liancy \ her features were exquisitely delicate anc! pleasing, while her small hands and shapely fingers testified to a lifelong abstinence from toil. What a contrast \vas this fratl-looking lady to her husband! She was dressed like the Geoi^ian ladies, except that the titavsacravy was replaced by the folds of the Abhase veil; her jewellery, of massive gold, was of European workmanship.
After the elections, which were conducted by Tenghyi in an orderly manner, the widow of Betcho was confronted with the man who had carried her olT, and threatened to murder her intended husband. An old uncle was desired by the Chief to use his influence with the youth that he should promise to refrain from sheddii^ blood, but he impudently justified his young relative, by saying: ' My nephew is a young, handsome, and lusty youth, and this woman is very pretty, and also young; and therefore as they match so well I think they should be married. I have not the least doubt that my nephew will kill any man who will take this woman from him, and I certainly shall not interfere with him.' The would-be murderer at first boldly repeated his determination to kill his rival, but when hard pressed to abandon the wicked design, became doggedly silent, until at length the Chief sought to meet him half-way by extending his hand, which the man took without hesitation, at the same time saying sulkily: ' Very well, I won't kill him.' This act, in his ^yc's, meant nothing, for he never pledged himself by the earnest token of submission with which we are acquainted, and here the case was dismissed.
The next to present themselves were the fairest couple we had yet seen, a stalwart youth and a somewhat handsome woman who desired to marry; but there was a serious difficulty in the way, •for in this case also a suitor had vowed to take the life of any man who should marry the woman he claimed as his own, and by Google the life of her father should the match with another ev^r take place:
For where Love reigns, disturbing Jealousy
Doth call himself affection's seniineL
In like manner did this wretch with murderous intentions persist in saying that he should never swerve from his resolution; and when the Chief, who warned him of the penalty of murder, saw his fingers twitch as he grasped the hilt of his poniard, a signal was given, and the Cossacks at his elbows immediately seized and bound him, and he was led away to a place of confinement It was then arranged with the inamasaklysy that the offender should be detained a prisoner for a few days, during which time it was advised that the marriage should be consummated.
A storm with a deluge of rain passed over us in the course of the afternoon; it was a sublime sight to watch the dense black clouds forcing their way swiftly up the narrow valley of the Ingour, as if fleeing from the bright flashes of lightning and the deafening thunder-claps that followed in quick succession in their wake; and when the wind lulled as suddenly as it had risen, and the rain turned to drizzle, we became enveloped in a thick mist that obscured objects at ten yards and hung about heavily long after dark.
We dined at three, and supped at ten, one repast being a repetition of the other, except that the size of the portions really ' looked more formidable at each succeeding sitting. 10 P.M. ther. 54°.
More rain the following morning until towards noon, when there was a lull, and we left for Pary, the residence of the decanos or 5,600 blagatchynnyye, the head of the clei^y in Swannety, half an hour's by Google ride fixyn Barshy in a stony and barren district, over tracks on which each footfall taken by our horses was a game at hazard, every step a stumble, between impending rocks on the one hand, and destruction on the other, the bridles awhile hanging lazily, for it was a useless caution seeking to guide the sure-footed beasts, who indeed disdained every effort to that end. At Pary, our travels in a westerly direction terminated, and the people of the frontier commune of Tchoubehevy having been instructed to assemble at that village, the elections for both communes took place simultaneously.
After they were over, no less than twenty cases of murder that ' never had been satisfactorily settled ' were reported to the Chief; but no sooner was the iast of the investigations completed than all the chaises were withdrawn, and then, as if in refutation of all calumny or want of harmony existing among them, the people of Pary and Tchoubehevy volunteered to dance and sing; a ring was formed, in which Tenghyz and his brother, who had accompanied us from Barshy, joined hands, and these wild men of the mountains moved round monotonously as others did at Kala, grumbling out the following ' song ':
Ckonu. Gonoko came to the door,
Gonoko asks for liquor,