a wild-
goose chase — that is, by running after us ; for being
under the impression that we were ahead of them in
the valley, they went nearly to the end to find us,
fearing we might lose our way, and came, I am afraid,
to the conclusion that we had disappeared in some
mysterious- and uncanny manner.

While they were thus vainly seeking us, we were
holding a council as to our future course, which resulted

p

210 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ.

in the determination to start for Elbruz next day,
Friday, July 26. Our original intention had been
to leave Urusbieh for the mountain on the 28th, but
we now found that, if we did not start before that day,
we might have very great difficulty in reaching Souk-
houm Kaleh in time for the steamer sailing on August
8 ; indeed, that we should probably miss it. We had
therefore no choice but to leave on an earlier day,
and we determined to start for the mountain on the
26th. We found that four days would be necessary
for the expedition — 1. From Urusbieh to a chalet at
the head of the valley. 2. From the ch&let to some
rocks on the slopes of Elbruz. 3. To the summit of
the mountain (we hoped), and down to the ch&let 4.
From the chalet to Urusbieh. Lieutenant BemofF had
said that he should arrive at Urusbieh on the 26th. In
the event of his getting there after we had left on that
day, it would be easy for him to ride after us to the
chS,let, the time required for getting there on horseback
not being great, though our progress with a multitude
of dawdling natives would of necessity be slow. With
Swiss guides and porters such an expedition as we were
about to make would not require more than three days,
or two days and a half, as it would be quite possible
to reach the rocks in one long march from Urusbieh ;
but we knew that nothing would induce our Caucasian
followers to do this, and we were therefore obligred to
allow four days for the journey to the summit of Elbruz
and back to the village.

TRUE NAME ' MINQHI TAU: 211

Paul set to work to hire the necessary porters, and
the elder and greater brother was entreated to have
a sufficient supply of bread baked. That gracious
seigneur promised that twenty loaves should be ready ;
and said, moreover, that he and one of his brothers
meant to come with us, as they were anxious to ascend
^ Minghi Tau.' This, I should observe, is the true
name of the great mountain, and thus it is called all
through the north-western Caucasus. Elbruz is a
foreign name, being, I believe, a Persian word signi-
fying simply snow-mountain, and it certainly seems
hard that the highest summit in Europe should not be
called by its rightful title. The word Elbruz is used,
however, throughout these pages, as by that name the
Caucasian peak is generally known.

We rejoiced much that the chief was coming, first
because we liked him, and secondly because we
thought that, as he was to be with us, he would take
care that the provisions should be ready, and feeling
safe on this score we were blissful that night, and
kept up our ^ at home ' till a late hour, being well dis-
posed towards the men of Urusbieh, and thinking that
all was for the best in the best of all possible worlds.

Vain are the hopes of man. There was every
promise of a beautiful day when we turned out next
morning, and the porters whom Paul had engaged ap-
peared not much more than an hour and a half after
the appointed time, but food for the journey there was
none at all. Now the staunchest mountaineer cannot

p 2

212 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ.

live for four days on mountain air alone, however
great may be the quantity of ozone which it contains,
and we struggled vigorously for the bread without
which there was for us no hope of Elbruz. But we
were much in the position of a man in an eating-house,
who to his repeated calls can get no answer but
^^Coming ' from the flying waiter. So we were told at
sTiort intervals that the bread was ready and would be
brought in a few minutes ; but hours passed away, and
nothing came except four undersized, half-baked loaves,
which were truly a very mockery. It was as if, going
to dine with a friend, one was offered a penny bun.
Losing patience at last, Moore remonstrated sternly
with the elder and greater brother, who had promised
we should have all we needed, and received from the
chief an answer which, I think, is worthy of the
attention of those who have to keep house, should
any such deign to read this record. Said the Chief —
*It is true the bread is not ready, and I am sorry
for it ; but it is no fault of mine. It is owing to the
indolence of my servants. Formerly, when we had
slaves, we could get our household work done, because
we could oblige them to do it ; but now we have to
employ free servants, and when they are not inclined
to work they won't work. Last night and this
morning my servants were In an idle humour, and
would do nothing.' Whereat Moore was as one struck
dumb, feeling that in his own land such things might
happen. It may be some consolation to those who

WALK UP THE VALLEY. 218

have to struggle against home troubles to know that,
even in the primitive Caucasus, the domestic difficulties
exist which we are prone to consider as the results of a
corrupting civilisation. I have mentioned this delay
to show the apparently trifling, but really serious,
obstacle which interferes with a mountain expedition
in the Caucasus. Twenty loaves were no great requi-
sition in rich Urusbieh, where food abounded; but
preparing more than was necessary for immediate
want was against all habit, and it seemed very un-
likely we should get what we required. At last it
was settled that Walker, Gardiner, and I should start,
to show the natives that we were determined to go that
day ; and that Moore should remain behind with Paul,
get provisions tpgether by hook or by crook, and
follow us in the evening. We three started, there-
fore, with Achia. The two chiefs who were going to
ascend Minghi-Tau waited for Mooie ; but another of
the brethren — an admirable rider, by the way — the
meek chief of the village, and the young Ismail, came
with us, so that it seemed likely we should be a goodly
company on the mountain-side.

We traversed for some distance the level meadows
of the valley's base, until we came about an hour and
a half after leaving Urusbieh to a vast ancient moraine,
where once ended a huge glacier. Passing over this,
we continued our way along very easy ground, and
reached a large farmhouse, where Achia made signs
to us that we were to stop for the night. It was an

214 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ,

example of the short-£ighted indolence, the apparent
inability to think of anything beyond the day, which
Caucasians so often show. Everything had been ex-
plained to Achia, and he knew that we were still some
three hours' walk from the right camping-place. The
work thus shunned for one day would have to be added
to the labour of the next ; but nevertheless Achia, who
could, when he thought fit, go on with imchanging
step up the most trying slopes for almost any time re-
quired, was unable to resist the temptation to stop
after some two hours' easy walking, because he felt lazy
and there was a resting-place at hand, and he clearly
thought himself much ill-used at being obliged to go
on. For some time after this our way was still through
cultivated meadows, and we passed another large farm-
house. The valley grew narrower and more striking
as we advanced, and there were wonderful glimpses up
side gorges of snow-peaks, so lofty and so great that it
was difficult to understand how there was room for
their foundations in the narrow glens whence they
seemed to rise. Presently we came to a place where
a forest had apparently been destroyed, partly by
felling and partly by fire, which latter had also con-
sumed a small chalet which stood here. On the
slopes above there was much evidence of ruthless
cutting down of trees. Continuing our way we
entered a beautiful wood, and after walking for a time
close to the roaring Baksan, came presently to a
deserted farmhouse, with a sad weed-grown garden, in

BIVOUAC IN THE FOREST, 215

which the young Ismail picked a certain small vege-
table, something between a turnip and a radish, of
wonderfully stinging taste, calculated tx) take the skin
off any but a Caucasian tongue. Three-quarters of an
hour further through the wood took us to our camping-
place for the night.

It was a little open space in the forest, covered
with thick grass (what the French call a pelouse), as
beautiful a woodland nook as the wanderer's eye could
desire, and perfect for a bivouac, for the ground was
level, there was plenty of dead wood about, and
running water was within reach. A deserted chS.let
offered some kind of shelter, but though the poor hut
had long been left by human beings, the inhabitants of
another kind were in such numbers that we determined
at once to sleep in the opeo. We had with us Achia,
some porters, the young prince, and the meek chief of
the village. The other chief who had started with us
had disappeared. With the two who stayed with us we
could not talk, as the many-tongued Paul was with
Moore; but as we sat round the blazing fire which
our men had quickly made, we tried to converse by
signs, with the usual result, that Hobody had the
slightest idea what any one else meant, but we solved
difficulties by shaking hands all round at intervals, and
there being a general impression of amity and good-
will on both sides, time slipped away pleasantly
enough. Night had long fallen, and an exposition of
sleep was on some of us, when Achia, who was lying

216 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ.

stretched at full length on the grass, suddenly sprang
up quick and noiseless as a greyhound, and, going a
few steps, seemed to peer into the darkness. I listened,
and could hear nothing, but his wonderful ear had
caught the sound of distant voices, and his companions,
though even to them there was nothing as yet audible,
were instantly on the alert, for therfe was some little
doubt who the men might be whose voices Achia
heard. They were probably our friends coming up the
valley, but, on the other hand, they might be Suene-
tians, who had crossed the Nakra pass and were on
their way down to Urusbieh. Now Suenetians are
children of nature, that is, of nature such as Mr. Mill
understood it to be; and in this remote part of the
valley it was just as well to be prepared for any atten-
tion they might wish to pay us. I do not at all mean
to say that raids are made into the Baksan valley, or
that, as a matter of course, Suenetians would fall upon
us and try to rob us; but being close to their own
country, with retreat so easy, the temptation might be
too great for poor, frail human nature to withstand,
and moral principle, no less than a regard for our own
safety, made it ifhperative that we should seem and be
prepared. I made out what was the matter from
hearing the native word for Suenetian pass between
our men.

The possibility that a deadly struggle may be close
at hand gives a strange feeling. I believe that most
men who have experienced it would confess, if they

A FALSE ALARM, 217

held to the naked truth, that the sensation was not
a pleasant one. In like case once before I heard a
sailor say, after his fashion, what seemed to me to
express that which many a man, not a coward, has felt
when making ready for the fight. Many years ago,
during the Russian war, I was a midshipman on board
a frigate cruising off the island of Saghalin, in the
sea of Okhotsk. We were on the look out for
H.M.S. Encounter, which was in those waters, and
there was also considerable chance of our meeting a
Russian frigate. About five o'clock one morning in a
thick fog a large craft was sighted on the weather- bow.
There were few sail in those seas at that time, and we
had very little doubt that this was either the Encounter
or a Rus^n. Said the captain of one of the guns to
me, while we were uncertain whether we were to meet a
friend or have a frigate action, ^I don't know how you
feel, Mr. Grove, but I'll tell you how I do. I feel in
a blasted funk, but I mean to fight my gun the best
I can, by God.' The vessel turned out to be the En-
counter, so that he was relieved from the necessity of
fighting his gun at all ; but I think he would have
kept his word.

I hope that we should have borne ourselves well if
it had been necessary to do battle with Suenetians, but
we had no opportunity of determining this, for after a
very short suspense the unerring Achia distinguished
the voices of his fellows, and in a little time Moore,
with a number of Caucasians, some of whom bore the

218 TKE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ.

much-desired loaves, joined us. There were with
him the elder and greater, two other brothers, with
several retainers, and some of our porters, so that we
were a large company. The Caucasians had meant to
pass the night in the swarming chalet, but finding that
we were going to sleep on the grass, they immediately
determined to do the same, flung themselves down
round the huge fire with the unconscious grace they
often show, and devoted themselves for a time to un-
flagging conversation.

It was a strangely beautiful scene that night's
bivouac. The tiny meadow in the dark forest; the
splendid looking Caucasians sitting and lying round
the strong flame; altogether a sight so picturesque and
so perfect that it seemed impossible to belij£ve that it
was a real bond fide camp of wild hunters and travel-
lers who were not thinking the least how they looked.
It was too like a picture, and seemed as if it must have
been arr.mged by some great master of effect.

Heavy mists gathered on the hill-sides in the even-
ing, but everything cleared away during the night, and
the sun rose on an unclouded sky. We were up at
daybreak, and getting off after some little delay, fol-
lowed the path which led partly through the wood and
partly through open spaces towards the head of the
valley. Shortly after leaving our sleeping-place, we
passed the track leading to the Nakra pass, by which
communication is principally maintained between the
upper valley of the Baksan and Suenetia. The route

THE TWO PEAKS SEEN. 219

is over a sdow col of no apparent diflSculty. Mr.
Freshfield and his companions crossed this path in 1868,
and we had intended to have come by it into the
Baksan valley, if the weather had allowed us to get to
Suenetia from the valley of Bezingi — dis aliter visum.
The Nakra is not infrequently traversed by Suenetians.
An hour and a quarter's walk from the camp brought
us to the mouth of a lateral glen, up which we saw
the two peaks of Elbruz, looking as if within about
two hours' walk, as mountains are apt to do when seen
from the valley. The eastern peak, which of course
was the nearest to us, seemed to be a vast mound, just
such as a volcano might be expected to produce, the
further peak of which we could see comparatively little,
being apparently flat-topped. By going up this glen,
into which the south-eastern glacier of Elbruz descends,
Mr. Freshfield and his companions reached in 1868
the rocks on which they passed the night before,
ascending the mountain. Achia, however, now said
that we should get much more easily to the same place
by going up the next glen, that is, the one lying on the
further side of the ridge forming the right bank of
the glen first seen. We accordingly continued our
way along the valley for twenty minutes or so, and
then halted at a small, very rough hut, placed in an
open space near the foot of the glacier which fills the
head of the valley of the Baksan. We had intention-
ally come something beyond the mouth of the glen we
were to ascend, as this was a good place for leaving

220 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ.

the horses which the Caucasians had brought with
them. Over the glacier there is a pass to the country
of the Karatchai, and this we had meant to cross after
Elbruz ; but we had found that there would be a diffi-
culty about getting porters ; the shortness of our time
did not allow us to run the risk of having to turn back,
so we had resolved to go round by the grass country
to the north of Elbruz. The pass looked easy enough
for men, but as to horses, Achia said that they could
be driven over if a cold wind had hardened the snow,
but that if it was soft they would probably be lost.
So far as we saw it, the pass did not seem to be of any
beauty.

While we were looking at the glacier and making
out the best line over it, we were aware of a certain
excitement amongst the Caucasians who had at first
been busy in cutting up a sheep for cooking, but who
were now gazing intently on the great slope of grass
and dull- coloured rocks opposite them on the northern
side of the valley. It was the prospect of a hunt which
moved them. Soon after we came to the hut, Achia's
lynx- like eyes discovered far up on the slope two
flecks of brown invisible to every one else. These he
immediately pronounced to be bouquetin, and having
with a very indifferent glass which he carried con-
vinced himself that he was right, he started at once to
stalk the game. Crossing the meadow to the foot of
the slope, he ascended it with wonderful rapidity, and
at the same time with admirable skill, twisting, screw-

A BOUQUETIN STALKED, 221

ing, and turniDg, so that some of the rocks or big
stones which jutted out from, or were scattered over
the hill-side, were always between him and the bouque-
tin. This would not have been an easy thing to do if
he could have taken his time over it, but at his pace
it was in truth a noble stalk, such as a Highlander
might have envied. Getting presently as high on the
slope as the game was, but at a considerable distance to
leeward of it, he turned and crept very stealthily, and a
little more slowly than before, towards the unsuspecting
bouquetin. Very hard it was to see the hunter now,
for he was so far off as to seem no more than a tiny
dark spot on the hill-side, and he constantly dis-
appeared, as taking advantage of every bit of cover
he warily stole towards his game. Finally he dis-,
appeared for some minutes in a wrinkle on the hill-side ;
then a shot was heard, the hunter appeared for a
moment, disappeared again, this time for a considerable
period. Much divided in opinion as to whether he
had killed or not, the Caucasians set to work to cook
their food, while we, lying on the grass and looking
at the unclouded sky, hoped earnestly that it might so
remain until we had grappled with MInghi Tau.

Just as they had done a loin to a turn, for at this
rough cooking they were perfect, Achia appeared at a
point far distant fropa that where he had last been
seen, bearing on his shoulders a dead bouquetin. It
was but a kid which he had killed, but his stalk had
been a masterly one, and he was deservedly applauded

222 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ.

by the others when he joined them for a jovial carouse
on mutton and sour milk, after which they had what
doctors call some refreshing sleep. Bousing them after
awhile from this, we persuaded them, with a little
diflSculty, to start ; and I had the satisfaction of observ-
ing Moore's brow, which had for once darkened some-
what, regain its habitual serenity. Like all good
mountaineers he hates dawdling, and on this occasion
the halt, being principally for the purpose of eating,
had been, as it were, a practical protest against his
views respecting mountain diet, at which he took very
just umbrage.

Retracing our steps a little way we entered the
mouth of the glen, the first part of which was exceed-
ingly steep. After toiling up very trying grass-slopes
under a blazing sun for three-quarters of an hour, no
man was sorjry to find the rise of the glen become more
gentle as its higher part was reached. It was a blank
desolate place as the eye could rest on ; in very truth
a ^ valley of rocks,' showing little but stones and debris.
From the top of its left bank, however, Elbruz was
very beautifully seen, and thence Walker took the
photograph which has furnished the frontispiece to this
book. The nearer of the two peaks is the eastern
height of Elbruz ; that to the left, and further oflp, the
western and, as is supposed, slightly higher summit.
On this bank of the valley, close to its head, were
some mounds of loose stones ; passing over these, and
crossing a small patch of snow, we came to the rock

ROCK PLATEAU. 223

plateau where our camp for the night was to be. A
better spot for a mountain bivouac could hardly be
desired. The rock was fairly level, with some little
depressions here and there, so that it would be easy to
obtain shelter from the wind. A stream ran across
the plateau, and in some places a little earth lay over
the hard stones, so that it would be possible to get a
fairly soft sleeping-place. Then the sight from the
camp was a glorious one, for the height of the spot we
had reached was 11,300 feet, and there was nothing
to interrupt our view of the main chain. The position
of the plateau is best described by saying that it is on
the right bank of the south-eastern glacier of Elbruz,
nearly on a level with the brow of its icefall. The place
where Mr. Freshfield and his companions camped in
1868 is slightly higher, but was now covered with
snow.

It was still early in the afternoon when we reached
the sleeping-place, and having admired for some time
the magnificent view, we were dining as doctors recom-
mend men to dine, that is, off one dish, which in this
case was brown bread, when a stately hunter suddenly
appeared on the top of the nearest mound of stones,
and coming down it crossed the patch of snow with a
step as lithe and springy as Achia's. What the
splendid looking fellow could want puzzled us much,
for he was not of our party, and Caucasians are little
given to taking afternoon strolls on the mountain-side.
He made straight for the elder and greater brother.

224 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ.

and after an animated conversation, without which
nothing is ever done in the Caucasus, handed him a
letter, which was forthwith given to Moore. It was
from Lieutenant BernofF, who with Lieutenant Kwitka
had arrived at Urusbieh at ten that morning (the 27th),
and who now wrote to Moore telling him that he and
his companion intended leaving Urusbieh as soon as
they had taken a little rest, and that they earnestly
begged us not to start for the ascent without them.

Now this was a very pretty dilemma. We had
previously determined to leave our camp at one the
next morning — z.e., the morning of July 28 — as it was
certain we should have small chance of traversins:
the vast snow-fields of Elbruz unless we started some
time before sunrise. The Russian oflScers had ridden
all night to reach Urusbieh. To get to our camp from
that place they would have a ride of some five hours
more up the valley, and then a walk of four up the
lateral glen. They might succeed in joining us that
night, but it was obvious that if they did so they
would be utterly unfit to begin the ascent of Elbruz at
one in the morning. To allow men who had been
eighteen or nineteen hours on horseback, and had
then walked up a valley in part very steep, to start
for a mountain 18,526 feet high, was simply to
allow them to go to certain failure, and we thought
that it would be most unfair, almost dishonour-
able, to let them begin the ascent, when we knew
that it would be absolutely impossible that they

A DIFFICULTY. 22&

could succeed. On the other hand^ if we delayed a
day for them^ and did not attempt Elbruz until the
29th, we ran considerable chance of missing the ascent
altogether. The evening was beautiful, and the beauty
was of that kind which augurs well for the morrow*
The barometer, after marking the height we had
reached, remained steady, and everything seemed to
promise a glorious day. Now if there is one article
of faith more deeply rooted than any other in the
mountaineers' creed, it is that fine weather should never
be lost.

A flower there is that shineth bright.

Some call it marigold-a ;
He that wold not when he might.

He shall when he wold-a.

Many an Alpine climber has regretted letting a
day of sunshine go by in the belief that the next would
prove of like brightness. After having journeyed so
far that we might ascend the great mountain, to
dawdle at its base while all was fair, and then to be
defeated by snowstorm or gale, would be intolerable,
and we felt sure that Elbruz was a mountain of which
the summit would be utterly inaccessible to man in
bad weather. What happened afterwards altogether
justified our anxiety to seize a favourable day.

On the other hand, we did not at all like to desert
the Kussians who had come so far to set foot on the
snows of Minghi Tau, so we were sorely puzzled and
in much doubt what to do, until the difficulty was

Q

220 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ.

^solved, as difficulties often are, by the self-sacrifice of
one of the party. Moore, on the ground that he had
told Lieutenant BemofF that we should not leave
Urusbieh until the 28th, and that he had made the
ascent in 1868, resolved to remain behind while
Walker, Gardiner, and I assaulted the mountain
next morning (the 28th), and to go up with the Kus*
sians on the 29th. I very much regret to say that, by
this arrangement, Moore lost for the season the ascent
of Elbruz.

The engraving, on the opposite page, of the huge
mountain Tungsorun, which rises at the head of the
valley of the Baksan, is from a photograph which was
taken during the afternoon from a spot near our camp.
We saw this mountain from many points of view, and
it appeared to us possible, though by no means certain,
that its summit might be reached.

