Life of Schamyl | Page 9

of the race. With grace and impetuosity they dash down the
valley, over the hills, and along the mountain side. The flag-bearer aims
to keep the lead not only by quick running but also by turning and
doubling, by taking advantage of the ground and placing obstacles
between himself and his pursuers. To the right, to the left,
straightforward, over brooks and fences, across torrent and ravine,
through woods and thickets, up hill and down dale, away sweeps the
mad cavalcade. 'Tis neck or nothing, and leaps that only dares the devil.
Overtaken, the bearer of the flag yields it up to his successful
competitor, who shouting his triumphant vo-ri-ra-ka hurries onwards
with the whole legion at his heels. So they race until the hardy horses,
though eager as their riders for the victory, are obliged at last to halt for
breath. But after an interval of rest, starting with another hurrah the
troop go over the course again, and perhaps again, until the contest is
ended, and some fortunate deli-kan is pronounced entitled to the prize.
It is a common occurrence during these games for a mounted horseman
when particularly excited to throw up his cap; and this is always
regarded as a challenge by any of his companions, unslinging,
uncovering, and cocking his gun, to put a ball through it before it
reaches the ground. Or a bonnet is purposely dropped, that some rider
going at full speed may display his agility by picking it up without
drawing rein. Again, there is the game in which two mounted cavaliers
set off at full speed holding each other by the hand, and each
endeavoring by main strength or dexterity to pull his antagonist from
the saddle. And finally, a party of horsemen on arriving at a friendly
aoul or place of general gathering, is met by a company of persons on
foot who, bearing branches of trees, make a dash at the horses' heads in
order if possible to frighten them. This tests the skill of the riders, and
also trains the horses to rush without fear upon the enemy.

IX.
HIS LOVE OF NATURE.
Schamyl in early youth exhibited a remarkable sensibility to the beauty
and sublimity of nature. It is related of him by the aged men of Himri
that he was fond of climbing the neighboring mountains, and that
especially at the going down of the sun he might be seen sitting on a
high point of rock whence he could survey at the same time the vale
below and the fantastic summits which tower above it. There he would
sit gazing at the snows red with the declining rays, and at the rocks
glowing in the reflected purple of the clouds, until the valley and the
glens connected with it were quite dark with the gathering
twilight--gazing where far off to the westward the snow-clad peaks
were still burning brightly as with altar fires that reached to
heaven--gazing where blazed longest of all the top of Kasbek, until
from its expiring spark the evening planet seemed to catch the light
with which it flamed out in the sky above it, while gradually the lower
mountains faded on the sight, and only the heavens and the highest
peaks were bathed in the mild light of night.
This moreover was enchanted ground. For on one side of the loftiest
and most grotesque of the heights around Himri, there leans against it a
level table rock of considerable extent which is perfectly desolate, and
which the superstitious imaginations of the inhabitants of this aoul have
made the scene of almost as much witchery as was ever located on the
top of the Brocken. Often in the dead of night, say the villagers, strange
fires are lighted on this dancing floor of the spirits, and which reflect on
all the mountain sides a lurid and unearthly glare. Then the great white
eagle which for a thousand years has housed in the high Caucasus
hastens hither on wings which shake the air like the sighing of the night
wind, or the howling of the coming tempest; and then assemble here
from fairy land the happy peris, who in this lighted chamber dance on
fantastic toes until the day peeps over the mountain tops or the first
cock crows in Himri.
But while no one dared to tread this haunted rock after the going down
of the sun, it was precisely here that Schamyl, whose intellect,

self-illumined, early pierced through the blind which superstition binds
over the eyes of all mountaineers, often selected his seat and lingered
through the twilight far into the darkness of the evening. With his
trustful love of nature he feared no supernatural powers; and while the
common mind was filled with dread in the presence of phenomena
which,