ARRIVAL AT THE HUNTING GROUNDS 127 



set against the sheer granite wall of the mountain. 

 Patches of cultivated ground clung to the hill-sides, 

 entirely manufactured gardens, to which all the earth 

 must have been laboriously carried. 



I always thought that the Manx nation tilled the 

 steepest slopes possible, but the Caucasian ploughman 

 goes one better. With the most primitive implement 

 in the world, so heavy that it takes twelve or sixteen 

 oxen to drag it, he slowly carves the almost perpen- 

 dicular cHff-side into furrows. 



Strange that a people prehistoric enough to use 

 archaic ploughs and such obsolete methods of corn- 

 grinding should yet show such artistic tastes in 

 other directions. Much of the exquisite silver work 

 in the Bazaar at Tiflis is fashioned in Daghestan. 

 These people love beautiful things, without knowing 

 why, and the majority could do a bit of thinking on 

 their own account if they tried. 



That Cecily and I might not trouble to fag down in 

 case the place was impossible — we wanted to buy some 

 food for the horses and mules — Kenneth and our servant 

 set off, by devious paths and winding ways, to prospect, 

 acting in such a covert, suspicious fashion as to draw 

 the attention of the entire village. They stalked the 

 place as though it were an antelope. From insignificant 

 bushes they crept to projecting rocks, round which 

 they peered mysteriously, jerking back in absurdly 

 provocative style when observed. 



Of course it was not long before the Yuzbashi, 

 or Headman, of the settlement pounced upon them, 

 and the explanations offered only served to make 