I wish that it was in my power to give the reader
any idea, any hint, any inkling of the glories of sunset
as seen from our high resting-place ; but even writers
of a real descriptive power to which I can lay no claim,
have failed to record in words which should tell aught
to others what they looked on when the day went
down on tibe great mountains. Who can describe the
colour and radiance of the changing sky, the majesty
of the mighty range, or its glorious beauty as the sun-
set reddened its snows ? Such a scene cannot be ren-
dered in words becoming in any attempt to describe it
a eapvt mortuum, a dull rhapsody, leaving the impres*

: I

'.I

■ I
. I

si

h

START FOR THE SUMMIT, 227

siou of a long catalogue of peaks and ridges hopelessly-
mixed Tvith an account of the solar spectrum.

As has been said, there were good sleeping-places
on the plateau, the rock of which was here and there
covered with a light bed of earth, not exactly such as
would have delighted a Norfolk farmer, but pleasantly
soft to lie upon after a number of stones had been
picked out of it. At half-past twelve the reveillez
was sounded for Elbruz, and we got up, happily sur-
prised to find that, in spite of a high wind, the tem-
perature was by no means so low as we had expected.
On mountains, even more than elsewhere, the coldest
time seems to be just before dawn. We none of us
felt the cold at all when we got up, but Moore suf-
fered greatly from it some two hours and a half later
when daylight was at hand.

At 1 A.M. Walker, Gardiner, Peter Knubel, and
I started. The direct course was over a snow grat
above the rocky plateau, but the bank leading to this
was steep, and to have ascended it would have required
some little time ; so, to turn the obstacle we struck to
the right, and made our way over short slopes of snow
broken by little ridges of rock. Turning to the left
after we had passed these, we found ourselves on the
vast south-eastern snowfield of Elbruz, and over this
our course lay towards the summit, the position of
which I will now attempt to explain. The two peaks of
the mountain lie, according to the Russian map, south-
east by south and north-west by north of each other, but

q2

228 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ,

I am almost certain that these bearings are not accurate,
and think it highly probable that more careful exa-
mination will show that the peaks are nearly east and
west of each other. It was impossible, however, for
reasons whjch will be stated further on, to take an
accurate observation with the compass on the summit,
so that I am not able to state precisely the relative
position of the twin heights, but we all came to the
conclusion that the bearing was close to east and west,
and therefore they have been and will be spoken of as
the eastern and western peaks.

Of these the eastern was the nearest to our camp-
ing-place, the western height lying beyond it. As
seen from a point near the snow ffrat, they appeared
much as they do in the woodcut from Walker's pho-
tograph, the western peak being to the left of and
partly hidden by the other, which was surrounded by a
vast snowfield undulating in gentle slopes of varying in-
clination. What we could see of the side of the western
eminence was rather steep, but not enough so to offer
any serious obstacle. The top was apparently flat and
of some extent. The other peak appeared to be a
gently-sloping cone. I speak of these two heights as
peaks for brevity's sake, but they would be more accu-
rately described by calling one a flat-topped mountain,
and the other a vast mound. The western one, that is,
the table mountain, was our object. It is the highest
of the two according to the Kussian survey, topping its
brother, however, only by ninety-five feet; but as being

HUGE SNOW-SLOPES, 229

the loftiest, though only in very small degree, this
western summit we desired to win, and for it we
sought to shape our course. It appeared clear that we
should do this best by ascending the vast snow-field
surrounding the lower peak, trending continually to
the left, so as to skirt round it to a point some 1,600
feet below the summit. From this point we could
reach the col between the two peaks. It was obvious
that we should not see the col until we were close upon
it, and there was some danger that we might get too
high, and find it beneath us when we came in sight of
it, but we had reasons for supposing that it was of
great height, and in every mountain expedition some-
thing must be left to chance. Skirting the mountain
lower down might involve considerable loss of time.

Our course lay then over the vast field of snow-
covered glacier surrounding the eastern peak, and for
some hours we ascended the huge slopes of neve, trend-
ing continually to our left. Obstacles we found none
whatever; but it was a wearisome and monotonous
walk. There was, indeed, about an hour and a half
from the camp, a crevasse to be passed, which in a
warm season might give some trouble, but now it was
so narrow that we crossed it as easily as might be ; in
fact, we did not find what by any possibility could be
called a difficult step between the grat and the foot of
the final slope of the western peak. It was simply a
long wearisome trudge over a vast, gently-rising field
of snow.

230 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ,

Now this may seem a very trifling thing to those
who have never sought the high mountains, but men
who have been much in the Alps know that there is
nothing more tiring and more depressing than a long
ascent over snow-slopes. The work is exhausting, and
at the same time utterly unexciting. There is severe
labour for the body, while the mind remains totally
unoccupied, the result being deep sadness and great
disgust at the whole of creation, and at that miserable
little atom of it the ego in particular. For once the
thick screen which interposes between a man's reason
and his estimate of himself is lifted. He sees himself as
others see him, and wonders much that anybody could
ever breathe a prayer for such a gift. All the follies he
may recently have committed stand out before him in
vivid colours, and pre-eminent is that transcendent one
of going up a mountain. How he ever came to commit
such an act of idiotcy ; how, having once done it, he
ever came to repeat it, and w^hat inclined him on this
occasion to attempt this particularly detestable peak,
are questions which his conscience asks him with odious
pertinacity. Something definite, however, does spring
from his misery. A lingering feeling of self-respect
makes him persevere for the day — indeed he spurns
the thought of giving in on this occasion ; but nothing,
he swears, shall ever tempt him on to the weary slopes
again ; and in this state of mind he remains until more
exciting work distracts him from morbid thoughts, or
until arrival at the summit restores that sound and

AN EASTERN SUNRISE. 231

wholesome vanity without which there would perhaps
be small amount of successful effort either in moun-
tain expeditions or in much greater things. To con-
tempt for his folly in coming on to the snow, succeeds
admiration for the calm English resolution which has
made him persevere so long on the laborious way.
Evil resolutions vanish, self-complacency comes back
with a cheerful glow, and the only question is how
soon it will be practicable to ascend another peak.

Now the slopes of Elbruz were of this tedious and
wearying nature. Exceedingly gentle at first, they
were nowhere steep, but owing to the great height which
was soon reached, and to the absolute monotony of the
labour, the ascent was trying, and was made the more
so by the cold which, as sunrise drew near, became in-
tense. Fortunately the wind had subsided, or a fair
amount of frost-bite must have been inevitable. After
four hours' going, having risen more than four thousand
feet, we halted for a few minutes at a patch of rocks
which cropped up through the great desert of snow at
about the height of the top of Mont Blanc. And
here came one of those boons, more than recompensing
for cold and labour, which are sometimes granted to the
faithful who seek high places. We gazed on a sight
of almost indescribable beauty. The sun was rising,
and the eastern sky was all aflame. The moon, which
was nearly full, was setting on the mountains just at
the time of dawn, and for a moment the heavens were
divided between the dead beauty of night and the light

232 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ.

and glory of the coming day. Wonderful too, even
amid the entrancing splendour of the scene, was the vast
shadow of Elbruz thrown by the rising sun to a great
height on the western sky. But this soon was filled
with light. Day prevailed as the pale satellite disap-
peared among clouds of sable and silver, and a contrast
such as not one of us had ever seen was ended. Ee-
membering that there were still 3,000 feet between us
and the summit, we started again, after halting a few
minutes only, and continued the ascent of the snow-
field, trending rather more than before to the left. Hav-
ing risen some 1,500 feet higher, we came in sight, about
an hour and a half after we left the rocks, of the col
between the two summits. It was close to us and a
little above us, and after walking at a level along the
easy slope which intervened between us and it, we
halted to rest for awhile at a point about 200 feet be-
low the actual col.

We were now at the foot of the final incline lead-
ing to the edge of the flat top of the western peak. The
slope rose before us, steep but not forbidding. Consi-
derably to our left, that is, to the south, were some pre-
cipices, but in front of us there was nothing to give
any difficulty, so we were able to rest with light hearts
- — indeed, with too light hearts ; for, owing to the hard
work and to the thin air, that important part of one's
organisation seemed to be performing a wild dance of
which the time, if there was any, was decidedly irre-
gular. The place where we thus halted in the little

COL BETWEEN THE PEAKS. 233

valley between the two peaks was over 17,000 feet
high, but how much over we could not tell. Walker
had brought with him an excellent aneroid, graduated
up to 20,000 feet, and this instrument marked our as-
cent with great steadiness until we had reached a height
of 17,000 feet and were close to our halting-place
under the col. On arriving there, however, we found
that the needle had jumped to the extreme height it
could mark, nor would any cunning taps or shakes
cause it to depart from these obviously incorrect
figures. After 17,000 feet, therefore, we could only
guess at the heights we attained until we reached the
summit. We halted, as I have said, at a point some
200 feet below the col, and I am inclined to think that
we had not then risen more than 150 feet since the
barometer gave its last accurate reading. The col,
therefore, would be about 17,350 feet above the sea.
Our halting-place will easily be recognised by any
future traveller, as it is at the base of a ridge of rocks
which runs for some distance up the slope of the
western peak. Close to the foot of this ridge is a large
boulder, on which a very pleasant bask in the sun may
be taken. It is possible that, in another season, much
of the slope of the western peak which we found snow-
covered will be bare rock, as there was at the time
of our ascent an unusual quantity of snow on the
mountain.

After about half an hour's halt we started up this
final slope, which presented the only difficulty, if diffi-

234 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ.

culty it could be called, which we encountered. First
we climbed the rocks I have mentioned; these were
firm and easy as any rocks could be. From the point
where they ended we ascended for awhile the snow-slope,
which, though not very steep, was still steep enough
to require some step-cutting ; but this did not last
long, for we soon came to an easy little ridge of rock,
after scaling which we took to the snow again, cutting
a few steps here and there, but generally kicking them.
Ascending in this way the moderate incline, we came,
at the head of it, to a cornice, through which we made
our way without difficulty, and found ourselves on
the edge of a great field of nev^, the covering of a
mighty extinct crater, the rim of which we had reached,
A little peak rising from this rim on the north-east was
clearly the highest point of the great mountain.

For some time before we attained the crater's edge
it had become clear to me that the peak we were as-
cending was not the same as that of which Mr. Fresh-
field and his companions reached the top ; that they
had, in fact, gone up the eastern peak, which, accord-
ing to the Russian survey, is by a very slight differ-
ence the lower of the two. That huge cone they found
to be undoubtedly volcanic, the crater on the top being
most clearly marked. It was of course in the highest
degree probable that the western peak would prove to
be also volcanic, but it was interesting to verify the
fact, and most pleasant to find ourselves on virgin
snows. Delight in reaching an untrodden summit may

AN EXTINCT CRATEE. 235

seem a childish pleasure to many, but never to those
who have once experienced it.

The western crater considerably exceeds in size
that on the twin summit, and is probably about
three-quarters of a mile in diameter. The wall i&
perfect for some two-thirds of its former circuit, but
on the south-west side a vast piece has fallen away,
and a great glacier now flows down from the gap*
Terrible indeed must have been the throes of that
eruption which rent this immense fragment from the
mountain-side ; but there were no human beings
then to be affrighted at the fearful beacon. For
time immeasurable the crater has been peaceful.
Ice has taken the place of lava, and over the scoriae
and debris which fill the great cavity nature has cast
a thick mantle of eternal snow.

The field of neve which covers what was once the
crater rises towards the east almost to a level with the
rim, but sinks rapidly towards the south-western gap,
the crater-wall rising considerably above the snow-
field. The little peak which is the actual summit of
the mountain juts up on the north-eastern segment of
the rim, and was afterwards clearly distinguished by
us from the village of Utchkulan in the Karatchai
country. As we restied for a few moments on the snow
before going to this absolute highest point, I had an
opportunity of cogitating on the question of the rarity
of the air, which had been forcing itself on my notice
during the latter part of the ascent. About rarefied

236 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ.

air many mistakes have been made^ as all versed ia
Alpine story know. In former days^ when moim-
taineering was not so well understood as it is now,
men attributed to rarefaction the exhaustion which
came from their not being sufficiently strong or prac-
tised for the work they had to do. Nowadays those
who ascend mountains know that if they are, as the
phrase goes, * in good condition,' they will not suffer
from the rarity of the air on the highest peaks of the
Alps ; and if a man complains of it he is usually looked
upon as trjdng to put the fact that he is knocked
up in a way agreeable to himself. But obviously on
mountains higher than the Alps there must be a limit
at which the thinness of the air will begin to tell even
on the most powerful and best-trained men. It may
be taken for granted that no human being could walk
to the top of Mount Everest. Indeed, the fatal bal-
loon ascent from Paris seems to show that the air is
too thin to sustain life at a point a good deal lower
than the top of that mountain. At what height, then,
I asked myself, is this limit ? Was the unusual ex-
haustion of which I had been conscious after we had
passed 17,000 feet due to fatigue or to the thin air?
Out of a party of four, three were decidedly affected,
Gardiner and Peter Knubel suffering considerably
during the latter part of the ascent, though not so
much as I did. Walker, however, was not in the least
exhausted, though he was afflicted with bleeding at the
nose. At the moment it certainly seemed impossible.

RARITY OF THE AIR, 237

judging from what I felt myself, not to attribute our
woes to rarefaction ; but I am now of opinion that our
prostration was due principally to our not being in fit
bodily condition for severe walking, and only in a small
degree, if at all, to the thinness of the air. I believe
that a well-trained man, with a heart strong and regu-
lar in its action, will not, if accustomed to mountains,
suffer from the rarity of the air at heights under
18,500 feet when walking up slopes of gentle inclina-
tion. With heavier labour it might be different. My
reasons for this belief are : —

First, we found, as men have so often done in the
Alps, that the exhaustion vanished, to a great extent,
at an early stage in the descent. Secondly, one of
the party was not at all affected. Thirdly, when Mr.
Freshfield and his companions ascended the eastern
peak, which is all but equal in height to that we were
on, not one of the party felt any unusual exhaustion.
They were six in number — three Englishmen, a Cha«
mouni guide, and two Caucasians. It is impossible to
believe that they were all men blessed with exceptional
hearts and lungs. I am disposed to think then that
the prostration of which three of us were conscious was
due to the wearing effect of snow-walking on men * out
of condition.' The constant wetting we had under-
gone, together with the enforced abstinence from any
kind of wine whatever, and the total change of diet,
were enough to account for our not being in proper*^
training for good mountain work.

238 THE ASCENT OF ELBRUZ.

But it would have been a weary man indeed who
would have failed to reach the highest point of the
mountain after once the rim of the crater had been
gained. The little peak or tooth rises, as I have said,
from the north-eastern part of this, which we had
struck from the south-east, and we had therefore to go
round inside the rim for some distance ; but the way
was almost level. With victory in our grasp, then, we
walked across the snow, which might almost be looked
on as the winding-sheet of the dead volcano, passing
at one point a sight of beauty, the like of which
I had never seen on any mountain. A small pin-
nacle jutted up close to the edge, and the wind had
driven the loose snow against this little column and
had there twined it, strange to say, into ribands and
wreaths which in festoons of rare beauty thickly
covered the pinnacle from top to base. It might have
been Lot's wife, supposing her to have been in gala
dress at the time of her mishap. Going on, after
pausing for a moment to look at this strange thing,
we came to the foot of the little peak which may have
been from a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet in
height. Mounting its easy slope, we stood at last on
the summit of Elbruz.

The day was perfectly clear. There was no cloud
in the sky, nor any haze on the horizon ; and I think
man could hardly desire or hope for a more glorious
sight than that which we gazed on from the crest of
the great mountain. Standing at the end of a pro-

VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT. 229

montory jutting out from the main chain^ Elbruz
gives a vantage ground from which the mighty range
of the Caucasus is seen, not confusedly as it would be
from a peak in the midst of it, but distinctly as a line
of battle would be seen from a flag-ship in front of the
rest. All the great peaks stood out clear in their
stern majesty of form. Near at hand was the double-
headed giant, Usch-Ba; then a range of nameless
Titans, and then many leagues away, but sharp in
outline as though seen from the Urban glacier, the
mighty Kotchan Tau and the lesser heights of Dych
Tau and Tau Tetnuld. Beyond these again peak
after peak, until the eye rested on a pinnacle which I
think to have been Kasbek. That mountain is some
hundred and twenty miles from Elbruz, but it is
possible that we looked on a crest separated from us
by a space much greater even than this. Far, far
away towards Persia I could, as I fancied, just make
out very faintly a snow summit, and if this was real
and not imagined it must have been the crown of
Ararat. Very likely it was a mere fleck of white cloud,
but it is said that Elbruz has been seen from Ararat ;
and if this be true, that summit must have been visible
on a day of such marvellous clearness. To the south
the huge valleys could be partly seen over the crest of
the main chain, and towards the south-west the Black
Sea could be clearly distinguished. To the north was
the green country, the grassy ridges rising one behind
the other like the waves of the sea, until afar off one

24t) THE ASCEST OF ELBRUTL

of them croirned by a low rampart of rock seemed
to mark the boundary of the great plains of finssia.
Altogether the view from the highest point of Elbruz
Tras even grander and more beautiful than I had
expected, and greatly surpassed anything I had ever
looked on in the course of many years* wandering in
the high Alps.

But it was not merely the variety and beauty of
the glorious spectacle which were impressive. Stand-
ing there close to the boundary between Asia and
Europe, came the thought of the ancient but fast de-
clining races on the one hand, and, on the other, of that
mighty country as yet in its youth, whose huge future
power for good or evil is now but beginning to be re-
cognised by men. Then, as if in mockery of the
vanity of all things human, there were the ashes of the
dead volcano strewn around to tell of vast cycles of
time, compared with which even those great periods
which mark the rise and fall of empires are but as the
running of the sands in an hour-glass.

241

CHAPTER IX.

RETURN TO URUSBIEH — THE WAYS OF THE

CAUCASIANS.

Descent of Elbruz —Contemplated ascent of the mountain by Moore and
the Russian officers next day — Descent to the valley — Caucasian
chatter — The evening after a high ascent — Return to Urusbieh —
Prince Mohammed — The ways of the Caucasians — Their powers of
endurance as compared with those of the Swiss — Caucasian dress —
Return of the Russian officers and Moore — Their expedition on El-
bruz — Prince Mohammed's account of a great forest country — Its
position — A delicate question between us and our hosts — Their fare-
well.

It will have been seen from the foregoing account,
that Elbruz, though a tiring mountain, presents no
difficulty to the mountaineer. The ascent is indeed
nothing but a steady trudge, save where the way lies
over the slope leading from the point just below the
col to the rim of the crater. There we had, as has
been said, to cut some steps, and in coming down these
a little care was necessary, but the difficulty was as
slight as could be for men at all accustomed to moun-
tains. How it might be with those who had no expe-
rience of snow or ice work, I can hardly say, for it is
not easy to allow sufficiently for the ingenuity which
unpractised men show in their attempts — often success-
ful — to do themselves injury. It is just possible that,

B

242 RETURN TO URUSBIEH.

by sedulous carelessness, a roll over could be brought
about on this slope, which however, would perhaps in
another season, be entirely different. It might be
hard ice, or the ridges of rock might be bare all the
way to the summit. In the summer of 1874 there
was an unusual quantity of snow on all the great peaks
of the Caucasus.

On the summit we were only able to remain for
twenty minutes. So far as clearness went, the day
was all that could possibly be desired, but the wind
had some strength, and this made it so bitterly cold on
a summit 18,526 feet high, that it was impossible to
stay there long. Indeed, as it was, one of the party
was frost-bitten. Coming down the little peak, and
going to the place where we had struck the rim, we
descended the slope, and rested for a time at our pre-
vious halting-place, which being sheltered from the
breeze was perfectly warm. It was about noon.
We had arrived at the highest point at 10.40, having
left the camp at 1 a.m., so that the ascent had taken
us nine hours and forty minutes ; but probably the
mountain might be scaled in a shorter time than this,
as our progress over the last part of the way had been
very leisurely. We had plenty of time to spare, and
I certainly had reasons for particularly disliking undue
haste. I believe that the ascent of Elbruz miorht be
made in from eight hours to eight hours and a half.
The descent, as will presently be seen, can be effected
very quickly after the slope below the rim has been
passed.

MH, FRESHFIELD'S ASCENT. 243

That the peak we had ascended was not the same
as that scaled by Mr. Freshfield and his companions in
1868, I had no doubt whatever, and Walker and Gar-
diner were of the same opinion. When we compared
notes afterwards with Mr. Freshfield and Mr. Moore,
they also came to the conclusion that the summit we
stood on was not the same as that which they had
reached, and it may be considered as certain that they
ascended eastern, we the western peak.^ Of these the
latter is, according to the five-verst map, the higher
by 95 feet. This is a suflSciently small fraction of
18,526 feet, the height of the western summit, but I
doubt whether even this small difference exists. When
we stood on the western summit the other appeared
to be on a level with us, and I believe that careful ob-
servations would show the two peaks to be almost
exactly equal in height. Until observations are made,
however, the five-verst map, as embodying the only
survey yet made of the country, must be taken to be
correct, and the western summit must be assumed to
be the higher one.

