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118 THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
In old times another track of niucli importance led through Gebi.
One of the easiest approaches, and the direct road from Georgia,
to the wilds of Suanetia, lay across the grassy ridges that divide
the sources of the Rion, the Skenis Skali, and the Ingur. The old
tracks have now been overgrown by forest, and the towers that
guarded them, or perhaps served for fire-signals, are in ruins. But
if all roads no longer lead to Gebi, there is still plenty of life and
traffic in the old place, and the inhabitants have not lost their
traditional position as the pedlars of the Caucasus. If I wanted
a story to be spread —with variations— throughout the Caucasus, I
should tell it to the Club that meets, on most days of the week
and at most hours of the day, on the village green.
The part played in similar institutions near Pall Mall by news-
the constant and
papers and tape-messages is taken at Gebi by
various new arrivals. Now a tall, blue-eyed, tawny-bearded Mingre-
lian noble rides in with his servants from the Racha, his long hashlik
(a Phrygian hood) hanging loose over his shoulders, and his sword,
dagger and pistols clattering on his belt. Now a party
of Karatshai
Tartars, or Mountain Turks, in black sheepskin bonnets and cloaks
— the bourlas of the Caucasus— arrive over the passes of the main
chain, brmging their herds and horses from the pastures
of Balkar
or Chegem, or the more distant downs under Elbruz. Here a ragged
company of Mingrelian peasants, armed with scythes for the haycutting,
are bargaining for the provisions that will sustain them
on their tramp to the meadows of the northern side. For in the
Caucasus, as in the Alps, it is the southern peasant who meets any
demand for extra labour.
At a little distance the maidens of the place, adorned with
necklaces of sea-shells, pieces of amber and many-patterned beads,
clad in bright red robes and crowned with turbans, made up of a
parti-coloured cotton handkerchief fastened on the top of a long
white cloth that falls down the back, gossip round the fountain, or,
i-anged in a circle, pass the time in songs
and dances. Smaller
children, more or less naked, play with sticks and rags, or carry
home on wooden platters portions of the ox that has just been
slaughtered in the churchyard, pursued by large, wolf-like dogs, dis-