jq6 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



to convey the news that Ah Ghirik had fallen over a 

 precipice, and a wolf waiting at the bottom had eaten 

 him up, clothes and all. I guessed that our servant had 

 tried bathing in an ice-stream, after carefully placing 

 his clothes in a heap on the bank, and the shock of the 

 immersion had killed him straight off. Cecily said she 

 thought Ali had met a tribesman actuated by a blood- 

 feud, who despatched our poor henchman with the 

 celebrated muzzle-loader, after which the murderer 

 annexed the clothes of his victim. We were all at one 

 on the clothes question. Clearly clothes formed the 

 bed-rock of the whole affair. 



The wild actor began again. He tore his tscherkesska 

 off as though it were a shirt of Nessus, and threw it far 

 away ; then he ripped at his next garment, and Heaven 

 knows how far he would have descended had not 

 Kenneth by strenuous force forbade the shedding of 

 anything else. Excitedly the man pulled out his kinjal 

 from its sheath and flung that away also. Then he gave 

 a piercing yell which brought the rest of the servants 

 about us pell-mell. 



" Poor beggar's falling over the precipice now ! 

 Can't you understand it ? " 



" That means he is just beginning to drown ! What 

 else could he be doing ? " 



" His relative is commencing to kill him ! Isn't it 

 too dreadful ? " 



Finally the energetic illustrator tried to immure 

 himself in a little dug-out hole which we used as a 

 larder, from whence he peered up at us, like an injured 

 spaniel, with a world of meaning in his plaintive eyes. 