From it what appeared to be the highest point of
the other summit bore east by south, but when the
tops of mountains are of considerable extent — if the
expression may be allowed — it is obvious that one
bearing is not likely to show even approximately their
relative position. To have ascertained this would

> This peak was entirely hidden by the clouds at the time of Mr.

Freshfield's ascent.

B 2

244 RETURN TO URUSBIEH.

have taken far more time than that during which we
were able to remain on the summit. After leaving the
halting-place by the col, the descent was nothing but a
quick and easy walk down the huge slopes of the moun-
tain ; the snow being in such good order that until we
were nearly at the end of our course, we were able to
make a very rapid march. The camp was reached at
three, the whole descent from the summit having
occupied only four hours, and as we got back so early
we determined to go down to the valley that night.
The two Russian officers had arrived shortlv after we
had left in the morning. Exhausted by their long
journey, they could not of course have started with
the slightest chance of success, or indeed of reaching
any considerable height on the mountain ; but appa-
rently they were not destined to lose the ascent, for
the weather was to all seeming likely to be perfect,
and everything promised well for the expedition next
day. The band which was to leave the camp would
be six in number, and would be of a composite or inter-
national character, as there would be in it an English-
man, two Russians, two Caucasians, and a Swiss.
They were to start, as we had done, at one in the
morning, and the arrangement seemed good to all
except poor Peter Knubel, who was wofully tired, and
felt by no means certain that he could ascend Elbruz
two days running. However, he promised to do what
he could, and then, after the fashion of guides, went to
sleep, although the afternoon was yet young ; while we

CAUCASIAN CHATTER, 246

started for the valley, after wishing Moore and his
companions good-speed. Alas, what had been our
good fortune was their curse. The extraordinary
clearness of the day, owing to which we were able to see
objects at so great a distance, was the sign of a coming
change, as remarkable transparency of the atmosphere
so often is. Next day the weather had lost its sere-
nity, and a furious storm broke on the peaks of
Minghi Tau. We strolled down towards the valley,
straggling as men frequently do when they have
escaped from the enforced regularity which the rope
necessitates in mountain walking, and, getting behind
my companions, I joined some of our porters who were
going down, and we picked out the worst possible way
with singular unanimity. After we had descended
part of the glen, we met, on their way back to the
camp, two of our men who had been sent down for
provisions. Now my fellows having been separated
from these their comrades for six or eight hours, an
interchange of ideas was absolutely needful, so they
all sat down on the grass for conversational purposes,
and for some time every man spoke at once, including
myself, for I confess that I did use what Byron calls
our ^ shibboleth,' in the hope of getting the laggards
on ; but I might as well have tried to sing the trees
down the hill-side, like Orpheus. To Caucasians, who
regard talking as the most pleasurable thing in life,
the fact that a man talks loudly only proves that he is
enjoying himself rather more thoroughly than usual.

246 RETURN TO URUSBIEH.

and is showing his pleasure just as a dog does when
he barks on being taken out for a walk. Accordingly,
when I shouted at the porters, they merely suspended
their chat for a moment to turn towards me with the
most gracious and winning smiles, wishing to intimate,
I believe, that they were glad I was having my say
too, though sorry I could not join in the general con-
versation. I went on my way therefore without them,
and the right line for getting out of the glen being
somewhat hard to follow, very speedily lost that way ;
but I succeeded in finding another, and after struggling
down some treacherous grass slopes, and crossing the
stream at the wrong place, came in sight of the little
chalet whence there rose a sweetly suggestive smoke.
On getting to the hut I found Walker and Gardiner
already arrived, the admirable Paul hard at work cook-
ing, with the meek chief of the village and the pleasant
young Ismail looking on. Whence the two last had
come we knew not, but all the members of the family
had a trick of vanishing and reappearing at unexpected
moments, which we thought an agreeable characteristic
of theirs, as giving variety to a day.

Going up a big mountain is an act of smallest im-
portance to the world, and does not, like knowledge of
Greek or high birth, entitle a man to think himself
very much better than his fellows ; but nevertheless
on the evening after a high ascent there is a warm
feeling of exultation which could hardly be surpassed
if a great object had been achieved. There is the

REST AFTEJt THE ASCENT. 247

thought that a good piece of work has been done and
that rest is well earned, and a humble likeness of that
deserved repose which comes after success in much larger
enterprises. Indeed it may be that one of the principal
reasons of the attractiveness of mountain expeditions is,
that they present a little picture of the great and
serious efforts of life. One thing they certainly have
in common with these. A man who starts to go up a
mountain must concentrate all his energies on gaining
the summit, must determine that, whether he did well
to embark on the enterprise or not, he will now that he
has entered on it persevere to the very end and fullest
extent of his powers ; that, though there be weariness,
discomfort, or suffering, he will not entertain the
thought of turning back, so long as upward progress is
possible. Yielding, even for a moment, is instinctively
abhorrent to those who care for mountains, as in all
likelihood it ever is to those who earnestly seek to be
successful in achievements of real importance. The
enjoyment then, in miniature, of the content which
comes after a vigorous and successful struggle filled
us that evening, though our self-complacent happiness
was rather disturbed by one trifling matter. When
starting on our journey, we had determined that each
man should take up his bed and walk, that is, that we
would carry our sleeping-bags on our own proper
shoulders ; but this good intention had gone to make a
certain pavement, of which a great deal ought to be
down by this time, and in practice we always gave our

248 RETURN TO URUSBIEH,

bags to the porters, or put them on the horses. Now
this evening our baggage was in charge of the chatter-
boxes whom I had left on the hill-side, and it was ex-
ceedingly doubtful when they would appear, or whether
they would appear at all that night. A lodging on the
cold ground, especially if that ground is of a marshy
character, is more pleasant in story than fact. J ust as
we were giving them up, however, two hours or so
after 1 got in, the porters arrived, all the better appa-
rently for their little talk, and still full of running — so
far as conversation went.

We got up at daybreak next morning, and were
soon on our way back to Urusbieh, passing through the
beautiful woodlands, by the roaring stream, and
catching again the wonderful glimpses of seemingly
inaccessible peaks up the lateral glens. We stopped
for a little while at one point on the road where there
is a noble view of the western end of Tungsorun,
which is to the upper valley of the Baksan what the
Breithorn is to St. Nicolas Thai. After the wood
came the rather dull meadow-land, crossing which we
halted for a few moments at a farmhouse to pledge a
cordial peasant in sour milk. His wife was pacing up
and down the roof of the house gorgeous in a jacket of
yellow silk, but his eldest daughter, a handsome child
of twelve or thirteen years old, who came out with
him, had so little on that I verily believe the Lord
Chamberlain would have swooned dead at the sight of
her, as Dante swooned at the sight of the Himini The

RETURN TO URUSBIEH. 249

flowing, or I should rather say the curdling, bowl
having been drained, we shook hands with the damsel's
good-natured father and went on our way down the
valley, passed over the old moraine, and reached
Urusbieh at one o'clock.

The morning had been fine — at least, fine in the
valley — but there was not the absolute serenity of the
previous day. Fleecy clouds of no good augury were
sailing across the sky at a sadly quick rate, which told
of a strong wind in the high regions. Just before we
reached Urusbieh a slight shower fell. It looked as if
this was a turning day, and as if bad weather was at
hand, but apparently it was fine enough for an ascent,
and we trusted that Moore and his companions had
reached the top of Elbruz while all was yet fair. The
wind appeared to be increasing, however, and we were
not without fear that they would suffer from it during
the -descent, for a high wind .on a mountain like
Elbruz might cause terrible cold.

The meek chief and the young prince had galloped
on ahead of us, so there had been plenty of time for the
villagers to get ready to resume their steady and minute
observation of the strangers. The usual crowd poured
into the house after us, and the curiosity was as intense
as though we had just entered Urusbieh for thefirst time.
In like manner we had found at Bezingi that absence
seemed to make interest, if possible, keener. The
villagers were excited about Elbruz, for the conversa-
tion was exceedingly lively, and again and again was

260 RETURN TO URUSBIEH.

the word Minghi-Tau repeated. Presently a pleasant
chief, whom we had not yet seen, came into the room
to greet us. He was Mohammed, a younger brother
of the elder Ismail, and one of the three princes of
Urusbieh. He had returned during our absence.
Like the rest of the village aristocrats, he was a very
agreeable fellow, and he was a fine-looking man even
for a Caucasian. He was extremely anxious to hear
all about the great mountain, of which he seemed to
know more than most of the men of Urusbieh did,
although he had never attempted the ascent ; but he
did not stay long, for he saw, with a tact not always to
be found among more civilised men, that we were tired
and wanted to rest. Rising to go, he said with a
* graceful Oriental bend ' to us, somewhat grubby
after our expedition, and worthy, I should say, of
small homage, ^ I am much concerned that I was not
here when you arrived ; I should have begged you to
honour me by coming to my house ; ' which was a
pleasant speech at the least, and in all probability was
sincere, for, like his two brothers, he is a genial and
hospitable man.

The visit of this well-bred chief set me thinking
on the strange character of the race we were amongst,
of whom he was so good a specimen. A curious
people they certainly are, these men of the north-
western Caucasus, leading the most primitive of lives,
and yet far, very far removed from barbarism; a
simple pastoral race, to whom, albeit they virere neither

THE CAUCASIAN CHARACTER, 261

foolish nor utterly ignorant, men from the busy West
seemed well-nigh as strange as beings from another
planet might to ourselves. A brief sketch of what
struck a traveller as the characteristics of a people
destined soon to yield to the monotony of civilisation,
may not, I trust, be superfluous.

A very good people they are in many respects ;
their kindliness and good temper, the complete absence
among them of any dislike to, or suspicion of, strangers,
cannot be too warmly praised, and should be fully
appreciated by the traveller, who, if bored at times by
their curiosity, may comfort himself fully by the reflec-
tion that he is very lucky in having nothing worse to
complain of in so wild a country where travellers are
rarer than sharks in the Channel. The genial hospi-
tality and pleasant manners of the chiefs I have en-
deavoured to describe, and it may be hoped that the
account of the strenuous efforts of the dear invisible
princess of Bezingi in a miserably poor village and
without her husband to help her, has shown how
strong in the Caucasus are the traditions of what is due
to guests, the influence of which was also very prettily
made manifest in the anxiety of the young Ismail that
the strangers should be well cared for. But more
to be admired even than this gracious and honourable
feeling is the total absence of theft and violence
among these northern men, a matter indeed well
worthy of note when the character of the tribes on
the other side of the chain is considered. During the

252 RETURN TO URUSBIEH.

time we were in the valleys of the North- Western
Caucasus we had nothing stolen, and though our
baggage was small in amount, there were things in it
which must have been very tempting to the natives.
As to danger from violence, I believe that there is none
whatever among this people. It is true they still
retain some of the habits of warlike days. The great
poniard is almost invariably worn, and a pistol is some-
times carried ; but we never heard of the former being
used for anything more murderous than killing a
sheep, and it appeared to us that the latter was meant
almost entirely for show. I witnessed several violent
squabbles, but I never saw a man even go through
the form of putting his hand to his dagger, and from
what experience I had, and such knowledge as I could
get of the Caucasians of the north-west, I believe
them to be an altogether peaceful race, and, so far as
abstinence from theft goes, perfectly honest.

It must not be imagined, however, that the country
is an Arcadia, or that the traveller finds the golden
age existing among these shepherds and hunters. In
some matters the Caucasians are trying, and not by
any means trustworthy. In the first place, they are
painfully indolent. Strong, healthy men as most of
them are, well capable of doing a long day's work
without the slightest distress, it is wonderful how they
loiter on a journey, and what frequent and protracted
halts they make. Most irritating, too, is their pro-
crastination. Very hard indeed is it to start a party

THE CAUCASIAN CHARACTER. 263

of Caucasian porters. One excuse after another is
found for delay. As well an hour hence as now ; as
well this afternoon as this morning ; as well to-morrow
as to-day ; such seem to be their ideas when it is a
question of beginning a journey. Sometimes too, in a
childish way, they tell the most silly lies for the sake
of getting rid of their work for the moment ; stopping,
for instance, on a march when the afternoon is only
half spent, and saying that the resting-place for the
night has been reached. They know perfectly well
that the day's stage rightly ends a good deal further
on, and that the hours thus wantonly wasted will have
to be made up for on the morrow ; but this does not
seem to trouble them in the least, so long as for the
time being they can cease work.

In such transactions as the traveller has with the
Caucasians — the hiring them as porters, the hiring
horses, the buying provisions of them — they usually
try to take advantage of him, and to charge him too
much. It would be interesting, however, to hear of
any people, civilised, semi-civilised, or savage, concern-
ing whom the same could not be said. Man in all
states loves to prey on his fellow-creatures. Books of
travel tell of the greediness of the barbarian, and our
newspapers often teem with declamation against the
frauds of trade. It would be hard then to be severe
on the poor Caucasian for seeking to get more than a
fair price for his labour or his goods, as the practice is
an extensive one. Overreaching, moreover, is not

254 RETURN TO URUSBIEH.

often carried to a flagrant extent, and is never at-
tempted by the chiefs.

With the villagers of one place — Utchkulan — we
had considerable trouble, and the short description above
given does not by any means apply to the good-for-
nothing inhabitants of that place, who were indeed a
sorry set of rogues ; but from what I saw and what I
heard of the men of the North- Western Caucasus, I
believe those of Utchkulan to be a dishonourable ex-
ception to the general type of native character, and
that their conduct could not in any way be taken as an
illustration of it.

It will be seen then that, though the Caucasians
are not always to be relied on, and at times try the
traveller's patience largely, the good much predomi-
nates in their character, and I think that those who
have sojourned among them cannot fail to carry away
a most pleasant remembrance of this simple pastoral
race, untouched as yet for good or evil by the great
forces of Western civilisation. Of the hospitality of
chiefs I have before spoken. It was, to some extent,
obligatory on them to aid us ; but at every place ex-
cept Kunim they did not confine themselves to what
they were compelled to do, but acted as zealous and
generous hosts ; dilatory, it is true, and sometimes very
slow in performing what they had promised ; but it is
a country where no man takes any account of time.

The physical beauty of the Caucasians has often
been extolled, and, as regards the men, we all thouo^ht

i

THE CAUCASIAN TYPE, 256

deservedly. As to the women, in a Mohammedan
country the traveller's opportunities of observing are
limited. The wives and daughters of the chiefs and of
the rich men are never seen. Those of the poorer
villagers wander about freely enough unveiled, and
certainly do not seem remarkable for comeliness, so far
as the dirt which they appear to affect rather more than
the men allows one to judge ; but no doubt they suffer
from hard bodily labour, which, as is well known, mars
feminine good looks terribly. Whether the greater
ladies would show any of the proverbial beauty of an
aristocracy, I cannot say. The only one I ever met
turned her back on me the instant she saw me, which
seemed ungracious of her, especially as it was in the
dark ; but no doubt she was a lady of very rigid prin-
ciple, tenacious on points of etiquette, and ignorant
that travellers are allowed to do very impertinent things,
even to the gazing on a woman's face.

But that the males are proper men, must strike any
one who visits the country. They have bold, strongly-
marked features, often resembling the better kind of
Jewish type — aquiline noses, fairly high foreheads,
piercing dark eyes, usually but not invariably, dark
hair and beard. Bodily too, they are well endowed. The
proportion of tall, powerful men in a village is remark-
able, and the gait of the North Caucasian has often
that grace and elasticity which come from a well-strung
and well-balanced frame. They are very spare in
figure. I only remember seeing one fat man during

256 RETURN TO URUSBIEH.

the whole time we were on the northern side, and he
was a priest, and belonged therefore to what is in
many countries a fat class. As has been previously
said, it is to a diet composed principally of meat that
the Caucasians probably owe their slimness of figure,
which certainly greatly aids their appearance, a round-
bellied man not looking well in the national costume,
or indeed in any other, so far as I know.

Owing to the excessive indolence of the Caucasians,
it is not very easy to form an opinion of their strength
or power of endurance. Certainly Swiss porters who
stopped as often as they do on a day's march would be
regarded as very poor specimens of their race ; but we
were all of opinion that it was indolence and not want
of strength which made the men halt so frequently.
Once or twice, when they really wished to make a
good stage, it was astonishing to see how well they
walked and how little the work seemed to tell on them.
In one matter, already spoken of in describing the
march from Bezingi, the Caucasian's power of endu-
rance is beyond that of the Swiss. Those who have
travelled in the Alps know how much food the guides
and porters require, and how, like English servants,
they often knock up if they do not * get their meals
regular.' Now the Caucasians, though far removed
from savages, have some of the savage's power of going
without food. They can, if necessary, walk for the
whole day with only a crust of bread to eat ; nor do
they seem exhausted or even specially hungry after

CAUCASIAN POWER OF ENDURANCE. 257

the work thus done fasting. For instance, two horse-
drivers who were with us on the journey from Urus-
bieh to Utchkulan started without any breakfast, and
went through twelve hours' hard walking with nothing
to eat but a moderately sized piece of cheese. When
we got to the resting-place for the night, they seemed
by no means ravenous, getting us everything we
wanted and chatting together until Paul had cooked
for us and we had eaten. Then they proceeded in the
most leisurely manner to get ready their own food,
which they ate with a deliberation which a gastronome
might have envied.

In judging of the Caucasians' powers, it has to be
remembered that they are not much in the habit of walk-
ing long distances. All but the very poorest men have
horses, and throughout the country the common way
of making a journey is to ride. The inhabitants there-
fore are not by any means such practised walkers as
those of the mountainous countries of Western Europe.

On the whole it appeared to me that the Cauca-
sians, though often seeming weakly from their exces-
sive indolence, were really very strong men, little if
at all inferior in vigour to Highlanders or Swiss, and
superior to both in their power of supporting prolonged
exertion without food. The matter is of considerable
interest, from the fact of the Caucasians drinking no
spirituous liquor of any kind. If alcohol is altogether
a bad thing for men, one potent enemy to healthy and
prolonged life does not attack this race. Their diet,

s

268 RETURN TO URU8BIEH.

which, as I have pointed out, has in it neither alcohol
nor sugar, is certainly very different from what sup-
ports us in the West.

Allied to the question of diet is that of clothing, and
in this the Caucasians appear in some degree to have
united beauty and usefulness. The national costione
is at once seemly to look at and pleasant to wear.
Differing of course much in material, it is almost
always the same in shape and arrangement, the prin-
cipal and most characteristic garment being a long
robe reaching below the knee, and having on the breast
bandoleers for holding cases in which powder and ball
are carried. If the wearer is rich, these cases, each of
which holds one charge, are of silver. Underneath
the robe are worn a short frock or blouse, and trousers
very like knickerbockers, with which leggings, usually
of light leather, are commonly worn. The shoes are very
peculiar. They are made of thin leather or hide, and
lace together under the foot, which they fit very easily,
being stuffed with hay or grass when put on. The re-
arrangement of this awkward stocking is a frequent
pretext for stopping and dawdling on a march.

The hat is always a marked part of the Caucasian
costume. There are many kinds, but that most com-
monly worn is made of a deep band of sheepskin or
lambskin, with a cloth top. A hot and heavy head-
piece it must be, but it is hardly ever removed, the
natives, whether of high or low degree, not uncovering
as a mark of respect, or even when entering a house.

CAUCASIAN COSTUME. 259

Once or twice when we took our hats off to the chiefs
they did the same to us, from a wish not to be behind-
hand in good manners, but they did it awkwardly, and
were obviously not accustomed to it as an act of cour-
tesy. The Mohammedan Caucasians usually cut the
hair very short or shave the head.

One distinctive garment remains to be described.
That is the burka^ or great mantle, a protection against
rain and cold not surpassed to my mind by any of the
numerous fabrics of the West. This admirable capote
is in shape a large cloak, and is made, not as is some-
times said of sheepskin, but of thick, coarse felt, shaggy
oh the outside where the hairs are left loose so as to
form a kind of fur. Hours of rain will not wet a
hurka through, as the water trickles off the furry out-
side, and the felt is so thick that a man can sleep out
in his cloak without any fear of suffering from the
damp of the ground, that insidious enemy which so
often works evil to the hunter and the traveller in the
night time. I am much inclined to believe myself
that the vexed question of how to provide the soldier
with a greatcoat which shall be warm and practically
waterproof, without being oppressive, will be solved
by using some fabric similar to that of the hurka^ and
not by any adaptation of the unhealthy and unmanage-
able mackintosh. It should be said, however, that the
weight of the hurka is considerable.

