166 
AMAMLOO. 
My next day’s journey spread a whole region of snow before 
me; hill, valley, and plain, all one dreary waste; with a heavy, 
burthened sky, threatening a still more deepening fall. My 
halting-place, for the night, was to be Amamloo; another 
military post, about twenty wersts from the preceding, lying 
up the valley in a direction north-west. The road was good, 
therefore we reached our quarters early in the evening. The 
village attached to the fort was of the same burrow-looking 
character as most others I had lately passed through. However, 
I must do the natives of these wild hamlets the justice to 
say, that, notwithstanding the unpromising exteriors of their 
habitations, they evince a prompt kindness within, to be re¬ 
membered with grateful recollection, by every way-worn tra¬ 
veller of the Caucasus. The description of one of their abodes, 
may be received as a pretty accurate picture of them all. The form, 
like a large rabbit-hole, I have already mentioned : within, is a 
room, which fills the whole compass of the house, being from six¬ 
teen to eighteen feet wide, and often of still greater length ; a 
size we might deem ill-proportioned to the outward lowness of the 
dwelling, but it is dug three or four feet below the surface of 
the earth, which gives a height to the apartment, not to be 
anticipated from without. At one end, commonly near the door, 
a space is always left, untouched by the spade, sufficient to form 
a sort of distinct chamber ; but no otherwise divided from the 
sunken part, than by the more elevated floor. At one side of 
this superior quarter, we find the hearth, with its chimney ; and 
opposite to them, a small hole in the roof, to admit light. The 
floor is the bare earth, beaten very hard ; but coarse carpets are 
spread along the sides, for the people to sit and sleep on. No 
table, or stools, are visible. The walls are merely dried mud, 
