BALKAR. 40.> 



Before reaching the first village, which is on the left 

 side of the vallej, we descended to and crossed the river. 

 On an isolated crag above the houses — here, as at Uru&- 

 pieh, flat-roofed stone cabins built against the hillside — 

 stands a fortress, or place of refuge, which, properly 

 defended, must have been impregnable, except to cannon 

 or famine. The wide upland basin, now fairly entered on, 

 is by nature bare and savage in its character, but has 

 been rendered less so by the careful system of cultivation, 

 which has converted every available patch of ground, not 

 only in the valley but to a great height on the mountain- 

 sides, into a fruitful cornfield. After the neglect of 

 natural bounties shown among the lazy tribes on the south 

 of the chain, and also in the lower portions of the very 

 valley we were now following uj), it was strange to see 

 how the industrious and well-to-do Moslems who dwell 

 in these mountain fastnesses contrive to make the waste 

 and desolate places ' laugh with corn,' thus putting to 

 shame the slothfulness and consequent poverty of their 

 Christian neighbours. We passed several hamlets on 

 our left, and met numerous parties of men at work in the 

 fields, before we recrossed the stream, and, mounting a 

 gentle cultivated slope, entered Muchol, the village at 

 which our horsemen wished us to stop. 



"We were, I believe, the first Western Europeans who 

 had been seen in Balkar, and our sudden appearance gave 

 rise to no small excitement. The male population sur- 

 rounded us in the street ; the womankind, being the pro- 

 perty of Moslem lords, were obliged to content themselves 

 with what they could see from the house-roofs. Their 

 dress consists of a loose crimson robe, with a cap, from 

 which a row of coins hangs down over the forehead. 

 There was certainly one pretty face amongst them, and 

 ihere may have been more, but no second opportunity of 

 seeing any of the beauties occurred during our stay. 



