:'*!''-*«'// 
 
 ^Mtvi"^ 
 
 ')m^,
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 
 /
 
 SAVAGE SVANETIA 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 I.ONUOX : PRINTED BT 
 
 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., XEW-STREET SQCAEE 
 
 AXD PARLIAMKXT STRKET
 
 SAVAGE SVANETIA 
 
 / 
 CLIVE PHILLIPPS-WOLLEY, F.K.G.S. 
 
 AUTHOR OP ' SPORT IX THE CRDIEA AND CAUCASUS ' 
 
 IX TWO VOLUMES— VOL. L 
 
 LONDON 
 RICHARD BENTLEY & SON, NEW BURLINGTON STREET 
 
 publishers in ©rbinarg ta '§ti gtajjslg t^e ^attn 
 1883 
 
 [All rights rest: roed]
 
 v.l 
 
 TO 
 
 M Y WIFE. 
 
 On a mist-hidden ridge of the mountmn, 
 
 WJtere the chamois and tur live alone, 
 Lies a hunter who vsatclies the fountain, 
 
 And the stars watch that hunter, mine own! 
 There's just room for his rifle beside him. 
 
 Just room for his guide at his feet ; 
 Some two dozen inches divide him. 
 
 From death and eternity, sweet ! 
 The mountain with grey hoary fingers 
 
 Points up to the heaven above: 
 He kneels to /lis God first — ttten lingers. 
 
 Arid vdstfxdly dreams of his love. 
 Tlie torrent that rages beneath him 
 
 Just makes itself heard in a moan. 
 While the thunder-douds stooping enwreath him 
 
 And curtain his pillow of stone. 
 The lightning that gleams on his face, girl. 
 
 Finds a smile born of thinking of thee ; 
 A nd the storm wind that swept o'er the place, girl. 
 
 Took a love message over the sea. : 
 For soft grows tlie pillow of stone, dear, 
 
 All the mountain uith beauty is rife. 
 There is nothing for him to bemoan, d^ar, 
 TfTiO can trust in his God and his wife. 
 
 C. P.-W. 
 
 1301195
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 In offering ' Savage Svanetia ' to my readers 
 I am acting upon the advice of one of the 
 reviewers of my former book. ' Sport in the 
 Crimea and Caucasus.' 
 
 He it was, who, writing in the * Saturday 
 Review,' first called my attention to Svanetia 
 find the forest reoion of Lekera as being: 
 among the least known corners of the Cauca- 
 sus. Svanetia had always been spoken of to 
 me as a hungry land inhabited by an angry 
 people. The Russians themselves know very 
 little of either the country or its inhabitants,
 
 VI 11 PREFACE. 
 
 and hence the exaggerated reports of the 
 danger of travelling amongst them. An out- 
 line map of the country will be found on the 
 cover of my book, and the best map published 
 for the Government at Tiflis has been handed 
 over by me to the Royal Geographical Society, 
 to which I have the honour to belong, and 
 there, no doubt, those anxious for a more 
 intimate acquaintance with the topography of 
 Svanetia would be allowed to see it. 
 
 That the Caucasus contains at the present 
 moment an army of 130,000 men, for the 
 maintenance of which there is but one obvious 
 reason — that it is on the direct road from 
 Russia to our Indian frontier ; that an expen- 
 sive line of rail has just been completed from 
 Poti on the Black Sea to Baku on the 
 Caspian, from the eastern shores of which 
 the line may easily be extended to Herat,
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 seem to me reasons for making every corner 
 of the Caucasus interestmg to Englishmen. 
 
 But it is not of the country in general 
 as the great base for operations be3^ond the 
 Caspian that I have written, since on such 
 matters the unauthorised traveller is Httle 
 likel}' to gain a hearing ; but rather of the 
 general aspect, people, and game of the least 
 known corner of it. May this ray second 
 venture find as much favour in the eyes of 
 my critics as did my first. 
 
 CLIVE PHILLIPPS-WOLLEY. 
 
 MoRGAX Hall, FAiRroED: 
 Jahj ] 1 , 1883. 
 
 VOL. 1.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGK 
 
 I. EN ROUTE FOR THE CAUCASUS ... 1 
 
 II. THE BLACK SEA AND KUTAIS . . . . 44 
 
 III. THROUGH KADCHA .... .72 
 
 IV. KEERTEESHO . . . . . . . 118 
 
 V. SHUKACHALO . . . . . . .1.54 
 
 VI. BY THE SOURCE OF THE RION . . . . 195 
 
 VII. LApCr TO USHK^L 237
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I. 
 
 VALLEY OF THE RIOX .... Frontispiece 
 
 VILLAGE OF CZIRMICIll . . . To face iMge 76 
 
 PERSIAX GIPSY MUSICIANS ... „ 162 
 
 BRIDGE OF KIDESKALE ...... 230
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EN KOUTE FOE THE CAUCASUS. 
 
 ' Okhota khooje nevolia ! ' (the chase is worse 
 than slavery) was the refram running through 
 the last pages of my first book on sport in 
 the Caucasus. And, indeed, when those 
 words were dinned into my ears, at the fag 
 end of the wet season on the Black Sea coast, 
 by a gillie who was sulky and homesick, in 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 the service of a master pulled down by hard- 
 sliip and diphtheria, I was heartily ready to 
 acknowledge the truth of the proverb. But 
 to the sportsman, as to the slave, freedom 
 from his bonds can bring no lasting happi- 
 ness. The freed slave is, if history and 
 travellers lie not, a slave into whom have 
 entered seven devils worse than the first. 
 Freedom to him means aimless idleness, and 
 idleness misery. So too with the hunter of 
 big game. However much he may have felt 
 the hardships which wait on the worship of 
 the woodland goddess, he has but to shake 
 her fetters off to find how tame and insipid 
 life would be without them. The limbs which 
 manly toil almost beyond their power had 
 strung and hardened until they were tough 
 as tempered steel, soften when the stram upon 
 them ceases, and fill with aches and pains 
 which they had never known on rugged hill- 
 side or forest couch. The bright self-reliant
 
 A HUNTERS LONGINGS, 3 
 
 spirits, born of a good digestion, nursed on 
 keen mountain air, spurred into action by 
 difficulties to overcome, rendered buoyant by 
 hard-earned successes, flao- and sicken under 
 the influence of ease, idleness, and English 
 feeding, which latter means about twice as 
 many meals per diem as any healthy human 
 being requires. 
 
 Beautiful as the forest deity is when you 
 are basking in her smiles, with game in sight 
 on the hillside, or at your feet, as you lie tired 
 but happy in the glow of your blazing pine 
 logs, she seems never so fair, never so irre- 
 sistible, as when you dream of her, on a day 
 in June, your nostrils choked, and your eyes 
 blinded by the dust that is to be found east 
 of Temple Bar ; your ears deafened by the 
 rattle of the traffic, your senses dazed by the 
 passing and repassmg thousands, and your 
 fist clenched in a scarcely controlled desire to 
 knock down any of the hundred and one black - 
 
 B 2
 
 4 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 coated annoyances, who incessantly blunder 
 up against yon or poke their umbrellas into 
 your eyes in their mad race against time. 
 
 Any summer day in the hateful thorough- 
 fares of our great city would beget in me 
 longings almost beyond control for the free 
 hunter's life, away from towns and the noise 
 of men ; but a summer's day in the city in 
 the year of gTace 1882 had a peculiar spur 
 of its own to drive a wanderer out ao;ain 
 into the wilds. At every street corner j^ou 
 caught a glimpse of men whose peculiar 
 luggage and radiant faces said, in the plainest 
 language of their own plain native tongue, 
 ' Active service, thank God ; we're in for some 
 fun at last.' Every paper was full of the news 
 of war, every tongue busy talking of it, every 
 shop full of the bustle of it, so that unless a 
 civilian against his will wanted to die of 
 ennui and scarlet fever, there was nothing for 
 him but to bury himself, out of reach of the
 
 TILE SPITZBERGEN SWINDLE. 5 
 
 stirring sounds, in the restful quiet of the 
 forest and the silence of the mountain side. 
 
