350 TKAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



venerable-looking Hadji with a long grey beard, and 

 something Jewish and sinister in his countenance. 

 Having made the pilgrimage, he was too good a 

 Mahometan, and had seen too much of the world, 

 to be as agreeable a companion as a more unsophis- 

 ticated native would have been. To the last I feel 

 convinced, he suspected us of some secret motives, 

 and did his utmost to show us as little of the country 

 as possible. Indeed, it was very difficult to make 

 our guides understand that we simply wished to 

 make a tour through their country, which should last 

 a certain number of days, without naming any one 

 point. It seemed to them incomprehensible that we 

 should not wish to go anywhere in particular, but 

 merely clamber over their mountains. Had time 

 permitted, we should have endeavoured to cross 

 Abbasack. and reach the plains of the Kuban by 

 continuing our present route, which would have be- 

 come a highly interesting expedition ; but it was 

 impossible to rely upon the statements of the natives 

 for time and distance, and we were ultimately com- 

 pelled to limit our explorations ; still there can be 

 110 doubt that we might have gone farther, had our 

 guides been really anxious to show us as much of the 

 country as possible. 



The nephews and companions of the old man were 

 three brothers, extremely handsome young men, of a 

 thoroughly Anglo-Saxon type of countenance. They 

 were so refined and distinguished in their whole 



