A LOVELY GLADE. S23 



lingering farewell to the lovely glade, and surrendered 

 ourselves again to tlie annoyances of everyday life, and 

 the penance of accommodating our movements to the 

 pace of our horsemen. After winding now up, now down, 

 through the forest, we came suddenly on open hay fields, 

 in the midst of which rose a group of towers, most of them 

 in ruins. Several of the houses were still inhabited, and 

 a group of peasants — all, as a matter of course, wearing 

 daggers — were at work haymaking. They soon gathered 

 round us, and inspected with interest our revolvers and 

 field-glasses ; so far as pantomime could carry it, our 

 intercourse was of the most friendly character. Our tail, 

 which as usual we had left behind, came uj), and the 

 horsemen seemed rather to look down, upon our new 

 acquaintances, who, I suppose, had not committed murders 

 or robberies enough to entitle them to rank among the 

 upper classes of Suanetia. 



Thus far we had been all day climbing round the 

 irregularities of the steep slope which forms the north 

 side of the valley of the Ingur ; now the path turned over 

 its summit, and began slowly to descend towards the 

 torrent issuing from the basin of Mushalaliz, which we 

 had looked down ui)on the previous afternoon. The last 

 view of the Leila summits, before we lost them behind 

 the ridge, was exceedingly beautiful. We soon found 

 ourselves in a fold of the hills, surrounded by grassy 

 eminences, which cut off the view of the valley, but were 

 not high enough to shut out the snowy buttresses of 

 Uschba and the summits near it. Clouds hid the actual 

 peaks, and prevented us from distinguishing their forms 

 or making any estimate of their height. We traversed a 

 succession of meadows alive with haymakers, and set in 

 frames of hazel and birch copses, through which we had 

 occasionally to force our way, keeping close company with 



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