37            The Nathos also had been effected by the regrettable incident at the last great Spring Festival.  They were also isolated as were the Bastis, though not to the same  extent.  They had stopped attending social functions  held on the right side of the Psifabe Valley.  They did not let their youth to go to  such places where they could possibly encounter those of the Basti family.  They were afraid lest they should be involved in any undesirable incidents.

            Şible was the senior most member of the Natho family at that time.  Unlike Dadu of the Bastis, he was an agile and talkative person. He  had  a nervous temperament though.  “Şible” was not his original name.  The term “Şible”, used to designate  goddess of  the sky and the war,  was attributed to him by  friends in his early youth. In the course of time his original name was dropped, and he became to be called Nathoko Şible.

             In the wake of the last Spring Festival he talked and bragged almost incessantly. Whenever he remembered the quarrel at the spring festival he reeled off, whether anyone listened to him or not.  He used to repeat to himself:  “I thought Basti Dadu was a man of reason. I took it for granted that he would come to me and apologize. I expected him to  publicly admit that his son was on the fault.  No; he did nothing do any thing of the sort. You see; because of their damn arrogance the Bastis spoiled the peace of the entire Valley.  I am going to wait for a little while more.  If  Dadu still does not turn up here and apologize, than I will go to him myself and tell him to his face that he did not behave the way an Adige should.”

            Indeed on a number of occasions Şible attempted to visit Çığızaç to speak with Dadu.  At such moments he lapsed into insanity, culminating to hysterical convulsion.  He would spring up, would demand his horse be saddled; for he  “needed to talk to Dadu”. Each time they could placate him with much difficulty. His family and the rest of the people of the village were scared of a potential mishap worst than the previous one. They advised Şible to “ try to be patient for some time more.”

            The Psikuy village, where the Nathos lived, was located on the left bank of the Psifabe stream. It was the nearest village in the Psifabe Valley to the River Kuban.  Though it was about seven or eight kilometers to the south of the River, yet the mosquitoes bred in the marches nearby rendered life in the village miserable.

            Psikuy was built on  a low natural terrace  which extended  to about two kilometers to the north of the village.  The terrain sloped gently.  Looking from the northern tip of the terrace one could see  the River Kuban and the swampland along the river on both sides.

            Şible, on occasions when the weather condition permitted, used to stroll up to the tip of the terrace and watched the River Kuban and the misty horizon beyond, which   gave one the impression of infinity.  Sometimes he used to talk for several minutes by himself waving his hand in the direction across the river.

            The village of Bjeduğ was located on the opposite plane across the  River Kuban.  Şible tried to gaze the village, using his right palm as a shield against the sun shine. The village was visible under normal conditions, when there was no mist.   But Şible’s eye sight had begun to fail him because of his advanced age. Things appeared to him hazy.

            There were certain memories that induced Şible to climb to the tip of the terrace at that age.  His wife Zeyide belonged to the Arığoy village across the river. Şible’s memories  carried him to those days when he had first met her.

            Those were the years when youthful Şible thunderously bawled while galloping on the  horse-back. Şible had met Zeyide at a wedding party at the Arığoy village, which he had attended in the company his friends. There he fell in love with her.  Since then whenever he longed for Zeyide he used to  madly dash into the cool waters of the River Kuban on horse back  with or without friends.  He entered Zeyide’s house completely soaked.  Her father  teasingly accosted him in these words:  “Here comes the Shapsuğ ¹again !”  He deliberately distorted “Şapsı𔲠  as   “Shapsuğ” He had never imagined that his daughter would love him,  least  ever be persuaded to marry him.  He had thought that his intelligent and beautiful daughter had been cutting joke with Şible, trying to put him off.  Alas!  he was mistaken.

            One summer night Şible kidnapped Zeyide.

            Şible always vividly remembered that night.

            Having picked up Zeyide from her home the two  had galloped  into the Kuban swamps.  He had missed the planned path out of excitement.  He was confronted with an impassable swampland.  He was dead scared by the bleak prospect.  The whole night they searched a way out. Şible, however, was lucky enough for no one apparently had sensed Zeyide’s flight; they were not chased.  At day break they had surrendered themselves to the cool waters of the River Kuban.

            Zeyide had stuck on the  back of the powerful horse; Şible swum while firmly holding the reins. Such a craziness could be expected of Şible and Zeyide alone.  They had managed to cross the river.  Tired and hungry as they were, had fought the mosquitoes the whole night; exposed to the cold morning wind, they shivered inside their wet dress; and were scorched under the  noon-time-sun- shine.  After night fall the fugitives could reach Psikuy, totally exhausted.

            Neither her father nor her brother had looked up for Zeyide.

            Her father was a highly self -conceited  person. He was a leading member of the Bjeduğ tribe. He had gathered that his daughter had run away with Şible willingly. He was profoundly hurt.  He was furious.  His love for her turned into hatred.  He refused meeting Şible’s uncle, who visited Arığoy along with alders of Psikuy to make peace.  Poor Zeyide never again had any chance of meeting any one of her relatives.

