2o8 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



Karbarda, to stay with the Prince. The Prince, when 

 there are at least two thousand in the Caucasus ! 



If you like I can manufacture a name for His High- 

 ness, since it is not fair to record his real one. But " the 

 Prince " should suffice, for we met no other on really 

 intimate terms, unless I except an amiable Ossete who 

 waited upon us at meals in the Tiflis auherge. He was a 

 tributary princelet, he confided, with nobody left to 

 pay him tribute. According to Ali Ghirik all the 

 royalties from the wilds who go out of the prince 

 business pass into that of "buttling " in post-houses and 

 hotels. A very good idea, I thought, and an excellent 

 school in the event of a return to prosperity. Of course, 

 a servitor prince has his pathetic side, but, as Byron 

 put it, " He must serve who fain would sway." 



The usual method of getting about the trodden ways 

 of the Caucasus is by posting, a system of locomotion 

 godfathered by the Government. The very necessary 

 " Open Sesame " for the obtaining of post-horses is 

 called a podorojnaya, without which indispensable, to be 

 presented to every master of an official post-station 

 when a change of steeds is required, a traveller might 

 as well set out to do the journey on foot. 



There are podorojneeya and podorojneeya : the com- 

 mon variety under whose bar sinister you wait and wait 

 for your fresh horses, dependent on the meaningless 

 promise of the catchword of the country, " Sayetchass ! 

 Sayetchass!" Directly! Directly! and the posting 

 order de luxe, or Crown podorojnaya, the beneficent 

 working of which has to be tried in contradistinc- 

 tion to the other ere its blessings can be fully ap- 



