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122 THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
there is a subdued murmur of amazement at
self-cooking soup-tin,
the evident miracle. To empty the house on a night when such
attractions are offered is no light matter. Even dumping the
toes of the front row with ice-axes is not always effective. When
at last the floor has been cleared, eager eyes still gaze through
the window till that too is shuttered up ; then they betake them-
selves to the chinks between the boarded walls. On my last visit,
however, my popularity as a show, I was glad to find, did wear
off" somewhat on the second day. I was able to sti'oU about the
village at leisure, to have some talk with the priest, and to witness
the interesting ceremony of blessing the first-fruits of the harvest.
Sheaves of corn, baskets of apples and other vegetables, were brought
into the church and laid on tables. An ox was slauofhtered at the
chin-ch door, and the joints distributed among certain of the
ANCIENT CHURCH PICTURES AT GEHI
villagers — a pagan cere-
mony, for which the priest
apologised. Here, as we
shall find again in Suanetia,
when religion died out,
the old church pictures,
Eikons, plated with silver
and studded with coarse
turquoises
and other
stones, wei'e guarded with
superstitious reverence.
Some of those still pre-
served at Gobi are fio-ured
in Signor Sella's photo-
graphs.
The inhabitants occupy
the first place
in one's
memory, but the situation
of Gebi has great pictur-
esque attractions. The village stands 4400 feet above the sea,
where a green knoll projects and bars the valley, below defaced
by toiTents, above smiling with corn-fields. It is surrounded