            Şible was about thirty five when he married Zeyide. He then topped the list of the bachelors of Psikuy by age.  After wedding  he reorganized  his life style.  He tried to behave soberly both in speech and in action.  He did force himself  to hold his tongue; but his contempt against Zeyide’s father and her brothers, who had ignored him all the time,  undermined his psychic balance. “Okay, let him be cross with me. Let him not see me.  But what is wrong with this poor woman, his own daughter ?”, he protested.  As he grew older he took his father-in-law’s stance as a deliberate act of humiliation and disgrace against himself. He developed a sort of paranoia.  He feared being condemned by the community. When in a fit of anger he would climb the top of the terrace, turn to Arığoy across the river, and would loudly curse and rebuke his father-in-law, the inhabitants of Arığoy, and the entire Bjeduğ tribe. “The wretched fellows are the neighbors of the Nogays. You, the Tatarized dogs!  Unworthy of being Adige?” he would shout. So he would discharge.  He would then look around to make sure nobody listened him.

38            With the passage of time Şible’s conscience began to bother him. For ultimately he himself was responsible for detaching Zeyide from her home. to ease his guilty conscience he wandered in the woods for days at a stretch, letting it be known to his own family that he had gone for hunting. He was not at rest even after he had children and had to look after a fairly large family; although his wife had stopped recalling  her father  and her  brothers, and had dedicated herself for the happiness of her husband and children.

            It was twenty five years  after the Şible-Zeyide episode that the quarrel between Bastiko Takir and Natho Sabe, the second son of Şible took place.  Şible’s already impaired mental condition was seriously disturbed by the Natho-Basti dispute. In the process he suffered frequent lapses of  nervous crisis.  He did not live as long as Basti Dadu did.  He passed away ten years after the last eventful spring festival celebrated at the Tham Yiane meadow.

            Notwithstanding her distressing life Zeyide was a healthy woman.  She proved successful in running her family as a male person would.  She let Şible’s brother  Şhalak take another dwelling. He was an  ill-natured person, reserved unlike his late talkative brother. She gave in marriage her two daughters and  three sons, and saw to it that they all together formed a large and happy family. She never harbored any grudge against the Bastis. However,  she did try to keep her own children away from them and   did not let her children to attend social gatherings  participated by the Bastis.  These were the dictates of womanly premonition.  She had been scared of  another potential  mishap.

            As a result of the discipline Zeyide had been able to establish in the family that her children were pointed out by the community as models of decency. Her daughters were refered to as “Zeyide’s children”.  Şible’s memory was virtually over-shadowed.
            Their  eldest son  Hanbeş and his brother Sabe had grown up as stout and sober  young men,  adhered to traditions.  Their younger brother Degu, however, had developed an obstinate, quarrelsome and rude  temperament.  He was a replica of his father.

            Their daughters were beautiful.  Each had grown up as a decent and admirable young lady.  There were more than a young man intending to marry with each one of them.  Soon after their brother’s marriage they too got married.

            Every thing was all right with the Nathos before Dadu’s sudden death , leaving behind a distressed widow.  Zeyide lamented on  Degu’s death much more than she did  on her own husband’s demise. She mourned for several days.

            “I am going see my uncles”,  that was what Dagu had said on his last departure from home. He was drowned in the River Kuban, torrential in the spring season.  Zeyide was tormented most because his body could not be found.

            Hanbeş shouldered the responsibilities of  the household as the senior male member, in due course, while the reins were still held by his mother.  Sabe was younger to him by one year only.  So he called him his “twin brother”, and never indulged in bossing  over him.  That did not make an arrogant out of  Sabe. He was respectful and obedient to his elder brother.  He did not attempt any venture without  the same being sanctioned by Hanbeş.

            Sabe  had very much regretted the incident  between himself and Basti Takir.  “ The Bastis is a  noble family. What happened between us had been absurd. Whatever happened were accidental rather than deliberate. Should there be an opportunity I would make peace with him”, he had remarked on several occasions. It was the fear of his father’s likely reaction that had kept him from attempting to mend relations with Takir any further.

            It was about five years after Şible’s death that Sabe met with a  Natuhay  businessmen named Rostan.  He came from Tsemez on the coast of the Black Sea.  He happened to visit the Psifabe Valley on business transaction.  He represented a partnership of his own family and of a few friends.  He was at the Valley to sell his merchandise and to purchase certain Psifabe products in return.  So he had turned up at the Psikıy village.  By a sheer coincidence he happened to be entertained as a guest at Sabe’s place.

