ACROSS RUSSIA

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 23, 28 January 1935, Page 9

ACROSS RUSSIA

SHOOTING IN GEORGIA THE CAUCASIAN . PEASANT SOVIET INFILTRATION ' In this second article Mr. Fleming, who la on a mission to the I"nr East, describes a shooting trip In Georgia, (vnd gives glimpses of the peasant Inhabitants" of tbo Caucasus. (By Peter Fleming.) (World Copyright Reserved.) 11. • .The shooting party of three, of which I was a member, reached Tiflis in the middle of September, via the Georgian military highway. This road, which was completed towards the close of the last century, is a magnificent pioco of engineering; it is kept by tho present regime in moderately good repair, but is closed by snow from November to May. From Qrdjonikidze (formerly Vladikavkaz) it climbs steeply and tortuously for a great part of the ascent skirting the precipitous gorge of the Kiver Terek. Crossing an eastern shoulder of the 10,OOOft Mount Kasbek, it reaches its highest point at the .Pass of the Cross (7000 ft). Theuco it drops in less alarming convolutions into a valley, where on the crags above each small village slim, rectangular watchtowers, oddJy tapered, recall the clan wnrfnro of not so long ago. In the foothills above Tiflis the road passes through. Mtskhet, an ancient town which, though formerly tho capital of Georgia, might have dropped out of the history books but for tho birth there, 55 years ago, of Joseph Djugashvilli, otherwise known as Stalin. Before reaching this hallowed spot we had stopped at a village in the mountains, whence, obtaining what passed for horses, we mado a two days' journey to. tho territory of the Hevsurs. This tribe of mountaineers, said to number 10,000, is popularly supposed to be descendod from the Crusaders under Godfrey of Boulogne. The legend, about which ethnologists are disappointingly sceptical, probably owes its origin to the national costume which consists principally of a.leather jerkin, so decorated with, metal that it suggests mail,- and' having the sign of tho Cross embroidered on both sjleeves abovo the elbow. One of these jerking boasted as its central ornament a sixpenny bit bearing the bead of Queen Victoria; we brought the garment up to dato by the gift of a similar coin minted in the reign of her grandson. We found the Hevsurs, who speak a dialect of Georgian, a handsome, proud people, a queer oasis of dignity and dour reserve in the dosert of Soviet garrulity. Most of the tribe live in villages still further west into the mountains,' and are said to be fhostile to the • Soviets, from whose in.fluence thoir' immunity is virtually assured until the Eussians learn to make a decent pair of boots. CHANGE IN TIFLIS. Tiflis, the capital of Georgia, loday hardly reflects the volatile and rather exotic Georgian temperament. The bazaar has beei liquidated, the national

costume is out of voguo (or out of stock), and the shops contain only the shoddy and standardised goods which ar" to bo found all over Russia. In Georgia, as in all t>° diverse Soviet Republics,, the native culture is being sedulously preserved, but by a process whoso results are reflected only very palely outside tho walls of museums and similar institutions. .■ In Tiflis wo were not surprised to learn that tho elaborato preparations for our hunting oxpeditio-i existed only in tha imagination of the Moscow travel agency; wo contrived, nevertheless, to Bpend an amusing fortnight in the mountains of Eastern Georgia. Tho Georgian peasants are hardy, hospitable, and easily amused. As huntors they recall for tho most part Tartarin rather than Nimrod. Everyone, including the beaters, carries a heavy armament, usually comprising a revolver and either a shotgun or a rifle or (commonly) both. Some of them are extremely good shots, and their powers of endurance aro remarkablo, particularly as their only footwear is a; kind of rawhide moccasin, reinforced when the going becomes semi-precipi-tous by primitive climbing irons. They Bummon their dogs—though seldom with success—by a loud blast down the barrel of a shotgun. I We moved inconscquontly from vil-1 lago to village, at ono place lodging in j Tsinondali, the former palace of Prince Chavohavadze and now the headquar- ] ters of a State vineyard. Hero was an old housekeeper who delighted to recull a visit of the Tsar, and many of the tenants rememberod their landlord with affection. The district is a fertile' one, its chief products —tobacco and wine—providing agreeably seasonal occupations, and the peasants live very, well under the now regime. Law and | order are better maintained and taxes | are lower; but perhaps the mos* striking difference between the old days and tho new is that, whereas formerly there was at least one man in tho district who could, if he wanted to, get something done quickly and efficiently, today there is none. ' The best sport in tho Caucasus is. offered by tho tour (capra cylindricorriis, Blutch), a mountain sheep of tho moufflort type which is found (with difficulty) on tho alpino pastures or in the forest immediately below them, and \Vhose pursuit requires endurance and Some cunning. The only tour which gave us a chance of a shot we wounded, but lost on a steep place near the Junction of tho frontiers of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Daghestan, a nominally Autonomous district inhabited . l?y.. a Turki-speaking tribe, called Lesjjins, much given to banditry. In addition to the tour there are bears, wolves, and wild boar; we killed a large specimen of the last across the Azerbaijan frontier, but apart from that our.bag was confined to a few small, deer, a wild cat, several jackals, some pheasants, quail, and pigeon, and a few antelope which 1 shot later near Baku. Of the giant red deer, preserved on account of their rarity, we saw only tho phenomenal tracks. THE HUNTERS' LIFE. The chief attraction of the expedition lay in sharing the life of the hunters. In the field their plans might miscarry, their (logs run into the next Republic, and their passion . for impromptu tnrget practice clear tho nearest valleys prematurely; but at the end of the day they always recovered their morale. Bits of whatever had been shot would, be cut into small pieces,

spitted on green wands, and mado into shashlik over tho ashes of a fire. Then they would sing songs with melodies Oriental rather than-Slav, and perhaps, throwing their long knives on the ground, do fierce firelit dances like a Scottish sword dance before lying down i in their burkas to sleep. (A burka is a long, straight cloak of black sheep- j skin; tho shoulders jut out at rightangles, giving tho wearer a somewhat vampire-like appearance.) When we returned to our base in a village ono of tho men would ask the whole expedition to his house, and there huge quantities of wine and homemade delicacies would be produced, and a tamada, or toast-master, appointed to make little speeches before giving the Georgian toast which, means "Bo the victor!" Tho host and hostess appeared to take a genuino pleasure in being eaten out of house and home. Tho peasants wero kindly and spontaneous people, and the snow-capped mountains among which they lived were of an exceptional beauty. Hero the drums of propaganda rolled only faintly, and each of tho Temotcr villages had still its own customs, its own dishes, and its own taste in wine. But on the way' back to Tiflis we stopped for luncheon at a place whero a new restaurant had been built. It was the kind of shoddy, characterless institution that you find all over Eussia, and as«l looked at tho redundant post.ers on the walls, and the mass-produced cutlery, and the bust of Lenin, and the menu on which no variations could bo played, I realised that Soviet civilisation was marching up to the mountains, and that soon, in the villages wo had 16ft, it would be all like this. (To be continued.)