Arms are almost always carried. Near Kutais, in-
deed, many of the natives did not wear the great poniard,

s 2

260 RETURN TO URUSBIUH.

but nowhere on the northern side were the men without
this weapon. It hangs from the centre of the waist,
and must, one would think, be very troublesome when
walking ; but ^ habit is ten times nature,' and what
would drive Englishmen half mad does not cause the
slightest inconvenience to Caucasians. They take
great delight in handsome poniards, and the costliness
of the weapon earned is frequently an indication of
the social position of the wearer. A wealthy chief
often has a poniard with a hilt and sheath of silver,
beautifully ornamented with black inlaying. A vil-
lager of lower degree wears a less gorgeously mounted
arm, and a poor man a perfectly plain one. The belt
from which the poniard hangs is sometimes also of
silver. These belts, which are made at Tiflis, are
decorated with inlaid work similar to that on the hilts
and sheaths, and, as mentioned when speaking of that
place, are of considerable beauty. A pistol is worn
sometimes, but not often, by the men in the northern
valleys. A gun, however, is not unfrequently carried.
I must now return to my story, which has Tbeen left
for a while to give the foregoing slight sketch of the
Caucasians of the North, and I have to tell of the dis-
appointment which befell us with regard to Elbruz,
At about three in the afternoon, when, as we calculated,
Moore and his companions ought to have been de-
scending the lower slopes of the mountain on their re-
turn from the summit, Bernoff rode into the village,
followed immediately afterwards by Kwitka. They

1

MOORE S ATTACK ON ELBRUZ. 261

had, alas, a story of failure to tell, and of failure for
that season not to be remedied. The brief history, as
told by them, and by Moore on his arrival, was this.
The two Kussian officers, Moore, the two Caucasian
chiefs, the hunter Achia, and Peter Knubel, left the
camp at one in the morning for the ascent of Elbruz,
the wind being of rather ominous strength, but the
night clear. When they got to the edge of the great
snow-field they saw that the two peaks of the moun-
tain were veiled by what they took to be a cloud.
Hoping that this might lift at dawn they went on, and
trudged over the neve for about two hours, at the end
of which time the Russian officers could struggle no
longer against increasing exhaustion, and were obliged
to stop and retreat. It was not the least astonishing
that this should happen. Walking up snow-slopes at a
great height is most fatiguing work, and constantly pro-
duces complete prostration in men unaccustomed to it*
The Russian officers, admirable and fearless horsemen,
able to keep in the saddle for fourteen or fifteen hours,
were anything but practised walkers, and the exertion
told on them so severely that at last they became
utterly unable to go further on the upward course.
They were therefore forced to turn back, while Moore,
the Caucasians, and Peter Knubel continued the
ascent. But inaccessible to all men was Minghi Tau
on that day. As sunrise drew near the seeming cloud
came further and further down the mountain's side,
and when day broke Moore saw that it was no peace-

262 RETURN TO URUSBIEH,

fill mist which veiled the peak, but a vast tourmente of
snow, and that a furious storm was raging on the upper
part of Elbruz. To the very edge of this tourmente he
and the others went, but no human being could have
ascended the mountain through it, and indeed any one
who ventured far into it would very likely not come
back again, so there was nothing for it but to give up
the ascent and turn back, which, much disheartened,
they did.

Strange to say, w^hile this violent storm was lash-
ing Elbruz, the rest of the chain was clear, and the
explorers could see into the valleys beneath them, the
bad weather being at the moment confined to the great
mountain. Perhaps, owing to the height and exposed
situation of Elbruz, more storms break on it than on
the other peaks of the range. By the time they
reached the valley the sky was overcast, and heavy
rain fell before they arrived at Urusbieh. Moore,
who came on foot, appeared a short time after
Bernoff and Kwitka, and nothing now remained but
to make preparations for a start early next morning, as
owing to the small amount of time we had at our dis-
posal it was impossible to make a second attempt on
Minghi Tau. One of the horsemen who had come
with us from Kunim was williug to go with us as far as
Utchkulan, and another man and horse were hired in
the village, so we hoped to get off by daylight, and
bore with fortitude the stare of the crowd who were
taking a last ' longing lingering look ' at us.

DESCRIPTION OF A FOREST. 263

In the evening the pleasant Mohammed came in for
a farewell talk, and with the courtesy common to his
family, earnestly begged us to come to Urusbieh again.
^ There is much to see near this valley,' he said, * and
plenty of game at no great distance from here. Be-
tween Suenetia and the Karatchai country there lies a
mighty forest, the most wonderful I have ever seen.
The trees are huge, and the flowers, which in places
altogether cover the ground, are of the greatest beauty.
Then the forest is full of game. There are deer, wild
boar, bouquetin, and chamois,' all in plenty. A good
hunter can kill much game there easily. Two or
three men from here usually go over to hunt there
during the summer season.'

Myself. — Are there any people or houses there ?

Mohammed. — None whatever. The country is
altogether without population. Anything that a man
requires to live on besides the game he kills, he must
take with him. You would much admire the forest,
which is indeed a magnificent one.

What a picture this was! A huge primeval forest,
full of beauty, and also full of game ; surely a place
where one might lead an ideal hunter's life, going
on, day after day, through the endless vistas of great
trees, seeing no man save a few trusty followers, and
enjoying the wonderful solitude of the forest, while
a number of wild animals would meet with a less

^ We saw no chamois ourselves in the Caucasus, but probably they
exist there in large numbers.

264 RETURN TO URUSBIEH.

peaceful end than they might reasonably have
expected. As to the exact position of these great
woodlands we were, I am sorry to say, left in some
doubt. Mohammed's description was, as has been seen,
vague in this respect. He spoke of them as being be-
tween Suenetia and the Karatchai country, but these
two districts are separated by the main chain, and I
could not, owing to the difficulties which always attend
interpretation, clearly make out in further talk with
him whether the forest lay on the northern or
southern slopes of the mountains. A snow pass had
to be crossed to reach it, but this might be either over
the spur connecting Elbruz with the main chain, or
over the main chain itself. It was clear, however, that
the woodlands could be reached with little difficulty
from Urusbieh, and from a careful examination of the
map after this conversation with Mohammed I am con-
vinced that he was speaking of the valleys of the
country west of the Upper Ingur, a land apparently
uninhabited and covered by a mighty forest. It is to
be hoped that before long some traveller to the
Western Caucasus will venture into these beautiful
solitary woodlands, which should be as interesting
to the explorer as they seem full of promise to the
hunter.

But our attention was presently distracted from
Mohammed's wonderland by a question more delicate
even than that of position and boundary. We had
been the guests, first of the meek chief of the villacre,

A DELICATE QUESTION. 265

and then of the elder and greater brother, and we had
eaten largely of their bread and meat, and drunk many
bumpers of their sour milk, and of course we could not
be content here any more than in other places with
merely thanking our hosts for their good cheer. We
wished to recompense them so that they might lose
nothing by their kindness, but they were greater men
than any who had yet entertained us, and how to
make payment troubled us sore. If an Englishman,
after staying at a country-house, had to make a gift,
not to the butler but to the host, he would probably
feel rather shamefaced over the task, and would strongly
wish that he had a case of wine, or a gun, or a retriever
to give, rather than the actual coin. In a similar em-
barrassing position we feared much that the chiefs
might dislike taking money, and that they would be
not a little hurt if the whole payment was made in
cash; but unhappily we had scarcely anything to
offer, except what is generally so much liked ; for we
had limited our baggage to the smallest possible
quantity, not thinking that it would be necessary to
bring any gifts with us. After a time, however, we
succeeded in forming a kind of composite present.
Moore sacrificed his revolver. To this were added a
couple of eight- bladed knives and some roubles. We
trusted that the two first gifts might veil the offensive-
ness of the last. But it was not so, as we found when
the chiefs came in to say good-bye, and Paul for us be-
spoke them : —

26G RETURN TO URUSBIEH.

Paul. — My masters bid me thank you much for
your kindness in giving them lodging and providing
for them so well. They are deeply indebted to you,
and will ever remember your goodness. They ask
you to accept these things as tokens of their regard for
you.

The Chief, — We have been very happy to have the
gentlemen among us, and we require no recompense
for what we have done for them. It is not our custom
to take money froin those whom we have entertained.
What we have given has been given from friendliness,
and not for payment. If your masters like to make us
any gifts by which we may remember their visit here,
we shall be glad to receive them, for we indeed esteem
your masters our friends, and it would be a pleasure to
us to keep their gifts in remembrance of them and of
their stay with us ; but we would rather not take any
money. It is not our custom to do so.

Paul. — The gentlemen are very grateful to you for
your kindness. They know that their visit here has
given you great trouble ; that your servants have had
more work than usual, and that you have had to send
about for provisions. They therefore beg you to
accept in addition to the gifts this money, not in any
way as payment, but to prevent you from being losers
by what you have done.

The Chief. — We had rather not take money- It is
not our custom to receive payment from our friends.

Obviously they thought it very undignified, but

THE CHIEF'S FAREWELL, 267

finally we succeeded in getting them to accept the
despised roubles, as our presents were not enough to
repay them for what they had done for us, and after
the way in which we had ransacked their stores, it
would have been hard indeed to have left them poorly
requited. When this delicate matter was at last ar-
ranged, the elder and greater brother said good-bye
to Moore in a graceful farewell speech. * If you
should come here again,' said he, * remember that your
dwelling is in my house, which is yours ; that I am
ever your friend, and that I look on you as my
brother.' And then, very sorry to see the last of them,
we shook hands with the kindly and hospitable chiefs
who had been such good hosts to us during our stay in
pleasant Urusbieh.

268 GREEN COUNTRY NORTH OF ELBRUZ,

CHAPTER X.

THE GREEX COUNTRY NORTH OF ELBRUZ.

Departure from Urusbieh — A useless horse — The valley of the Kwirik
— Bad weather — Singular glen — A shepherd's camp — Caucasian dogs
— A primitive tent — Bitter bread a luxury — The camp at nightfall
— Start next morning — Head waters of the Malka — The eagles — Vol-
canic mounds— The great rolling down north of Elbruz — A salt
spring — The farewell of our Kunim follower — Religious feeling of
the man of Urusbieh — Col at the end of the great down — The track
lost — The valley of the Khudes-Su — Deserted chAlets.

The next morning (July 30) was fine, although
light clouds were traversing the sky with ominous
quickness. After saying good-bye to the Russian
oflScers, who were staying at Mohammed's house and
got up early to see us off, we left the village at seven
o'clock, and made for the valley of the Kwirik, which
for some distance from Urusbieh lies, roughly speak-
ing, north by west and south by east. We had with
us two baggage horses, one driven by the excellent
fellow who had come with us from Kunim, and the
other by a sturdy Urusbieh man, who had been one of
the porters to the camp at Elbruz, and had taken at
least his full share of the work. The journey to Utch-
kulan, whither we were now bound, would, we had

A USELESS HORSE. 2G0

been told, require two days on horseback, between two
and three on foot.

The glen through which we had gone to ascend
Sultra unites with the valley of the Kwirik a very
short distance above Urusbieh, and after passing the
point of junction our path ran for some distance
nearly level, the valley rising but little. At this very
early stage of the walk an untoward incident com-
pelled a halt. The horse belonging to the man of
Kunim had in some way misused his period of idleness
at Urusbieh, and by stopping every twenty paces or
so showed unmistakeably that he was not likely to
carry his very moderate load to Utchkulan. We had
therefore to wait while the native of Urusbieh went
back to the village for another man and horse, which
he succeeded in getting with wonderful quickness.
Our new follower was a tall, very handsome old man,
whose striking appearance was not a little increased by
his wearing a monster of a pistol, some two feet long,
which was exceedingly picturesque, though as I after-
wards found it was a little difficult to use, as it took
ten minutes to load, and then could only be made to
go off by lighting a large fire and putting it in the
middle. Still it was a very nice pistol in some re-
spects. Although we had been obliged to take a sub-
stitute in the place of our friend from Kunim, the
latter went on with us, remarking, quite sincerely I
believe, that he liked us, and should be very glad to
be of use to us in any way he could ; ^ besides,' he can-

270 GREEN COUNTRY NORTH OF ELBRUZ.

didly added, * I have relations in the Karatchai whom
I should like to see, and who I daresay will do some-
thing for me.' So, keeping this excellent retainer still
with us, we started again.

The valley grew very narrow as we ascended it,
and the path for some distance lay by the side of the
stream. We passed a house in process of building —
not a very common sight in the Caucasus — and after
walking by the water for some way, found the valley
open out again, and its proportions become much
greater. It was excessively ugly ; a huge, monotonous
green vale. There were no signs of hut or chalet in the
dull hollow, but cattle were grazing in places, and it is
no doubt one of the pastures of Urusbieh. Probably
the cheery inhabitants of that village come to this
dreary seclusion as little as they can.

We followed the path up the valley until we came
to a place where it turned towards the west, another
great valley opening out of it at the elbow on the
northern side. Up this latter vale our way lay, so
we entered it and laboured up the track leading to its
head, through scenery so dismal and barren as hardly
to have any grandeur, although the proportions of the
valley were vast. The sides were lofty and steep, dull
grass in the lower part, dull red rock in the upper.
The col at the head was of great height, but when we
reached it after a toilsome march we could see
nothing of the country round, for we were enveloped
in thick mist and sleet. We did not therefore tarry

SINGULAR GLEN. 271

long on the saddle, the view being one with which we
had been familiar in the earlier part of our expedition,
but began the descent at once, going at first over
bare and stony slopes, and then over some grass-land,
shortly after reaching which we shot out of the mist,
but found heavy rain falling.

We had descended into a huge trench-like valley
with steep green sides, a strange glen enough, not to
be called beautiful, but far less forbidding than that
which we had just quitted. Below us the base of the
great trough seemed to run nearly level, and along it
meandered a pleasant stream. As we went down the
vale became more pleasing, and there was a pretty
vista up a lateral glen, in which was a little woodland.
As in other parts of the Caucasus, the scenery had
some resemblance to that of the Highlands, though ot
course it was on a far grander scale. After going
rapidly down the steep upper part of the valley, we
walked for some distance along the meadow-land of its
base beside the stream, speculating with considerable
interest where we should pass the night. Travellers
ought to be perfectly indifferent to sleeping out in the
rain, but then, like other men, travellers are not always
exactly what they ought to be, and I believe that in
practice they generally get shelter if they can. The
men of Urusbieh had spoken earlier in the day of
shepherds who might have some cover to offer, but now
when asked about them they pointed to a narrow
and very steep gorge on our left, and said that we

>

272 GREEN COUNTRY NORTH OF ELBRUZ.

should probably find them there, after an ascent of two
or three thousand feet ; the fact being that they had
not the slightest idea where the shepherds might be,
and pointed out the glen on much the same principle
as a conjuror acts on when he asks if any of the
audience would like to swallow a sword. Disregarding
therefore advice not meant to be taken^ we went on,
but the porters presently got greatly bored with the
walking, and with true Caucasian indifference to the
morrow's labour, strove to make us stop much before
the proper time at what they called a cavern, which
was, in fact, a small space under a projecting rock,
where perhaps one man might make himself comfortable.
Spuming the idea of stopping here, to the great wrath
of the bearer of the pistol, who made me a long speech
on the subject in his native language, to which I
replied with such rhetoric as I could command in my
own, we went on, and were reconciling ourselves to
the idea of a damp night, when we saw a small tent in
the distance on the further side of the stream. It
belonged to the shepherds whom we had little hoped to
see, and although to use it we should have to persuade
the rightful occupants to turn out and pass the niorht
in the open with the rain falling, we had little doubt of
the influence of roubles on the pastoral mind, and
assumed, rightly enough as it proved, that to sleep on
the hill-side in the wet would not seem a monstrous
hardship to a Karatchai shepherd. Extreme modesty
in asking a favour is a little out of place in men

A PRIMITIVE TENT. 273

travelling through a wild country. We made straight
for the tent, crossing the stream, and repelling with
some diflSculty a savage charge of unusually excited
dogs, who bayed vigorous disapprobation as we cajoled
the shepherd into yielding us his wigwam. Is there not
a Mohammedan superstition that the souls of the de-
parted sometimes enter the bodies of animals ? I
cannot help thinking that Mussulman prejudice, of
which we found so little among the men of the Caucasus,
had concentrated itself in their evil-minded hounds. I
am glad to say that one of these curs supped that night
off an old strap which was thrown away, and that he was
very ill next morning in consequence. The tent which
was given up to us was scarcely a luxurious resting-
place, for it was entirely open on one side, and exactly
resembled one of those small booths for the sale of food
which are common at fairs, and are still to be seen in
some parts of London. It was made of bits of old
burha stretched on a rough framework. We afterwards
found that tents of this kind are generally used by the
wandering shepherds of the Karatchai, giving as much
shelter as the hardy fellows require. Placed with the
open side to leeward they answer fairly well unless the
wind changes ; then, if there is rain, it is driven in on
the inmates, but of that they take their chance with
true Caucasian indifference to so trifling a matter. On
this evening, when there certainly was rain enough, the
shepherd made small difficulty about turning out for us

T

274 GREEN COUNTHY NORTH OF ELBRUZ,

on being promised a reward. He had two lads with
him, his sons probably^ and the three soon made a
roaring fire, and in company with our men passed
apparently a very cheerful evening, much aided by a
small gift we sent them, their delight at which certainly
illustrated in a remarkable way their exceedingly
primitive life. The offering was mado in return for a
present of theirs which was very grateful to us, the ex-
change coming about thus : as we were walking along
beside the little river, it struck us that in the High-
lands such a stream would undoubtedly have trout in
it, and that it was difficult to see why it should not in
the Caucasus. After we had settled down in the tent,
and the shepherds had brought forth good store of but-
ter and cheese, we caused Paul to ask them if to these
good things they could not add some fish, whereupon
they produced four or five as pretty little trout as
ever rewarded the thrashing of a stream. After-
wards Paul said to us that the shepherds had given us
the best they had, and that it would please them much
if we gave them some bread in return ; * for,' he said,
* they hardly ever get bread when they are on the hills.'
What we had with us was poor, stale stuff, as bitter as
friendly advice ; but of course we gave it to them, and
delighted they were with it. Men to whom bad bread
is a great luxury must certainly be living in a very
simple way. The fish which were given us were worth
remembering, for they were the only fresh ones we saw
in the Noithern Caucasus. There must be plenty in

THE CAMP AT NIGHTFALL. 276

the streams, but the inhabitants seem content to leave
them there.

It would be diflScult to conceive anything more per-
fectly typical of pastoral life thati the scene we gazed
on that evening. A huge flock of sheep, some white,
some black, had been driven in and gathered round
the encampment as night came on. A little further
off, on the other side of the stream, a great herd of
cattle darkened the grass-slopes. The watchful dogs,
having bitten and worried the laggard and the adven-
turous of the flock into conformity, crouched near
their masters, who were making merry over bitter
bread before a roaring fire. Around the little nook
in the valley thus for the moment occupied all was
solitude. Men might wander among these hills for
days and not come to a human habitation, perhaps not
meet a human being. Next morning the camp would be
deserted. The shepherds with their flocks and herds
would go on a little way and then camp again, straying
thus over hill and dale during the summer months. A life
more simple and primitive it would be hard to find. Had
it changed much since the days when Mithridates sought
Dioscurias, and Roman galleys rode on the Euxine ?

The next morning was a doubtful one, though the
rain had ceased during the night. We were up at
daybreak and said good-bye to the genial shepherds,
who were so well satisfied with what we had paid them
for the food they had given us and for their night in
the open, that I believe they prayed that other hungry

T 2

276 GREEN CO UXTR Y NOR TH OF ELBR TJZ,

travellers might come to them in bad weather. After
goin^ over the stream by a bridge which we found a
little below the encampment, we almost immediately
struck up the left bank of the valley, and after mount-
ing a shoulder descended into another valley, steep-
sided and high, with a disproportionately small stream
running klong its base. It seemed strange to think
that this insignificant rivulet was one of the sources of
the powerful Malka, the other being the pretty stream
by which we had camped the night before. Descending
to the floor of the valley and crossing the rivulet, we
entered to the west of it another valley, over the
northern bank of which we passed. As we were mak-
ing our way up this, I was interested in watching some
eagles flying at a vast height above us. They were
sailing round and round in that monotonous, weary-
looking rotary flight which they will continue for
hours, and, as in the Tcherek gorge, were suggestive,
when one looked at them, not of the majestic enjoy-
ment of their mighty powers of flight which is poeti-
cally attributed to them, but rather of frightful boredom,
if such a word can be applied to birds. We saw an
unusually large number of great eagles during the
morning. After passing over the side of the valley our
way lay across undulating grass-land, the beginning of a
vast rolling down, crossing which occupied the greater
part of the day. The singular mountain steppe
which we thus traversed struck us as being in some
respects the strangest country we saw while journeying

THE GREAT DOWN, 277

through the Caucasian highlands ; but before attempt-
ing to describe it, I should say a few words respecting
some curious conical mounds which we passed when
beginning our march over the wide down. There
were several of them, and they were of considerable
height and of wonderfully regular conical shape. One
indeed was so symmetrical that it seemed hard not to
think it the work of hands, and our men would not
believe us when we told them that it was not artificial,
saying that it was absolutely impossible that a natural
hillock could be so evenly moulded. It was only when,
on drawing near, we pointed out to them the size of the
grassy cone, which may have been four times that of
the Great Pyramid or thereabouts, that they saw that
making the mound must have been rather a big job, and
admitted that nature had done the work ; but their
surprise was great, and certainly these hillocks were a
curious sight. They were clearly of volcanic origin.
To that only could be attributed their peculiar and
regular form, and it was to be remembered that we
were now skirting, though at a considerable distance,
the sometime volcano Elbruz. It would have been
very pleasant to have settled that these were the vast
burial mounds of some extinct race ; but so to describe
them would be to exceed a little even a traveller's license.
The great rolling down on which we were now en-
tering is a singular tract of country, utterly unlike
anything to be found in the Alps. It is an extensive
plateau lying at the foot of the hills which rise imme-

278 GREEN CO UNTR Y NOR TH OF ELBR UZ.

diately under Elbruz, and consists of a wide extent of
undulating pasture land, marked at intervals by shallow
ravines, scarcely to be called valleys, down which
little streams flow. The scenery, though not of the
kind which can be rightly called beautiful, is grand
and striking. If the expression may be allowed, it is
original in the highest degree, and in places the views
are fine, the hills to the north being admirably seen,
while Elbruz is probably visible on the other hand in
fine weather ; but as to this we were literally left in
the dark, for to the south there was nothing but mist
and gloom. Strange to say, the plateau struck us as
having a certain resemblance to the Southdowns as
they were before cultivation spoilt them, when they
had a strongly marked character of their own ; it need
hardly be said that there is a vast difference in scale.
On the magnificent pastures of this great plateau large
flocks, many herds of oxen, and some of horses, feed
during the summer months.