            The Rostan and Company  exchanged trading goods with the ships that called at the port of Tsemez, and sold imported goods in  the interior regions

            The transactions were generally conduct in the form of barter trade.  Nevertheless Rostan was familiar with the currencies of all Şate and Nekur checked their guns countries.  He had met hundreds of foreigners.  He had rich recollections about them.  He was a good  conversationalist. Sabe was highly impressed by  Rostan’s strong personality.  He decided to enter the business as a result of Rostan’s encouragement.

            He had been aware of the business trips Bram had been making to the Taman Region and to Crimea.  Not because he envied Bram; but because he really appreciated him that  Sabe entered business.

            The Natuhay Tribe dwelt in the area to the south of  the  Hatkoys in Taman Region.  Their territories extended along the coast of the Back Sea in the form of  a narrow strip down to Abhazya.  They controlled the harbors, the quays, and the anchorage on the Black Sea coast.  Ships belonging to various nations called at the coasts of Natuhay, which was on the transit trade route between the hinterland and the coastal region, hosted a rich business tradition  dated back for several centuries.

            Foreign influence was quite strong in the Natuhay coastal region. The inhabitants of the area enjoyed batter opportunities than those of the hinterland, including such communities as the  Şapsığ, Kemguy, Mehoş, Kabertey and Karaçay-Balkar.  Their  living condition was much better; and were more emancipated and  more experienced.

            There were Beys ³ and  powerful families who maintained the security, and regulated commercial activities in the coastal areas. Such families  protected commerce rather than themselves involving in business transactions.  They charged a certain amount of fees, customs duty,  in return for the services they rendered.  Within the tribe there exited a distinct class stratification of the ruling Beys,  the traders, the workers and the slaves.

             Natho Sabe  having associated with Rostan, began dispatching goods to the port of Tsemez. He acted as a sort of trade agent for Rostan in the Psifabe Valley.  He went  round the villages in the western sector of the Fsifabe Valley to  collect available items of profitable commercial value.  In fact it was not an easy job as it appeared to be. So in due course he hired assistants.  Subsequently he was in a position to run the business  from his own place, rather himself going around.

            The items Sabe exported by sea  included such products as fur, cloths woven at local hand looms, honey, saddle sets and horn.  In exchange he received  gun-powder, fire-arms, fine cloth, glass ware and salt.  However, the goods transacted could vary according to supply and demand balance and climatic conditions  of the area.

            Sabe brought to the Psifabe Valley gold coins  of different countries as Bastiko Bram did. He tried to let his people be aware of the problems involved in the transactions on barter basis.  He faced the same difficulty encountered by Bram.  In Caucasia there existed no single monetary unit of transaction accepted by all.

            Having gained enough experience Sabe set up his own business independent of his elder brother Hanbeş. He had his own house, where his mother moved in on his insistence.  He needed his mother to be with him.  For he frequently  traveled; and her presence at his home was essential in his absence.

            When his son Şate was fifteen he employed him in the business.  He  took  Şate along with himself on business trips,  allowed him to accompany his assistants on purchase missions.  At times he took him along to the harbor.  Mindful of the risks involved  in the proposition, his mother and his wife opposed the idea.  He experienced difficulty in countering their argument.  For he  himself was not quite at home in business. He had entered business at an early age.  He could not make any significant profit because he was not as greedy and as cunning as most other businessmen of his time were. It was frustrating.

            It was the life style at the harbor that  had caused him to be attracted to the place and hence to business.  The harbor presented a colorful view.  The market place, the  foreign vessels, people of various nationalities,  and  traders  bearing news from all over the world.  Those were what had provided the inertia.  He visualized the earliest glimpse of government  there. It was there that he had learnt about the internal structure of  the Ottoman State, of Russia, and of the Crimean Khanate. He wished any one of those systems be adopted  in the Caucasus. He thought that the Beys of Natuhay could be capable of realizing it.

            At the harbor there exited people from different tribes with  different characters.  They had been able to cast aside their tribal differences  and affiliations in favor of communal life and common interests in that particular area. In addition there were traders, men or religion and adventurers of foreign origin with no specific purpose for being there.

            At the harbor as well as  in the towns and villages nearby there were store and shops, where one could buy  provisions and clothes.  The hawkers, the commission agents and the intermediaries conversant in different languages lent color to the texture of the environment. Besides there were  thieves, fugitives from the law,  and political asylum seekers  who sought  new life in disguise.
            All these provided Sabe a panorama of life much more interesting than the rural life  in the Psifabe Valley.

            Sabe had detested only one thing at the harbor.  That was  the slave trade.  He was horrified at the sight of  slaves of his own race being herded onto the ships and carried away for being sold in other countries.  He looked down upon  the slave traders with despise.  The slaves mostly were brought from the basins of the rivers Don and Volga., and from the Steppes of Ukraine and the Nogay wasteland.  He had witnessed indigenous slaves from Caucasia being added to the group.

