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THE VAIJ.KV OF THE riU'KH 149
pursue you through the mountains.' We preferred the sacrifice
of a few kopeks to the psychical
manifestations with whicli we
were threatened, and bloodslied was happily avoided. These
sudden outlnu-sts of temper are not unconunon in Ossetia, but
as a rule no harm comes of them.
< )ur first night in camp was spent under damp
mists and
drizzle. The near scenery w-as of the dullest. The landscape was
of a type not uncommon north of the Caucasian chain in the schist
zone between the granite and the limestone. The mountains are
no better than monsti'ous downs. There is nothing quite so tame
and featureless in the Alps, though the ascent to the Furka Pass
from Hospenthal comes near it. But the scale in the Caucasus is
larger, and the result more monotonous.
We saw nothing from the pass but clouds above, interminable
on our track
green slopes below. The first noteworthy object
was Kamunta, the centre, or township, of this unattractive
10 1). it
pastoral region. As seen in M. de Dechy's photogra})h (p.
may remind Syrian travellers of the type of village common in
that country. It i-epresents one of the simplest orders of human
architecture in a stone district. North of the Caucasus the
Ossetes and Tartars have alike adopted it for ordinary domestic
purposes, where defence was not the primary object. Seen from
above, the chief signs of habitation are flat, grass-grown terraces,
out of which protrude rude wicker baskets. From one or two of
the baskets smoke issues. These are the chimneys ; occasionally
a pig or a child tumbles down one, and is fortunate if it does not
fall into the cooking-pot.
If a cow strays incautiously the results
may be more serious. In local nursery songs the
'
Little Boy
his cows are in the corn,' but on the
Blue '
is warned not that '
roofs. Seen from below, a village is represented by a series of
low rough walls, like those of olive-gardens in Southern Italy.
The houses are half dug out of the ground. Kamunta is not
quite of the most primitive type ; many of its houses have four
walls, and stand clear of the hillside, while some have even rude
wooden balconies. On the hilltop may be noticed a small chapel
and some ancient tombs.