ew years of wedlock, not only lose
their good looks, but acquire a coarseness of feature and a robustness
of figure which make it exceedingly difficult to distinguish them from
men. Nor is the difficulty lessened by the fact that the costume of both
sexes is closely alike.

At Astrakhan the most dangerous as well as the most arduous part of the
expedition of our two travellers began. They were compelled to carry
provisions with them, if they did not wish to perish of hunger on the
steppes. An escort was therefore necessary, and the Russian governor
selected for the post one of his best officers; a young man famed for
his skill as a hunter, and as the happy owner of a falcon from which he
would never separate. Satisfied with providing so competent a purveyor,
the governor, in presenting him to the travellers, said; "Now my
conscience is at rest! I give you a brave soldier to protect you, and a
travelling companion who will take care that you are not starved to
death in the desert."

From Astrakhan they pushed forward to Vladimirofka, a town on the Kuma,
which they entered with a good deal of pomp and circumstance. A
britchka, drawn by three camels, and carrying Monsieur and Madame de
Hell, led the van; then came a troop of four or five Cossacks, armed to
the teeth, and several Kalmuks guiding a train of camels loaded with
baggage. The Cossack officer, with falcon on wrist, and his long rifle
slung behind him, rode by the side of the carriage, ready, with
Muscovite precision, to transmit orders to the escort, and gallop off at
the slightest signal; whilst the dragoman lolled on the box-seat with a
fine air of contemptuous indifference to everything around him. After a
few days' rest and refreshment, they resumed their journey, advancing
rapidly towards the Caucasus, of which the highest summit, Mount Elburz,
from time to time afforded them a glimpse of its lofty head, which was
almost always shrouded in mist, as if to conceal it from the profane
gaze. Tradition avows that Noah's dove alighted on its peak, and plucked
thence the mystic branch which has ever since been hallowed as symbolic
of peace and hope.

"We were now," writes Madame de Hell, "in an enchanted region, though
but just beyond the verge of the steppes. The faint lines that chequered
the sky gradually assumed a greater distinctness of form and colour; at
first the mountains seemed so many light, transparent vapours, floating
upon the wind; but by degrees