 The year before, a neatly worded adver- 
 tisement had tempted me to join an expedi- 
 tion towards the North Pole in company wdth 
 about a score of other trastful Englishmen 
 and women. We were to stay seventeen days 
 at Spitzbergen, and slay white bears and 
 walrus and reindeer. Those for whom a 
 forty-pound salmon could not afford sufficient 
 excitement w^ere to help man the whale-boat, 
 and assist in the capture of the leviathan him- 
 self. But the expedition had resulted in 
 failure ; the seventeen days had been curtailed 
 to three, and my own visions of ice-bears and 
 remdeer had ended almost as disastrously as 
 the dreams of the Isaac Walton of our party, 
 who had come armed with a vast supply of 
 mighty salmon rods, and furnished with great 
 stores of wondrously coloured flies (made 
 after a pattern supplied by the arch humbug
 
 6 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 who got up tlie expedition), with which to 
 angle in a Land wherein not only did we find 
 no fish but no rivers to hold any. 
 
 One experiment of this kind is enough for 
 a lifetime ; so that the advertisements of gentle- 
 men about to conduct others to distant lands 
 for the sake of sport, having no longer any 
 attraction for me, it hardly needed the advice 
 of a too flattering reviewer to prove to me 
 that duty and pleasure alike demanded that I 
 should revisit my old hunting grounds in 
 the Caucasus, and endeavour to extend my 
 acquaintance with that neglected country. 
 
 I had now tried hunting gregariously, and 
 found that pleasant in theory but unprofit- 
 able in practice ; I had tried the life of a 
 solitary hunter, and found solitude irksome at 
 times, but always conducive to good sport ; 
 now it was decreed that I should try a middle 
 course. A parliament of ladies decided for 
 me that my ' valuable ' life was not to be
 
 FKANK, MY PROTECTOR. 7 
 
 entirely trusted to my own keeping, and if I 
 ever hoped for leave of absence from home, I 
 must first find myself a stalwart friend and 
 companion, to cheer me in my privations and 
 insert his burly person between me and all 
 possible danger. Brother sportsmen! if I 
 confide to you that the premier of that parlia- 
 ment of dames was my much-dreaded wife, 
 you will not wonder that I submitted at once 
 to its decree, and m the shortest possible time 
 produced my friend — a sturdy, cheery-looking 
 sportsman from a neighbouring hunt — whose 
 ruddy countenance seemed to repudiate the 
 possibility of low spirits, and whose digestion 
 has been described by one who had been 
 sharing with him the early rising pleasures 
 of ' cubbing ' in September as never so fit 
 as when it commenced its day's work with a 
 couple of large green apples and a short black 
 pipe, between five and six in the morning. 
 Alas that there ever should be a place where
 
 8 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 even green apples and black pipes cannot be 
 found to solace the early rising sportsman ! 
 But no cominof events cast their evil shadows 
 before on the evening of August 2, when 
 full of good spirits, having finished the last 
 miseries of preparation, Frank and I raced 
 in rival hansoms to Victoria. We felt after- 
 wards, when we reached Poti, that possibly 
 profession has more influence than race on thie 
 character of individuals, for drunk as our 
 British cabbies were in London, those who 
 piloted our droschky at Poti were more 
 drunken still. 
 
 Having tried all other routes to Russia 
 and found them fairly quick and comfortable, 
 I elected tliis time to try the Flushing route ; 
 but though we had a fair passage on the 
 crowded boat, not even immunity from the 
 attacks of my most dreaded enemy, mal de 
 mer, will induce me to prefer the Flushing 
 route to that by Paris. Still it was a change
 
 THROUGH HOLLAND. 9 
 
 to rattle through the watery flats of the 
 Netherlands (glorious haunts for the wild 
 fowler, I should fancy, in the winter), our tram 
 seeming to be the only thing that was in a 
 hurry in steady-going Holland, where the whole 
 country side looks like one huge home farm, 
 so trim and neat is it, with its lono; straio:ht 
 avenues of poplars, its very plough horses in 
 fly-cloths, neat and trim as a parlour-maid's 
 apron, and everything in art and nature sug- 
 gestive of restful prosperity. It was a change 
 too for me, and not a pleasant one, to carry 
 with me across the Channel those leaden skies 
 which many years of wanderings had taught 
 me to resrard as the special attribute of an 
 
 O J. 
 
 English landscape. 
 
 "Wherever we went my companion twitted 
 me with the cloudy skies so different from 
 those I had prophesied at starting. All the 
 rivers were turbid ; even the Rhine was red 
 with mud, and the whole country rain-
 
 iO SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 drowned. The view from a railway window 
 blurred with rain is not a cheery one, so it is 
 small wonder that Frank and I hibernated for 
 those four days between London and Odessa, 
 and the memory of them to me at least is like 
 that of any other restless sleep, except for the 
 perpetual recurrence of that ghostly face at 
 the window, requiring every quarter of an 
 hour or so to see our tickets. 
 
 The only place at which we were com- 
 pelled to make any long stay en route was 
 Oswiecin, on the Austrian frontier — a delay 
 neither of us regretted — for Oswiecin is a 
 quaint old place, with one or two things 
 worth seeino; in it, and our leg's wanted 
 stretching badly. At first sight Oswiecin 
 appeared to be entirely populated by Jews 
 and the beast the Jew professes to abhor. 
 Every part of the town near the station on 
 the day of our arrival was thronged with 
 droves of swine, so many and of such various
 
 EUSSIAN JEWS. 11 
 
 breeds as you would seldom find together 
 elsewhere. The pig of the place, too, was 
 unique — a tall, white beast, with a long curling 
 coat, which I should imagine would almost 
 pay for shearing. 
 
 In the town the entire population appeared 
 to be Jewish. Indeed, as we neared Russia, 
 and in Russia itself, all along the line up to 
 Odessa the stations were throno-ed with Jews, 
 creatures in long, loose dressing-gowns, with 
 an oily curl behind each ear, reaching to the 
 shoulder, like the rmglets worn by women 
 fifty years ago, and on their heads a wide- 
 awake of greasy black velvet. 
 
 1 have no wish to revive the discussions 
 on the merits of the Jew persecutions in 
 Russia, but, as coming fresh from the society 
 of Russians and some of the towns in which 
 those persecutions took place, I can hardly 
 refrain from saying that I should think the 
 authors of the accounts which appeared in the
 
 12 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 papers must have been themselves Jewish, so 
 one-sided and exaggerated do they appear to 
 have been. Whatever was the true history of 
 this outbreak of anti-Semitic feeling, I am 
 afraid that only a very small portion of the 
 hatred of the Russian for the Jew has as yet 
 found vent and exhausted itself. We ought 
 injustice to Russia to remember that she has 
 far more than her share of the Jewish race, 
 and however admirable their unity as a race, 
 in spite of their want of a fatherland, through 
 so many centuries may appear to us, to those 
 amongst whom the Jews live it may seem 
 that the children of Israel owe their unity 
 to that mtense selfishness which puts them 
 always, indirectly at any rate, in antagonism 
 with those races amongst whom and upon 
 whom they are living. 
 
 Russia wants soldiers and agriculturists. 
 The Jews are neither one nor the other. 
 That they were a warlike people once, history
 
 RUSSIAN JEWS. 13 
 
 assures us and we believe ; but the least ac- 
 quaintance "vrith the Jew of to-day will show 
 that he is the least warlike of men. As ao-ri- 
 culturists they are even worse. Take the 
 Talmudical Jews of the Crimea, for example. 
 These men are descendants of Jews deported 
 from the Polish provinces by the Russian Gro- 
 vernment, 'in order' (I quote here from Rev. 
 J. Milner's ' Crimea ') 'to weed them {i.e. the 
 Polish provinces) from a race of unscrupulous 
 dealers, and reclaim the migrants to honest 
 industry by agricultural employment. 
 
 ' Holding every class of manual labour in 
 abomination, and never taking to field work 
 wherever there is a chance of driving a trade, 
 the children of Abraham have gradually slunk 
 off from the rural localities and crept into the 
 towns, hanging themselves on to the better 
 class of inhabitants, until a subsistence can be 
 gained by traffic in all sorts of trifles.' 
 
 Naturally, then, Russia and Russians do
 
 14 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 not love those who are useless to them, who 
 live on them as parasites, and yet, though 
 parasites, despise and hold aloof from those 
 they prey on. 
 
 But let me leave the Jew. He is too 
 serious a subject for my pen, and I own, in all 
 honesty, I am no fair judge of him or his 
 doings, the mere sight of him putting up my 
 hackles almost as much as the sight of a cat 
 puts up those of a fox terrier. I don't know 
 why it is, but I fancy it is because he won't 
 cut his hair, and has a predilection, though of 
 the masculine gender, for wearing ringlets 
 and petticoats. 
 
