ii8 OUR VOYAGE TO THE DELTA 



ingly formal and slow affair, the only feature of interest 

 being the assemblage of villagers outside, who sang a 

 melancholy tune, while two or three couples slowly 

 walked round each other in a depressed fashion, the 

 gentleman taking hold of one of the lady's arms by the 

 elbow, the other arm interlaced in hers. The girls wore 

 their hair plaited in a pigtail behind, at the end of which 

 a cross-bar was attached, from which dangled half a dozen 

 broad ribbons like a banner screen. They kept their 

 eyes fixed on the ground as they danced, and lifted a 

 handkerchief of many colours to their mouths. All the 

 time vodka was served from a tin can, and through the 

 afternoon and evening the part of the room near the door 

 was filled with an ever-changing crowd of peasant maidens 

 who came to have a good stare at the bride and bride- 

 groom and, having gazed their fill, retired to make way 

 for others, who entered and did likewise. 



The next morning a stroll up the chiffchaff valley 

 resulted in nothing, but as we were returning home I 

 heard the song of a bird that was quite new to me — four 

 notes loud and clear. I shot the little songster, and it 

 proved to be a male scarlet bullfinch {Carpodacus 

 erythrinus). It was in company with another bird, but 

 this one escaped us. We heard the cuckoo in our 

 morning ramble. Four eggs of the wood-sandpiper were 

 brought to us, and the next day four eggs of the oyster- 

 catcher, one of which was slightly set. All that day we 

 worked hard at our eggs ; we had blown 143 in all, 

 including the ^^^ of a peregrine falcon which a Samoyede 

 brought us on the 27th of May. He said he found it in 

 a nest built on the ground, containing three others, which 

 he had the clumsiness to break. At night we turned out 

 for a breath of fresh air along the banks of the great 

 river. During our walk we shot a pair of Terek sand- 