Shortly after entering it we came to a shepherd's
tent, exactly resembling that under which we had slept
the night before. Close to it was a cart, which though
not in itself a very beautiful object, being of the rough-
est possible make, we regarded as a sign of a return to
civilisation. In this, as it afterwards turned out, we
were a little premature. The shepherd was a civil
fellow enough, and we bought from him for the Cau-
casians of our party some coarse cream-cheese, which
was the only food they ate during the day. Going on

A SALT SPUING. 279

after a short halt we tramped over the grass-land, until
we got to one of the small ravines intersecting the
down, where we came upon a very curious sight. At
the point where we struck the .ravine is a salt spring
of considerable volume. The cattle which pasture on
the country round are periodically brought to drink of
this, and at the time when we were passing a large
herd had just been driven down to take their medicine.
Unlike human cieatures, they showed the greatest
desire for it. The spring has been made by the herds-
men into a small pond, and to get at this the beasts
fought and struggled with each other as eagerly and
angrily as Englishmen do to see a bad actor. Those
who had been fortunate enough to get to the water,
seemed as if they would drink the pond dry, such long
pulls were they taking of the beloved brine. Leaving
the little valley we ascended a gentle slope, where we
passed the skeleton of a horse, and then after a time
came to another mild descent, at the end of which we
had one of our usual engagements with dogs, who after
the fashion of wicked Caucasian animals did not fight
fair. One of them indeed nearly succeeded in giving
a laggard of our party a bite, which would have in-
flicted on him an injury such as the lady in Candide
suffered from, and, like an election petition, have efiec-
tually prevented him from taking his seat. Beating
them off we ascended another gentle incline, at the
top of which we had to go through a solemn leave-
taking, for we found with much regret that we were

280 GREEN COUNTRY NORTH OF ELBRUZ,

now to say good-bye to the worthy fellow who had
come with us from Kunim. He had discovered two
brothers at a shepherd's camp near which we passed,
and they were able to promise him employment ; so he
determined to stop with them, there being no reason
why he should go with us to Utchkulan. Originally
hired only for the journey to Urusbieh, he had re-
mained with us until now, partly no doubt to make a
little money, but also, I think, because he had taken
a liking to the strangers with whom he was journey-
ing. I am afraid I shall seem to state what is utterly
incredible, when I say that a traveller may pos-
sibly find among the Caucasians of the north what
most men sadly regard a mirage of youth, to wit,
a disinterested liking from inferiors. When I heard
during the earlier part of our journey, that a man
who was with us for a time said that he loved us
as his brothers, I only wondered, as one would in
Switzerland or Italy, what swindle he was meditating ;
but later on I became convinced that the expression,
if exaggerated, was not utterly insincere ; and that not
only were the chiefs hospitable from kindliness and self-
respect, but that good feeling without the hope of gain
was not impossible among the humbler men. On this
occasion we all thought that our Kunim friend was
grieved at having to say farewell, as in a melancholy
manner he shook hands with each man, and said that
we had behaved well to him, and that he was sorry to
leave us. The last we saw of him he was sitting

A WRATHFUL MAHOMMEDAN. 281

motionless on his horse, watching as long as he could
the travellers, serving whom had been grateful to
him.

We were speedily diverted from any indulgence in
sentiment by a squabble amongst our men, which, of
smallest importance in itself, was remarkable as evok-
ing the only sign of Mohammedan intolerance which
was observed during the journey. Paul was telling
the younger of the two Urusbieh men to make some
alteration in the burden of one of the horses, when the
elder man interfered, and said that no change was
necessary. Paul tartly but naturally replied by
bidding him mind his own business ; whereat the reli-
gious and personal pride of the son of Urusbieh were
roused, and turning on Paul, he cried out with more
vehemence than relevance, ^ Who are you that you
should speak to me thus ? Nothing but a miserable
Christian forsooth. I am a true believer and a son of a
true believer, while you are an infidel, and a son
of — ' but Paul here advanced towards the speaker
in so threatening a manner, that ^ la recherche sur la
parente ' came to an abrupt end, and the quarrel might
have become a very pretty one had not the younger
man interfered. Subsequently, having found out what
was the matter, we made peace between the two with
some little trouble, and the march was continued
without any further difficulties on the score of reli-
gious precedence. An easy dip and rise brought us to
a huge expanse of grass-land, the biggest field of the

282 GREEN COUNTRY NORTH OF ELBRUZ.

great down. We had now crossed three shallow val-
leys or ravines, between which the ground rose and
fell slightly, making a series of gentle cols, and in
front of us the prairie again rose a little, so that there
was another of these to be passed, but at a considerable
distance from us. We made our way towards it at a
very easy pace, stopping often to look at this strange
mountain coimtry, so diflferent from any we had before
seen. To the north were many ranks of green hills,
and in the far distance was a long irregular rocky
rampart rising on the northern side of some great
valley, or series of valleys, a barrier which I had seen
from Elbruz, but had not been able to identify on the
map; to the south, heights of which the summits
were wrapped In cloud rose above the prairie. On the
flanks of these, and on the great steppe itself, flocks
and herds were grazing, and some way up the slopes
we could see a shepherd's camp, roimd which were a
great number of sheep and oxen. As at our halting-
place the night before, everything told of the most
simple pastoral life. I doubt not that if we could
have thrown time back for a thousand years, we should
have found on this line of travel wandering shepherds
little different from those we saw that day scattered in
the same way on the hill-side and on the steppe. Per-
haps we did see one sign of a life some thousand years
gone, for while crossing the last bit of the prairie we
came to a singular monument, a roughly-hewn pillar of

RIQIL COL. 283

granite, about eight or nine feet high. There was no
description or device of any kind upon it, and one of
the party irreverently suggested that it had been put
there for cattle to rub themselves against. It may
have been so, but I have small belief in the Caucasian
herdsmen's taking such trouble for their beasts.

On reaching the top of the very gentle col we
found that there was a yet higher one beyond it, the
ground between being more broken than that which
we had lately been traversing ; but it was easy walk-
ing enough, and when we arrived at the highest
saddle we looked on to a very noble country on both
sides. It is possible that this col marks the watershed
between the Black Sea and the Caspian.

Descending rapidly we came to a ch&let, the first
building we had seen since the half-finished one in the
valley above Urusbieh. There came forth to greet us
two men, three wives, and a corresponding number of
children, all indescribably dirty, but good-tempered as
dirty people often are. They smiled pleasantly on us,
and as we were in some doubt about the path, told us
the way, quite wrongly it is true, but I believe with
the best possible intentions.

After leaving the chdlet our course lay through a
richer country than that which we had hitherto tra-
versed, and we came presently to a small forest where
with great promptitude we lost our way. We wan-
dered about for a time in the dripping underwood.

284 GREEN COUNTRY NORTH OF ELBRUZ.

with that alternate energy and vacillation which mark
men who have got off the path, until Moore, with a
mountaineer's sagacity, hit off the true line from which
our two Urusbieh followers who were hopelessly be-
wildered were straying further and further. It is a
peculiarity of mountain walking that, if the track has
been lost, it always turns out to be a long way above
one when found again, and in this case we had a
heavy pull up a hill-side to regain the right path.
Our day's work, however, was nearly at an end, for
a short walk took us on to the slopes of the northern
bank of the valley through which run the upper waters
of the river Khudes-Su. Descending these slopes
for a short distance we came to a group of deserted
chalets, and at them our march for that day ended.
It was pleasant to find shelter for the night, as the
weather looked threatening and the cold was likely
to be considerable, but nevertheless there was some-
thing very melancholy in these empty huts. They
had obviously been occupied at no very distant time,
and we tried to find out from the Urusbieh men whether
they thought that the dwellings were permanently de-
serted, or that the inhabitants had merely driven their
cattle to the high pastures for the summer months, but
neither of our two followers could tell us anything.
A certain amount of emigration is going on from the
Caucasus, and we feared much that the owners of
these chdlets had left their valley never to return;
but wherever the poor wanderers might be, we treated

DESERTED CHALETS. ^^^

their dwellings with as much respect as though they
were to come back on the morrow, rather to the
disgust of our men, who looked upon the interior
woodwork as an excellent and immediately available
supply of firewood.

286 UTCHKULAN.

CHAPTER XI.

UTCHKULAN.

A beautiful Alp — Bapacious herdsmen — ^The valley of the Kuban —
Eltiub — Position of Utchkulan — Cold reception by the Chief — The
Eussian clerk — Change on the part of the Chief — Utchkulan beer —
Attempt to get porters for the Nakhar Pass — An unlucky offer—
Exorbitant demands — A difficult position — Arrival of a Russian
Colonel — Marriage festivities at Utchkulan — Porters found for us by
the Chief — His responsibilities as banker to the peasants round —
Departure from Utchkulan — Strictness of our followers in prayer — A
too early halt — A quarrel over a sheep — The wrath of the men of
Utchkulan.

The dawn of next day, which was the 1 st of August,
promised well for the month, as there was every sign of
fair weather, and cheered apparently by this our Cau-
casians dawdled less than usual, so that we got off soon
after daybreak. Descending rapidly to the base of the
vale we walked by the side of the stream through a
beautiful wood, until we reached the place where the
valley opened into another running at right angles to
it. Crossing this we mounted through the broken
light and shade of a great forest of pines, and came
presently to a little alp as beautiful as any I can re-
member to have seen in the course of many mountain
wanderings. It was a small, perfectly level meadow of

A BEAUTIFUL ALP. 287

the brightest emerald green, surrounded partly by the
noble forest, partly by bold and lofty hills. On one
side of it lay a dark tarn, and at a short distance the
smoke rising from a group of ch&lets gave that plea-
sant suggestion of life without which there is a certain
coldness in the fairest scene of meadow and woodland.
The brilliant and beautiful hue of the grass, which
was like water in the desert to us after the dull turf
which had so long surrounded us, was owing, I believe,
to the fact that what was now a field had, at no very
remote time, been a lake, and hence the intense green
of the carpet which covered this little oasis in the
hills.

The spirit of man was certainly not divine in this
beautiful place, for the inhabitants were an example
of the extremely disagreeable character of the people
amongst whom we were now coming. Paid very libe-
rally for some milk and curds which our men got from
them, these fellows grumbled a good deal. This may not
seem a very remarkable thing in travel, but it struck
us, as we had constantly got the same things from shep-
herds and dwellers in isolated ch&lets, and had always
found them perfectly satisfied with what we paid
them. Sometimes they seemed surprised at being paid
at all, for it is, I think, the custom of the natives to
give freely of their acid drink to wayfarers ; but we
were now amongst a grasping and dishonest tribe.

We journeyed on again for a time through the
wood, and then coming out of it, and passing round a

288 UTCHKULAN.

huge shoulder by a well-contrived path, entered the
valley of the Kuban at a great height on its eastern
side. For some distance the path ran nearly level,
this course being necessary to carry it over the upper
part of a bold promontory. The mighty valley be-
neath was admirably seen from the track. On one
side the vast bank was broken by great spurs and late-
ral glens, while opposite, the huge slopes, if less varied,
were grand and striking from their steepness and vast
size. Through the wide meadows of the valley's base
rushed the Kuban, a powerful stream even at this
early stage in its long course.

After passing high up round a portion of the pro-
montory, we descended by a series of sharp zigzags
its partly-wooded southern side into a lateral glen of
some beauty, a short walk down which took us into
the great valley. This we struck a little above the
village of Eltiub, the largest we had yet seen in the
Northern Caucasus, and possessing amid the native
huts a house built after the Western fashion, which,
though a poor dwelling enough, looked there a palace.
In the middle of the village rose a large red-roofed
building, which we decided to be a mosque, principally
on the ground that there must be a mosque somewhere
in a Mohammedan country, and that we had come to
none yet. We desired no commerce with Eltiub, as
Utchkulan was our goal, so we turned our faces to the
south, and marched along the Czar's highway, for a
highway it was, and indeed a very fair one, which led

ARRIVAL AT THE VILLAGE. 289

up the valley of the Kuban. The valley itself, though
it had been very striking when much of it was seen
from high up on the slopes, was not beautiful when
seen more in detail from below, and near Utchkulan
it was exceeding dull, the barren slopes being monoto-
nous in colour and form. The level base of the valley
was of great width, and was largely cultivated, oats
being apparently the favourite crop.

About an hour along the high road brought us to
Utchkulan, a straggling village situated in the wide
space where the valley of the Khursukh opens into
that of the Kuban. The village is placed in the angle
formed by the junction of these two rivers, standing on
the right bank of the former and the left bank of the
latter. The dwellings appeared to be the ordinary
Caucasian hovels, with the exception of one, which was
apparently of Russian construction, and belonged, as
we learnt, to an unhappy clerk employed to interpret
for the chief of Utchkulan. We knocked at the
clerk's door, but he was not at home, or, as is more
probable, thought we were scamps, and would not
open ; and it was some time before we could find the
chief, whose house was in the dirtiest part of the dirty
village. He was a short mau making the most of
himself, as short people are apt to do, and I remember
that I formed an evil opinion of him from what I
thought his singularly forbidding expression. I was
utterly wrong, as men almost always are when they
attempt to judge from physiognomy.

u

200 UTCHKULAN.

Our reception was exceedingly cold. Paul invested
us with as much consequence as he could, and pre-
sented the Russian letter, but the chief seemed to look
with suspicion both on the letter and on ourselves. I
imagine it was the old difficulty of reconciling our
travelling on foot with our being anything but vaga-
bonds ; but whatever it may have been, the great man
seemed little disposed to give himself any trouble
about us. In answer to Paul he said very coldly
that he must wait for the arrival of the Russian clerk
to interpret the letter to him ; ^ but,' he added, ^ if the
travellers want a room, they can have this,' pointing to
a place which looked like a compromise between a
coal-cellar and a pig-stye. This we contemptuously
refused, and strange to say our doing so impressed him
favourably. Humble tramps, such as travel on foot in
the Caucasus, would, I suppose, have been only too
glad of any shelter, and when we would none of his
black hole, it seemed to occur to the chief that we were
better than we looked. He took us to a very good
room — his own, as we afterwards found — which had the
luxury of a boarded floor, and here we waited under
the watchful eyes of the inevitable crowd until the
Russian clerk came. To explain the functions of this
person, I should say that the chief with whom we were
now dealing, Tokmak Akbaief by name, was a man
of no small importance, being chief not only of the
village but of the country round, and having duties
involving considerable responsibility entrusted to him

TOKMAK AKBAIEF. 291

by the Government. He was, however, wholly igno-
rant of the Russian language, and the business of the
clerk was to write and translate oflScial letters for him.
The chief now desired to have the Tiflis document ex-
plained to him by his own man, as I fear he distrusted
Paul's rendering of it.

He was a poor, sallow creature, this clerk, looking
as if he lived on spermaceti, and for some time after
he arrived he was paralysed with terror lest we should
attempt to quarter ourselves on him. ^ It is the
chief's business to receive you, not mine, not mine,' he
kept saying in the most abject fear of being put to ex-
pense ; but we succeeded at last in persuading him
that he was in no pecuniary danger, and then with the
assistance of the village surgeon, a smart young fellow,
apparently a native, he translated the letter to Tokmak
Akbaief.

I have carefully described our greeting by that
worthy, because it showed strongly how little one
ought to be dismayed in the Caucasus by a cold
reception. A kinder or more hospitable host than we
afterwards found this chief could not be desired. A
staid Mussulman, he made no sign when the letter was
read to him and its authenticity made certain, but it was
not long before we saw that his estimation of us was
altered. ^ Le the d'honneur ' flowed freely. A plump
lamb was slain; but better than either of these
offerings was a promise from the chief that he would
set to work at once to get us porters for our passage

xj 2

292 UTCHKULAN.

to the south side of the chain, and he shortly sent a
messenger through the village to find eight able-
bodied men for the work. Not content with these
good deeds, the hospitable man took great pains to
make the room as comfortable as he could, and bo-
coming more and more genial, he produced as the best
thing he could give us, a jug of beer, a most rare luxury
in the Caucasus. It is ill to look a gift-horse in the
mouth, or to seem to find fault with an admirable host,
but I cannot help telling my recollection of that beer,
as it was the only alcoholic drink of any kind that we
found on the northern side of the chain. Sir Wilfrid
Lawson would hardly have complained of the strength
of the fluid, for it may perhaps have contained about
one per cent, of alcohol, and six gallons would there-
fore be the smallest possible quantity a man could take
with any reasonable prospect of getting drunk. Now
no man would be likely to drink six gallons of this, if
he could get it (which he couldn't), for in taste it was
like exceedingly bad French beer drawn a couple of
days before, and I think that it must have seemed to
any native who drank it for the first time very much
what still champagne or white truffles seem to most
Englishmen, a rare and expensive form of nastiness.
A rarity and expensive it certainly was, however, and
if Tokmak Akbaief 's beer was not nice, very real was
his hospitality in offering it.

Remarkable indeed was the change which had
come over him since his cold and distrustful greeting

NECESSITY FOR PORTERS. 293

of us. This was no doubt in part due to the respect
for the Kussian order, but much more, I think, to
real kindness and generosity. He had some doubts
whether we were not vagabonds when he first saw us,
but he followed zealously the traditions of Moham-
medan hospitality now that he was convinced we were
fit to be his guests. So far as he was concerned, all
was done for us birds of passage that could be done.
But the people he ruled by no means resembled him,
as we found when we came to settle the rate of pay-
ment with the men who were to go with us as porters.
What happened is worth describing, as showing how
very imprudent it is for a traveller in a wild country
to let it be seen that he is pressed for time, even when
he has some reason to trust those around him.

As explained in the first chapter of this book, our
route from Utchkulan lay across the main chain by the
Nakhar pass, and then down the valleys of the Kliitch
and Kodor to the Russian post at Lata, where we should
be within two days' march of Soukhoum Kaleh and the
sea. What we required then at Utchkulan were men
to cross the Nakhar, and go as far as Lata with us.
That the pass to the other side of the chain was easy
we were nearly certain, but we were doubtful whether
the whole journey to Lata would require three or four
days, and we were very anxious to make it if possible
in the shorter time in order to be quite sure of the
steamer. The chief told us that three days would be
enough, and, rejoicing in this information, we went

294 UTCHKULAN.

forth to settle matters with the porters ; but, alas, we
found there was to be much oratory on the subject, to
the exclusion, as in most countries, of honesty and
fair-dealing.

There was a small crowd outside the house, amoog
whom were eight fellows who had said they would go
with us if properly paid. To them Paul offered a
rouble and a half {As. 1^^.) a day for each man. This
was what we had hitherto paid, and we had always
found the natives perfectly content with it, which was
not astonishing, seeing that it was about three times
the ordinary price of a day's labour in the country ; but
now we had fallen among thieves. A tall, powerful
fellow, with an evil expression, came forth as spokes-
man, and freeing his right arm from the folds of his
huge burka for that action which we know on great
authority to be the soul of oratory, delivered himself
thus : ^ Our time is very valuable. We are getting in
the harvest, and if we lose this fine weather and wet
comes on, we shall be in evil plight; (Then came
from the crowd the Caucasian equivalent for ** hear,
hear.") This is a big journey. With going and coming
we shall be away for a long space, leaving our crops
ungathered. Then we must take provisions, which will
cost us much. We must have two roubles a dav, and
that will requite us very ill. We would rather not go
at all, but we wish to behave well to those who are
strangers in our country.' (Hear, hear.) The speaker
then went on at considerable length, but Paul's abridg-

AN UNLUCKY OFFER, 296

ment of the latter part of hLs discourse was, that he
was saying the same thing over again with a great
many lies in addition.

