by Google nearest to a barrack or ether quarter, and thence it is htboured upwards, spreading devastation indiscriminately.
It poured heavily throughout the day, but advantage was taken of every occasional lull to proceed with the elections; the complaints were few, one being a novelty in its way.
A woman was offered marriage by a neighbour immediately upon the death of her husband, but she refused to have anything to do with him; watching his opportunity, the man, assisted by his brother, carried her off to a tower, with the intention rf detaining her until she should consent to be his; she remained a captive ten days, when the Priestav, who was appealed to by her friends, caused her to be set at liberty. She had since become engaged to another, but her wooer had sworn to kill any man it might please her to marry, and her union was therefore indefinitely postponed. As the would-be murderer was at a place called Barshy, the woman was directed to proceed thither, and await the Chiefs arrival.
Towards dusk, a fresh westerly breeie cleared the heights of the gloomy clouds that had been oppressing us so long, and when after dark the last of them disappeared, a noble sight was disclosed at the head of the valley, where Mount Oushba appeared, completdy clothed in snow, its unique outline and serrated adjuncts showing to much advantage against such a clear starlit sky as we had not enjoyed for many a night.
lO P.M. ther. 56°. As we rode away from Betcho we passed a doukann, the only one in the valley of the Ingour, where the Russian soldiers buy a few luxuries out of their scanty allowance; there was a goodly supply of the vilest tobacco, some Glasgow plates and cups, knives from Warsaw, wooden spoons, lucifer-matches, and bread, — 'What
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t, Google t, Google are those things hangir^ up in Aat dark coraer? ' we asked. ' Something for women,' was the reply, ' What are they? ' And then we learnt for the first time that the luxuriant hair of the Swanny ladies is not always their own, for the Georgian speculator produced a quantity of plaits, made up as we were in the habit of seeing them worn, ' Some have more hair than they require,' he said, 'and are glad to part with it for the goods I give them in exchange, at the rate of 4 roubles per pound weight — and there are others who buy *; his sale price, he informed us, was 8 roubles per pound.
We followed a wretched track above the right bank of the Ingour, over the Ls^houn and Quany heights sparsely covered with young wood and completely destitute of flowers, the river dividing us from the Leshera rai^, lofty mountains oi grey rock rising almost vertically, where the foot of man is scarcely able to venture and nature seems to luxuriate in undisturbed repose. We were overtaken by occasional showers during which our bourkas and baihi^ks did their duty well, until, as we entered Swannety Dadyshkylyany at Barshy in the commune of Etzery, the weather 6,350 cleared up, to the infinite delight of Tenghyz who had quitted us at Betcho the previous day, and now welcomed us to his new house scarcely out of the hands of the artificers. The Prince is an extensive landowner, but a large proportion of the property of the Dadyshkylyany was confiscated at the time that Prince Constantine suffered death.
Villages in Swannety are scarcely deserving of the title, for the habitations are in clusters of a few cottages and towers, each cluster having a distinguishing name. In the valley of Etzery, for instance, with a population of 450 souls, there are besides Barshy, the clusters of Oug'houal, Yskary, Lantely, Potrery,
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Ladrerr, Lasb'h'rarr, Tzalandar, Tchcly, and others, all in one commune. The towers are fewer, however, in this part of Swannety, where many were destroyed by the Dadyshkylyany at the time of their conquest, for it is only in Independent Swannety that they remain generally utilized and kept in good repiur.
At ten o'clock we sat, a large party, to supper. Good soup was served, followed by boiled and roast veal, chickens, mutton, sour cream and rice; a calf and a sheep had been cut up into portions of alarming dimensions which were handed round, the carving of them into smaller pieces not beii^ for a moment tolerated. A steel knife and fork were placed before each guest, but fingers and hands were preferably brought into play, and for some time not a sound was heard but that of the crunching of bones. ' Les animaux se repaissent, I'homme mange, I'homme d'esprit seul sail manger,' has said the scrupulous Brillat-Savarin.