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152 THE i;xi'H)i;ati().\ ok the Caucasus
crowd. The children offered good subjects for the photographer ;
the elders had, more than usual, the air of peasants in a comic
opera. This they owed in great jiart to their headgear :
soft,
shapeless felts, such as were largely sold under the name of lawntennis
hats in this country about the same date (1889). One
such I had brought with me for camp use, and on its fir.st
'
with a shout of Ossetinsky '
appearance I was at once greeted
from the boys on the wall. Ossete boys are at least equal to
Etonians in their capacity for sitting for hours on a wall.
Few things can be more trying to the temper or more
OSSETE WIDEAWAKES
destructive to enjoyment than to be treated as part of a travellingshow.
There are, unfortunately, not infrequent occasions when the
Caucasian explorer must submit with as good a grace as he can to
share the jaenalty of princes. In a Mohammedan village he is a
guest,
and must conform to some extent to local customs and his
host's habits. But there are also occasions when evasion is ad-
missible. We ordered our train to move on, and finally pitched our
camp in a lovely spot among firs and copses, a mile beyond the
hamlet, on the path to the Karagoni.
< )ur tents soon enlivened
the glade ; beside them, and almost as speedily, was raised an
arboTU" for the oam])-followers. Caucasians excel in such extern-