 In Oswiecin there is a fine, broad stream 
 full of trout and salmon, so the natives say, 
 which might perhaps be worth a visit to some 
 of those who cannot now afford a fishing; in 
 Scotland or even a river in Norway ; and 
 should the angler be by chance an antiquarian 
 also, he will find matter for investigation in
 
 UNIQUE EAILWAY TRAVELLING. 15 
 
 the ruins of a massive old Dominican church 
 and a feudal castle of many hundred years ago, 
 which look down from a height on Oswiecin 
 and its river. 
 
 The last twelve hours of the journey into 
 Russia, if performed at night, are unique in 
 railway travel. About every hour and a half 
 the train pulls up at a pointsman's hut, 
 situated in a forest or on a steppe, far from 
 any village or town. Here the guard gets 
 down, and, if one may be allowed to judge 
 from appearances, goes to wake up the 
 slumbering pointsman. Having got him up, 
 the pointsman performs his office, and then 
 we move slowly on to wake the next, 
 another thirty miles off — how slowly may be 
 gathered from the fact that for the first verst 
 or so a pack of curs, who seem to depend 
 mainly on the liberality of railway passengers 
 for subsistence, follow the train like gulls in 
 the wake of a ship.
 
 ]6 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 The worst part of a journey of this kind 
 from England to Russia is the difficulty of 
 passing your guns through the Custom House 
 on the Russian frontier — a difficulty which we 
 overcame, thanks to the intervention of my 
 kind friend, Consul-General Stanley at Odessa, 
 and the payment of 11. for our four firearms. 
 
 I should strongly recommend future tra- 
 vellers to ship their rifles, and in fact almost 
 all they needed to take with them, direct 
 for Odessa ; where, having an English consul 
 on the spot, and not being at all hurried, 
 they would have far less trouble with their 
 goods than if they attempted to brmg them 
 with them overland. 
 
 Of course, if you are in no hurry, and 
 have not yet seen the beauties of the Bos- 
 phorus, a voyage via Constantinople direct 
 to Batoum is by far the most luxurious way 
 of reaching the Caucasus ; and, I believe, 
 considerably cheaper than the overland route.
 
 SPORTING APPLIANCES. 17 
 
 But then the voyage takes, I think, from a 
 fortnight to three weeks, while by rail a third 
 of that time suffices. 
 
 But whatever you do, don't trust to the 
 chance of obtaining any of your sporting 
 appliances in Russia. Even at the best shops 
 guns, rifles, and all other sportsmen's tools 
 are cheap and nasty ; and unless you can take 
 your own powder with you from England, you 
 are little likely to get anything fit to shoot 
 with in the Caucasus and Southern Russia. 
 
 The steamers from Odessa to Poti only 
 run twice a week during the summer, while 
 in winter they do not even do that as a 
 regular thing. Small storms have a great 
 eflPect on the minds of Russian mariners ; the 
 harbours along the Black Sea coast are none 
 of them very good, so that communication 
 by water between Odessa and Poti is often 
 interrupted. 
 
 With true travellers' luck, the train we 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 18 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 had missed at Berlin cost us three days' 
 delay at Odessa. To sit still in our hotel 
 and be patient, now that we were just on the 
 borderland of our happy hunting grounds, 
 was impossible, 
 
 Odessa has few charms for the sightseer ; 
 Frank hated sightseeing, and I had seen all 
 the sights before, so that there was no hope 
 of dispelling ennui by ' doing the lions.' But 
 half an hour's chat with my old friend 
 Consul- General Stanley put us in a more 
 hopeful mood. To do him justice, our consul 
 is a thorough Englishman, always ready for 
 sport when he can be spared from the duties 
 of a busy consulate ; so that before the morn- 
 ino; was over we were all en route for the 
 snipe marshes of the Dnieper, full of the 
 memories of our last visit to them in 1876, 
 and sanguine of sport on the morrow in 
 spite of the prophecies of too much water 
 and no birds, which stay-at-home Odessa
 
 START FOR THE SNIPE MARSHES. 19 
 
 sportsmen had dinned into our ears before 
 starting. 
 
 A drive of fifty miles or more over wastes 
 of land more arid and more devoid of game 
 than a London brickfield, is wearisome work, 
 though for a new comer, like my friend, a 
 good deal of amusement may be derived from 
 the driver's shifts to make ends meet in the 
 oft repaired, always breaking rope-harness, 
 and some excitement from the knowledge 
 that the ofi'-wheeler is galloping on the 
 pavement, his heels about on a level with 
 the driver's head, while the rest of the team 
 is going freely in the road below. But these 
 are things you get used to in Russia, as you 
 do to the subsequent admission of your driver 
 that he has not the famtest notion of the 
 way, and that there is a good chance of your 
 having to spend the night on the steppe. 
 
 ' How often, oh, how often ! ' as the song 
 says, have I got mto a droschky in Odessa, 
 
 c 2
 
 20 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 and told the Jehu to take me to such and 
 such a street. ' Xarocho ' ('All right') is 
 the answer, and off you go up one street and 
 down another, until it suddenly occurs to you 
 that this is by no means the direction in 
 which you had been led to believe your 
 destination lay. On inquiry you will find 
 your driver has not a notion where the place 
 is you want to get to, and has only refrained 
 from admitting his ignorance for fear of losing 
 his fare. So it was on this occasion ; and 
 in the s'loamino; we found ourselves wander- 
 ing about on the steppe, no landmarks in 
 sight, no village near, and still no sign of 
 that long line of marshland on the horizon 
 wherein Troitsky is situated. 
 
 Up to this point there had been little enough 
 in the drive to repay us for the dust and the 
 bone-shaking we had endured. Odessa itself, 
 which took a long time getting out of, is not 
 a thing of beauty, though over and over again
 
 RED-LEGGED CRANES. 21 
 
 I liave heard Russians seriously contend that, 
 next to Paris, it is the finest city in the 
 world. A more mathematically ugly town, 
 with straig-ht streets of cold, cheerless-lookinof 
 houses, could not by any chance be set on 
 the hideous dusty flat which surrounds it. 
 Outside Odessa the scene is more ugly than 
 that withm its walls, for the monotony of 
 colour and intense flatness continues, ^^hile 
 life apparently ceases altogether. 
 
 This year, owing to the extreme heat, 
 every particle of vegetation had been dried 
 up : tliere were no quails, owing (the people 
 said) to the failure of the crops ; and the 
 only live things between Troitsky and Odessa 
 seemed to us to be a few solemn-lookinsf, red- 
 lesfofed cranes, in half-mournino- stalkingf about 
 in search of the lively frog, who was not. 
 These birds have a free pass everywhere, nnd 
 no reckless sportsman or mischievous urchin 
 ventures to molest them. Each of the old
 
 22 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 pillars of the former gateways of Odessa, 
 opening on to the steppe, bears the cumbrous 
 and untidy burden of their nests ; and again 
 and again during the day we came upon 
 small, whitewashed cottages which appeared 
 to have been made the foundation of a con- 
 siderable woodstack. On the top, in medi- 
 tative mood, stood the stork, as self-possessed 
 and as much at home as the human bipeds 
 who dwelt beneath his nest. But if we had 
 not had very ample food for conversation, 
 the drive from Odessa to Troitsky would 
 have been insupportably dull. The sport 
 within reach of residents at Odessa, we found 
 from our friend, was by no means to be 
 despised ; two hundred and fifty woodcock 
 in a week, to two guns, being sufficient 
 almost in itself to tempt men to visit> Odessa. 
 In the neighbouring government of Podolia, 
 too, wolf-shootino; drives are ors^anised on a 
 grand scale, to say nothing of a more ex-
 
 AVOLF-HUNTING. 23 
 
 citing form of wolf hunt, peculiar, I believe, 
 to the country ; in wliicli, having found and 
 roused their wolf on the bare, treeless steppe, 
 the hunters, being well mounted, attempt to 
 ride him down. 
 
 As there are no coverts or other places of 
 refuge open to the quarry, and the steppe is 
 all good going for the horses, it is not long- 
 before the leading horsemen draw up to the 
 wolf. But the game is far from over yet. 
 Though the hunters might easily spear or 
 shoot the wolf, no one atteuipts to do either; 
 but as soon as he beoins to show sio-ns of 
 distress they slacken their pace, and content 
 themselves with keeping just near enough to 
 him to oblige him to do his best. At last 
 even under these circumstances the brute's 
 heart and wind fail him, and he lies down. 
 Then one of his pursuers, ridmg up, whips the 
 beaten beast mto motion again, and so the 
 chase goes on until, utterly exhausted, no
 
 24 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 whipping can get another trot out of the 
 wolf. 
 
