310 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



of us, nothing but a great and overwhelming curiosity. 

 We never went to our room in the castle without 

 discovering two or three Peeping Toms rummaging 

 in our kit. 



They pilfered like magpies, always bright things, 

 and invariably, I believe, in the hope of securing a 

 compass in disguise. 



More attractive than our rifles or saddles or any- 

 thing that was ours were the compasses Cecily and 

 I carried. That complete strangers to Karbarda 

 should be able by the legerdemain of these tiny 

 things, aided by a Familiar in the shape of an 

 inefficient map, to figure out more or less, very 

 often less, where such and such a tur corrie lay was 

 magician's work. The domovoi himself could do no 

 better. And when AH wanted to increase his prestige • 

 to heights undreamed-of, he borrowed a compass and 

 showed it off in the court-yard until both compasses 

 disappeared, conjured somehow into the longing maw 

 of an ample tscherkesska. 



