by Google is the fortress of Tchaloury, and a short distance beyond, the hamlet of Masatchy, where the mamasaklysy pointed out two stones by the side of a brook, which, he said, bore the impressions of a man's foot and an ass's hoof, thought to have been printed when the Saviour went through the country in his flight! Sidonia scarcely looked as if he himself believed the story.
Wet weather still pursued us, and when we arrived at Lentehy on the T.ashkadoura a little after midday, we were thoroughly drenched. * What shelter is there? ' was asked, when it was perceived that the mamasaklysy was in a dilemma, not knowing what to do with the Chief. A doukann was out of the question except in the last extremity, and there was only the new ouprava} an unfinished wooden construction, floorless, windowless, and doorless! But we were none the worse for such trifles, except that the draughts that blew in upon us on every side, cooled our dinner of broiled trout and mutton sooner than we cared for after our moist ride.
A striking object at Lentehy is Larash-tzykh^, fast falling to decay, but the accessories of a fortress liable to investment, siich as granaries, well-sheltered cattle-sheds and stables, &c., may still be traced about it In the chapel, of a size to hold six persons, a periodical service is still performed with the wreck of church furniture.
The weather cleared up towards four o'clock, as we continued our journey over a fair bridle-path through narrow gorges in the valley of the Tzhenys-tzkalys, the beauty of which, in its entire extent, it is impossible to exaggerate. Superb pine-forests, rising obliquely 2,OCX) feet above the river, alternate with mighty cliffs, where it is marvellous to observe the huge pine-trees that grow on ' The mairU, or viUi^ court-house.
by Google accidental ledges about the precipitous sides; while over our heads waved now and again the slender branches of a copper-beech, or the boughs of a grand old ash or maple, and a fresh array of the loveliest flowers, scattered over the bank, greeted us at every turning.
At a short distance from Lentehy, a youth of about eighteen, in tatters verging on a state of nudity, suddenly flew into the road from behind some brushwood, and grinned hideously at each of us as we passed him. Poor fellow! he was not the first idiot we encountered in this valley, for a few hours previously an elderly woman rushed out of her cot at our approach to stare at us, and her friends had no slight trouble to induce her to return; neither of these demented creatures uttered a sound.
A traveller cannot but be struck by the decidedly Jewish type of the inhabitants in this valley of the Tzhenys-tzkalys. Are these the descendants of 'a people who lived in the mountains between the Abhases and the Alans * (Ossets), first mentioned hy Procopius as the Bruchi,' and afterwards by the monk Carpino as the Brutachi, ' a Jewish people who kept their heads shaven,' for it is a common custom among the men in Swannety Dadian, in Letchgoumm and Imeritia, to shave the head that the growth of the hair may be improved; and it has already been noticed how remarkable the Imeritians are for their bushy heads of hair. It is not known who the Brutachi, Brucarchi, or Bnjchaty were. The late M. d'Avezac* suggests, that the Brutatches may be analc^ous to the Berdaji in the district of that name, between the river Bortchala, formerly called the Berdaji or Berdogji, and the
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
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Araxcs, whilst he ignores the Bruchi ' of Procopius, ' who lived in the mountains of Caucasus,' and the Brutachi mentioned by Carpino.
Where the valley widens, maize, hemp, and corn were growing on plots of ground enclosed with rough palings; amidst these fields lies Tchaloury, at which village the Colonel was received by Garda- 4,100
phadzye, a native prince who placed his house at the disposal of the Chief, and by Prince Tenghyz Dadyshkylyany, the Pamoshtchnyk priestnva of Swannety on the Ingour, who holds the honorary rank of lieutenant in the army with permission to wear the
: river M'lyinla that flows into the sea a couple of miles to the north of Adler, s watershed south of Mount Tchougoue, was the ancient lirouhonteni, Ftag.
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[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
uniform. He is an enormous man, 6 feet J inches in height, and large and robust in proportion.