 When this happens, the feat of the day has 
 to be performed, and cool and quick must the 
 man be who achieves it successfully. The 
 object of the hunt is to secure the wolf alive, 
 and for this, when he lies down for the last 
 time, the nearest horseman dismounts, and 
 approaching the wolf from behind pins him 
 behind the ears with his naked hands, and so 
 holds him fast while the rest of the party 
 muzzle and bind him. Then they carry him 
 home all alive, oh ! What they do with him 
 when they get him there deponent sayeth not. 
 
 Apropos of this kind of sport, there was 
 some years ago at St. Petersburg a Captain 
 H., who used to treat Bruin in a somewhat 
 similar fashion. As the ordinary methods of 
 bear-slaying may have become stale and flat to 
 some of our hot-blooded Nimrods, let me offer 
 them this new recipe. Immediately after the
 
 BEAR-SPEA.RmG. 25 
 
 first fall of snow. Captain H., who was a 
 wonderful expert on snow shoes, used to 
 leave his quarters in St. Petersburg and seek 
 the thinly peopled districts of Finland. Here 
 the peasants knew and liked the Petersburg 
 Nimrod well, and soon found for him the 
 tracks of his old enemy in the new snow. 
 
 Once on the bear's track. Captain H. 
 asked no more help from any living man, 
 but, armed only with a broad-bladed spear, 
 glided away on his snow shoes, through 
 scattered woods of birches, through silent 
 pine forests, and over dreary steppe lands, 
 takmg no trouble about the wind, or silence, 
 or any other of the many conditions to be 
 observed by the ordmary stalker, for his 
 object was not to creep on his prey unawares, 
 but rather, following him in all his devious 
 wanderings, to fairly run him down. 
 
 Once roused from his fancied solitude, the 
 bear would do all he knew to escape, but, fast
 
 26 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 though he is on firm ground, he would have 
 little chance against a man on snow shoes over 
 new fallen snow. At every step he took, the 
 bear's weight would make him sink almost to 
 the shoulder, and, however great his strength 
 and pluck, he would soon be exhausted in 
 such heavy going as this. But Captain H. 
 knew the nature of his game too well to try 
 to run him to bay at first, and contented himself 
 with keeping the bear always moving in front 
 of him, sticking like fate to the weary beast's 
 track, sleeping on it at night and resuming it 
 again at dawn, until on the second or third 
 day, when he viewed his game, the bear was 
 almost too dead beat to crawl. 
 
 When at last neither shouts nor the near 
 approach of his enemy could get another trot 
 out of ' old Michael,' when he had been fairly 
 run to a standstill, the time had arrived to 
 use the spear, and, risky as it may appear, 
 Captain H. used to make very light of the
 
 TROITSKY AT LAST. 27 
 
 dangers he had run during the many seasons 
 he had hunted bears in this fashion. Once 
 only, when his snow shoes, catching in a 
 half-buried I02;, sent him divino- head first 
 into Bruin's lair on the lee side of the I02;, was 
 he in any real danger, and even then the bear 
 seems to have been as glad to part company 
 with his unwilling visitor as even that visitor 
 could wish. 
 
 But to return to our own adventures. The 
 evening had already deepened into night, and 
 our watches, seen by the light of the last fusee, 
 told us it was nearly ten o'clock, when we 
 managed to hit upon the end of that long street 
 of irregular houses which goes by the name of 
 the village of Troitsky. But though we had 
 found Troitsky we seemed as far as ever from 
 finding shelter for the night. All the lights 
 were out, all the villagers m bed, and do what 
 we would, we could not rouse them or recog- 
 nise the hut in which Odessa sportsmen are
 
 23 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 always wont to put up. So we drove back- 
 wards and forwards up a weary verst of unlit 
 village street, serenaded by a pack of the 
 noisiest curs in Russia. 
 
 At last, when all hope of a cheery tea and 
 comfortable bed had vanished for the night, a 
 door opened and a peasant looked out to see 
 what the noise was about. We caught at the 
 chance as a drowning^ man catches at a straw, 
 but all our blandishments were in vain. 
 Nothing would induce the stolid brute to turn 
 out and show us the way. The dogs would 
 tear him to pieces on his way home, he said, 
 and, though no doubt he exaggerated, the 
 stoutest stick is insufficient protection against 
 these famished brutes at night ; and when we 
 at last secured a o-uide, he brouoht his horse 
 with him, though the distance to be travelled 
 was but a few hundred yards, in order that he 
 might have his legs at a safe distance from his 
 barkino- followers when he returned.
 
 OUR 'LEADER' IN THE 'TIMES.' 29 
 
 It was no wonder that we could not find 
 Theodore's house, for since our last visit it had 
 been burnt down, and Theodore himself was 
 lodging next door with his brother, in whose 
 house we found as cleanly a room and as cheery 
 a welcome as any peasant's house in Southern 
 Russia ever affords. Late as it was, that one 
 comfort of the Russian's life, the samovar, was 
 soon aglow, and, soothed by the fragrant odours 
 of tea and cigarettes, even Frank did not seem 
 to consider our first night in Russia likely to 
 put too severe a strain on our endurance, and 
 was ere long treating us to a lovely nocturnal 
 solo, which lasted without intermission until 
 breakfast time. 
 
 Mr. S. had some theory about insects and 
 newspaper which I did not completely under- 
 stand, but the result of it was that he passed 
 the night on a bed he had brought with him, 
 rolled up bodily in a newspaper, and a livelier 
 or more noisy edition of the ' Times ' never was
 
 30 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 issued than the one in which he tossed and 
 prayed for the whole insect creation through 
 the livelong night. 
 
 In the pride of my heart, I had said, as 
 I turned in on the floor about 11 p.m., 
 ' Fleas don't bite me,' but I ate my words 
 before morning, and no one of the three was 
 more delighted than myself when the strong 
 morning sun blazed in through the un- 
 curtained window and turned us all out at 
 5.30 into the delicious freshness of a morning 
 breeze off the lake, whilst all the world was 
 still in the first glow of its waking good spirits, 
 and the fizz had not yet gone off the newly 
 opened day. 
 
 When we rise at home, as a rule birds and 
 beasts have already been up so long that, if 
 they are not half weary, the first exuberance 
 of their waking gladness has at least calmed 
 down, the flowers have lost some of their 
 freshness, and even the morning breeze is less
 
 EARLY EISIXG IX THE MARSH. 31 
 
 crisp and keen tlinn it was at daTvn. Only 
 sportsmen and earl}- farm labourers get the 
 best of the day, and we here in Troitsky, even 
 at 5.30 A.M., were 'last down ' in the villasre. 
 Red-petticoated women with bare feet were 
 already drawing water at the well, or tending 
 the creatures of their home farm, driving the 
 hissing geese to the lake side, or giving chan- 
 ticleer and his family their morning feed of 
 maize. Grave storks, red-legged and billed, 
 who had come back from their breakfast on 
 the steppe some half an hour ago, looked a 
 reproachful good morning at us from their 
 woodstack on the housetop, and our guides 
 for the day were both down by the waterside 
 hard at work mending their nets an hour before 
 their lazy employers appeared on the scene. 
 
 The evil reports which we had heard in 
 Odessa were unfortunately not without foun- 
 dation. All the best of the snipe-ground was 
 under water, so that we had to launch a crazy
 
 32 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 old boat and go cruising about in the marsh, 
 seeking a dry place to land upon. Far as the 
 eye could see, to right and left of us, stretched 
 the great marsh, gleaming water and tall reed 
 forests dividing the space pretty equally 
 between them, the sky above alive with flights 
 of fowl, whose wild cries made sweet music to 
 the sportsman's ear, while on the far other 
 side, from a blue morning mist, the neat 
 villages of the Bessarabian hills peeped out. 
 A punt gunner might have filled his boat from 
 the stands of peewit and flocks of sandpipers 
 on the mud flats which we passed on our way, 
 but our minds were mtent on snipe ; and 
 unless one of these came rocketing overhead, 
 or a curlew for once forgot his ordinary 
 ution, our o-uns were allowed to lie idle 
 
 ca 
 
 until we reached our destination. Then the 
 fun was fast and furious. The moment your 
 foot was on shore the birds rose in whisps, 
 and so bewildered me personally that I shot
 
 SNIPE-SHOOTING. 33 
 
 like a tinker for almost the whole of the morn- 
 ing. Xot only were all the birJs on the wing 
 at once, but the places in which we found 
 them were so small that long before we had 
 time to steady down they had all gone, so 
 that twice I went back to the boat empty- 
 handed and disgusted. Frank shot fairly well, 
 but, except with him, I think in the morning 
 the snipe had decidedly the best of it. 
 
