A VISIT TO THE PRINCE 251 



reality expended or the men could never keep their 

 seats at all. 



Our way trended upwards to a valley set in the spurs 

 of the mountains, and now the scene took on an air of 

 forested luxuriance and every hill slope was green with 

 thickly growing trees. 



At the mountain gate of the smiling rift ahead some 

 horses were picketed in a grove of conifers, and 

 brown-garbed figures sitting about a smoky fire called 

 " How-do-you-do's " to our driver, who again pulled 

 up with his usual disconcerting suddenness. It is 

 quite impossible to make a dignified appearance in a 

 cavorting telega. 



It is not a mark of respect in the Caucasus to raise 

 your hat to a stranger, man or woman, so it was not 

 strange that our new guides stolidly retained their 

 papaks the while they scrutinized us keenly from every 

 side. Cecily did so wish they would take her in on the 

 left hand only, as she says her profile looks much better 

 from that angle. 



Presently everyone set to work hauling the kit from 

 the telegas and piling it on to waiting ponies. Our 

 Cossack friends, well-graced players, left us, the carts 

 also vanished mysteriously round a corner. 



Only one man understood Ali Ghirik in the shghtest, 

 for everybody talked Karbardan. To this worthy our 

 servant pointed out our English saddles sewn up in their 

 protective casings, and this find interested the little 

 knot of men for quite a long time. How we used them, 

 how we sat them, was a matter for the most earnest 

 conjecture. 



