i62 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



And, talking of maps, it is a most difficult thing to 

 get hold of one of the Caucasus in which the names as 

 marked coincide with the local renderings. In fact, it 

 seemed to us that the occupying Muscovite has re- 

 christened numerous slices of his territory without 

 previously informing the natives of the change. You 

 spot your village or stream or peak, and think you've 

 hit it off all right only to find that the name as told 

 you has small, and often no, relationship with the one 

 to which you have grown in some degree accustomed 

 on the map. Distances are hardly ever correctly esti- 

 mated. We pinned our faith on to an anglicized 

 ordnance map of sorts, anglicized out of all likeness 

 to the Caucasus, and found in it the substance of 

 things hoped for, as St. Paul said, and the evidence of 

 things not seen. 



With ready hospitality our hosts put the resources 

 of their establishment at our disposal. We must have 

 more men — they supplied the lack ; more pans — their 

 cuisine furnished us ; more ponies to carry extra com- 

 forts — their stables were a mere emptiness after we 

 had taken our pick. 



We set off for All's hunting-ground as the dawn 

 broke grimly in pallid tones of grey and drab. Then 

 across the gloom little spears of light quivered, cutting 

 the shadows in twain, and soon the sky, rosy-clouded, 

 caught the sun-god as he sprang from his couch 'neath 

 the horizon and set him high on his burnished throne, 

 glorious to see. 



To be on the mountains of Daghestan as day is 

 breaking is to be a child once more with all those 