 In spite of the water, these marshes are 
 full of people. Xot only do you hear con- 
 tinually the report of the native fowler's piece, 
 and see at every turn men sitting patiently 
 anoiino- or trimmmo- the clever reed nets with 
 which the water is full, but every reed jungle 
 has its system of water ways, along which you 
 meet the people of the marsh trudging as con- 
 tentedly knee-deep from village to village as 
 if they were on dry land. In one deep 
 thoroughfare m which I was going daintily, 
 trying at least to keep my knickerbockers dr}^, 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 I met an old grey -beard, lame of one leg, with 
 his clothes and a pack on his back, wading 
 happily along, followed by two of the women 
 folk of his family ; and from time to time 
 throughout the day we came across parties of 
 village men and maidens, the latter exceed- 
 ingly tall and shapely, bare limbed, and with 
 petticoats held if anything higher than a 
 ballet-dancer's, and as little ashamed of them- 
 selves as Eve in Eden, The example was 
 infectious, and ere long I too was taking my 
 wetting as nature meant me to, keeping a 
 reserve of dry clothes to fall back upon m the 
 cool of the evening ; and though the others 
 stuck to their garments, they plunged just as 
 recklessly as I did into holes waist-deep in 
 their anxiety to get to a likely spot. 
 
 Our best sport during the day was in a 
 strip of willow plantation, where, though the 
 shooting was of the hardest, it was as 
 pretty as any I have ever seen. Birds were
 
 FOUK-FOOTED GAME. 35 
 
 extremely plentiful, and seldom went right 
 away ; but unless you were quick enough to 
 kill them almost as soon as flushed, they 
 slipped behind a tree, and your only other 
 chance was a long shot as they cleared the 
 tops of the willows. Here we all came to 
 time and shot much better ; and had we only 
 found this little paradise earlier in the day, 
 our bag would have been far heavier. 
 
 During the day we saw very few ducks, 
 and except for an otter which Frank chased 
 persistently for a quarter of an hour over the 
 mud flats and through the reed forests, no 
 sign of any four-footed game, although I am 
 convinced these reeds shelter more game than 
 they are usually credited with — one compara- 
 tively small reed bed near Kertch containing 
 at least one pack of wolves, an abundance of 
 foxes, and until a friend of mme killed him, a 
 remarkably fine lynx. In the Caucasus these 
 reed beds are favourite haunts of wild swine 
 D 2
 
 36 SAVAOE SVANETIA. 
 
 and red deer, but by daylight you can do 
 nothing with the game, and any attempt to 
 lie in wait for them at night would be 
 rendered futile by clouds of the hungriest 
 mosquitoes in Asia. 
 
 Of all the denizens of the marsh the bull- 
 frogs were the noisiest, and a tyro might be 
 forgiven some momentary misgivmgs if he 
 felt them, when a sudden chorus of these 
 creatures, till then unheard and unsuspected, 
 bellowed forth their displeasure as he un- 
 wittingly intruded on their domams. Like 
 all other Russian sporting guides, ours had 
 brought their guns, and though their weapons 
 were the most primitive muzzle-loaders, though 
 they measured shot and powder by hand 
 alone, and plucked the damp grass of the fen 
 for wads, I don't thmk the snipe had a much 
 better chance with them than with our breech- 
 loaders. 
 
 On our way back several big oily rises
 
 A SMALL BAG. 37 
 
 just at the edge of the reeds made me long to 
 change the ffiin for the rod for one short half 
 hour ; and as I could not do this I contented 
 myself with carrymg home another angler's 
 spoil — a splendid fish, of the carp species, 
 about five or six pounds in weight, which I 
 purchased for about sixpence, to be converted 
 two hours later into an excellent soup by our 
 hostess. I never knew carp were worth 
 eating before, but in my humble opinion, 
 though no great judge in matters concernmg 
 the table, all Russians possess a special talent 
 for cookino; fish. When we reached the lake- 
 side, and spread out our spoils, we found we 
 had fifty-five snipe and eleven various, in- 
 cluding t^v^o double snipe — a bag extremely 
 small for a place in which it is on record 
 that a single gun killed his one hundred 
 
 couple in a day, thus eclipsing Prince S 's 
 
 seventy -five couple at Sebastopol ; but a bag
 
 38 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 with which any reasonable sportsman might 
 well be as content as we were. 
 
 Snipe-shooting, like other things, has two 
 sides to it, and though plunging about bare- 
 legged in the more than tepid water was 
 pleasant enough all day, I had to suffer bit- 
 terly for it all night. Of course, those gar- 
 ments which I had taken such care to preserve 
 from a wetting had got sodden by the partial 
 filling of our leaky old boat^ so that having 
 no change of clothes, I was obliged to sup in 
 a costume the lower portion of which had 
 been supplied by our good-natured hostess'; 
 the male portion of the village never appearing 
 to possess a duplicate pair of the most neces- 
 sary articles of clothing. The fun at my 
 expense in my loose pink and white attire 
 was naturally unbounded ; but this was harm- 
 less compared to the agony I endured from 
 my inflamed legs. Without my feeling it at 
 the time, the sharp-edged reeds had not only
 
 EFFECTS OF SXIPE-SHOOTING. 39 
 
 grazed all the skin off my shins, but covered 
 them with a number of fine deep gashes, into 
 which the water (by no means pure) had 
 soaked ; and this, together with the blistering 
 effect of a hot sun on my wet skin, had set 
 up an inflammation which did not entirely 
 subside for weeks, and nearly drove me mad 
 at the time. Of course, when it was too late, 
 my guide, who had watched me wading all 
 day, told me that even the natives of the 
 marsh suffer if they wade bare-legged in it 
 for more than an hour or so at a time, and 
 from my own experience I can well believe 
 him. 
 
 Before leaving Troitsky next morning, I 
 had a stroll round the village, and found it, 
 like most of its fellows of this fen-land, com- 
 posed of two or three long rambling streets, 
 built on the hio-h land, at rio-ht ano;les to 
 the marsh and immediately overlooking it. 
 The houses are all reed -thatched. If they
 
 40 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 have a yard attached, the yard is fenced in 
 with a neat barrier of woven reeds; reeds form 
 the mats that cover the floor ; reeds make the 
 baskets and many of the household utensils 
 of the family ; the good man of the house 
 catches the fish that form the staple of the 
 village food, in funnel-shaped traps made of 
 the very reeds wherein his victim had formerly 
 his holt : and alto2:ether the reeds become a 
 feature not only in the landscape which sur- 
 rounds them, but in the very life of the 
 peasants. 
 
 The houses themselves, without exception, 
 are of one storey, having the floor divided into 
 two rooms — a living room which comprises 
 bed, dining, and sitting room all in one, and a 
 kitchen. The outside of the houses alone 
 admits of variation, and here the householder 
 gives his fancy full play, and paints his abode 
 in all the colours obtamable at the shop of the 
 colourman of Odessa. Most of the villagers in
 
 A PROSPEROUS VILLAGE. 41 
 
 these Dnieper villages seemed to have a small 
 vineyard attached to their cottages, and all 
 had their garden and their corn-patch allotted 
 to them on the adjoining steppe. Men and 
 women alike are at work all day, the men fish- 
 ing on the lake or working in the fields, the 
 women mending nets, tending the cattle, or 
 busy on the threshing floor ; and I never 
 remember to have seen a more prosperous vil- 
 lage than Troitsky. So far as I could see, 
 there was only one liquor -shop in it, and not a 
 single Jew, while ever}^ one seemed as healthy 
 and happy as simple folk who work hard in a 
 bracing atmosphere ought to be. I even met an 
 old Russian here, who refused my ofl'er of a 
 cigarette, and spoke scornfully of the use of the 
 pleasant weed as a modern habit and a filthy 
 one, fit only for idle boys ; he hunself, he said, 
 remembered the time when no grood true- 
 believing Russian moujik ever knew how to 
 smoke. Times are indeed changed since then,
 
 42 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 if this venerable anti-tobacconist spoke truth, 
 for to those who know him, the Russian pea- 
 sant's character would seem incomplete with- 
 out that smoke in which more than half his 
 time is wasted, half his energy dissolved. As 
 our horses were beins; harnessed I tried to 
 elicit a little local information from my old 
 friend, who was hard at work on the other 
 side of the fence driving a team of unshod 
 horses round and round over the hardened 
 mud of his threshing-floor, to separate the 
 golden grain from the chaff. The horses he 
 was driving were young ones, three of a drove 
 of ten, which were the pride of the old man's 
 heart. They were like the rest of the horses 
 owned by the peasants m this part of Russia 
 (and here I quote a better judge of horseflesh 
 than myself), rather well-bred looking screws, 
 under fourteen hands, and very faulty about 
 the shoulders ; but a little experience soon 
 proves that they are better than they look ;
 
 RUSSIAN FARMING. 43 
 
 and a poor brute, who has been driven as all 
 horses are here, since he was two years old, 
 and fed on nothing but hay, for the most 
 j)art, will do a better days work than an ordi- 
 nary corn-fed Enghsh trapper. 
 
