232 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



the toss and churn of the rushing torrent, the dawn, 

 the noon, the evening, every sense of the region seemed 

 to pulsate with one name, and that name Prometheus, 

 Prometheus, Prometheus ! For on the scarped heights 

 of snow-clad Kasbek — an everlasting monument — the 

 earth-born Titan, who gave to mortals the bountiful 

 gift of fire, hung for hundreds of years. Those deep 

 ice valleys once resounded with the clang of Vulcan's 

 hammer as the lame smith-god riveted the chains of 

 martyrdom at the bidding of offended Jupiter. The 

 grim grey rock rising from the encircling snow was the 

 alighting place of the ravening vulture, cruel as death ; 

 on that plateau stood valiant Hercules, his lion skin 

 about him, as he stooped to break the captive's gyves 

 at last. 



Hovering over the valley, a dark blur against the 

 whiteness, sailed a stately lammergeyer, whirhng and 

 circling in slow strength and grace, a mysterious spirit 

 of the wild. This vulture is very common in all parts 

 of the Caucasus, and it is an old superstition in the 

 country that the man who kills a lammergeyer dies the 

 death himself within forty days. A falconer in Tiflis 

 told me that in the days of Persian occupation the 

 belief was general, as it is to-day in Persia, that if 

 the shadow of the huma or lammergeyer fell athwart 

 a person's head it meant a kingdom for the lucky 

 shadowed one. From this superstition, my acquaint- 

 ance told me, is derived the Persian adjective humayun, 

 meaning royal, or kingly. 



The postmaster joined us on the roadway. It was 

 for us, he said, speaking in Russian, that Kasbek had 



