AX IDLE DAY. 373 



Hamzet's enthusiasm was boundless ; lie strolled in and 

 out perpetually, repeating each time the magic word 

 ' Minghi-Tau ! ' — till at last he achieved an astonishing 

 linguistic feat, and showed at the same time a surprising 

 acquaintance with the manners of "Western Euroj)e, bv con- 

 fidentially suggesting, ' Minghi-Tau, — London^ champagne 

 fruhstuck, karasho.' He had evidently not been in the 

 Russian service for nothing. 



We went to bed with a weight off our minds, feeling 

 that, come now what might, the three great objects of our 

 journey — the ascents of Kazbek and Elbmz, and the 

 establishment of a high-level route between them — were 

 fully accomplished. Conscious virtue now proposed to 

 reward itself, and after a month of hard work, poor living, 

 and no accommodation, attended at times by considerable 

 anxiet}^ as to the successful issue of our projects, we looked 

 foi-ward with pleasure to a j)eriod of enjoyment of the 

 luxuries of civilisation at Patigorsk, the watering-place of 

 the Northern Caucasus. 



Avgust 2nd. — We had naturally imagined that, with the 

 friendly aid of the princes at our back, we should have no 

 difficulty in procuring horses to ride down the two days' 

 journey to Patigorsk. Such, however, was not the case ; 

 the old leaven of covetousness, which seems inherent in the 

 Caucasian mountaineer, again came to the surface ; the 

 price asked was absurd, and the arrangements were further 

 complicated by the necessity of makmg a bargain with 

 two or three men, owing to no single peasant havmg suffi- 

 cient horses for our whole party. The princes possessed 

 influence, though no authority, and by their aid an arrange- 

 ment was finally concluded. We were asked by several 

 of the wealthier villagers, and received a formal application 

 from one of the princes' servants, to know if we had any gold 

 or silver pieces with us, that we would exchange for Eussian 



