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23(j THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
During my stay of neai-ly two days
justice to the sights
I was able to do full
of Ushkul. There are two castles : one close
to Chubiani, the other high on the hillside, which— according to
local tradition— were Queen Thamara's winter and summer resi-
dences. Thamara, as I have noted elsewhere, plays in the Caucasus
the part as an architect taken by Alexander in
Syria, the
Saracens in the Alps, and the Devil generally. Everything re-
markable in the way of buildings is placed to her credit.
Dui-ing my stay I never tired of sitting on the rocky knoll
crowned by the black towers of the lower castle, and watching
the lights and shadows shift on the
WATERMILLS AT USHKUL
grey clifl's and white glaciers of
Shkara. When the eyes needed rest
there was the village beneath me ;
I could watch all that was going on
in these primitive homesteads. It
was not very much. There was hay
to be brought in on wheelless wains,
drawn by oxen, there was corn to be
beaten out on the paved threshing-
floors, which form a sort of ten-ace
outside the houses, or to be ground
in the little watermills beside the
stream, cakes to be baked, a sheep,
perhaps, to be killed and cut up.
Little boys, perched on the rude
boards set with stones which are used as threshing implements,
exhorted their beasts with odd cries, while their parents, clad in
sad grey rags, supei-intended the business. Other children played
a rough game in which an old cap was scrimmaged for.
My
host acted as cicerone. We visited the remains of the
we wandered up to the church which stands
chapel in the Castle ;
isolated above the hamlets. I was taken to a certain historical
barn, where I was told a party of Franks had many years before
been entertained. I remembered that '
entertainment '
very well.
Two or three young trees planted in front of the church repi-esent