378 FROM PARI TO PATIGORSK. 



of which we at once recognised Beschtau (4,594 feet), 

 an isolated summit rendered famous by several of the 

 early travellers in this country, and not far distant from 

 our goal — Patigorsk. Only ten versts now intervened 

 between us and Zonitzki, the green-cupola'd church of 

 which marked its position long before we reached it. There 

 was no difficulty in obtaining ' troikas,' though there was 

 no regular posthouse, and the functions of head of the post 

 were exercised by the village schoolmaster. Excited at our 

 gradual return to civilisation, and at the discovery of a shop, 

 we rashly ordered a bottle of wine, but failed in the attempt 

 to swallow the vinegar which bore the name. While our 

 carts (the too well-remembered ' paraclodnaia ') were being 

 prepared, we sat in a farmyard, where we were entertained 

 with tea and bread by a funny old Russian woman, whose 

 life seemed troubled by her pigs — lean and hungr}^ beasts, 

 that gathered round us in a circle, waiting to pick up the 

 crumbs of our repast. 



The red and purple tints of a gorgeous sunset were 

 slowly fading away, and the symmetrical form' of Besch- 

 tau stood out, as a dark mass against the lustrous sky, as 

 we left Zonitzki. Before the light was too far gone, we 

 caught sight of Elbruz looming indistinctly, like a huge 

 pale shadow, on the southern horizon. As the twilight 

 grew deeper the moon rose, and lighted us on our way 

 across the grassy steppe. In spite of the jolting, we dozed for 

 three hours at the bottom of the cart, and were only aroused 

 by finding ourselves in the broad street of a village we at 

 first thought to be Patigorsk ; it was, however, only its 

 suburb, the Cossack * stanitza ' of Goriatchevodsk. No 

 bridge crosses the stony bed of the Podkumok, a tributary 

 of the Kuma, one of those streams which contradict the 

 poet's assertion, that 



Even the weariest river 

 Winds somewhere safe to sea, 



