7HK LESGHIAN MOUNTAINS. 261 



to the window ledge. On tliis the customers sat, 

 whilst below them and beside them the cooking of 

 ' sushliks ' went on. As soon as we were inside and 

 seated, a host of the worst-looking scoundrels I ever 

 saw swarmed round the place, to stare at and make 

 remarks upon us. Never were the lions in the Zoo 

 more eagerly and impertinently watched at feeding 

 time than were we, and certainly never by such an 

 ill-looking set as the owners of the shifting eyes 

 and high cheek-bones who surged round us. The 

 faces were worthy of a Chinese illustration of hell, 

 and I know of nothing else to which to compare 

 them. In their anxiety to get a good look at us, 

 they even broke down the wooden walls of the house. 

 All the time their tongues were busy, and from the 

 way in which they constantly spat and gesticulated, 

 their remarks could hardly have been favourable to 

 us. Unwisely I helped myself from my goatskin, 

 which gave great offence to the crowd, and evil 

 and angry were the looks cast upon us ; so that I felt 

 that if they could but know that it was pork that 

 iilled out the sides of my saddle-bags, my fate 

 would have been an unpleasant one. My man at 

 this juncture lost his temper, and became abusive to 

 a hook-nosed individual who had for some time 

 past been peering down his throat. All I could do 

 was of no avail ; Ivan would not be pacified, and 

 so angry did the ever-increasing crowd become that 

 I was not at all surprised when a messenger arrived 



