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266 THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
seemed, almost deseiteJ as Ave passed through it. At noon the
heavens cleared ; and
we had an exquisite view fi'om the brow
above the Mujalaliz, where we found troops of haymakers at work,
quite regardless of weather, as indeed haymakers have to be in
Suanetia.
We ran down the steep hillside and installed ourselves in the
priest's house at Mujal. It is a good wooden cottage, and on
SUANETIANS
the hrst iioor are two large clean rooms, with a broad balcony
in an
running round them. The village is one of a group lying
on the left
open basin of barley-fields, enclosed by wooded slopes,
bank of the stream, about a mile below the junction of the torrents
from the Tuiber and the Zanner Glaciers. Beyond
the river the
white towers of Mulakh break the hillside, and high in the air
the mightier towers of Ushba show between the rainstorms their
vigorous outline. Tetnuld is hidden by its spurs, and at the head