CHAPTER IX 



THE KILLING OF THE GREY BEAR 



Thou'dst meet the bear i' the mouth. 



King Lear. 



You are afraid if you see the bear loose, are you not? 



Merry Wives of Windsor. 



In England it would have been September 13th, but 

 the opposition calendar of Russia was still wrestling 

 with the month of August, or just getting over it, and 

 I hoped the confusion would paralyse the fatal potency 

 of my unlucky number. 



Ali Ghirik, like a homing pigeon, led us straight to the 

 place of his fathers. We went miles out of our course, 

 but he was not to be gainsaid. After the manner of 

 the Chinese, our servant called the entire community, 

 from the oldest patriarch to the newest baby, " cousin." 



Our arrival made quite a stir in the settlement, 

 and for a night we set up our tents on the village green, 

 facing a row of rough stone houses, and through the 

 open flap watched the life of the place. It looked 

 bare and frugal and hard, with few graces that I could 

 discover, and they all looked so tragic and sombre in 

 the living of it, like amateur actors in an ^schylean 

 tragedy. 



There is an indescribable awe about these fierce, 



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