 Forty-five roubles (two pounds ten shil- 
 lings) was about the average price of the 
 horses at Troitsky, when we were there, but 
 then horses were selling at lower prices than 
 usual, owing to the scarcity of fodder. For 
 the same reason a cow with her calf by her 
 side could be bought for the same j^rice. 
 Altogether, though he told me he could clear 
 as a rule about 300 roubles a year on his 
 eight desiatine (2*86 acres) of land, my patri- 
 archal friend did not seem much more con- 
 tented with farming prospects than his brother 
 agriculturists m England,
 
 44 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE BLACK SEA AND KUTAIS. 
 
 There is an old friend of mine out in the 
 East for whom I think I ought to say a word, 
 if by chance any word of mine can do aught to 
 restore to her the character of which she has 
 been most unjustly robbed. No one loves 
 less than I do ' the deep and dark blue ocean.' 
 Its freshening breezes are to my mind 
 inseparable from a memory of the smell of the 
 engine room ; its boundless plain only sug- 
 gestive of the confined daily walk on deck. 
 But if ever there was one section of the briny 
 element less objectionable than another, it is 
 the much maligned Black Sea. Often and often
 
 A BLACK SEA CRUISE. 45 
 
 have I trusted myself on its bosom, though 
 never except under compulsion and with a 
 distinct feeling of dread. But though I have 
 known it all the year round, it has never 
 plaj^ed me false yet, nor robbed me of my 
 daily bread to feed its scaly hordes. 
 
 AVhen Frank and I o-ot back to Odessa 
 our steamer lay at the pier, and far as the eye 
 could see, the waves had assumed a glassy, 
 immovable appearance, inexpressibly com- 
 forting to the heart of the timid mariner ; so 
 that with litrht hearts we hurried throuo^h 
 what business we had to perform, and with a 
 letter of introduction to the most influential 
 sportsman in the Caucasus safe in our keeping, 
 turned our backs on Odessa full of the most 
 sanguine hope for the future, A cruise round 
 the coast of the Crimea and Caucasus in brilliant 
 summer weather, on a comfortable, well found 
 Black Sea steamer, is a distinctly pleasant 
 experience, and we enjoyed it to the full. At
 
 46 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 Sebastopol we laaded for a few hours, and 
 heard great accounts of its increasing im- 
 portance as a trading port, the consular fees 
 for the year being double those of preceding 
 years. 
 
 At Yalta much of the old bustle and life 
 seemed extinct. Most of its popularity and 
 prosperity passed away with the life of the late 
 Emperor, and the big hotels were more than 
 half empty and the gaily attired Tartar horse- 
 boys, beloved of Russian ladies, lounged about 
 in picturesque idleness, there being none to 
 hire them or their ambling steeds. Yalta, 
 too, had suffered from the destruction of 
 Orianda, the Grand Duke Constantine's 
 country seat, the blackened skeleton of which 
 we caught a glimpse of in passing, half hidden 
 amongst its groves of beautiful trees. 
 
 Kertch was as picturesque and more 
 prosperous than ever, while Novo Rossisk, 
 four years ago a lifeless, unimportant village,
 
 A HOT SU:\DIER. 47 
 
 has now, thanks to the American Petroleum 
 Company at Taman, grown into a bustling, 
 prosperous town. At Kertch we heard the 
 wail of a parched country over the summer 
 now passing away. Ten days before our 
 advent the thermometer there had shown 120° 
 Fahrenheit in the shade, and at Theodosia 
 water had been sold m the streets at so much 
 the glassful. All vegetation was burnt com- 
 pletely off the hillsides, and no one in Kertch 
 had heard of such a summer for forty years. 
 The Caucasus was represented as havmg been, 
 and still being, a little hotter than Hades, so 
 that our heads ached at the mere thought of 
 what was before us ere we could gain the 
 cool neighbourhood of the snow peaks. 
 
 The mouth of the Rion at Poti is never 
 very beautiful, Tvith its banks of black mud 
 showing above its dark and sluggish waters ; 
 its thickets of thorn and scrub growing densely 
 on either hand, suggestive in theu* rank
 
 48 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 luxuriance of nothing but fever and wild 
 swine ; but the mouth of the Eion at 4 a.m., 
 the hour at which the Black Sea Steam 
 Company, with its usual perversity, insisted 
 on landing us, was, if anything, less attractive 
 than ever. 
 
 The last words of my kind friend, Dr. 
 Schauer, of Kertch, were still ringmg in my 
 ears when I landed: ' Above all things don't 
 miss 3'our train at Poti,' so that I was more 
 than ordinarily speedy in piling my small 
 luggage and my friend in a , heap in the 
 one droschky which the town had produced 
 for the benefit of the steamer passengers, and 
 after five minutes spent in securing my heavier 
 luo-o-ao'e from the clutches of the crowd of 
 hungry-looking lightermen who swarmed on 
 the quay, I hurried off to the English Consulate. 
 Here, though of course no one was up at that 
 time in the morning, I was admitted, and came 
 upon a scene calculated to dash the sph'its of
 
 A RUSSL^ FELLOW-TRAVELLER. 49 
 
 any traveller. On a bed, scarcely strong 
 enough to make himself heard in a whisper, 
 was my old friend the Vice- Consul of Batoum, 
 knocked all to pieces by fever, throwing up 
 blood in quantities, and apparently already at 
 his last gasp. I never expected to see him 
 again, and it was Avith a heavy heart and no 
 very pleasant bodings for my own future that I 
 hurried away to make sure of the first train 
 which could convey me and mine from the 
 most uninvitmg looking spot on God's 
 earth. I am happy to be able to sav here 
 that my friend did recover, and when we next 
 met at Batoum was almost himself ao-am. 
 
 c 
 
 On our way to Kutais we had the luck to 
 interest a Russian fellow-traveller in ourselves 
 and the object of our journey ; and he there 
 and then offered us introductions to people 
 who could assist us to obtam sport, and 
 invited us to stay with him for a fortnight's 
 shooting on our way home, on the shores of 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 the Black Sea. This was the second invitation 
 of the kind which we had received since we 
 left Odessa, and I am bound to say that the 
 traveller and sportsman is more likely to be 
 hindered by the very number of kind friends 
 he will meet with in the Caucasus, than to be 
 baffled for want of a helping hand. 
 
 I'm afraid I can't say a good word for the 
 officials of the Poti Tiflis railway. They seem 
 to me to be a dreamy, muddle-headed lot. 
 On this occasion their particular iniquity was 
 the sending of my luggage right through to 
 Tiflis at their own expense and to my great 
 discomfort, although I had taken every care to 
 have it sent to Kutais, and was in possession 
 of their ticket, on receipt of which they were 
 bound to deliver my goods to me at Kutais. 
 
 If I might venture to make a suggestion to 
 such great ones as the directors of a railway, 
 it would be that they should forbid the use of 
 cigarettes by their clerks in office hours. In
 
 STATION TELEGRAPH OFFrCE. 51 
 
 this way, though clerks would be almost 
 impossible to obtain, they would not, when 
 obtained, keep the passengers waiting ten 
 minutes at their office windows for their 
 tickets, whilst preparing their tobacco, and 
 might issue one ticket in ten without any 
 gross mistake. 
 
 After depositing my friend and what 
 luggage we had with us at the hotel, I 
 availed myself of the offer of a gentleman 
 whose acquaintance 1 had made within the 
 last thirt}^ seconds, and drove with him up to 
 the station telegraph office to beg the autho- 
 rities at Tiflis to send back my errant trunks 
 with what speed they could. As the station 
 telegraph office is a place in which a clerk is 
 likely to be wanted on the arrival of a train, 
 it hardly surprised me to find no clerk in 
 attendance. For about twenty minutes my 
 friend and I waited; he passing the time in 
 load denunciations of the general mismanage- 
 
 E 2
 
 52 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 ment of all business in Russia, while I got 
 through several cigarettes in sulky silence. 
 
