The Swanny do not commit depredations upon each other, but they never miss the opportunity to steal from strangers, be they Russian employes or even Cossacks and soldiers. Murder is rife, the instigation to it in most cases being jealousy or a desire for rpvengc, and the cause invariably a female, the perpetration of this crime being met by the one inviolable end accepted kw among this barbarous people, which establishes that the priee of blood shall be paid in atonement,' or the life of the murderer be forfeited at the first favourable opportunity if the payment be not forthcoming. The price of a life is estimated at 600 roubles; but the^re being no coin or notes in circulation, the amount is made up in cattle or land, and woe betide the man of guilt who does not possess sufficient of either, for in such a case he pays the penalty with his life.
Agricultural produce being restricted to the supply of actual necessities, is small, and there is no industrial produce except that
' Codes for regulalii^ ihe 'price of blood 'in Georgia date from the fouiteenth centuiy, the latest, which is entitled The Code of the Prince Koynl Valchtan^, being of ihe year 1703. In this code, in «hich the life of n dydiboHly of the first class, or of in archbishop, is estimated at 1,536 lomsns- 15,360 roubles, ntid the life of a peasant at II tomans " 1 10 roubles, a clause authorizes 'that cattle may be given in lieu of coin,' which was scarce, the peasant being estimated at 60 bullocks, making the bullock to be worth 3 rovbles in Georgia at the commencement of the eighteenth centuiy. Bros<el, /nfrv. tt latla, &c. p. clxuxiL
by Google n of home-spun cloth for their own use. The Swanny are iinexceptionably indolent, and limit their exertions to the rearing of cattle, which they barter with the Jews of Lyaylyash for salt. prints, hardware, and crockery; those who' cannot afford the luxury of procuring utensils, make their own, such as trenchers, cups and pails, of wood. Cattle are seldom employed as beasts of burden, there being nothing to transport, and it is only in the larger valleys that roughly-made track-carts are to be seen, which are used for bringing down timber from the mountains.
I never met with a Swanny mounted, for the simple reason that they have no horses — the Dadyshkylyany being the only possessors of any in the valley. They do their errands on foot, usually carrying in addition to their arms a stout stick with a long iron ferrule, a useful weapon in need; a pipe is stuck into the waist belt at the back, and the bourka is never foi^otten.
In the statistics of the Caucasus, published at St. Petersburg by Evetsky in 1835, the Souanes of the Ingour ivere computed at 30/XX); ' but if we consider the state of complete darkness in which the Russian Government has ever been with regard to the condition of this territory, the report of 1835 should be received with caution. In 1874 they numbered 7,008, and whatever the actual population forty years ago, there can be little doubt that the Swanny, from a variety of patent causes, are dying out, and that the community bids fair to be extinct in a few decades.
As will be noticed in the annexed statistical returns, the number of females falls far short of that of the men; but this is not the result of accident. The birth of a male is always a subject for congratulation, and the event becomes a village festival; but if a female child should be bom, ' there is mourning and
' In 1807 thete were 3 000 families or houses in all Souancthi. Klaprolh, Tai.
Ilht p. 93.
by Google
POPULATION OF SU'ANNETY.
weeptng,' as they say in Syria; there are no manifestations of joy, and by a singular fatality the majority die when only a few days old, 'even before receiving baptism.' The cause of these early deaths is well known— it being considered a reproach that the parents should have a female child born unto them, they do not hesitate to rid themselves of the infant; a pinch of warm ashes is dropped into the throat, and all is quickly over.
Population of Svinniiity, according to the Census takea in May 1874.
of'hab"
Fimilln
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
Oiishlioul....
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
Kala
Vpa-y.
"7
Moukchj- Mestye.
Nenghery
Ulaly. Belcho 1.
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
Euety. r»ry.
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
Not in the