98 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



We would have liked to chat awhile, to ask why the 

 pigs were so small and their coats so long, but our 

 henchman, who sat his horse stiffly, disdaining the 

 pig-eater, would none of it. His vocabulary had no 

 equivalent for swine. 



Georgian salutations are as poetical as the nation. 

 Often in the by-roads, as a Georgian horseman passed 

 along in his national costume, which has nothing of the 

 ubiquitous tscherkesska about it, he would smilingly 

 greet us with the beautiful and touching address, 

 redolent, surely, of the struggles of old Georgia, 

 " Gamardjweba ! " "I wish thee the victory." To 

 which, coached by our linguistic servant, we made the 

 necessary reply, " Gaguimardjos ! " " May God grant 

 thee victory," 



These salutations were used by Ali Ghirik for all 

 Christians indiscriminately. For True Believers he 

 reserved " Aleikum," the Volapuk of friendliness 

 between all the tribes of Islam, 



Over the crest of a bleak pass we journeyed to a 

 wooded vale of luxuriance, the celebrated valley of 

 Kakheti, a faceted gem set in the crown of monarchs 

 towering to the sky, 10,000 feet of them, peak on peak, 

 tier on tier. Hither and thither from the forested 

 foothills wandered silvery streams, trickling their 

 winding ways to pay tribute to the rushing river 

 cutting through the heart of the valley. 



Was ever so beautiful a road ! On one side of us the 

 sheen of sunflowers, on the other the torrent singing 

 its insistent song, backed by white vestments of mist 

 enveloping the shadowy groins of the sweep of moun- 



