FROM GOKTCHAI TO LENKORAN. 307 



since then, and Lutra the queen has not kept her 

 word : through which some of the Tartars have of 



o 



their own accord ceased to observe these rites ; 

 others have yielded to the power of Russian law, 

 which forbids these savage orgies under penalty 

 of very heavy punishment ; while still a few prac- 

 tise their rites in the darkness of midnight and 

 in the desolate wild places of the steppeland. 



For at least thirty versts of our journey the 

 road was impassable, owing to the overflow of the 

 river; and this necessitated a long circuit extremely 

 unwelcome to us. In the villages that we passed 

 through towards the end of our drive, the people 

 were for the most part Molochans, clean, hard- 

 working peasants compared to those around them, 

 but very objectionable from at least one point of 

 view, as nothing would induce them to cook our 

 game for us for fear of defiling themselves fifty 

 per cent, of the birds we shot being unclean in 

 their eyes. These Molochans, near Lenkoran, are 

 probably some of the descendants of the 1,500 or 

 2,000 that the Emperor Nicholas drove out of 

 Russia into the Caucasus. 



The country near Lenkoran is in places good 

 meadow land, covered even now with rich young 

 grass ; here and there it has been broken up for 

 cultivation, and in such places the soil appears 

 extremely rich. 



At last a long line of sordid huts announced 



X 2 



