"And so he is overjoyed," replied the captain thoughtfully, shaking his head; "it's youth." "And why shouldn't he be glad? I can see that for a young officer this must be very interesting." The captain said nothing for two minutes. "And that's why I say 'it's youth,'" he continued in a deep tone. "What is there to rejoice in, when there's nothing to see? Here when one goes often, one doesn't find any pleasure in it. Here, let us suppose there are twenty of us officers going: some of us will be either killed or wounded; that's likely. To-day my turn, to-morrow his, the next day somebody else's. So what is there to rejoice in?" [Footnote 8: _mashtak_ in the Caucasian dialect.] [Footnote 9: Fourteen hundred feet.] [Footnote 10: Paliurus, box-thorn, and _karachag._] [Footnote 11: _tordoka'yé._] [Footnote 12: _papákha._] III. Scarcely had the bright sun risen above the mountains, and begun to shine into the valley where we were riding, when the undulating clouds of mist scattered, and it grew warm. The soldiers with guns and knapsacks on their backs marched slowly along the dusty road. In the ranks were frequently heard Malo-Russian dialogues and laughter. A few old soldiers in white linen coats--for the most part non-commissioned officers--marched along the roadside with their pipes, engaged in earnest conversation. The triple rows of heavily laden wagons advanced step by step, and raised a thick dust, which hung motionless. The mounted officers rode in advance; a few _jiggited,_ as they say in the Caucasus;[13] that is, applying the whip to their horses, they spurred them on to make four or five leaps, and then reined them in suddenly, pulling the head back. Others listened to the song-singers, who notwithstanding the heat and the oppressive air indefatigably tuned up one song after another. A hundred _sazhens_ in advance of the infantry, on a great white horse, surrounded by mounted Tatars, rode a tall, handsome officer in Asiatic costume, known to the regiment as a man of reckless valor, one who cuts _any one straight in the eyes!_[14] He wore a black Tatar half-coat or _beshmét_ trimmed with silver braid, similar trousers, new leggings[15] closely laced with _chirazui_ as they call galloons in the Caucasus, and a tall, yellow Cherkessian cap worn jauntily on the back of his head. On his breast and back were silver lacings. His powder-flask and pistol were hung at his back; another pistol, and a dagger in a silver sheath, depended from his belt. Besides all this was buckled on a sabre in a red morocco sheath adorned with silver; and over the shoulder hung his musket in a black case.