350 THE RAINS. 



In which he firmly believed, as do most of his 

 people, was the ' evil eye.' He had a gun with 

 him, with which he told us that last year he had 

 wounded eighteen wild boars in succession without 

 bringing any to bag. Alarmed by this bad luck, 

 he went to the ' wise man ' of his village, and by 

 him was reminded that the gun had been lent for 

 some time to a friend. This friend possessed an 

 ' evil eye.' The only remedy was to secure a gun 

 belonging to his friend and spoil it, after which 

 his own gun would return to its natural good 

 behaviour. Niko took the ' wise man's ' advice, and 

 I presume paid him for it, surreptitiously spoilt 

 his friend's gun, and from that time his shooting 

 improved rapidly, until he was again the Niko that 

 he used to be. Nothing I could say would con- 

 vince him of the folly of his story ; and so much 

 did he believe in it that he even tried to persuade 

 me, when one of my guns went wrong through 

 an overcharge of powder, that the ' evil eye ' had 

 been at work on my own weapons also. 



But after a few days the clouds began to gather 

 blacker and blacker amongst the mountains, and 

 the rainy season, which we believed we had left 

 behind us by the Caspian, was upon us with a 

 rush. On Friday, February 15, the rain swept 

 over us in torrents ; but, though the hills were all 

 hidden, and the creaking and groaning of the trees 

 almost frightened us, whilst the ground underfoot 