            Sabe had broached the issue with Rostan on a number of occasions.  “Why the Beys of Natuhay don’t prevent it” he asked and gaze his eyes.  Rostan was businessman who worshipped money.  He was committed to the cruel rules of the trade.  On every such occasion Rostan replied: “Do you not see that I am not involved in slave trade?  Besides, slave trade exits everywhere in the world.  So there is no sense in dwelling on the matter any further.”

            He did not know  what to say to Rostan.  He could not help talking to himself. “We are a nation with a small population.  Why should we allow our own people be sold as slaves,” he would ask.  He could not at all  condone it.  It was intolerable.

            He had heard of  attractive  boys and girls  kidnapped from the interior regions of Caucasia.  He had witnessed distressed parents of the kidnapped children,  wandering at the harbor hoping to find and to rescue their kidnapped children.  Therefore, as his age advanced he grew less interested in business.  He tried to gradually cut down his business relations with Rostan.

            Rostan, however, did not let go this loyal friend of him.  When Sabe did not turn up at the harbor, Rostan sent his own men after him to the Pasifabe Valley.  He always treated Sabe as an agent of his interests, permanently loyal  to him.

            There were other factors which compelled Natho Sabe to disassociate from the business circle. He had met peoples of contrasting characters in the course of his business life.  He had  closely examined the moral decay  which had been destroying his community from within.

            There were “anti-social elements”, individuals excreted from  the society, for they were alienated from the  traditions regulating the family and the  tribal life or had deserted their own social environment by  committing  varieties of offenses.  Some were involved in theft or robbery, some of them were engaged in kidnapping of children and young women to sell them at the harbor.  They did not desist from manslaughter. They abused the hospitality of the decent people, gifted with compassion towards strangers.

            The coastal strip of Natuhay was a convenient place for such abuses.  Excluding the stormy months of the winter season, foreign vessels anchored in the harbor.  There were few who did not condoned slave trade.  Particularly the traders from the Ottoman empire employed numerous agents  for the purpose. For slave trade was highly profitable. The were legal provisions that regulated  slave trade.  Slave auctions were held in  all the major  cities of the empire including Istanbul and Iskenderiye.  The Palace, that is the master of the empire,  was the only customer of  the most expensive slaves.

            Sabe had observed such social ailments that  threatened Caucasia, and had explored their causes.  The business life instead of providing him with peace and happiness, had brought him spiritual torment.  He developed neurosis and xenophobia.  Encounter with strangers frightened him.  He suffered loss of  sleep at night. He could find no one who understood his anxiety.  His mental disturbance escalated to such an extent that he began expecting a calamity to befall on him any moment.

            His eighteen years old son Şate accompanied him on many of his business trips.  He had been to western Şapsığ Region and to a greater part of the Natuhay coastal area. Rostan admired him.  Rostan had told him once: “Sabe, you seem too tired. Why do you not  let your son step in your place? He is quite a talented you man.”  But as Sabe was already fed up of Rostan as well as of business.  He believed that the Natuhay coast was not safe  for his son.  He put off Rostan; “May be later. Let see...” he said.

            His daughter Gubate was fourteen yet.  She had  notable signs that indicated she would grow to be a beautiful woman. The strangers visiting his house unintentionally fixed their eyes on her, a situation which bothered Sabe since recently.

             He was worried about both of his children. The anxiety became graver  day after day, pressing his heart.

            His premonitions were not for nothing.  The disaster he anticipated knocked at his door one ominous day.

            One summer evening there came three strangers who claimed to be Rostan’s partners.  Sabe had not seen any one of them before. As he cast a suspecting look at the newcomers, the elder member of the party calmly spoke up. “We come from Taman.  We live there.  It is not long since we have been working with Rostan. He asked us to call on you,” he said.  They carried ten crates of European made guns and a large quantity of gun powder.  There were twenty beasts of burden and five servants with them.  The group leader was an elderly man from Hatkoy. He so introduced himself.

            Sabe did not like the way the elderly man from Hatkoy gazed around .  After all he could not deny hospitality for the associates of his friend.  Besides decency demanded he should welcome the visitors.  He could not afford people gossip about the Nathos as being impolite.

            The visitors stayed at the Psifabe Valley for one week;  visited as many as ten villages in search of customers for their merchandise.  Sabe assigned, though involuntarily, the slave Laşe and his own son Şate to assist them. They were satisfied with the transactions. Sabe took a sigh of relief as they departed with the goods they had collected in exchange for  the weapons and the gun-powder. He was ruined by the sleepless nights he spent through that week out of anxiety.

            It was about ten days after the departure of the strangers . As it was summer, there were too many things to be done. The male members  of the family had just returned home after an other day of hard work.  Every one was exhausted and had retired to bed earlier than usual.  The stave Laşe, who usually stayed late fiddling with his dogs, also  happened to have retired to his two roomed hut, letting the dogs loose.

            Sabe woke up at midnight, alarmed by  barking of the dogs. Shortly afterwards the dogs stooped barking.  Sabe sat at his bed.  Alarmed as he was, he tried to listen if anything was going on outside.  “If there be any intruders outside, the dogs would have continued barking” he thought.  “May be Laşe is having his routine nightly round in the yard”, he consoled himself.

