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THE MAMISON PASS AND GEBI 117
I have described without digression the I'oad of the Mamison
as far as Kutais. But before leaving the mountains to follow the
Rion to the verge of tlie low-lands, travellers of any enterpi'ise will
arrange to pay a visit to the true source of the river, and to the
former centre of Caucasian wayfarers, destined perlia])s to become
a future centre for moiuitaineers, the village of Gebi, which lies only
two hours' ride from the highroad.
The courage shown by a mountain population in fiicing difficult
passes, and in particular glacier passes, depends to a great extent
upon their necessities. Peasants travel for business ; when a good
and safe track exists they will go a long way round to find it.
The opening of the Simplon for wheels closed to commerce the
Gries and the Monte Moro. Yet there are limits to the circuits of
mountain people. Where the snowy barrier is extensive, as in the
Pennine Alps, the natives of the adjacent valleys will conmionly
traverse glaciers which would be looked on with horror by the
dwellers under a less continuously lofty chain, such as the Tyrolese
Tauern. In the Caucasus the natural barrier is an unbroken
rampart of snow and ice, not— as between the Great St. Bernard
and the Simplon — fifty, but a hundred miles in length. Moreover,
until quite recent times, other dangers had to be taken into account
by travellers. The easiest pass might lead to a hostile village or
under the towers of some predatory noble. Hence glacier-travel
has been developed among the Caucasians to a point beyond that
it had ever reached in the Alps, even in the Middle Ages.
their cattle to
They drive their flocks and horses, they bring
market, over passes comparable to the St. Theodule and the Col
d'Herens. They will cross the ice for a seven or eight hours'
journey in order to procure salt, or even to enjoy a few days'
feasting on southern fruit, and to make such small gain as the
basket they can carry home on their shoulders may bring. They
have, if legends are trite, even chosen a glacier, the Tuiber, about
the size of the Aar,
for a battlefield.
Besides the Mamison, there are no less than four passes wdiich
four-footed beasts can be forced over from Gebi to the northern side.
Of these, two lead to the Urukh, and two to the Cherek and Karaul.