igo CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



explanatory hands skywards, but we could see no 

 trace of an aeroplane. 



Ali said that our new acquaintance was a Tatar 

 crossed so many times that he might almost be anything. 

 He settled down as though he intended remaining, 

 fitting himself into the scheme of things just as though 

 his services had been requisitioned, and playing valet 

 quite intelligently. In the early morning he hauled 

 water from the river for our baths, and even tried to 

 heat some over the tiny fire. It was not his fault that 

 the pan supply was so limited, and that the results of 

 his labour had the greasy appearance of a mutton stew. 



Our men took the greatest interest in our washing 

 arrangements at all times. That it was connected with 

 some religious observance they did not doubt, seeing 

 that they themselves only utilized water when prayer- 

 saying. Unfortunately they were not sufficiently 

 energetic with it really to combine their cleanliness 

 with godliness. Indeed, they always returned from a 

 devotional bout rather dirtier than when they went, 

 for the water running in rills divided up their faces into 

 lines which gave them the appearance of tattooed 

 Maoris. 



Kenneth welcomed the stranger within our gates as 

 an anthropological study, and at once began to consider 

 his subject anatomically. So far as I remember the 

 result panned out something like this : 



Genus, homo. 



Ears, bat-like. 



Upper lip, prehensile. 



Feet, immense. 



