304 THE CAUCASIAN MOUNTAIN -HORSES. 



law of hospitality may become very dangerous with 

 these people, on the other hand the case is extremely 

 rare that the confidence of the guest is betrayed. It 

 has certainly occurred that a guest has been hospitably 

 entertained and safely escorted to the boundary of the 

 district, and then shot down on alien ground, but that 

 is not considered to be proper. After crossing the 

 Kur we reached Kedabeg without further adventures. 

 In all our tours in the mountains we had had 

 occasion to admire the cleverness and endurance of the 

 small Caucasian mountain - horses. Indefatigably and 

 without tripping they clamber with their riders up 

 and down the steepest mountain-paths; without them 

 the broken and often fissured mountainous country 

 could hardly be traversed. It is regarded in the 

 Caucasus as safer to make difficult mountain-journeys 

 on horseback than on foot. That there are also 

 exceptions to this rule I experienced personally on my 

 second visit to Kedabeg. The autumn weather, always 

 bright and beautiful even up to December, changed 

 with unexpected suddenness to rainy weather with a 

 slight fall of snow. We were just then proceeding 

 to visit the Shamkhor valley, and made use of the 

 somewhat troublesome bridle-path thither, which runs 

 by the side of the wild Kalakent brook as far as 

 Shamkhor. When however it began to snow more 

 heavily, we found it advisable to turn back before 

 the path had been quite snowed over. It was 

 astonishing with what accuracy our horses were able 

 to find the mountain-path, already considerably covered 