There was some truth, however, in his statements
about the harvest, so we bade Paul say that we would
pay the porters two roubles a day if they would pro-
mise to get to Lata in three days — i. e., that they were
to have six roubles each for the whole journey. We
imagined that this would tempt them, but we could
not have made a more unfortunate offer. I was close
to the large scamp when Paul translated it to him, and
I saw on his swarthy face a momentary look of triumph,
such as may sometimes be seen on the countenance of a
whist- player when he has succeeded in drawing from an
adversary the precise card he wanted. Shortly there
came another long speech, the purport of which was
that though an unburdened man might do the journey
in three days, one carrying a load could not ; but that,
however this might be, the men would not go for six
roubles. They must be promised eight roubles apiece,
or they stirred not from Utchkulan. We had to pro-
mise this as they were obstinate, and then at last they
undertook to come with us ; so, thinking that the bar-
gain was concluded, we left them. But we little knew
the false move we had made in what we had said about
reaching Lata in thtee days. The big rascal had seen
with a quickness worthy of a Neapolitan that days
were important to us, and that it was necessary for us
to get to our goal in a short time. This gave an oppor-

296 UTCHKULAN.

tunity of putting on the screw, which was used
vigorously both then and afterwards. Soon there came
a message from the porters that eight roubles a man
would not be enough, that they must have ten ; and
Paul, who brought us the tidings, added that from
what he had heard he was perfectly certain that the
demand would not stop here, but that if we conceded
the ten roubles, twelve would be demanded, and so on
until some absurd sum was reached. We absolutely
refused to promise the sum asked, therefore, whereupon
the biff man said that we were not the honourable and
high-minded persons he had taken us for, and that he
and his comrades would have nothing to do with us ;
so the bargain was broken off. The excellent chief
took our side warmly. He solemnly harangued the
recalcitrants before a circle of the men of Utchkulan,
telling them that their conduct was unworthy of honest
men, and was a disgrace to the village ; that they were
behaving ill to strangers, which was a most evil thing
to do, and then he washed his hands of any ill that
might follow, not figuratively, but actually, having
water poured over them by a servant. It was about
as much use as it might be for a Bishop to go down to
the Stock Exchange and hold forth on the wickedness
of overreaching one's neighbour. The porters were
perfectly willing to bear the spiritual load of their
own iniquity, but no load of a more material kind.
However, it seemed that there was nothing more to be
done that night, and we consoled ourselves as well as

I

MARRIAGE FESTIVITIES. 297

we could by watching a splendid sunset ; but a sunset
is less of a consolation than might be expected to men
who are sadly uncertain how they shall get on their
way. That night a Russian colonel arrived in the
village on some oflBcial business, and Moore and the
chief went to tell him of our diflBculty. When con-
vinced that we were not vagabonds he promised aid,
but the extent of his power seemed doubtful.

The next morning was exceedingly fine, and I
spent some time in wandering about the ugly and
dirty village. Grimy-looking shanties were the cot-
tages of the inhabitants, and the children who played
about the muddy lanes were, so to speak, enamelled
with dirt. Certainly if a man's skin were to become
as that of a little child in the Caucasus, it would not
be nice. A ceremony which, I am glad to say, is
commonly antecedent to children in this primitive
land — to wit, a wedding — was performed on the day
when we arrived, and high revel was either continued
through the night or begun again very early next
morning, for as I passed the house where the rejoicing
had been, there came from it a wailing, monotonous
chorus more dreary than can be told, but intended to
signify pleasure and mirthfulness. Close to this place
I met Walker, who was in much perplexity. ^ How
do they manage their merry-making in this country ? '
he said. ^ It must be hard for a man to be jovial on
sour milk. Perhaps they succeed, and they seem to
sit up all night over it ; but is good-fellowship measured

298 UTCHKULAN.

by the quantity taken^ as was the case with us in the
old drinking days ? Have they their four-pail men, as
we had our four-bottle men ; and is biliousness looked
on with the same jocose sympathy which our grand*-
fathers gave to a red nose? These things are a
mystery.'

The hovels where these festivities were going on
appear in the woodcut opposite, which is from a photo-
graph taken by Walker, when, according to Caucasian
custom, the men were standing on the roofs of the
houses to signify their joy and contentment. The
valley at the head of which Elbruz is seen is that of
the Khursukh, and what appear to be the two peaks
of the mountain are in reality the cliffs on either side
of the great gap in the south-western part of the
extinct crater which has been mentioned. From
Utchkulan only the western peak of Elbruz is seen.
This entirely hides the eastern height.

Our excellent friend Tokmak Akbaief worked well
for us that day. He spoke of being able to oblige
men to go with us, but I doubt much whether the misty
authority of the chief of a Caucasian village would
extend so fan In any case he did not attempt this exer-
cise of power, but sent round to some neighbouring
hamlets and got together eight men who were willing to
carry our burdens to Lata. Having collected the
gang, he brought them to us in the afternoon, and they
seemed strong fellows enough. One, a very powerful
man, was introduced to us as the leader of the rest.

I ■

I

K

, I ■

I .■• .

A BANKER'S ACCOUNTS, 299

He was, we were told, a judge of the district, and this
high oflBce, though it did not prevent him from carry-
ing a load for us, gave him some authority over the
others, which he promised Tokmak Akbaief to use judi-
ciously on our behalf by keeping the younger men in
order, and making them do their work properly. On
close acquaintance this judge turned out a sorry rogue,
but he was not an evil person to look at, having an
honest expression and an open straightforward way of
looking a man full in the face, which is not uncommon
with very great scamps. At first, indeed, we thought
that we were fortunate.

After everything had been settled and the men had
gone, Tokmak Akbaief stayed with us some time,
being fond of talk, as all the chiefs were when they un-
bent. He was not only chief of the district, we learnt,
but acted also as a Government banker for the people
round, and he told us that he had in his possession at
that time 50,000 roubles (6,875/.) belonging to the
peasants of Utchkulan and other villages, and showed
us with some pride a large account-book, in which
everything was systematically entered. It was not
perhaps a great wonder to us, but we could appreciate
the pleasure with which he said that he could tell im-
mediately what was due to any man. He also showed
us his watch, a very rare treasure in the Caucasus, and
the more prized by him that it had been given him
by the Grand Duke Michael, who had slept a night
at his house when travelling through the country.

:iOO UTCHKULAN,

Tokmak himself made Moore a present of a beauti-
fully ornamented rifle-rest, which being shod with a
long steel spike could be used as an Alpine, or rather
a Caucasian stock.

From Utchkulan the view of Elbruz which Walk-
er's photograph has shown, is exceedingly beautiful,
and of rare glory that evening was sunset on the great
dead volcano. After the rose-tint came with wonder-
ful vividness that strange after-glow in which a moun-
tain stands out so brilliantly white and clear against
the darkening sky, paling after a few instants so
suddenly and with a change so great that it seems
almost as if the life had passed from what the moment
before was animate.

We were late in getting off next morning, as the
porters were very tardy in making their appearance, but
some of them loitered in at last, and we were told that
the others were to be picked up on the road. Tokmak
Akbaief, as a special mark of courtesy, walked a little
distance with us, and I believe there was real regret on
both sides when the time came for saying good-bye to
our most kindly host. I have never seen more goodwill
towards strangers, or a more honest desire that they
should be fairly dealt with, than were shown by this
upright and hospitable Mohammedan.

For some distance the character of the great valley
remained the same as it was round about Utchkulan.
There was a wide, level base, well cultivated. The
grassy sides were lofty, but monotonous in form and

STRICT RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE. 301

colour. T^here were at first scattered ch&lets, and from
some of these the followers who had been wanting when
w^e started came out, certainly with no undue haste, to
join us, the judge, who was last of all, keeping us
waiting some time. With the true Caucasian dislike
to walking a yard more than they could help, most of
the men brougjht horses with them to ride to the foot
of the pass, and they were cheerful enough at first, as
riding at a foot-pace gave an admirable opportunity for
that conversation which is so dear to their race. After
they had been with us a short time, we found that they
had one characteristic which we had not yet observed
among the Caucasians. This was extreme strictness in
the performance of religious rites. In each village we
had visited there had been a priest, and from a scaffold-
ing erected for the purpose resounded every evening the
famous call to prayer. But nobody prayed in conse-
quence, or even suspended talk for a moment, and as to
religious ceremonies, we never could find out whether
any were celebrated. The priest generally seemed the
idlest man in an idle village. Now, however, we were
with men who were at least strict in outward observance.
When at midday we halted in the grateful shade of a
pine-wood, our followers before eating said their
prayers at great length and with severe regard for
form. The judge stood in front of the rest, three men
kneeling behind him, and four more behind these. At
intervals they touched the ground with their foreheads.
While with us the men prayed in this manner three

:]02 UTCHKULAK

times a day; in fact, we were among the pharisees of the
Caucasus. We found them to be rogues, but it is won-
derful what pleasure a thoroughly dishonest man seems
to feel in saying his prayers.

The valley had grown naiTower before we reached
the wood, and grew yet narrower as we ascended.
Presently we came to the place where the path to the
Nakhar pass turns off up a lateral glen ; at least it
appeared to us that we clearly quitted the main valley,
which lying nearly north and south for some distance
below this point, trends above it to the south-east.
From the head of the valley we now quitted a pass
over the main chain as marked on the Russian
map, but we were unable to get any information
from the natives respecting this route, except that it
existed.

The lateral glen which we entered was, in its lower
part, of great beauty. The path lay through a forest
of great trees, and below rushed down a powerful tor-
rent, perhaps the first afiBuent of the Kuban. Above,
the valley widened, and after walking over some upland
meadows we came to a shepherd's hut, where, said the
judge, we were to stop for the night. The afternoon
was yet but little spent, so we absolutely declined to
halt, and the men very reluctantly went on, exceed-
ingly discontented, after the fashion of Caucasians,
at our taking precautions against a very heavy day's
work on the morrow. Shortly after leaving the hut
we came in sight of the pass, a snow-col obviously

A TOO EARLY HALT, 303

easy and not high, of which Gardiner remarked most
justly that it could if necessary be crossed in one
day from Utchkulan ; of course the pass would be
somewhat tiring if thus traversed, as the snow would
not be reached until the afternoon, and would therefore
be soft. Not long after we first saw the col we came
to a bit of level grass, and here our men said absolutely
they must stop. We were still some distance, two
hours as later appeared, from tlie foot of the snow, and
could easily have gone further that afternoon. Most of
the men had been riding, and none of them had carried
burdens, so that they were not in the least fatigued,
but indolence asserted her irresistible claim, and as
they were clearly determined to waste time, there was
nothing for it but to give in with good grace and halt
for the night.

Some shepherds with their flocks were near the
head of the valley, and we sent a couple of our porters
to them to buy a sheep. They were some time
gone, and we whiled away as best we could two
hours which ought to have been passed in getting
to the foot of the snow-slopes. Evening came, and
our men said their prayers with even more energy
than they had shown at midday. Soon afterwards the
two returned bringing with them a bonny young black
sheep, which was soon killed and skinned, and then
over the carcass there arose a very pretty quarrel,
which is perhaps worth telling, as it was really due to
that one incautious speech at Utchkulan which had

304 UTCHKULAN.

already caused us so much trouble. What happened
now was almost the necessary sequence to what befell
us there.

Our followers had learnt in the village what we
had unfortunately made evident — namely, that we were
pressed for time, and that it was of great importance
to us to get over the pass quickly ; so that they had us,
as they imagined, in their power. They had said
their prayers vigorously, and were not disinclined to
sin up to the amount of the credit which they thought
they had established aloft, and the sheep gave them au
opportunity. When engaging them we had stipu-
lated, as we always did with porters, that they should
bring their own provisions, to which they entirely
agreed. Now, however, they demanded half the sheep
for which we had paid, and after some talk we gave
them the two fore-quarters, being anxious to humour
them, as it would be almost impossible for us to find
our way on the other side of the mountains without
their aid. But the two fore-quarters, which were very
nice joints in their way, were brought back and con-
temptuously thrown down in front of us. Full of
astonishment we sent for the judge, and asked him
what was wrong.

The Judge. — We are very much discontented, and
indeed with good reason. You are behaving most ill
to us. You promised that you would feed us, and feed
us well during the journey (this was a lie), and now
you send us two fore-quarters of a sheep.

A QUARREL OVER A SHEEP, 306

Moore, — But what ails with the two fore-quar-
ters?

The Judge, — Everything ails. The haunches and
saddle are the best parts, as any one knows, and you
take these for yourselves, and give us what is not so
good. The young men are very wroth, and rightly
too. Understand that we despise the miserable fare
you offer us, and that we will have nothing more to do
with you, but will go back to our homes. Fore-
quarters of a sheep, indeed 1

Oh, the monotony of human nature ! Here we
had come this long journey, and had reached this se-
cluded valley of the mysterious Caucasus, to have the
exact equivalent of a mutiny in the servants' hall.
The butler and the footmen would not eat shoulder of
mutton. That was the translation of the quarrel
which had arisen, and furiously it raged, just as it
might in a well-regulated country-house. But pre-
sently our men went beyond the pretensions even of
English servants. Said one of the porters, ^ You are
treating us vilely, and departing from your word.
You promised Tokmak Akbaief that you would behave
handsomely to us, and would buy not one, but two,
three, or four sheep if we desired, so that we might
feast and make merry. Now you offer us only the
worst portion of one sheep, and moreover you sit apart
from us, as if we were dogs, forsooth. Who are you
that you should do so ? We consider ourselves quite
your equals, and had expected that you would treat

806 UTCHKULAK

us as your friends and comrades, and sit and eat with
us. But we will have nothing more to do with you,
and will go back to our homes, for in truth you are
low vagabonds, whom we altogether despise.' Here
followed a string of very furious abuse and a chorus
of approbation from the rest, the judge, who had
been sent specially to keep the younger men in order,
encouraging the mutiny in every possible way. In a
short time he came to us with a demand that he and
the others should be paid at once for their day's
work, without which, he said, they would do Dothing
more. This meant of course that they were to be
placed in a position to leave us whenever they might
think fit, without any loss to themselves. Things
looked serious, for the fellows had worked themselves
into a state of real passion, and it was quite possible
that with Caucasian thoughtlessness as to consequences
they might go back to their hamlets. We might
perhaps succeed in getting them punished if they
did so, but we should miss the steamer at Soukhoum
Kaleh which, for two of us, would be a very serious
matter.

Moore took aside the judge, who was busy pro-
moting the cursing and swearing, and told him that no
payment would be made until the end, and that he
must endeavour to quell the rebellion which had
arisen ; * and remember,' added Moore, ^ that Tokmak
Akbaief has sent you as chief of the party, and that I
iiave your name written down. If the men go back,

THE STORM QUELLED, 307

we shall complain to the Russians, and shall send them
your name, and, whatever may be done to the rest,
you may be sure that you will not go unpunished.'
Now the judge was an arrant coward, and the news
that we had his name, and the threat of sending it to
the Russian authorities, fell upon him like cold water
in the midst of his hearty enjoyment. Heaven only
knows whether the Russians would have done any-
thing, but he certainly was startled at the hideous idea
that the pleasure of abusing travellers might have to
be paid for, and that the whole cost might fall to him.
It suddenly struck him that he was possibly getting
into a very nice scrape, and self-interest produced a
rapid conversion. He withdrew the demand for pay-
ment, and set to work to calm the others, who just
before he had been inciting to mutiny. As has
happened with much greater agitators, he found
quelling the storm very different work from what
raising it had been, but at last something like peace
was restored, and the men gave us no more trouble
that night. To a few incautious words at Utchkulan
all our difficulties had been owing, and there was some
satisfaction in shutting the door after the horse was
out of the stable, by drawing a moral, which was : —
When travelling in a wild country never be in a
hurry, or, if you are unavoidably pressed for time, do
not let the natives find it out.

One has heard sometimes of a dislike on the part
of Mohammedans to eating with Christians. It was

X 2

308 UTCHKULAN.

worth notice that in this squabble the rigid observers
who were with us, so far from showing any feeling of
the kind, complained that we did not eat with them, as
in good fellowship we ought to have done.

809

CHAPTER XII.

THE NAKHAR PASS AND THE VALLEYS OF THE
KLiJTCH AND THE KODOR. — THE LAST MARCH.

Caucasian dawdling — The Nakhar Pass — Poor view from the Col — The
southern side — Great change — The valley of the Kliitch — Magnificent
forests — Descent of the valley — Extraordinary grandeur of the scenery
— A waterfall — A mineral spring — The valley of the Kodor — Sir
John Maundevile and his account of the cloud that covered the
heathen Emperor and his host — Solitude of the Kodor valley — Won-
derful fertility — The tombs of the warriors of the Kuban — The
Tchkalta — Indolence of our followers — The Engineers' Camp — The
farewell of the men of Utchkulan — Their indifference to fasting —
Beautiful view of the valley — Another camp — Lata — The malaria
— Walk to Zebelda — Its position — An exploring party — The road
from Zebelda to Soukhoum Kaleh — The Greek settlement on the
Kelasur — Uncertainty as to the track — Intense heat — Thoughts on
Caucasian travel — The valleys of Eastern Abkhasia — The End.

During the first part of the night an ominous cloud
covered the col of the Nakhar pass, and as it was
certain that the Utchkulan men would not make their
way over the snow if the work was in any degree
more difficult than usual, I watched the sky with con-
siderable anxiety for some time. The Nakhar might
be crossed in almost any weather by moderately reso-
lute mouDtaineers, but neither bribes nor taunts would
be likely to have any effect on our porters if there was

310 THE N A KHAR PASS.

even the appearance of risk^ and I felt sure that our
friend the judge would become strongly sensible of his
duty towards his wives and family should there be a
remote possibility of the smallest injury befalling him,
and there was therefore some little cause for uneasi-
ness. This vanished, however, at midnight, for the
mist lifted, some clouds which had risen at sunset dis-
appeared, and it was clear that the most faint-hearted
would not find in tempest or fog any excuse for turning
next day. Our followers had spoken, however, before
we quarrelled with them of the work being severe on
the other side of the pass, owing to the badness of the
path down the valleys of the Kliitch and the Kodor,
and had expressed much doubt whether we could reach
Lata in two days from our camping-place. It would
want hard walking to do it, more than men carrying
burdens could accomplish, they said, and we none of
us doubted that in the matter of being behindhand
they would be at least as good as their word. They
said, and said I believe truthfully, that they themselves
wished to make the journey quickly, as they were
anxious to get back to their homes as soon as possible,
it being harvest-time ; but nevertheless it was tolerably
certain that this would be as nothing against the
national love of dawdling, and that they would halt
without scruple or shame whenever indolence so in-
clined them. However, there was the certainty of fine
weather, and that was something.

The forerunner of dawn, that is to say, Paul — who

LAZINESS OF OUR FOLLOWERS. 311

always got up some time before sunrise to make tea
and to put things in order before a start — roused us for
our day's work when the first faint light showed in the
eastern sky. We were soon ready to go, but of
course had to wait while the Caucasians stretched
themselves, conversed for some time, and in leisurely
fashion caught their horses. This done, we got them
off after rather more than the usual delay, and made
our way over the stunted pastures of the valley's
narrow base. At some little distance from our sleeping-
place we passed a shepherd's hut, half-ruined but in-
habited, and here our indescribably lazy followers
wished to make a long stoppage, which we absolutely
refused to allow. Having found how very little use
concession had been the night before, we took a
diiFerent tone now, and curtly told them to obey orders
without discussion. This surprised them in no small
degree, but it was obviously the right way to treat
them, for after a protest they submitted, and unless I
mistook the purport of some low-toned, uneasy talk
which they had together, were uncomfortable about
their last night's frolic, and began to throw the blame
on each other, like frightened schoolboys. Some twQ
hours after leaving the sleeping-place we came to a
tiny alp at the foot of the glacier which we were to
cross. Here the horses had to be left, and to this
place we ought to have come the night before, for the
little alp, tolerably level in parts and well supplied
with water, offered quite as good a camping-ground as

312 THE NAKHAIt PASS.

the spot at whick we had halted ; but our followers had
been earnest in their determination to waste time.

The top of the Nakhar is a stony graty whence a
little glacier descends in gentle undulations and at a
small average angle. This glacier is partly divided in
the middle by a ridge of rocks, and the traveller cross-
ing the pass from the northern side strikes to the
left of this ridge, and makes in an oblique line towards
the left, i.e.y towards the east. The easy ascent lies
over slopes and terraces of snow, and with this in good
condition about an hour and a half are required to
go from the little alp to the graty which is struck at its
eastern end under a small rocky peak. Oxen and
unladen horses are driven over this pass.

Our fellows lounged across the glacier in the leisurely
Caucasian fashion, and would have made I do not know
how many halts on the easy way if we had not angrily
urged them on. To their often-repeated statements that
they were men and not animals, and must have frequent
rest, we answered illogically enough that it was their
business to obey and not to discuss, and as this was pre-
cisely the kind of argument they understood, we got
them to the top of the pass in decent time. There of
course they took a prolonged halt while we looked at
the view, which indeed was but a poor one. There was
little to be seen to the north, and to the south scarcely
anything worth observing except a glimpse of the great
valley of the Kodor. For a pass over the main chain
the Nakhar certainly seemed singularly uninterest-

DESCENT TO THE KLUTCH VALLEY. 313

ing 5 but we were to come to better things before long,
and to tread enchanted ground.

On the southern side of the chain where the Nak-
har crosses it is a wild cirque, surrounded by small
rocky peaks, to which cling a few steep glaciers. Of
these only one, which is in the north-western part of
the cirqucj and descends to a level of perhaps 7,500
feet, is of any size. The col itself, although the way
to it on the northern side had been across a glacier, was
free from snow, as were the slopes beneath it on the
south. Down these, which are partly grass, partly
rocks and stones, a zigzag path, not ill-contrived, leads
to the head of the valley of the Kliitch.