            Sabe, having separated from his elder brother Hanbeş had built the present house, where they lived now. There was a  wide yard  all around it.  It consisted of four rooms side by side which opened to a wide anteroom with no access from outside.  A small annex to the southern end of the house, under a separate roof, included a kitchen, the family bake-house and the storage.

            The main door was secured with slide-lock arrangement.  The windows of the anteroom overlooking the yard were covered with strong thick timber plates.

            Sabe and his wife Pake lived in the room at the left end. The room in the center was shared by his mother Zeyide and his daughter Gubate. The two rooms on the left were occupied by his sons Şate and Negu.  Şate most of the time preferred to stay at the guest-house.  He was a grown up young man; so he was allowed to act independently.

            Sabe had sat up on the bed and been trying to listen to outside.  At the same time he thought of contingencies.  “Had the timber plates of the anteroom windows been fixed property? ”, he asked himself as he tried to review the security. As he attempted to get up and check the windows, he heard a light creaking of the door.  He vacillated for a moment or two whether to get up or not. Then he heard heavy steps over the floor of the next room, followed by  terrifying screams.

            Sabe sprang up; picked up his gun hung over the bed stead; and with certain amount of difficulty opened the slide lock.  By then his wife also woke up.  She screamed: “Natho!  What happened!”

            The outer door was wide open.  Zeyide hysterically cried, “ They  kidnapped  Gubate!” she announced.

            When Sabe came out he could hear horses rattling away beyond the yard, tearing off the silence of the night. He fired the gun into the pitch darkness.  The dogs, having sensed a dangerous situation, rushed out of the gate and began howling. The howling of the dogs of the Nathos were followed  by that of  those in the neighborhood,  and then those in the whole village.

            Within moments the Natho quarters,  the neighborhood and the whole village were up and alarmed.  Sabe’s wife was dumbfounded out of fear. She cried silently. Zeyide was madly outrageous.  She screamed at her son: “Your beloved friends  did it. The devil-eyed Hatkoy man had been playing with the dogs all along his stay here. He had been prepared for tonight.”  Then she began swinging her head both ways in lament as she keep on crying.  “My beautiful Gubate is gone.  To which villa they are going to take her to be sold as a slave girl”, she lamented.

            Natho Hanbeş and his sons had rushed in for help.  The court-yard of Sabe’s house was filled with men, women and children from other parts and the village;  all talking and shouting at the same time.  It was impossible to make out who says what.  Uncle Şhalak raised his thick voice.  “Be quiet!”, he tried to soothe.  Why all of  you are groaning like dogs scared of   wolf. ” He objected.  Everybody avoided this sour faced man.

            Young women and children blew in their noses and shut up their mouths.  But Zeyide  was not be calmed down  yet.  Şhalak sufficed to cast an angry look at he.

            Hanbeş, his son Agu, Şate and the slave Nekur were the first to leap out of the gate.  They had saddled their horses, while others were busy talking.

            Sabe was careful.  He chose to act in the light of the had gained through the years. He doubted immediate capture of the kidnappers.  He calculated  the they should be prepared for an extended  chase.

            He did not rush.  He discussed with the neighbors as to which route they should follow; divided the volunteers in to groups; and saw to it that everybody carried sufficient supply of food and water. He chose the groups he would lead  and set out after the kidnappers.

            They had formed three groups.  Outside the village Sabe briefly conferred with the group leaders for the last time.  He let them know the routes to be followed and point the groups would converge at.  His group, among others included his friend Çarmıtıko Okle and the slave  Laşe.  The latter was familiar with forests and the tracks in the  search area. Besides, he was a scout, very good at following foot-prints.

            The small group led by Hanbeş had reached just a few kilometers away from the village that he signaled, and the riders to halted. “Listen if you can hear anything “, he commanded.  He also dismounted, lay on the ground on one side sticking his right ear on the ground. The terrain towards the west was cracked.  The sides of the creeks and the mountain  slopes were  thickly wooded, blocking the sound to travel.  So it was impossible to hear a sound of the sort he wanted to catch.  He stood up and gazed towards the north.  “The filthy fellows , mindful of being chased,  would not go  through  the southern route.  They might rather try crossing the Kuban, and enter the Nogay Wasteland through the Bjeduğ territory,” he calculated.

            He mounted his horse and advanced  to the north.  He suddenly halted after covering hardly forty or sixty meters.  Addressing  his son he said,” Agu, you please turn back; tell your uncle not to go far removed.  Let them look around in this area.  Let us not be tricked. Agu quietly returned.

