258 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



ibex, and ollen, all marred by the atrocious setting up. 

 They were " home-cured " with a vengeance ! 



Across the roof of the vaulted hall a sentence was 

 engraven in Greek characters on a rough beam. The 

 Prince translated it for us : " God hath made all men 

 to be happy." 



"So you read the old Stoic, Prince?" I queried, 

 with interest. 



" I read nothing. Books are for people who cannot 

 think. I prefer," he went on, unconsciously quoting 

 Schopenhauer, "to do my own thinking." 



The little philosophy of Epictetus had been painted 

 by a wandering Greek artist who passed a spell of bad 

 weather so. He was a bit 'of a wag, I suspect, and 

 meant it as a sly dig at his sombre, unsmiling enter- 

 tainers. 



The Prince's face wore a perpetual look of sustained 

 worry. In moments of forgetfulness he joked, but 

 always with the gravity of the game at heart. He had 

 long since abandoned the Mahommedan faith and 

 called himself a member of the Orthodox Russian 

 Church. He really belonged to the church outside 

 the churches, the Tabernacle of the Wild, and, as that 

 is the place of worship which Cecily and I attend, 

 religious questions were fraught with no pitfalls 

 for us. 



We spent our first day in a prospecting excursion up 

 the wide valley of the Kuban, where we sought the 

 meeting of its waters, as they come tumbling and 

 rushing down from the source in the glaciers west of 

 Elbruz, with those of the swift tributary, the Terberda, 



