KAZBEK TO ELBRUZ. 463 



Kazbek we had to contend against severe wind and cold, 

 and total ignorance of tlie mountain, wliicli made us go 

 up the wrong way. On Elbruz we encountered a tempest, 

 which, but for the entire absence of other difficulties, 

 would have rendered the ascent impossible. On both 

 occasions we miofht have imagrined that we were wrestlinof 

 against ' principalities and powers.' The icy wastes of the 

 Caucasus have been peopled throughout all ages with 

 invisible occupants. In this region dwelt Gog and 

 Magog ; here Oriental fancy has placed the abode of the 

 Deevs, a race of pre-Adamite monarchs, and the retreat of 

 the Peri and the Genii. It was to this snowy prison that 

 Solomon consigned the rebel Afrites, and it would have 

 been strange indeed had not the Djin-Padishah, or Ruler of 

 the Spirits, who dwells on Elbruz, summoned 'the Prince 

 of the Power of the Air ' to his aid, to resist the strange 

 company who, armed with rope and ice-axe, ventured to 

 intrude on his dominions. 



According to their best biographers, giants and gnomes 

 seldom fight a second time. After their power has been 

 once successfully defied, they either tamely expire, or 

 retreat to some more remote fortress. The Djin-Padishah - 

 has, for the present, probably taken up his abode on Mount 

 Everest, whence, let us hope, he may soon be dislodged, 

 and dismissed to the North Pole, or some equally remote 

 and apparently unattainable spot. But, abandoning alle- 

 gory, I think we may fairly assume that, short of actual 

 wet weather, in which no one would attempt a first-class 

 peak, we encountered, in our own attacks on both Elbruz 

 and Kazbek, every obstacle that either mountain possesses 

 or can summon to its aid. Any mountaineers whom 

 this account of our journey may set ' thinking on the 

 frosty Caucasus,' may rest assured that in fine weather 

 they cannot fail to reach the summits of both. Few of 