This path we followed down a very steep descent of
some 2,000 feet, at the end of which we found our-
selves at the beginning of the valley, and already sur-
rounded by the magnificent vegetation of the south.
The Kliitch being reached, our men made a long halt
for conversation and prayer, so that there was plenty
of time for us to look about us, and to realise the won-
derful change from the Northern to the Southern Cau-
casus. It was as if we had travelled, not over a narrow
ridge, but over a great space of country. We were in
another climate — in another land. Most people know
the astonishing difference between the two sides of the
great Alpine chain, between the austerity and severe
beauty of Switzerland and the colour and the splen-
dour of the richness of Italv : but even this is not so
great or so striking as the difference between the

314 THE VALLEY OF THE KLUTCH.

northern and southern slopes of the Caucasus. We
had left on the other side dull grass-land very mono-
tonous in colour, sparse pine-woods, bare rocks, a keen
and bracing air. Here we came to vegetation of almost
tropical richness, to many flowers, to a huge forest of
noble trees, covering hill-side and ridge, to a varied
profusion of beautiful colour, to the hot, close, and as it
were loaded southern atmosphere. The Abkhasian val-
leys of the Caucasus have a more than Italian richness,
as those of the north have a more than Alpine severity.
It seemed hard to believe that only a few hours' walk-
ing were required to pass from one region to the other.
That the beautiful land we had now reached was
not free from some of those evils which affect countries
where a powerful sun shines on a rich vegetation, we
were destined at a later period to discover to our cost
That we were to suffer from one of the lesser plagues
of a hot climate we found out at once. From the
dense herbage round mosquitoes and horse-flies rose in
crowds, and attacked the whole party with the voracity
due to a long fast. Why insects in unfrequented
places should have such a passion for human blood,
which cannot possibly be part of their natural diet, is
a great mystery to me. Nature, contrary to her
usual practice, seems to have inspired them with an in-
stinctive desire for food they can but very rarely get
A dog does not hunger after peaches, neither does a
horse after mutton-chops; but in an uninhabited country
mosquitoes prey on the traveller as readily as though

HORSE-FLIES AND MOSQUITOES, 315

man was their habitual and natural food. This appe-
tite is as diflScultto understand as a cat's fondness for
fish.

They attacked us with eagerness certainly, and
with fair impartiality between Moslem and Christian,
but, if they had a weakness, it was for the judge. That
worthy man was saying his prayers with his usual
vigour, but the horse-flies — with a view, no doubt, to
increasing the merit of the effort — swarmed round him
and plagued him so that he was obliged at last to stop
for a short interval of cursing. These horse-flies of the
Kliitch valley were the most venomous I have ever
known. The effect of their bites did not disappear
for some time.

We had halted on the border of the mighty forest
which covers all the valley, save a little space at its
he ad, where the ground is for the most part clear of
large trees, though covered with the dense vegetation
of which I have spoken. But only a short distance
is it from the foot of the cirque to the woodland, and
starting again at the end of prayers, which the mos-
quitoes and the horse-flies played a demoniacal part in
greatly shortenlug, we were almost immediately in the
shadow of the woods, and through these woods our
path lay for the rest of the day as we descended to-
wards the great valley of the Kodor.

The beauty of the forest has in one way a greater
effect than the beauty of mountains. It Is Immediately
and intuitively felt by all. Snow scenery, in spite of

tiie THE VALLEY OF THE KLUTCH,

the conventional raptures which it produces, is not
always deeply impressive to those who look on peak
and glacier for the first time. It requires thought
and observation fully to appreciate the high mountains,
but no man with anv sense of what is beautiful in
nature can wander unmoved through the glades of a
mighty forest. The mystery and grandeur of great
woods seem to affect alike the rude and the culti-
vated mind. The Caucasians, like most primitive
people, have usually no appreciation of fine scenery ;
yet it has been seen that one of them spoke with rap-
ture of the woodlands which lie near the Ingur ; and
the readers of Stanley's account of Livingstone will
remember how fondly the great traveller spoke of the
greenwood, and how he hoped that his body might rest
in the shadow of one of those great African forests
through the deep recesses of which his path had so
often lain.

Now our way this day was through a primeval
forest as beautiful, I believe, as ever gladdened a
wanderer's eyes by its magnificence or blessed him
with its shade. Those who know only the pine-
clothing of the Alps can form no idea of the varied
grandeur of these woodlands of the southern slopes
of the Caucasus. An intensely fertile soil is here acted
on by a sun of almost tropical power, and the forests
which thus created spring from the hill-sides are to
the Alpine forests as a cathedral to a church, or a line-
of-battle ship to a frigate. Even the memory of the

THE FOREST. 817

rich vales of the Italian Alps grows pale when they
are compared with that marvellous wooded ravine
through which the Kliitch flows down to the Kodor.

The scale of the trees, I need hardly say, grew
much greater as we descended. Those first seen were
birches, but we soon came to far greater and loftier
growths, and walked in the shadow of the giant pine
and of the lofty Levant oak. Both these trees attain
a huge size in the Kliitch valley, the latter espe-
cially growing to an immense height and becoming
the predominant tree as the downward course is fol-
lowed. The underwood, which is very dense, consists
of rhododendron, azalea, hazel and laurel, the latter
being in great profusion, and sometimes making the
way dark as though it were night. Among the great
trees we came to beeches as we got lower down.

The steep sides of the valley are of great height,
but the dense woods cover them completely, extending
to the lofty ridges, so that the richest colour is com-
bined with noble mountain form. The only way in
which I can attempt to give any idea of the glories
of the Kliitch is to ask the reader to imagine the
beautiful bank of Cliefden steeper than it is, and some
fifteen times higher. Even then would be wanting
the occasional glimpses of lofty peaks. Perhaps the
finest part of the whole of this unequalled valley is
that opposite a nameless glen which opens out of
it to the north-west, ascending with wonderful steep-
ness to a stately peak, which, rising over the fore-

318 THE VALLEY OF THE KLUTCH

shortened slopes, seems of almost incredible height.
From its foot a powerful stream roars down to join
the furious Kliitch. The glen itself, broken and
precipitous, but covered by the magnificent forest,
has that strange look of wildness and solitude which
belongs sometimes to recesses in the heart of the
mountains where is intuitively felt that man goes
rarely or never. Abkhasian hunters doubtless tra-
veled it in former days ; but it is now, like much of
the country round, as solitary as the great Sahara.

It had been only a little after ten when we had
reached the head of the valley, and for the whole of
the rest of a long summer's day we were journey-
ing through the glades of great trees, following a
track as faint as the clue to Rosamond's bower;
but the judge, who acted as chief guide, was not an
incompetent man, albeit a disloyal and abusive one,
and had that remarkable power of remembering a path
he had formerly followed in which the natives of moun-
tain countries seem sometimes to rival Red Indians.
Through the densest vegetation, the thickest under-
wood, in the splendid groves of laurel where we had
almost to go on all-fours, through brake of azalea, of
rhododendron, over decaying masses of forest debris, he
never hesitated or faltered, never once strayed from
the true line. In spite of the shade the heat was
intense, and the Caucasians, accustomed to the bracing
air of the northern slopes, suflFered quite as much from
it as we did, while we were all alike victims to the un-

A WATERFALL. 319

remitting vigour of a cloud of insects which held to us
throughout the day, which must have been marked
with a red letter for them. The judge was, I think,
their special favourite, for when we passed out of the
dark shadow into a streak of sunlight, I could see a
host of mosquitoes like a glory round his head.

Our men, though stopping often after the Cau-
casian fashion, went well over the rugged way, which
was a steep descent, the valley of the Kliitch sinking
with gi'cat rapidity. The track, for path it could not
be called, lay over the roughest possible ground for
walking, but nevertheless we made fair progress, and
found ourselves as evening came on drawing near the
end of the valley, in the lower part of which we halted
for some time by a waterfall of great beauty. The
Klutch makes many bounds in its progress down its
steeply-falling bed, but we had more often heard than
seen the angry stream ; now, however, we were in
full sight of a magnificent plunge of the river, and
stood watching it for long as it showed gloriously in
the mellow light of that beautiful southern evening.
Although the streams of the Caucasus are so numerous
and powerful we had, strange to say, seen but few
waterfalls, and these were not striking ; but that on
which we now gazed seemed noble and magnificent,
even in the valley of the Klutch.

Near was a mineral spring, and of this our followers
who had, I know not how, learnt that mineral waters
have medicinal qualities, drank largely. As the excel-

320 THE VALLEY OF THE KLUTCH.

lent creatures were all hale and strong as men could
be, they would have been puzzled to say what good
result they expected ; perhaps, however, m this respect
they were not unlike the drinkers of mineral waters
further West. Even as old gossips in the Bath Pump-
room did, they chatter over their drink, but this was
only natural, for the sons of Utchkulan were, of rare
fertility in speech, rivalling our early friends the men
of Gebi. All day long the chorus had gone on, led by
the judge, who talked steadily from the top of the
Nakhar pass to the waterfall and the mineral spring.
He was a good leader, having a mighty chest and
possessing one of those resonant baritone voices which
rarely belong to any but very powerful and vigorous
men.

The track which we followed all day is on the left
bank of the Kliitch, and it was just nightfall when we
reached the bridge, which very near the end of the
valley carries the path over to the right bank of the
river. Having crossed, we camped for the night on a
beautiful bit of level grass-land by the waterside. The
judge had strongly urged us to halt at a lovely little
meadow in the woods which we had passed some dis-
tance higher up, telling us that we could not reach
that night any other place fit for camping ; but one
might as well believe what a man says about his own
horses, as pay any attention to a Caucasian in these
matters, so we had absolutely refused to stop. The
place where we did halt by the bridge was perfect for

NO INHABITANTS, 321

a bivouac in every way. Its height above the sea was,
according to the barometer, rather less than 3,500 feet,
a lower elevation than we had slept at for some weeks.
The col of the Nakhar pass is 9,600 feet above the sea,
so that we had descended 6,000 feet. On the Kussian
map some chS-lets are marked at a point on the right
bank of the stream considerably above where we
camped, but we had not been able to see any sign of
them. The valley of the Kliitch is indeed an absolute
solitude. At one place our followers pointed out to
us, high up on the eastern bank, a ruin, which they
told us was that of a fortress commanding the pass in
former times, but this stronghold has been long, long
deserted, and no habitation now breaks anywhere the
solitude of the forest. The Nakhar pass is still tra-
versedj but the number of those who cross it has
much fallen off of late years. When we were in-
quiring for porters at Utchkulan, we could not hear
of a single man in the village who had been over the
pass that season, and the judge, our principal guide,
told us that formerly he used to cross the Nakhar once
a year, but that now for a great while he had not
been over it.

There is a certain melancholy felt after passing
through a region of extraordinary beauty, at the
thought that it may never be seen agaip, and this was
certainly strong at the end of a day's jouriiey through
the Kliitch, for a traveller could hardly hope that his
way would ever again lie through the light and shadow

Y

322 THE VALLEY OF THE KODOR.

of its magnificent wckxJs. In the course of much
travel in mountain country^ we had seen nothing so
noble and beautiful as this vast ravine with its almost
tropical forest clothing it from stream to ridge. The
like may be found amongst the Himalayas or Andes^
but not amongst the Alps.

The long grass of the little meadow was pleasant
to lie on, but the horse-flies and mosquitoes made night
hideous, and at the first hint of dawn we were glad to
get ready for a start. Even the indolent Caucasians
dawdled less than usual, so that we were on the march
shortly after daybreak, plunging at once into the dense
forest, where for some distance the path lay through a
* thick pleached alley,' almost as closely covered by the
foliage as the old-fashioned French berceau. Now and
then there was a glimpse of hill and valley, but save
for these momentary breaks we were for two hours in
the pleasant half-darkness of the thick woods, and
when at last we came out dazed and blinking into the
sunlight, we found ourselves in the great valley of the
Kodor, which we had entered we knew not when in
the shadow of the forest The way was now for a
while over the fair meadow-land, broken by trees and
underwood, which here lies on the northern side of the
rapid Kodor. We had by this time advanced some
distance into Abkhasia, which we had entered when we
descended into the valley of the Kliitch. This land has
been spoken of by a rightly famous traveller of other
days, whose name I mention with some just national

SIB JOHN MAUNBEVILE, 823

pride. Sir John Maundevile has written of Abkhasia,
or, as he calls it, Abcaz, and in doing so has given an
example of that faculty in which he was unrivalled.
The Caucasians are good liars ; sometimes admirably
inventive liars, far excelling as a rule us poor Westerns
in this respect ; but it is something to think that here
England has held her own — rather more than her own —
and that an Englishman has set foot in the Caucasus, or
at all events has written of it, compared to whom the
Caucasians are indeed as little children. Says Sir John :
^ In that kyngdom of Abcaz is a great marvaylle. For
a provynce of the contree that hath well in circuyt 3
iorneyes that men klepen Hanyson, is alle covered
vrith derknesse, withouten ony brightnesse or light ; so
that no man may see ne here, ne no man dar entren
in to hem. And natheles thei of the contree seyn
that som tyme men heren voys of folk, and hors
uyzenge and cokkes crowynge.'

* For a cursed Emperour of Persie that hight
Saures, pursuede alle Cristene men to destroye hem,
and to compelle hem to make sacrifise to his ydoles ;
and rood with grete host, in alle that ever he might
for to confounde the Cristene men.' A large number
of whom endeavouring to escape from him he met,
whereupon * the Cristene men kneleden to the grounde,
and made hire preyeres to God to sokoure them. And
anon a gret thikke cloud cam and covered the Em-
perour and alle his boost,' * and so schulle thei ever

T 2

324 THE VALLEY OF THE KODOR.

more abyden in derknesse, tille the day of Dome be
the myracle of God.' (Edit. 1725.)

So speaks the truthful knight^ recorder of so many
marvels, and, strange to say, five centuries after his
death the idea of a great cloud covering the beautiful
Abkhasian country seems not without a certain figura-
tive truth to the traveller who passes through its lonely
valleys. It would be hard to find anything fairer
and richer than the meadows and forests by which the
Kodor flows, and we saw them under the full strength
of the southern sun to which the land owes much of
its extraordinary fertility; but though hardly any
natural beauty seemed wanting to the magnificent
valley, it was impossible to traverse it without that
feeling of gloom and desolation which comes from the
absence of any sign of human occupation. Dwellers in
the upper part of the vale there are none whatever. We
did indeed meet three pale, hungry-looking wayfarers
on their way to the northern side of the chain, but
they in nowise belonged to the valley^ and were hasten-
ing out of it as quickly as they could. Considerably
lower down we found some engineers surveying, and
there is a Russian post at Lata where once was a native
village. But soldiers of an alien race holding a coun-
try cannot be looked on as inhabitants, and above the
river Tchkhalta there are not even soldiers. The finest
part of the Kodor is a gorgeous solitude, and its lone-
liness is the more impressive that it is a very garden of
the earth. As we went our way over the rich broken

GREAT FERTILITY. 325

prairie which forms the wide base of the upper part of
the valley, we passed scenes of beauty such as could
not be rivalled on the Italian side of the Alps, and the
fertility of this Caucasian Eden is equal to its splen-
dour. We found, growing wild, peaches, apples,
plums, strawberries, cherries, crab-apples, walnuts, and
filberts. There were also wild raspberry and currant-
bushes, wild vines and hops. Perhaps a more generous
soil does not exist. It was almost appalling to find a
land thus teeming with the fruits of the earth altogether
deserted by men. It seemed as though there hung
over this beautiful Kodor some curse as heavy as that
of which Maundevile, after the fashion of his time,
strove to give material description. Despite its noble
and varied beauty there was an unutterable sadness
about this valley of the shadow of death.

Even for our shallow and prating followers it had a
mournful association. At one place, where the turf
was marked by what looked like some rough heaps of
logs, the men halted, and turning towards the East
muttered a few words. When I learnt the meaning of
this I almost forgave their dishonesty and lying. Here
it seems in former days was a great fight between the
Abkhasians and the warriors of the Kuban valley.
The log-heaps marked the tombs of the northern
heroes, and, in accordance with a beautiful usage, the
Mussulmen of the Karatchai never pass this place
without pausing to say a prayer by the graves of their
countrymen dead in honourable war.

326 THE VALLEY OF THE KODOR.

Otherwise our followers gave us little cause for
liking them better that day. They loitered and
dawdled with more than Caucasian indolence, thereby
greatly increasing the severity of their labour, for, as
any one who has carried a burden in a mountain
country knows, irregular walking makes the work
much harder. Moore had said to them in the Kliitch
valley, * If you go well and get us to Lata in three
days, we will pay you as for four days. This I swear
to you by running water, the British Parliament, or
any other type of purity.' But now, when reminded of
this, the judge answered with prompt rhetoric: —
* Money is a good thing, a very good thing ; but better
still is that breath which is the life of man (putting
his hands on his huge chest). If we walk so as to do
ourselves grievous harm, of what avail will an extra
day's pay be ? ' Wherein verbally the judge had
much the best of it, though as a matter of fact he and
the rest were dawdling abominably and eating wild
fruit, whether ripe or not, with a hideous indifference
to results.

We got them along, however, by hook or by crook,
and reached towards noon what is perhaps the grandest
part of the valley, that where the Tchkhalta flows
into the Kodor. The track rises to the top of a spur
which forming the left bank of the tributary stream,
juts for some distance into the great vale, and from
the height thus gained there is a noble and marvellous
prospect of the wild but beautiful glen through which

INDOLENCE OF OUR FOLLOWERS. Z'2^

the Tchkhalta rushes, of the mighty valley of the Kodor,
and of a very lovely wooded dale which opens into it
from the south nearly opposite the Tchkhalta, alto-
gether a sight not to be forgotten as seen under a mid-
day sun. At the head of the Tchkhalta valley is a fine
peak, which is disclosed with singular abruptness to
those who are descending the vale of the Kodor.

That great valley narrows somewhat below this
stream; the forest creeps nearer down to the river,
and much of our way was in the grateful shadow of
the woods ; but, sunlight or shadow, there was no
getting our men over the ground at anything ap-
proaching a fair pace. They were civil and submissive
now, having entirely abandoned their native inso-
lence, but in spite of all we could say they flopped
down at every tempting-looking place, just as people
do after a picnic at Bumham Beeches or Bushey Park,
but without the fair excuse which such can give of
having eaten and drunk too much. Save in so far as
the Caucasians had^ indulged in a taste for wild fruit,
the diet of both travellers and followers that day and
the evening before had been such as might have suited
a Trappist monk in Holy Week. Empty or full, how-
ever, our men were impartially indolent, and we were
discussing the expediency of two of the party pushing
on to Lata to get horses if possible, leaving the others
to guard the baggage, when suddenly in an open space
among the trees we came to tents assuredly not made
or occupied by Caucasians. It was the encampment

328 THE VALLEY OF THE KODOR.

of a Kussian officer engaged in surveying the country,
who had pushed thus far forward in the beautiful
wilderness. Very naturally he wondered not a little
at the sudden appearance of four travellers from the
depths of the forest of the Kodor.

When it was explained to him who the vagrants
were, however, he was most kind and courteous, as
were invariably the Kussian officers whom we met
during our journey. He gave us all the information
we needed, and with the greatest good-nature allowed
us to take for our course to Lata two horses and a
Mingrelian their owner who with his animals was
attached to the encampment. We were able therefore
to get rid of the men of Utchkulan. I believe there
was heartfelt pleasure at parting on both sides. Since
we had been on the southern slopes of the chain, and
as we approached the Kussian post, our followers had
become civil, nay, almost obsequious and deferential.
Whether the officer at Lata would have punished them
simply on our complaint I very much doubt, but cer-
tain it is that they were oppressed by a vague fear of
having their misdeeds visited on them, and were only
too glad to be allowed to turn back and get on their
way home without any awkward questions being
raised. As dismissing them was our act we paid
them as for the whole journey, to their huge surprise
and delight, for they fully expected to have their hire
largely docked, not understanding how we, having
now the best position, could fail to take advantage oi

A FAREWELL SPEECH, 329

it. The judge was almost unmanned when^ having
carefully counted the rouble notes, he found the sum
correct, and sent us a message that he had some words
to say to us, and entreated us to hear him. We
agreed of course ; whereupon the judge addressed
himself to the engineer officer's servant, who under-
stood his language better than Paul. This man
translated what was said into Mingrelian for Paul, and
Paul rendered the discourse to us. Thus well reported
the judge spoke : — ^ Tell the gentlemen,' he said, * that
we feel indeed what noble and honourable persons they
are, and how greatly above us. It has been most
truly a pleasure to serve them. For those wild, foolish,
and miserable words which were spoken two nights
ago, we most humbly implore the gentlemen to forgive
us. I did indeed endeavour to restrain the young
men, but they were full of folly and violence, and
would not listen to me (he had been the worst of them
all). Now in truth they feel how bad and vile their,
conduct was (murmurs of assent from the others), and
we all pray the gentlemen to forgive us, and to look
upon the words spoken as those of mere madmen and
idiots, meaning nothing, for madmen and idiots indeed
we were when we insulted men so honourable and so
much above us. We were dogs and sons of dogs to
behave as we did (applause), and indeed the gentle-
men may well despise what ^as said, and look upon it
as so much mud, dirt, and mire under their feet (ge-
neral assent from the rest.) '

330 THE VALLEY OF THE KOJDOH.

Such was the full and ample apology of these
strange fellows. Did it come from mere fulsome ser-
vility at being paid more than they expected, or from
honest regret taking an exaggerated form ? Perhaps
both feelings prompted the men of Utchkulan, in whom^
whatever one might think of their character, there cer-
tainly was one thing to admire, and that was their
stout indifference to fasting. They had the smallest
possible stock of food for their two days' walk back to
the Kuban, but for this they seemed to care nothing.
The Caucasians assuredly are not the slaves of their
appetites. Let any one try to imagine the consterna-
tion and fury of a party of Swiss guides who found that
for a two days' march their only provisions wey e some
miserable scraps of mouldy bread.