            Only Şate and the young slave Nekur were left with Hanbeş.  As they approached the River Kuban the terrain lost altitude, air density increased, and  the woods became thinner. The weeds grew so tall that it impeded onward  movement of the horse.  Soon they entered in to a dense cloud of mosquitoes that could eat up any living being in no time.  They had to make extra effort to observe silence while constantly moving their hand to fight  off the mosquitoes. At the basin the weeds taller than  the horses.  Gradually they found the swamps impassable. To trace out the brigands under such conditions could purely be a matter sheer luck and of coincidence.

            Sate thought  his uncle was on the wrong track.  They were  wasting time.  Nakur the slave said by himself,  “No man would dare enter a swinery like this.”

            Hanbeş pulled back  the reins of his horse.  Carefully listened and examined the area.  The air was completely still. There was  not a slightest current. It was a moonless night.  Stars twinkled . The croaking of millions of frogs  filled the whole space.  The whizzing of the mosquitoes  where close enough to their ears to turn the them mad.

            Moments later  Hanbeş felt  as if he had heard something like a rustling  sound. “Ahead of us there should be someone, if not a herd of swains,” he said in a subdued voice. Şate and Nekur checked their guns, and corrected the position of the daggers stuck on to their belt.

            Hanbeş dismounted his horse;  told his companions to wait;  handed the reins of his horse to Nakur; quietly proceeded forward, holding his gun ready to fire; and disappeared  amidst the weeds.

            Hanbeş was not mistaken.  The kidnappers of Gubate were there.  They had been looking  for a convenient crossing of the river.  For most of the coast was swamp, unsafe to enter in to the river.  The horses of the brigands had sensed the danger. One of the animals  neighed.  The rider quietly tried to soothe it. He said,“ Be silent my baby!”, and caressed its mane.

            One brigand said in a suppressed voice:  “We are being followed.  My horse can not be mistaken.  Look at its stiffened ears.  Let us cross the water  right in here, what may come.”

            “Are you crazy!” said another, and grinned his teeth in contempt. “You want us to be drowned seeking  a few gold coins?”, he added.

             Hanbeş knelt down.  He lent ear to what transpired between  the brigands.

            Three riders appeared in the swamps.  They were closing at Hanbeş.  At about ten or fifteen paces away from him the horse in foreground neighed and halted.  Is would not move forward; rather it stepped back  a few paces.  “God damn!  May be there is a swine down there.”  said the rider.  The one in the middle was delighted at the news.  He felt assured and smiled. “Did not I tell you?  They would not imagine we would be crossing the river through the swamps.” he bragged.

            The rider at the fore  changed direction.  His horse continued  snorting.  Hanbeş could have a dark hazy view of their head and shoulder above the overgrown bushes.  He tried to guess the horse bearing Gubate.  “It should be the one following the most heavily burdened,” he reasoned.

            as the three riders passed by,  Hanbeş slowly raised up, and pointed his gun at the head of the brigand  in the end.  He took aim. He could hit him at a single shot.  With the expertise gained through years of experience he pulled the trigger confidently.  The explosion was terrific in dead silence of the night.  It resounded in the whole of the swampland, and terrified all the living beings within the range.  Two swine herds sought safety in flight, making a terrible noise.  Thousands of  birds  took to air  all along the river.  The sound of the their wings emitted collectively was more frightening than the explosion itself.

            As the smoked cleared, he could hardly see two riders galloping for their lives.  The third horse left without the rider neighed and followed those on flight.

            Hanbeş sensed that about ten paces ahead of him  was laying someone, groaning.  He cautiously approached with his dagger in hand.  He could see two human bodies side by side; one still, the other in convulsion. The brigand with smashed brain had died instantly.  Gubate, whose hands and mouth were fastened, struggled to scream in vain. She convoluted under a cover she had been wrapped up with.  She was attempting to free her hand.

            Hanbeş threw off  the cover and helped her to get up on her feet.  “Do not be
afraid!  This is your uncle Hanbeş!” he exclaimed.  Then he untied her hand and her mouth.

            Şate and Nekur had dashed to the spot. The found Hanbeş trying to calm down Gubate, who was shivering, terrified as she was.  “Do not be afraid any more! See, your brother Şate is also here,” he tried to hearten her.  He raised up Gubate and deposited her in Şate’s lap.  He mounted his horse and turned to Nekur and said: “Pick up that dog and bring him along.” He spurred his horse  to lead the homeward journey.

            Şate, when told that there were three bandits, one dead and two on  flight; told his uncle that the wanted to chase the two.  Hanbeş, however, did not approve  the idea. “No, it is not the right time.  Certainly one day we would square accounts with them.”, he remarked.

            Gubeta  had somewhat regained herself  over her brother’s lap.  Her teeth, locked up  out of fear, gradually relaxed. She sobbed profusely.

            They spurred their horses to be relieved from the deadly mosquitoes as soon as possible. As they climbed up the hills,  leaving the swamps behind, they were refreshed by pleasantly cool breeze that touched  their face.

