i6o CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



put to bed on a heap of bourkas, and we went at 

 intervals to look at him. The men did also, fearfully, 

 as though they were in the presence of an unclean 

 beast who yet had a strange drawing power. All that 

 night and all next day our patient slept, until at 

 nightfall he raised a fearful head, and complained 

 bitterly of the dark brown taste in his mouth which 

 took almost the river to wash away. 



It was a glorious cure, and the viper, I think, was of 

 the order dangerous. For, later, we saw, and killed, 

 its counterpart, a very excellent imitation of a puff 

 adder. Kenneth dissected him, and found the poison 

 gland at the base of the fangs, and the strangest canal 

 down which the deadly secretion ran to the wound. 



A disheartening series of blank days ensued, when, 

 stalked we never so wisely, no tur or chamois or animal 

 larger than a little blunt-headed mouse who lived in 

 the rocks was to be seen. We scaled cliffs, crossed 

 moraines, delved into cavernous ravines, tried moss- 

 grown slopes — all without avail. It was as though 

 an earthquake had swallowed up the creatures of the 

 mountain-tops. Our Russian hosts were in no way 

 perturbed, saying it was often so, but then they could 

 afford to philosophize, having all the time there was. 

 Our minutes had to be counted, and lost days to us 

 were lost indeed. 



Somehow or other a parcel of English newspapers 

 filtered through to us, an unsolvable piece of legerde- 

 main. On the last lap they were carried by the 

 Cossack servant attached to our tall thin entertainer, 

 from Lagodekki, whither the man had journeyed for 



