OSSETE VILLAGES. 



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and amusing themselves with music and singing. They 

 were a handsome set of men, tall and military-looking, 

 dressed in the usual long frock-coat and high fur hat of 

 the Ossetes, and carrying about their persons the indis- 

 pensable variety of swords, daggers, guns, and pistols. 

 They rose to meet us, and, after a few minutes' friendly 



An Ossete Village. 



conversation, we passed on our way. After a walk of 

 three hours from Kobi, we came in sight of Kektris and 

 Abano, two villages about half a mile apart, and both 

 on the left side of the valley. There being no wood in 

 this district, the houses are entirely built of stone : they 

 are generally gloomy-looking masses of rough masonry, 

 in which small holes are left for the windows ; but the 

 peculiar character of the villages is given by the number 

 of towers, which are often found in the proportion of two 

 towers to three houses. There is nothing picturesque 