As for us, we got the Mingrelian and his pack-
horses off as soon as we could, for there was still a long
stretch of country between us and Lata, and went on
our way through the forest over the worst planned
path I have ever seen. It was tiring work, for the
heat was, as it had been all day, intense, and the way
lay over a series of steep and for the most part unneces-
sary ups and downs ; but unlooked-for recompenses for
labour and fasting are sometimes at hand in the
Caucasus, and, as in the beginning of our journey we
had lighted on that wonderful rhododendron garden on
the slopes above the Rion, so now we came to a sight
of such surpassing beauty as to be more than full reward

BEAUTIFUL VIEW. 331

for hunger and the weariness of following that rugged
Abkhasian track. *

From a little open place in the woods where the
path wound round a spur, there opened suddenly the
vista of the great vale. Afar off at the head, stately
sad-looking rock peaks, snow-crowned ; below these
and in apt contrast with their desolate grandeur, the
promontories and slopes of the rich, smiling valley
covered through all their great extent, and down even to
the place where we stood, by the deep-toned but varied
colour of the magnificent forest; beneath, a fair meadow-
land, through which flashed the rapid Kodor — a scene
almost perfect in its fulness of beauty, as looked on
by the light of a southern sunset ; but one would fain
have beheld some sign of human life in this splendid,
solitary vale.

A sign of life we did indeed see considerably lower
down, but it was due to a mere pioneer in the fertile
wilderness, like the Russian oflScer whom we had
already met. Just after nightfall we came to the en-
campment of a second engineer, employed like the
first in surveying the valley. As we were still some
little distance from Lata, and as the track was not
such as would be delectable in the dark, we camped
here for the night. There was a little bit of level
ground where we could have slept pleasantly enough,
if only the engineer's horses had not been in the habit
of browsing there. Now there is an old saying that a
horse will not tread on a sleeping man, but from my

332 THE VALLEY OF THE KODOR,

experience of that night I would strongly advise
fravellers to avoid, if possible, putting this saying to
the test. Two hours' walk next morning took us to
Lata, which consists of a large barrack, an adjoining
building used as a hospital, and a number of trim
white cottages. These have succeeded the native
dwellings which once stood here, but have now alto-
gether disappeared. The situation in a wide undulating
meadow broken by trees and underwood, with the
great forest on either side, is extremely beautiful, and
one of the streams of the Kodor here running through
several channels flows hard by the houses. A plea-
santer place than this seems for man to live in could
hardly be desired, but there hangs over it, as over all
the fair country round, a terrible curse, the weight of
which we were in some degree destined to feel. The
powerful sun acting on the teeming vegetation raises
the subtle miasma so often found in places of rare
beauty, and the magnificent valley of the Kodor is full
of malaria. Lata is so unhealthy that it has been
found necessary to build a hospital for the soldiers of
the garrison at Zebelda, which is some distance lower
down the valley, but stands on higher ground. Here
the men can recover from the effects of the illness, but
at Lata convalescence is extremely slow, sometimes
impossible. The fever, we were told, rarely kills on
the first attack, but is not unfrequently fatal if taken
a second time, so that the Kodor is to no small number
in truth the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Passing

CAPTAIN SAM0ELEN8KY, 333

through the country as we did in full summer time,
and sleeping two nights on the ground, we were not
likely to escape, and we all four suffered afterwards
from the fever, which took ten or twelve days to incul-
cate. Two of my companions, I regret to say, were
very seriously ill from it on the first attack, and have
had more than one relapse since, for after the fashion
of malaria fevers it is, if taken badly, apt to recur, an
obstinate and unwelcome visitor whom it is exceedingly
difficult finally to dismiss. The engineer at whose
camp we passed the night came down during the day
suffering from the common illness.

Eisks of this kind, however, must often be run in
travel, and we thought not at all of the fever during the
day we stopped at Lata, where Captain Samoelensky,
the commandant, gave us a welcome which could hardly
have been more kindly and genial if we had been old
friends instead of utter strangers. A man must have
journeyed in a wild country to know how pleasant it is
to be thus greeted on returning to civilisation. The
authorities at Tiflis had written to the Governor of
Soukhoum Kaleh, and he had informed Captain
Sameolensky of our probable arrival. He thus knew
who we were, but had it been otherwise, our appearance
would certainly have justified him in putting us under
arrest as armed and singularly suspicious vagabonds.

There was no possibility of getting on further that
day, and Lata was a place well-suited for that lounging
indolence which is so grateful after hard walking. The

334 THE VALLEY OF THE KODOR.

principal amusement of the soldiers seemed to be rear-
ing bees; and there was an immense collection of hives
all fully tenanted. That the men should not seek any
severe form of industry appeared to us most natural^
for the heat at Lata v^as intense^ and the air oppressive
and enervating. The night was almost as close as the
day, and no one was sorry to make an early start. By
the courtesy of a Russian colonel, who was at Lata
for an inspection of the garrison, we were allowed to
take two horses belonging to the troop to carry our
baggage to Soukhoum Kaleh. Our that day's goal
was Zebelda.

The path, after running for a time parallel to the
river, turns aside to the north to pass a ridge projecting
far into the valley. Easy zigzags lead through the
forest of which the limit is now well-nigh reached, and
when the watershed is gained there is seen to the west
a country of gentle hill and dale, pretty no doubt, but
tame indeed after the gorgeous grandeur of the Klutch
and the Kodor. Below, at no very great distance, is a
trim village, inhabited by some of the Greek colonists
whom the Imperial Government is establishing in the
country. Two paths lead from the top of the ridge to
Zebelda, one passing through the Greek village, the
other to the left of it ; according to the surly young
Polish soldiers who had been sent in charge of the
horses, the latter of these ways was the best, in which
case the track to the habitations of the Greeks must be
bad indeed. After following a rough and stony path

ZEBELDA. 335

down the side of the ridge, and then across some undu-
lating country, we crossed the two branches of the
Amtjkal, both of which happily were bridged, and
then a short walk over some gently rising meadow-
land took us to Zebelda, which was reached early in
the afternoon.

The track led us to the so-called fort, a low rickety-
looking building, surrounded by a wall. Close to this
was a cantine, and some distance ofif, on higher ground,
the hospital. We had gone nearly north from the
valley of the Kodor in the morning to cross the ridge,
but after this is passed the path turns to the west, de-
scending into the Amtjkal valley, which opens into
that of the Kodor. Zebelda is situated in compara-
tively open ground high above the junction of the two
streams, and commands a fine view of both valleys,
that of the Amtjkal being from this point the most
striking. The Kodor river turns sharply to the south-
west at the point where the Amtjkal joins it, and flows
to the Black Sea through country pretty perhaps, but
tame and commonplace compared with that through
which its early course is run.

The courteous Russian colonel who had kindly
allowed us to take a couple of horses from Lata, was
at Zebelda that night, having to inspect the hospital,
where all possible care seemed to be taken of the inva-
lids, a number of whom, poor wan ghosts of men, were
hovering about, their pitiful weakness telling only too
clearly of the poison which is breathed in the air of beau-

336 THE LAST MARCH.

tiful Lata. In the evening arrived a party of engineer
officers^ who had been engaged in examining the Maruk
pass from the northern side of the chain to Zebelda
and Soukhoum Kaleh. Their next task was to be the
Nakhar, of which, so far as its fitness for traffic went,
we were able to give them no very encouraging ac-
count. The Imperial Government is justly anxious to
have a good road made between Soukhoum and the
country north of the range, so perhaps before this
there has been invasion of the solitudes of the beautiful
Kodor.

We started early next morning, as the distance
from Zebelda to Soukhoum Kaleh is considerable, and
journeyed through a smiling country of hill and dale,
much wooded, fertile seemingly, and pretty enough,
but moulded on a small scale, and petty compared with
the glorious mountain-land we had so lately looked on.
The way was for some time down the glen watered
by the Machara, and the road recently repaired and
laid out anew in places told of an engineering different
from that of the Caucasians. The inhabitants whom
we met were no longer full of astonishment and
curiosity at the sight of wanderers clad in the hideous
clothes which mark the civilised man. We were in an
untravelled country no longer.

Toiling on under a heat that would have done
honour to the tropics, we came about midday — ^having
quitted the regular track — to a Greek settlement on
the left bank of the rapid Kelasur. The houses, many

GREEK SETTLEMENT, 837

of them lately built, looked, after the rough huts of the
north, as neat as model cottages, but, unless I am
greatly mistaken, there was much squalor and wretched-
ness within these spruce abodes. The p^pe was full
of malaria. Several of the men whom we saw about
were obviously just recovering from the fever, and
going into one of the cottages I found three poor
fellows down in the grip of the enemy. The preva-
lence of this kind of illness and the enervating
climate seem to have deprived the colonists of all
energy, for they have not had industry enough to
throw a bridge over the Kelasur, which they must
cross to go to Soukhoum, and the river therefore has
to be passed by fording, which must always be a task
of some diflSculty, and is probably impossible after
heavy rains.

After we had waded through the swift waters,
there befell us a mishap which has happened often
enough to travellers when nigh to their journey's end.
We more or less lost the way. We were near Souk-
houm Kaleh, and there the march would close — there
was our goal ; and not a little was that goal now
desired, for the country was no longer interesting, and
the fatigue of walking that afternoon was almost inde-
scribable. The heat, made the more oppressive by the
closeness of the laden atmosphere, exceeded any that
I have known out of the tropics, and much that I
have known in them. It nearly dazed us, coming as
we did from the cool bracing air of the northern

z

838 THE LAST MARCH.

slopes of the mountains ; and even the two Poles, wiry
young fellows as could be seen^ and accustomed to the
climate, were greatly exhausted. Soukhoum Kaleh,
and the fall of the curtain on the last scene of the
last act, were longed for much.

But the place which a short time before had been
thought near at hand seemed to have become remote.
We could not tell how far we were from it, or when
we should reach it, as uncertain of the right direction
we wandered somewhat aimlessly on. Although we were
close to the sea, it was still hidden from us. One of the
Poles, who had some idea of the way, said that we
should not see the waters until we were near to
Soukhoum, and the sight of them was therefore greatly
desired; but from the top of each slight rise in the
ground nothing more was to be seen than the rich un-
dulating country, and, for anything that appeared, the
Euxine might have been a hundred miles off.

I was in some degree distracted from the weary
discomfort of that torrid afternoon by meditating over
a question which had suggested itself to me, and may

also occur to those who have thus far followed these

*

pages. To what extent, I asked myself, can the Cau-
casus be considered as fit for travellers, putting out of
question sybarites on the one side, and explorers ready
for any hardship or danger on the other. The question
did not prove very easy to. answer.

Most men loudly profess their indifference to
^ roughing it ' in the abstract, but this may frequently

CAUCASIAN TRAVEL. 339

be construed to mean that they will always be ready
for any kind of discomfort except the particular kind
they are called on to undergo. Now in the Caucasus
a traveller must be prepared to ^ rough it,' if he wants
to see the real mountain country. On the northern
side, it is true, there will be nothing very severe for
him to undergo. He will have to sleep out sometimes,
fair weather or foul ; to put up, when housed, with the
poorest lodging and with a good deal of dirt ; to carry a
large quantity of live stock about with him ; to do with-
out alcoholic drink of any kind whatever ; and to submit
now and then to very short rations, for though daily
supplies of good mutton and indigestible bread can
always be obtained in the villages, it is, as has been
said, often exceedingly difficult to get a stock for a two
or three days' expedition. Such troubles as these, how-
ever, very moderate fortitude will enable the traveller
to bear, but from what I heard, and from what I saw,
it certainly seemed to me that, on the southern side,
there might be hardship, sometimes even danger.
There is the chance of fever, a visitation from which
in the mountains would probably be trying. Food is
occasionally difficult to get, for the cogent reason that
the natives have very little themselves ; or for the yet
more cogent reason, that there are not any natives. All
that has to be purchased is the subject of infinite hag-
gling and extortion, the men of the south being very
adepts in cozenage. The dirt is worse than that of
the north. Theft is not uncommon, and in what is

z 2

340 THE LAST MARCH.

said to be the most beautiful district of the whole
Southern Caucasus there is some danger to life. The
inhabitants of Suenetia have a great taste for homicide.
Dread of punishment by the Russians will usually
prevent them from suppressing a stranger^ but they
are an impulsive people, and may, if excited, be carried
away by their feelings and cut a traveller's head off,
yielding to a strong natural yearning, and deaf for the
moment to the promptings of self-interest.

It appeared to me then that the Caucasus could
not at present be considered as set in order, swept,
and garnished for travellers. No doubt things will
alter, may alter too rapidly on the northern side, if
the railway brings civilisation there to change the
patriarchal life of the Mohammedans ; but probably for
some time to come a journey through the valleys which
lie under the great peaks will present more novelty
than will be altogether liJied when compared with a
trip in Switzerland or the Tyrol, and will possibly be
found trying by luxurious or irritable men.

But for practised travellers, for sportsmen in the
true sense of that much-abused word, it certainly
would seem that one part of the Caucasus yet
untrodden is of the highest interest and attraction.
We had seen something of this region, and would fain
have seen more. On the southern side of the chain,
and bounded on the east by the Ingur river, is a great
tract of magnificent country, scored by deep valleys,
watered by powerful streams, and covered by a mighty

ABKHA8IAN VALLEYS, 341

forest. To the confines of this region belong on the
north-west the Kodor, and on the east those woodland
hunting-grounds of which Mohammed at Urusbieh
had spoken with such enthusiasm. So far as I could
learn^ there are no inhabitants whateter, and the soli-
tude of the district is only disturbed when a few
hunters from the north venture into it after the game
in which it is said to abound. There would be diflS-
culty no doubt in exploring it, and danger from
malaria, but some hardship might well be undergone
and some risk run to see these magnificent untrodden
glens, and to follow the mountain game which would
be found in their recesses.

Surely, I thought, in these days when men go so
far to seek untravelled country and for virgin hunting-
grounds, it should be remembered that the valleys of
EasternAbkhasia are as yet but little known, and that
the beasts of forest and mountain are there to try the
hunter's craft. But here my meditations were inter-
rupted by a cry from one of the Poles, and looking up
I saw the waters of the Euxine, a great sheet of light
under the declining sun, and close at hand the plea-
sant bay and trim white houses of Soukhoum Kaleh.

LONDON : PRINTED BY

SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREKT SQUARE

AND PARLIAMENT STREET

Recently published (1869).

Uniform with * The Frosty Caucasus/ with Three Maps, Two Panoramas
of Summits, Four full- page Engra^Hngs on Wood, and Sixteen
Woodcuts in the Text, in One Volume, price 18«.

TIRAVELS in CENTRAL CAUCASUS and BASHAN:
including Visits to Ararat and Tabreez, and Ascents of
Kazbek and Elbruz. By Douglas W. Freshfield, Author of
* Italian Alps,' and Editor of * The Alpine Journal.'

Although the ethnology and history of the Caucasus have been
treated of by various authors, information concerning its natural
features had been up to the appearance of this volume scanty and
difficult of access; and until the Summer of 1868 no Englishman had
visited the most interesting of the chain, and its two most famous
summits, Kazbek and Elbruz, were stiU unascended. The chief aim
of the journey described in the present volume was to explore the
interior of the chain and to effect the ascents of Kazbek and Elbruz.
The Writer and his friends hoped, by penetrating on foot the recesses of
the mountains, to learn the form of the peaks, the extent of the snow-
fields and glaciers, and the character of the forest and flora, so as to be
able to draw a general comparison between the Caucasus and the Alps.

Before, however, carrying out this part of their design the travellers
made a rapid journey through Sjnna, in the course of which they visited
the Hauran and Lejah districts, recently brought into notice by the
supposed identification of the ruined towns still existing in them with
the cities of the gigantic Rephaim laid waste by the Israelites. The
Author records his conviction that this theory is unfounded, and that
the ruins of the so-called ' Giant Cities ' are in fact composed of Roman
edifices mixed with many buildings of more recent date.

On landing in the Caucasus (which they reached by Russian steamer
from Constantinople) the travellers proceeded to Tiflis, whence they
made an expedition along the Persian nigh-road to Tabreez. On their
return they partially ascended Ararat, paid a visit to the Armenian
Patriarch at Etchmiadzin, and traversed a little-known portion of the
Georgian and Arminian highlands.

Starting from Tiflis at the end of June, the travellers spent the next
two months in mountain exploration. During this time they made the
flrst successful ascents of Kazbek and Elbruz, traversed eleven passes,
varying from 8,000 to 12,000 feet in height, and examined the sources
of eight rivers and both flanks of the main chain for a distance of 120
miles. The greater portion of the volume is occupied by the narrative
of their adventures in the mountains, and the difficulties arising both
from the roughness of the country and of its inhabitants. The Author
describes the Ossetes, a tribe known as ' the gentlemen of the Caucasus,*
and contrasts the slothful and churlish Mingrelian races on the south
side of the chain with the industrious and hospitable Tartars on the north.

Having crossed the main range by the Mamison Pass to the Rion
sources, the party made an expedition to the Uruch Valley and back
across the previously untrodden snow-fields of the central chain. The
travellers' route then led them through the pathless swamps and
forests of the Zenes-Squali into Suanetia, a mountain basin renowned
for the barbarism of its inhabitants, the extraordinary richness of its

^•-f

Mr. D. Freshfisld*8 Travels in Central Cattcasus and Bashan,

vegetation, and the startling grandeur of the great peaks that overlook
it. After more than one narrow escape ftoro. robbery, if not from actual
violence, the Author and his companions passed along the valley to
P&ri, a Russian post ; whence they again crossed the chain to the foot
of Elbruz. Having ascended this mountain (18,520 feet), they pro-
ceeded to Patigorsk, the centre of the Russian watering-places in Cis-
caucasia and remarkable for the volume and variety of its mineral
springs.

Before returning to Hflis bv Vladikafkaz and the Dariel Pass, the
party explored the upper valleys of the Teherek and Uruch, the
entrances of which are guarded by stupendous defiles far exceeding in
grandeur any Alpine gorges. The Teherek has its source in the vast
glaciers flowing from the flanks of Koschtantau and Dychtau, two of
the most magnificent mountains of the range, which have hitherto
remained in undeserved obscurity.

The concluding pages are devoted to a comparison between the
Alps and the Caucasus, to a short account of a visit to the Crimea, and
the Author's homeward journey across Russia. It is hoped that this
record of travel and adventure amongst the mountain fastnesses of the
Caucasus may prove of sufficient interest to draw the attention of
Englishmen to a range surpassing the Alps by two thousand feet in the
average height of its peaks, abounding in noble scenery and picturesque
inhabitants, and even now within the reach of many * long-vacation
tourists.'

The Maps comprise a Route Map of the Hauran, the Caucasian
Provinces, and the Central Caucasus. The Map of the Central Caucasus
is reduced from the Five-Verst Map, executed by the Russian Topo-
graphical Department at Tifiis, with many corrections suggested by the
experience of the Writer and his fel1ow-travellers»

The full-page Illustrations are four views of Elbruz from the North,
Ararat, and Kazbek from the South, and as seen from the Post Station.

The Panoramas show the Caucasus from Patigorsk, and the
Koschtantau Group.

List of the Woodcuts in the Text: —

A Georgian Church

The OeoTfrian Castle, Tiflis

Mountainecrf} in Armour

An Ospete Village

An Ossete

Peaks of Ada! Ehokh

Source of the Eastern Zenes-Sqnali

Our Camp-fire in the Foreet

A Native of Jibiani

Tan TStOnal from above Latal

Ueefaba

Woman of XJmspieh

Peak in the Teherek Valley

The Fortress of Dariel

The Grand Duoal Villa, Bozjom

A Mingrelian Winejar

* We are delighted with Mr. Fkesh-
field's book. The lovers of mountain
scenery will read his descriptions of
peaks and passes with unflagging
interest, and their hearts will beat
quickly as they read of the ^adventures
conducted with so much enogy, per-
severance, and intelligence.'

Land and Wateb.

* The book is written in a simple and
manly style, and gives an agreeable
impression of the spirit in which the

travellers carried out their design

We may congratulate Mr. F^ieshfielo
on having sieved a much rarer feat
than the asoent of mountains^ that of re-
cording his per fo rmances in a thoroughly
satisfactory manner.'

Pall Mall Gazjbttb.

London, LONGMANS & CO.

GENERAL BOOKBINDING CO.

;,r. (

•TROL MARK