            As the high weeds and troublesome undergrowth were left behind, Hanbeş halted his horse; transferred the brigand’s body on to his own horse; and ordered Nekur to gallop  to the  village as fast as he could to deliver the news and to call off the search.

            Nekur having departed  for the village at top speed, Hanbeş and  Şate  allowed a brief respite to their animals, which were puffing and foaming.

            It was early dawn when Hanbeş and Şate approached the villager.  A large crowd, mostly women and children, were hopefully waiting for them.  Zeyide and  Natho Şhalak were at the foreground.  Pake, sobbing  out of  joy, embraced her daughter. As Hanbeş proceeded to the village at the head of the procession,  Şate departed to look up for his father.  He first turned to the west.  He  regretted for not changing his horse, which was badly sweating.

            Natho Sabe and his companions not go too; far  they had already  met Agu, with the message from his own father. As advised by Hanbeş they  examined the tracks running through the woods near by; and the routes leading towards the south in the direction the Abzah Region.  They searched for foot prints under the pitch-pine torch light.  Laşe the salve could find no trace of the brigands either.

45            Nekur the slave, who had set out to pursue the brigands that had taken the rout to the west, proceeded forward repeatedly shouting a pass word common to the Psikuy hunters and firing his gun  every now and then.   He, however, did not encounter the brigands;  but thanks to his gun-fire that Şate, who had followed him, could conveniently trace him.

            Sabe and Nekur were able to trace the foot prints of the brigands  only after sun rise.  The rest was not that difficult.

            Natho Sabe returned home about noon time. He was exhausted not so much because of fatigue but mainly because of  the distress he had to endure.  That night Rostan never went out of his mind. “Could Rostan have organized the kidnap?”, he asked himself that question repeatedly.   It would be too bad if his old friend was involved in the mean conspiracy.  In that case he could not let the man  go not go unpunished.  Rostan was powerful. There were too many  bandits at the sea side at his disposal.  To straighten account with him could be a difficult job.  That could lead to  unpredictable consequences so far as the safety and welfare of his own family and  his associates were concerned.

            Sabe examined  the body of the brigand killed by Hambeş.  He identified him as being one of the visitors who had been in the village the week before. Therefore, it became evident that the same people who had presented themselves as Rostan’s employees,  had kidnapped Gubate; and that the old man of the Hatkuy tribe, the gang leader, had prepared the kidnap plan.

            Sabe pledged in subdued voice: “ I am going to find that bearded old man at all cost.”

            After a few days Sabe was ready to  set out for Natuhay coast. Only Laşe, the
slave  to accompany him.

            Hambeş objected,

            -- Let us pursue him in greater strength. Let us crash the skull of that greedy old Rostan man . Let us create a havoc at the coast.

            Though Natho Sabe was much more  furious than his elder brother, smirked at Hambeş’s idea.  He preferred to be patient and cautious.

             “I am  not going  there to put up a fight”, he said and disclosed his own plan.  Primarily he was going there to make sure whether Rostan had any thing to do in the affair.

            At Tsemez Rostan greeted Sabe very warmly.  “I had really missed you .  Now that you are here my aged heart is filled with joy!”,  he exclaimed. At first Sabe did not utter a single word about his daughter’s kidnap.  For two days he went round the harbor  to spot the devil eyed Hatkuy and his gang in vain.  Then he decided to talk with Rostan frankly

            Rostan was an intelligent person.  He had an inkling that there was something abnormal with Sabe.  He was looking for an opportunity to induce Sabe to speak out his mind.  On the third evening of Sabe’s arrival in Tsemez Rostan invited him to visit his village home.  Sabe had no objection.

            Rostan run his business in Tsemez, while his home was at Kutak, a village about seven or eight kilometers inland from the seaside.  His family  stayed at the village.  Like most of the Natuhays doing business in Tsemez  Rostan too did not feel himself secure at the sea side.

            As they arrived at the village and  entered the guest house  Rostan cast a meaningful look at Sabe face.

            -- You seem quite changed.  You appear as if something is bothering you.  If you do not want to talk about, it is okay with me.  But I want you to cheer up.  I would like to invite some of  my friends, whom you have already met, for dinner  tonight.  What do you think?, Rostan smiled inquisitively.

            Sabe sat down for a couple of moments in an indecisive mood.  He then looked up at Rostan, some what confused; and virtually forced himself to answer Rostan.

            -- Thanks.  I wanted to be alone with you this evening.

            Rostan sat beside Sabe. All his liveliness and joy appeared to have deserted him.

            -- I sensed something has been bothering you.  What is that. What happened?  Has there been something important?

            Sabe did not know how to begin.  He kept quiet for a moment or so  and than started narrating the account of  the aborted attempt to kidnap his daughter.

            -- About twenty days before a few strangers came to my house.  They had brought guns and gun powder. The told me they were your partners.

             Rostan’ s eyes enlarged.

46            -- What?, I have not sent anyone to you for months.  What  happened  then?

