A PICTURESQUE GROUP. 139 



it would be hard to find much of the original 

 material left ; yet all the colours blend so well 

 and are so cjuaintly like the lichen-covered, 

 iron-stained rocks around, that it is not easy 

 to beat them as stalkmg costumes. 



Two or three beads and a charm hang 

 round each wild fellow's neck ; at his waist is 

 a belt with flint and steel, dagger, gun-screw, 

 bullet extractor, and every other necessary 

 gunner's tool. Everything else that his sim- 

 ple wants require is to be found in the breast 

 of his shirt; and the proverbial schoolboy's 

 pocket would not compare for variety of con- 

 tents with a Caucasian shirt front. Tobacco- 

 pouch and pipe, lumps of rock-salt to eat with 

 his beans, dried galls of mountain sheep to 

 cure every ailment to which he is subject, 

 bullets, matches, tmder, and a score of other 

 odds and ends are produced as they are 

 wanted from this inexhaustible store-room. 

 That his coat is ragged is small wonder, for, 



