Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

the dramatic Daryan Gorge, the Porta Caspiae of the Ancients. Since prehistoric times people
have migrated through this narrow defile and over the Pass of the Cross. Another name for
these gorges was the ‘Gates of the Alani,’ and in fact, to this day the Osseti, the remains of the
Gothic tribes, occupy these remote valleys. They speak an ancient Indo-European language."
They crossed a bridge to a posting station in an old fort under an overhanging rock.
Local tribesmen in heavy shepherds’ cloaks, armed with silver daggers and front-loading guns
loitered around the station. Surprised, Konrad commented upon their blue eyes.
"Oh, yes," Leist said with a laugh, "these are the famous ‘Blue Eyes of the Mountain
Georgians’. Ethnically they are Osseti not Georgians, but they have mixed with the Georgians
with beguiling results: imagine a statuesque woman with black hair and these unreal, deepblue
eyes!"
Hardly enough space remained for the road next to the roaring river in the canyon. The
road got steeper, and the horses labored hard.
Unexpectedly a side valley opened on the end of which Mt. Kazbeg majestically towered
over a craggy glacier.
At the end of the gorges the river fanned out across a rock-strewn floodplain where
thousands of sheep grazed in the sparse grass along its banks. A group of wild shepherds
squatted next to a two-wheeled cart and a smoking fire. In their high, conical, fur hats and dirty,
long-haired, sheepskin coats, their black, bearded faces and tousled, matted hair looked
medieval. Barking and snapping, the scrawny sheep dogs attacked the coach. The horses
reared, and the driver, cursing in Russian, furiously whipped at the dogs, while the shepherds
watched idly, laughing and shouting obscenities
Mount Kazbeg from the village of Kazbegi, 1890s.(Ermakov/Wiki)
Soon they were surrounded by a sea of wooly sheep. Led by stinking, evil-eyed billy
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