TO THE HUNTING GROUNDS 105 



matchlock dangled — was putting a solid slab of dough 

 into a waiting oven, the bottom of which was covered 

 with a thick layer of round pebbles, " to prevent the 

 dough from burning," AH Ghirik explained, lest the 

 palpable fact should elude us. Farther on we saw one 

 of the bread cushions emerge from its cooking-place, 

 quite four feet long, and two or three thick. On its 

 downside the huge loaf was all mottled like the breast 

 of a thrush. When cold it is cut up and sold in pieces. 



Before the sun was well awake to his powers, we set 

 off again to seek the wilds, trailing one behind the 

 other through long lines of vines, laden with fruit. 



A sombre canyon closed over our heads, and in 

 gloomy darkness we followed the course of a little 

 stream until the gorge opened out into a marshy 

 expanse where the grass grew high, and a miasmatic 

 haze hung over the land. Plop ! Here was a quag- 

 mire, and no firm ground ahead at all. 



Ah advocated a detour through the jungly place to 

 our left, a desperate undertaking ! The " wolf's tooth " 

 thorn of the Caucasus is even more arresting than its 

 first cousin of Somahland, the " wait-a-bit." 



At last ! A roUing country, in the midst of which a 

 whole Georgian village was a-harvesting, down to the 

 youngest inhabitant, who lay on his back in a corn 

 stook, gazing at the brazen sky with the eye power 

 of a young eagle. Nobody was told off to " mind the 

 baby," and the harvesters who were not asleep beside 

 skin wine-bottles were rushing into one another like 

 possessed beings, making wild cuts with the sickles, 

 and dancing round the yoked oxen to the banging of a 



