TEACES OF BRUIN. 213 



mann's abode his whole family was awaiting 

 his distinguished foreign friends, and came 

 np to kiss my hands and present baskets of 

 cheese and grapes, apples, and a great box of 

 birch bark full of beautiful white honeycomb. 

 Altogether they brought us of their best, and 

 gave us ample proof that Nature is more 

 kindly to man along these lower reaches of 

 the Ingour than she is higher up near dreary 

 Mookmer and Lachamul. 



Wherever we went to-day we found traces 

 of Bruin ; his tracks were along the soft sands 

 of the river-bed ; no one used the paths we 

 were on with such frequency as he did, and 

 at every maize-field bells, clappers, and other 

 musical instruments, worked for the most part 

 by water, kept up a constant din to warn him 

 off. By the ravage he had committed on all 

 sides I should guess that he had learned to 

 look on the bells with indifference if not with 

 absolute affection, as guiding him to his supper. 



