It poured heavily when we took possession of Gardaphddzyc's house, which consisted of one lai^e chamber where raised takh'tas, the family bed-places at night, and two enormous trunks that held the wardrobe, constituted all the furniture, the rafters overhead being in undisputed possession of some doves that flew about innocently. On entering the room, the villagers crowded around us in a very disagreeable manner, and no efforts could prevail upon them to leave us in privacy, it being from a desire to show respect that they remained rooted to the floor, immovable and speechless; to this feeling, however, should probably be added that of curiosity, especially when our camp-beds were prepared, and it was only after we had actually retired for the night and the lights were extinguished, that they reluctantly and slowly withdrew.
In the course of the evening Prince Tenghyz showed us his left arm which had been pierced by a rifle-ball, leaving a deep cicatrice on either side above the elbow. He related that, about twenty years ago, he and his father were one day dining with some friends on a grass plot, when his own cousin, Prince Constantine Dadyshkylyany, who with four brothers was at enmity with their uncle, his father, opened fire from a neighbouring tower on the party at dinner; two well-directed shots told, for Tenghyz's father fell backwards dead, and he himself was wounded as described. That crime lemained unpunished, but Constantine who like his cousin was also a giant but a savage, suffered death in 1857 by being shot, for having with his own hands assassinated Prince Gi^rinn, Governor of Koutais, and three officials. His brothers being suspected of disaffection were summoned to appear before the authoby Google
SiVANNY FORM OF OATH. 61
ritics, but as they showed considerable hesitation, an officer was despatched the following year with a body of Cossacks, to arrest and conduct them to Tiflis. The princes were living at Lahamouly,' the scene of the murder, whither the officer proceeded alone and unarmed, to claim the brothers as his prisoners; they at once consented to follow him, praying that they might be spared the disgrace of being conducted under a guard. ' What security have I,' said the officer, ' that you will accompany me peaceably, and without offering violence? ' And then, as is the custom in their country to this day, they swore allegiance, by asking him to bare his left breast, and after each had kissed the nipple they said to him: ' We arc now thy children; do with us as thou wilt; we are ready to obey in all things; ' and when Prince Baridtinsky, the Governor-General, required that the prisfiners should be brought before him, their entreaty that they might be permitted to wear side-arms was conceded to them, and they were subsequently sent as officers in the Russian army, to serve in distant provinces. * With trteir exile terminated the influence of the Dadyshkylyany in the valley of the Ingour.
At ten o'clock the whole party sat down to supper prepared by the host; the Chief and I took our places for form's sake, for I had been warned of the penalty of indulging in native dishes; and as numerous toasts followed, the night was far advanced before we were enabled to take our rest.
A thoroughly wet morning delayed our departure) but by eleven we were again on the road. Our cavalcade was now augmented by the addition of Prince Tenghyz, two Russian law-officers and
' A village >l ihe west extreme of Swannety Dadyshkylyany, erroneously marked Lah'mould on the Russian maps.
' These details arc given as they w«r« narrated to roe by Ibi officer himself, now n colooel in the Kuuian army.
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
their interpreter, and four Cossacks who had been sent from Independent Swannety to meet the Chief. A half hour's ride brought us to a frail timber bridge of the liglitest possible construction and with an exceedingly playful spring, over which we had to pass one
4,5CK} at a time, and having thus crossed the Tzhenys-tzkalys, we dipped into a forest of comparatively young wood, then amongst some fields of maize, when we commenced the ascent of the Latpary in earnest, as our horses must have found to their cost. The narrow path as it wound up the flanks of the mountain obliged us to proceed strictly in single file, at first through a wilderness of magnificent shrubs and wild flowers, until at one o'clock we