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Valley of the Tihenys-tikniys.
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oial,
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To the large propartion of mortality through female infanticide, and the consequent limitation to marriage, should be added ihe many deaths by murder, also the short span of life enjoyed in general, and there will be little difficulty in accounting for the numerous deserted habitations, with towers in various stages of decay; for there are no instances of Swanny emigrating, the fact being that they never cross their frontier.
The Swanny are good sportsmen, and depend in a great measure upon game for supplies; bears, the bouquetin and tour, are all hunted for flesh and fur.
In concluding these observations on Swannety, I will briefly observe that during our tour through the district we rode about 220 miles, frequently over terrifying trac)cs by no means intended for horses, the Swanny, as already stated, not having any, and usually at an altitude of 5,coo feet above the level of the sea. The scenery, in every direction of great beauty and wildncss, is grand bej-ond description; amid the most profuse v^etation, every imaginable flower is seen in its wild state, and bank, mea; duw, hill-side and grass-plot, are literally covered with all that is most lovely; in every forest and grove, and all undei^rovvth even, indeed wherever the pure air of heaven and its divine light is not obstructed, the earth is thus goi^cously arrayed.
La gloria di Colui, che tutto move, Per I'univcrso penetra, e risplende In una parte piti, e meno attrovc— IL Paradiso, c. i.
Our stock of preserved and other provisions fortunately proved adequate to our wants, or we should have fared badly. Wc seldom experienced any difficulty in obtaining milk, but the natives decidedly refused to supply us with food at any price,
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except on two occasions; at Kala where we had to pay one rouble for a couple of old hens, and a sucking-pig was secured at Tchalash for three roubles. The fact is that the Swanny dislike the intrusion of strangers, and especially of those wearing the uniform of the monarch who claims them as his subjects,'
' Disturbances in Swanncty in 1875. Appendix XIII.
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CHAPTER XXXIX.
SIXTY-SIXTH TO SIXTV-EIGHTH DAY".
DeiUrture for Mingrelia— Novo Senaky— A large maple-lrcc—Ruial chapels -Naka'akw — The ' Fori)' martyrs '—ArchaKipol is— The.-Ea of Circe— Indigence in Minerelu— A festival — A Mingtclian princess — Female beauty— Amuse men Is — Note, on llie rivers mentioned by Strtkbo, I'liny, and Arrian.
I PASS over my return journey to KoutaTs and stay in that town the following day until 7.45 P.M., when the train left for Novo Scnaky, a little village in Mingrclia,' where I was most agreeably surprised to find a clean bed in a clean little room at a dtnikaun kept by one Tetmouraz, near the railway station.
When morning came, I started for Nakalakev with a Russian official,* in a troika and post-horses, and we drove along the valley of I'.'e river TehOur, through the straggling villages of ShTiepy, Staroy-Senaky, Sorta, and Kortamety, stopping for ap instant at Staroy-Senaky to take the girth of a fine old roaple-tree that had attracted our attention; I found it to be 21 feet 10 inches in circumference, at 5 feet from the ground.
The efTect produced on the landscape by the numerous small whitewashed buildings that lay scattered about the well-wooded
Mingrelian hills is very remarkable, and reminds one of the
' spinach and poached eggs ' appearance of the islands of Bermuda;
' Mincrelia, in Georgian Egrisi, in Armenian Eger, or Egerestan, from E^tus, bnXbo oC Karthlos, was included in ancient Colchis. ' M. IngheslofF, a justice of the peace.*
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NAKALAKEV
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they Sre chapels at which itinerant priests hold services for the convenience of the country people, whose poverty-stricken tenements lie far and wide. On one of the heights above the valley is the fortress of Kvaskehoiy, an ancient sttonghold and prison of the sovereigns of Mingrelia, in which are preserved some curious pieces of old ordnance.