380 The Hunting Grounds 



The Abbassian chief gave us a very thrilling 

 account of the loss of five of his tribe, with some pri- 

 soners, by wolves, during the winter of 1852, when 

 the whole country lay covered with snow for months 

 together. It appears that a force had been collected 

 and sent out in the plains to harass and annoy the 

 Russians, but, having met with a reverse, they scat- 

 tered, and each tribe made the best of their way 

 homeward. The Abbassian party, to which the nar- 

 rator belonged, consisted of eleven men fairly mounted 

 and armed with matchlocks, pistols, and swords, with 

 five prisoners four Russian soldiers and a woman. 

 As they were traversing a vast steppe or plain they per- 

 ceived a pack of seven wolves slowly following them, 

 of which number they killed two or three with their 

 matchlocks, for the sake of the fur, and, dispersing 

 the rest, continued their journey. Shortly afterwards 

 a strange howling noise was heard in the rear, which 

 at first sounded like the roaring of the wind, but 

 afterwards increased to such a pitch, that they thought 

 Jehannum (the infernal regions) was turned loose, 

 and that the cry they had heard was the exulting 

 laugh of the "gins" and "afrits" (evil spirits), whom 

 they believe to inhabit the impenetrable snows of 

 Mount El-bruz. At length their attention was 

 called to a dark mass of black objects spreading 

 over the snow, like a cloud on the horizon, and 

 the full extent of their danger now burst upon them, 



