146 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



three Britishers, one disguised and two ordinary 

 samples, struggling through the passes of Daghestan 

 in company with an antiquated native and a Tatar 

 muleteer. I'm sure I should be very much astonished 

 to meet three Russians, living alfresco, in the wilds of 

 Dorset, say, dragging about with a prehistoric collection 

 of goods and chattels, and bestriding ponies hung 

 round with pans and what-not. 



As soon as our new acquaintances gathered that we 

 were journeying thus because we liked it, and not 

 because we had to, that Kenneth was a soldier, jouent 

 le grand role in the Caucasus, and that Cecily and I 

 belonged to the feminine persuasion, a fact at first 

 difficult to realize, because a person enveloped in a 

 bourka really might be anything, they were most 

 thoughtfully hospitable, and insisted on our going to 

 their near-by shooting-box, for the night at least. 



The Southern Russian who loves sport is said to be 

 a freak. " The chase," one of the oldest Muscovite 

 proverbs tells us, " is worse than slavery." Yet here 

 were two warriors from the distant post of Lagodekki 

 running a little shoot, just as an Englishman would do. 



With us at home an invitation to a shooting-box 

 partakes of the pride which apes humility. You know 

 before you set out that " the box " will turn out a 

 baronial establishment where the throngs of servants 

 are only one degree less rapacious than the minions of 

 a frankly-avowed Castle. You understand thoroughly 

 that the suggested inevitable " pot-luck " means the 

 cuisine of an Escoffier. But — in the Caucasus a 

 shooting-box is a box, and doesn't pretend at all. 