 At last the clerk came. A tall, dark lady 
 of a somewhat masculine type, but still dis- 
 tinctly a beauty, if she had not, in her passion 
 for woman's rights, cut her hair to the unbe- 
 coming length of a schoolboy's, who has 
 evaded the monthly barber. She gave us a 
 gracious bow, made a trifling apology for her 
 absence as she nibbled at a fine bunch of 
 grapes which she was carrying ; and then, 
 having arranged what was left of her back 
 hair, and fixed the blind so that the light was 
 exactly to her liking, she sank gracefully into 
 her chair before the telegraph instrument, and 
 proceeded, smiling sweetly all the while with 
 her admirable dark eyes, to catechise me as 
 to the whence, whither, and wherefore of my 
 journey. Now I hope I am as devout an 
 admirer of the fair sex as any of my country- 
 men, but I aj^peal to my readers, is this the
 
 WOMEN CLERKS. 53 
 
 way to receive a bustling anxious Englishman, 
 who has lost his portmanteau ? I think not. 
 At last I got my telegram sent off, and then 
 in sheer gratitude, submitted quietly to a long 
 harangue on the illiberal nature of the British 
 mind, which refuses to admit women to a 
 variety of employments for any and all of 
 which they are better fitted than men. As 
 if to try me to the uttermost she finished by 
 quoting the success of the experiment of the 
 admission of women clerks to employment 
 as telegraphists in Russia and elsewhere. 
 When I left her, if I did not feel sure that 
 women were fit for any office, my doubts 
 were not owing to their fatal want of as- 
 surance. 
 
 On returning to my hotel, after telegraph- 
 ing for my stray luggage, I received news of 
 the first of the many strokes of bad luck with 
 which I was to meet in my pursuit of moun- 
 tain sheep. The Prince of Mingrelia, so his
 
 54 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 ao-ent informed ns, had arrano-ed liis ffreat 
 mountain drive for the very week of our 
 arrival ; the guests were invited and the cart- 
 ridges even loaded. And, moreover, thanks 
 to the Prince's well-known courtesy to 
 strangers, not less than to a letter from an 
 intimate friend of his, our invitations to be 
 of the party and a hearty welcome were not 
 matters of doubt. 
 
 As I had heard from time to time, like all 
 other travellers in the Caucasus, of these 
 grand battues, at which, so report says, as 
 many as sixty head of tur {Capra Caucasica) 
 and chamois have been killed in a day, I was 
 naturally delighted at the prospect before me, 
 though as an ordinary thing I would consider 
 mountain game far too noble to kill like 
 ' dumb driven cattle,' with no better chance 
 of escaping the bullet than has the running 
 deer at Wimbledon. Bat my informant 
 dashed my hopes to the ground in the same
 
 HOPES DISAPPOINTED. 55 
 
 sentence that gave them birth. At the 
 eleventh hour the Dowager Princess had been 
 seized by a violent illness — so violent, indeed, 
 that all hope of her recovery was abandoned, 
 and of course the drive fell through. 
 
 Here, tlien, was an end to my business at 
 Kutais, ended almost before it was begun. 
 If the Prince's house was to be one of mourn- 
 ing, it was no time for me to hope for as- 
 sistance in my sporting projects in that 
 quarter. However, being at Kutais I resolved 
 to make that town my basis of operations, and 
 start thence on the morrow for a shooting 
 and exploring trip to Svanetia, that land of 
 mystery and tradition to which comparatively 
 few, even of the Russians, have penetrated ; 
 from which those who have b^en there bring 
 back the wildest stories of a barbarism almost 
 incredible so near the confines of civilisation, 
 and of which one of the reviewers of my last 
 book on the Caucasus, who seemed to know
 
 56 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 what he was writing about thoroughly, spoke, 
 as a land in which travel would be somewhat 
 dangerous, as well as interesting. In the 
 meanwhile it was nearly time for early risers 
 to tarn in, so Frank and I made our way 
 upstairs amidst a chorus of ' good-nights ' 
 from our host of newly- acquired friends. But 
 the hospitable inhabitants of Kutais had not 
 done with us yet. In our rooms we found a 
 messenscer with a card from the Princess 
 
 A , and a message to the effect that the 
 
 Princess was anxious to make our acquaint- 
 ance, and would esteem it kind of us if we 
 would come and sup with her. The messenger 
 would conduct us to her house. Now though 
 the hour was more suo-o^estive of bedtime 
 than a first call, cards from princesses had 
 never been so common with Frank and myself 
 as to warrant us in declining the invitation; 
 and though we jostled each other at the little 
 mirror in our room only to come to the con-
 
 A PEIXCELY IXVITATIOX. 57 
 
 elusion that our appearance savoured more of 
 the railway carriage than was becoming for 
 the occasion, we were obliged, faute de mieiu, 
 to be content with ourselves, and took our- 
 selves off at once to the august presence. 
 
 After five minutes spent in vainly endea- 
 vourino; to cross the best street in Kutais 
 without gettmg over our ankles in mud, we 
 found ourselves in the presence of our hostess, 
 a charming lady devoted, as she herself as- 
 sured us, to horses and Englishmen, in that 
 order. AVe soon found that we owed our 
 reception to the tongue we spoke, which the 
 Princess had overheard whilst riding past our 
 hotel that evenino;. After two or three hours 
 spent m j^leasant chat we acceded to her 
 suggestion that we should dine with her on 
 the morrow, and then join the shooting party 
 
 of her nephew. Prince A , which was to 
 
 leave Kutais for a. drive some thirty versts 
 from the town on the followino; eveninof.
 
 58 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 Thus our intention of starting for Svanetia 
 was for the first time postponed. 
 
 At three punctually on the next day, 
 Frank and I presented ourselves in the last 
 clean collars our journey had left us, little 
 knowing what was in store for us. It seemed, 
 from what the Princess subsequently told us, 
 that there had been a mutiny in the kitchen, 
 and all the servants were at the moment ' on 
 strike.' However, after a considerable amount 
 of diplomacy had been employed by the 
 Princess and her friends (for like a feudal 
 chieftain she seemed to live surrounded by a 
 crowd of relations and retainers), the cook 
 was prevailed on to send in the repast. 
 
 The dinner was, I believe, Georgian in 
 style, but was sufficiently like a Russian 
 dinner to need no description here. The 
 drinking, not the eating, is the salient feature 
 in a Caucasian feast. A toast-giver (toolam- 
 batch) having been appointed, we took our
 
 A CAUCASIAN FEAST. 59 
 
 places at table, eighteen guests in all, and 
 every guest, except an English youug lady, 
 the governess of the family, and ourselves, of 
 princely rank. 
 
 Havino' swallowed our modicum of neat 
 spirit which, with some trifling relish, such as 
 a large white radish or piece of salt cheese, 
 forms the necessary prelude of every dinner, 
 we were allowed about five minutes for honest, 
 straio-htforward feedino-. Then the toolam- 
 batch arose, and our glasses (small tumblers) 
 havino- been filled with the red wine of 
 Kakhetia, the toast-giver proposed the health 
 of the Princess. At this all rose, bowed, and 
 clinked glasses with our hostess, emptied 
 the tumblers, struck them loudly on the table ; 
 and then the nimble-fino-ered amouo-st the 
 men sent their glasses whirling head over 
 heels in the air, to show they were innocent 
 of heel taps, caught them as they descended 
 in their left hands, and replaced them on the
 
 60 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 table with a force that made the plates rattle. 
 Then all sang in chorus a kind of thanks- 
 giving to the giver of the feast, to a tune which 
 sounded rather like a Greo;orian chant. In 
 about another minute the glasses were re- 
 charged, some one else's health proposed, and 
 the same ceremony performed in its honour. 
 This kind of thing continued until every one's 
 health had been drunk, by which time seven- 
 teen honest tumblers had been emptied by 
 each member of the dinner party, no small 
 feat for men not used to large libations. 
 
