m which it is separated by a dense
forest. On one side of the road which runs through the village is the
river; on the other, green vineyards and orchards, beyond which are
seen the driftsands of the Nogay Steppe. The village is surrounded by
earth-banks and prickly bramble hedges, and is entered by tall gates
hung between posts and covered with little reed-thatched roofs. Beside
them on a wooden gun-carriage stands an unwieldy cannon captured by the
Cossacks at some time or other, and which has not been fired for a
hundred years. A uniformed Cossack sentinel with dagger and gun
sometimes stands, and sometimes does not stand, on guard beside the
gates, and sometimes presents arms to a passing officer and sometimes
does not. Below the roof of the gateway is written in black letters on
a white board: 'Houses 266: male inhabitants 897: female 1012.' The
Cossacks' houses are all raised on pillars two and a half feet from the
ground. They are carefully thatched with reeds and have large carved
gables. If not new they are at least all straight and clean, with high
porches of different shapes; and they are not built close together but
have ample space around them, and are all picturesquely placed along
broad streets and lanes. In front of the large bright windows of many
of the houses, beyond the kitchen gardens, dark green poplars and
acacias with their delicate pale verdure and scented white blossoms
overtop the houses, and beside them grow flaunting yellow sunflowers,
creepers, and grape vines. In the broad open square are three shops
where drapery, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, locust beans and
gingerbreads are sold; and surrounded by a tall fence, loftier and
larger than the other houses, stands the Regimental Commander's
dwelling with its casement windows, behind a row of tall poplars. Few
people are to be seen in the streets of the village on weekdays,
especially in summer. The young men are on duty in the cordons or on
military expeditions; the old ones are fishing or helping the women in
the orchards and gardens. Only the very old, the sick, and the
children, remain at home.

Chapter V

It was one of those wonderful evenings that occur only in the Caucasus.
The sun had sunk behind the mountains but it was still light. The
evening glow had spread over a third of the sky, and against its
brilliancy the dull white immensity of the mountains was sharply
defined. The air was rarefied, motionless, and full of sound