356 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



and the sounds of animated conversation which pro- 

 ceed from the Jconak warn me not to remain specu- 

 lating any longer upon the neglected condition of 

 the interior of Circassia, if I have any regard for the 

 equally neglected condition of my own. 



I have, indeed, allowed myself a sufficiently long 

 digression ; since sunset the sheep has been caught, 

 killed, and cooked, and there is absolutely the little 

 round table even now being carried into the kondk. 

 So revenons a nos moutons. 



II. 



One of the most severe trials of patience to which 

 the traveller in a wild country is subjected, is invari- 

 ably to be found in the impracticability of his guides. 

 Circassia, I regret to say, did not prove a bright 

 exception to this rule. 



We had, before starting from Vardan, distinctly 

 explained to Ismail Bey the length of time and the 

 line of country over which we wished our travels to 

 extend. He assured us that our guides should be 

 given explicit directions upon this head ; and there- 

 fore, when we found ourselves in a remote valley of a 

 province which had never before been entered by a 

 European, it was with no little dismay that we 

 listened to their query, of where we wished to go to 

 next. "We had followed them with the blindest con- 



