236 EA' ROUTE FOR DAGHESTAN. 



Ivan's ghastly narratives. Up to the large station 

 of Akstapha, where several different routes branch 

 off from the main road between Tiflis arid She- 

 makha, we met or passed other travellers by 

 tarantasse occasionally. 



Once we had left Akstapha, we appeared to 

 be the only travellers on the road. About three 

 stations from Elizabetpol we came across the 

 first specimen of Persian hawking which I had 

 yet seen. The bird used was a large falcon, 

 belled and jessed, as far as I could tell from a 

 distance, much as an English bird might be if 

 Englishmen still followed the pursuit of falconry. 

 Wherever I came across a Persian dwelling be- 

 tween Tiflis and the Caspian, I invariably found 

 the hawk on his perch by the doorway, and his 

 two comrades in the chase tall, broken-haired 

 greyhounds basking somewhere near him. These 

 dogs work with the hawk, run down hares when 

 started, and put up partridges and ' tooratsh ' (sand- 

 grouse) for the hawk to strike. To these dwellers 

 upon the steppe greyhounds and hawk supply 

 the place of a fowling-piece an instrument of 

 destruction little used by Tartars and Persians. 

 Each man carries a rifle, an enormously long 

 weapon with a diminutive stock, not nearly as 

 big round as a man's wrist, with a flint lock, 

 and a back and fore sight, with a small hole in 

 each through which the sportsman peers at his 



