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262 THE EXPLOKATIOX OF THE CAUCASUS of it as 'the gigantic pyramid of Tetiuild.' Herr von Thieliiianii writes :— • Tetnuld, the most beautiful of all the uiountains of the Caucasus, stands out from the chain in the form of a gigantic pyramid of the height of 16,000 feet. The dazzling whiteness of its snow}- mantle, combined with the grace of its form, produce an effect similar to that created by the Jimgfrau, while to complete the comparison a conical peak, smaller but equally beautiful, like the Swiss Silberhoru, rises up by its side.' Before leaving England 1 had studied photographs of the mountain, and found, as I thought, the right way up it. The most convenient starting-point was obviously Adish. From the pastures above that village the snowfields at the western base of the final peak could, by crossing a spur, probably be reached with less trouble than by ascending the glacier they feed, whicli drains into the Mujalaliz or valley of the Mulkhura. Our first stage was to Ipari. As usual at Betsho— I might
THE ASCENT OF TETNULD 263 say in the Caucasus— the horses did not come till past noon, and it had loncj been dark when we all reassembled in the court- house at Ipari. Half the party came by the Ingur, the others by Mestia and the Uguir Pass. The former route is considerably the shorter. The path from Ipari to Adish, a three hours' ride, is most romantic. Fancy the Valley of the Lyn with two mountains of over fifteen thousand feet closing every vista, the white pyramid of Tetnuld in front, the rock-towers of Ushba behind. One of the views of Ushba was the most perfect iinaginable. But there The particular charm of ai'e so many perfect views of Ushba ! this was in the water, and the foliage of the foreground, and the way in which the lower hills formed a framework for the great peaks. The path continues by —and often in— the stream until the barley-fields and towers of Adish come suddenly in sight. Adish, as I have before pointed out, is the most isolated, and one of the wildest of the connnunes of Free Suanetia. It has no priest or headman : but in 1865 the villagers arc said to have been formally baptized ; they are certainly still unre- generate, and utter barbarians in their manner of dealing with strangers. But, strong in our escort of two Cossacks,* we had no fear of the inhabitants, and made our mid-day halt in an enclosure at the top of the village. High prices were asked for provisions, and the villagers quarrelled noisily among themselves as to the distribution of the money, or invented grounds for petty demands, which they pressed on us with noisy persistence. Compared, however, to our encounters in 1868, this appeared to me but a poor perfoi'mance. Violence of tone and gesture are conventional in Suanetia : there was no real passion. We scattered smiles and kopeks in retui'n for a sheep and other ^^I'ovisions. One man demanded paymetit on the ground that we had lunched on his land, and on being laughed at had recourse to the traditional pantomime of fetching his gun ; another laid hold of my ice-axe, ' The reader must be reminded tbat, in records of Caucasian travel, a Cossack is not an ethnographical but a niiliuiry term. The two men we had with us on this occasion were one a Suanetian, the other a Kabardan from Naltshik. ' ' The surveyor's Cossack at Kiiraul was a Tauli. JIany of the Cossacks, both men and officers, are Ossetes.
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262 THE EXPLOKATIOX OF THE CAUCASUS<br />
of it as 'the gigantic pyramid of Tetiuild.' Herr von Thieliiianii<br />
writes :—<br />
•<br />
Tetnuld, the most beautiful of all the uiountains of the Caucasus, stands<br />
out from the chain in the form of a gigantic pyramid of the height of 16,000<br />
feet. The dazzling whiteness of its snow}- mantle, combined with the grace<br />
of its form, produce an effect similar to that created by the Jimgfrau, while<br />
to complete the comparison a conical peak, smaller but equally beautiful,<br />
like the Swiss Silberhoru, rises up by its side.'<br />
Before leaving England 1 had studied photographs<br />
of the<br />
mountain, and found, as I thought, the right way up it. The most<br />
convenient starting-point was obviously Adish. From the pastures<br />
above that village the snowfields at the western base of the<br />
final peak could, by crossing a spur, probably be reached with less<br />
trouble than by ascending the glacier they feed, whicli drains into<br />
the Mujalaliz or valley of the Mulkhura.<br />
Our first stage was to Ipari. As usual at Betsho— I might
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