CHAPTER XXXIX
AN EARTHQUAKE
‘ "W "JT T ELL, what d’you think ? ’ said Bender, as the two friends were approaching Sioni. ’ ▼ ‘ What can we do to earn money in this wretched place, seven thousand odd feet above sea level ? ’ Hippolyte was silent. His only means of earning a livelihood was begging, but there was no one from whom he could beg on these lonely paths. Besides, there was poverty here too, a special kind of poverty, an alpine poverty. Each motor-bus or private car that passed slowly through the village up here was followed by the children, who, after dancing the lezghinka, would run after them shouting : ‘ Give us a copper ! Give us a copper ! ’ The passengers would throw coins to them and the cars would move on. ‘ A good idea,’ said Bender. ‘ No outlay of capital required. Small profits, but extremely useful for us in our present position.’ At two o’clock on the afternoon of the second day of their march Hippolyte, under the supervision of the great schemer, performed his first dance in public. The dance was similar to the mazurka, but the tourists were so intoxicated with the wild beauty of the Caucasus that they thought it was the national dance— the lezghinka—and rewarded him with three coppers. When the next car arrived, which turned out to be a motor-bus going from Tiflis to Vladikavkaz, Bender began to dance and leap in the air. ‘ Give us money ! Give us money ! ’ he shouted angrily. The passengers roared with laughter and generously rewarded his antics. Bender picked up 260
