Page:Kéraban the Inflexible Part 1 (Jules Verne).djvu/156

158 but without incident, which did not altogether please Van Mitten. His tablets boasted only a record of geographical names. He had not seen anything particularly novel, and had not had any new impression worth recording.

At Ducha the chaise remained for two hours, while the postmaster sent to fetch the horses, which were at pasture.

"Well," said Kéraban, "let us dine as comfortably, and for as long a time, as circumstances will permit!"

"Yes, let us dine," assented Van Mitten.

"And dine well, if possible," murmured Bruno, regarding his dwindling rotundity of figure.

"Perhaps this halt will provide us with something of interest, which, hitherto, our journey has lacked. I think my young friend Ahmet will permit no breathing time—"

"Until the arrival of horses," said Ahmet. "This is already the ninth of the month."

"That is the kind of answer I like," said Kéraban. "Let us go and see what we can have."

The inn was but an indifferent one; built on the bank of the little river Mdsymta, which rushes down from the neighbouring hills in a torrent.

The little town of Ducha resembles the Cossack villages which are known as "stamisti," with palisades and gates that are dominated by a square tower, wherein a watch is kept day and night. The houses have high thatched roofs, wooden walls, plastered over with clay, and shaded by fine trees. The people are well-to-do. The Cossacks, however, have almost completely lost their individuality in the Russians. But they remain as brave and active as ever. They are excellent guardians of the boundaries committed to their charge, and are justly esteemed the best equestrians in the world, as well in the hunting down of the chronically rebellious mountaineers, as in the jousts and tourneys in which they prove themselves accomplished cavaliers.

The natives are a fine race, remarkable for the beauty and elegance of their forms, but not of their costume, which partakes of the nature of the dress of the Caucasian mountain tribes. Nevertheless, under the high-furred cap, it is still easy to recognize those energetic faces which a thick beard conceals as high as the cheek-bones.