            -- They exchanged their goods and  departed.  One week after that the same men kidnapped my daughter. However, they could not go too far.  My elder brother Hambeş killed one of the brigands in the Kuban swamps.  My daughter was in his hold.  The others run away.

             Oh! wretched fellows!  Is that so!

            Rostan stood up.  Looked out through the open window far beyond.  It was getting dark.  He returned to his seat  and sat down.  He fixed his eyes on Sabe and lightly shook his head.

            -- And you rightly suspected me.

            Sabe did not respond; regretfully looked down.  Rostan remorseful smiled.

            -- Take it easy.  Had they been able get away with the poor girl it would have been a great tragedy.  It would have tortured you the whole life.  Thanks God that not much harm is done to you. But  what about me?...   I stand accused of being an accessory in the kidnap of  the daughter of a man I have been claiming for years  to be a friend of him.

            Sabe, in a shy and anxious mood, interjected,

            Not at all my dear!  I am not accusing you.  I was only trying to narrate the incident to you.

            -- My friend, whatever you may say, it makes no difference!   Did they not use my ...  I am obliged to prove otherwise.

            Rostan did not speak any further.  He got up, opened the door, and asked for light, a  candle or lantern.  In a couple of minutes one of his daughter-in-laws entered the room with two candle stands, and placed  each on either end of the top of the fireplace.

            As the young lady  left the  room and closed the door behind her, Rostan took a seat opposite Sabe.

            --Would you please give me a description of those men?

            Sabe provided as detailed a description as he could, particularly of the old Hatkoy.  “I did not at all like his eyes, his look, he concluded.”

            Rostan rubbed his bread, short and bristle, for a while.  He had come to know hundreds of people.  The laws of  transaction, of trade, were cruel. Most of  the professional traders were greedy people.  The type of eyes Sabe had tried to describe could be found in most of them..

            Rostan, lay bare his dismay  in  these broken sentences:

            -- Until now I have  been ambitious. I worked hard. Did not cheat  anyone. Nor did I betray anybody.  I avoided doing things that would earn me shamefulness.  I did condone slave trade.  For it was common worldwide. I was neither involved in slave trade nor assisted others doing it.

            He pondered for a short while  and continued,

            -- Give me some time.  I shall find them. I shall find out who that old  Hatkoy is. As I said;  they did me the worst they could by using my name.  I want to vindicate myself  before you.

            Sabe could feel the storm that had gathered  in Rostan’s spirit.  He had never imagined that Rostan would be hurt to that extent, and  so profoundly shaken.  He regretted having been instrumental in that.

            -- I am sorry I made you feel sick.  Excuse me.  I had to  inform you of the situation.

            -- “Your are justified”,  said Rostan; and looked up to the sky out  of open window.  The stars had begun twinkling.

            Sabe regretted for he had  lied.  In fact he did suspect Rostan. Rostan had a lot of foreign friends.    He had met with seamen from Istanbul and from  Turkish port on the Black Sea. “May be Rostan  received a special order “, he had speculated.  He was mistaken.  Now the situation clearly indicated so.  Rostan could not be acting innocent,  or  affecting.

            Natho Sabe stayed another two days at the harbor, not certain what to do next.  In the mean time Rostan had already started  his own investigations in Tsemez and in the surrounding areas.  To let him work at ease, Sabe sought his permission to return home.

47            Rostan, while bidding farewell to Sabe assured him,  “I will try to inform you about the development in a short time “.

            All the way back home he pondered about the hopeless situation he was in.  He was disgraced, humiliated.  He had been to the sea coast  to gather information about those who had belittled him.  Now he was returning home with empty hands.  He did not know what to say to his fellow people who would come out to receive him.

            Finally he decided to talk as little as possible.

47            He was right in his estimate.  The Nathos  gathered in full strength the first evening of his return home.  Each and every one inquisitively gazed into his eyes demanding  information as to his findings.  He made a brief statement which he deemed he  could not avoid:  “There is no justification to accuse Rostan,” he said; and added, “ We have to wait for a little while more to know about what  happened”.  He did not dare to raise his head to read the reaction to his words.  Zeyide and Hambeş  exchanged glance.

            Non received Sabe’s words as credible.  No one, however, was prepared to annoy him either.  So there were no comments, no further discussion.  Only Zeyide murmured few words by herself.

47            The there followed distressing days. The village people also had been perturbed over the incident.  It was a topical issue in the whole of the Psifabe Valley. Kidnapping of a girl by a young male from the same locality for marriage was a common affair in the Valley.  But to forcibly taking away a girl outside the Valley for  being sold as a slave-girl was a  different thing.  It was unacceptable.  It was tantamount to humiliating the entire people of the Psifabe Valley.  Everyone, particularly the youth awaited a signal, an indication of  the target.

            Sabe was aware of the tension building up around him.  But yet he wanted to wait,  to be  on the safe side to avoid involvement in any development worse than that