 There was only one trifling distraction 
 during this first part of dinner, which was 
 owing to the bodily peril of a member of the 
 party. One of the princes, it seems, had left 
 the table unobserved, and sought solitude in 
 the yard below the dining-room, whether to 
 escape his fair share of wine or devote his time 
 to hatching an extempore joke still remains a 
 mystery. However, we were roused to a
 
 SUCCESSION OF TOASTS. 61 
 
 sense of his absence by piercing screams ; and 
 on a party being detailed to inquire into the 
 cause, we found the unhappy absentee had 
 been ' baled up ' in his bedroom by an irate 
 turkey-cock who, resenting his intrusion in 
 the yard, had violently assaulted and expelled 
 him. 
 
 Having released the prisoner, and finding 
 that no one remained to whose health tum- 
 blers had not been emptied, the toolambatch 
 rose to the occasion, and showed himself 
 worthy of the public confidence reposed in 
 him. Toast followed toast in rapid succession, 
 until sobriety trembled on its last legs, and 
 instant flight or an ignominious descent below 
 the salt seemed imminent. ' To the health of 
 Madame AV.,' said the toolambatch. Clink, 
 clink went the glasses, up they flew, and 
 again the rattling plates recorded another 
 glassful to be atoned for with headaches and 
 soda-water the day after.
 
 G2 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 ' Has Mr. F. got a wife ? ' whispers the 
 Princess in my ear. ' Xo,' I return thank- 
 fully. The reply is telegraphed to the otlier 
 end of the table, and the toolambatch, rising 
 gravely in his place, proposes the health of 
 the future Mrs. F., w^hich is hailed with 
 immense applause. Mr. W.'s family, Mr. F.'s 
 future family, our united grandmothers and 
 aunts, and a host of other toasts follow with 
 amazing rapidity, and then to our intense 
 relief the Princess gives the signal, ' cease 
 firing.' ' Just one last glass before we part,' 
 she suofo-ests, and fills for each of us a laro;e 
 port wine glass full of strong liqueur, having 
 done justice to which, with a courage born of 
 despair, Frank and I make our adieux as best 
 we can, and next minute find ourselves con- 
 gratulating each other on our hajDpy release, 
 and the extraordinarily unnatural phenomenon 
 that we are still able to walk straight. 
 
 I forgot in the rattle of the banquet to
 
 ILLUSIVE DREAMS. 63 
 
 mention that about the middle of dinner 
 
 Prince A dropped in to say that owing 
 
 to some unforeseen circumstance the proposed 
 venue of the hunt would be changed to a 
 forest nearer home, for which reason it would 
 not be necessary to start before early morn- 
 ing on the next day. This was postponement 
 number two. 
 
 We thought we had escaped our friends 
 when we reached the shelter of our hotel, but 
 little did we know when we ventured to 
 indulge in such illusive dreams the hospitality 
 of the Caucasian heart, or its rooted aversion 
 to sobriety in a guest. I state a mere fact 
 when I say that not to make a man drunk 
 when he is your guest is looked upon m the 
 Caucasus as a breach of hospitality — a distinct 
 failure in that cordial entertainment for which 
 the country is famed. A Georgian of Radcha, 
 whom I knew well, once said to me in talking 
 of the matter, ' What are we to do ? we have
 
 U SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 no games except cards, no entertainments of 
 any kind ; when a man comes to us, we want 
 to make him merry, and nothing does that so 
 well as wine. The process of getting drunk 
 is the pleasantest thing in life, and when he 
 is too far gone to drink any more, we just let 
 him sleep until he is ready to begin again.' 
 This being the spirit of the country, it was 
 small wonder that at the hotel doors we met 
 our host of the morrow's hunt with two other 
 jovial princes, and an array of champagne 
 bottles awful to behold. To refuse was to 
 offend our friends, ruin our reputations as 
 hard-headed Englishmen, and get no shooting 
 at Kutais or help beyond. So with a sigh we 
 submitted to the inevitable, and sat down. 
 
 A more perfect linguist than Prince A 
 
 I never met, and his knowledge of English 
 sporting terms was as wonderful as his 
 capacity for champagne. But at last it was 
 over, and the last assault of the enemy having
 
 EAELY SPOET. 65 
 
 failed to cany the Englishmen off their legs, 
 the princes beat an orderly retreat, and the 
 besieo^ed were allowed to retire with all the 
 honours of war, i.e., the waiter lighted them 
 up to their rooms still sober enough to get 
 their boots off. 
 
 So ended the night ; but the dawn had 
 hardly commenced when the sound of wheels 
 in the street below and tram23ling of feet 
 by our bedsides roused us unceremoniously 
 from our slumbers. There they were again, 
 like nightmares before our sleepy vision, the 
 Prince and his companions, looking as fresh as 
 paint, in full sporting costume, with rifles in 
 hand — men, carriao:es, and doers all below in 
 the street — begging us to tumble as speedily 
 as possible into our clothes and come down to 
 the street, where their people were waiting to 
 drive us to covert. Already, they urged, we 
 were almost too late. The dawn would be 
 visible in the sky in a few more minutes, the 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 G6 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 wolves would be back in covert from their 
 midnight maraudings, and if our places were 
 not taken before that, not a wolf would be 
 found to reward our vigil when the beaters 
 came through. So, with scarcely the keenness 
 that the promise of a wolf hunt should rouse 
 in a sportsman's breast, we shook ourselves 
 tocyether, and casting rueful glances at the 
 warm couches from which we had been torn, 
 lit our pipes and prepared for the raw morning 
 air. 
 
 At the last moment a head beater came 
 up with a long face to say that the rain had 
 begun to descend in torrents. A long parley 
 here ensued, the result of which was that the 
 hunters voted nem. con. a wolf drive in rain 
 only so much labour lost ; and assuring us 
 that we should have better luck to-morrow, 
 tbey all trooped downstairs and rattled off 
 home again in their jolting old droschkies as 
 happy as virtuous princes should be.
 
 WIXE-BIBBIXG. 67 
 
 For a moment F. and I gazed sadly at one 
 another ont of dreamy, unbelieving eyes, and 
 then some one said ' put not your trust in 
 princes ; ' the other expressing himself to the 
 same effect in more concise and energetic 
 terms, whereafter we retired again to roost, 
 determined that we had seen as much as we^ 
 cared for of Caucasian toolambatches and 
 princely wolf-hunts. 
 
 It is wonderful how the practice of wine - 
 bibbing is interwoven with the whole life of 
 the Caucasus, more perhaps even with its 
 past life than with the life of to-day. Go into 
 any Asiatic shop to purchase ornaments of a 
 bygone time — objects of interest quaintly 
 devised and wrought about with fine silver 
 work — you will find nine out of ten of the 
 things exposed for sale connected with wine 
 drinking in one way or another. All that are 
 not, are weapons or horse trappings ; nothing 
 but war, wine, and horsemanship seem to 
 
 F 2
 
 68 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 have found favour with the men of old in the 
 Caucasus. On the shopman's walls hang ibex 
 and tiir horns, silver rimmed, and slung in 
 silver chains. These are cups which admit of 
 no heel taps, and were used to test the wind and 
 honest thirst of Caucasian manhood. Beside 
 them hang small gourds encased in open work 
 of black and white silver, their necks so con- 
 structed that as the contents flow down the 
 wine-bibber's throat, he is comforted by a 
 gurgling music in the flask. Silver cups and 
 tiny silver goblets for the weaker sex are side 
 by side with these, while on the floor stand 
 huge jars and vases of various shapes in which 
 the red wine was hoarded or brouo-ht to 
 table. 
 
 If at the present day you ask a Caucasian 
 of the fertility or well-being of any district in 
 his native land, the standard by which he 
 measures its happiness and wealth is its wine- 
 producing capacity. The rich man in the
 
 A PEASANT'S HOLIDAY. 69 
 
 Caucasus has but little either at Tiflis or 
 Kutais to interest and amuse him, few duties, 
 fewer pleasures. There is no good theatre, the 
 concerts are few, poor, and of a low class ; 
 clubs, I think, there are none. He cares little 
 for the chase, and his own stake in his native 
 country has become so small that he cares 
 little for the government of it. The climate 
 is too hot and enervating for any but the 
 most sluggish life to be lived in it, so the rich 
 man solaces himself with wine and tobacco ; 
 but wine is his great good. 
 
 The j)easant's idea of a holiday is a bright 
 day spent baskmg under the shade of a big 
 walnut tree on a bank outside the village, his 
 friends, male and female, lounging round him ; 
 on the grass, an infinite number of little red 
 earthen pots, corked with a bundle of green 
 leaves, to be emptied to the accompaniment of 
 toast and song. A hard head for withstand- 
 ino- the effect of wme is one of the most
 
 70 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 generally admired physical gifts among these 
 people, and the most popular and influential 
 Enoiishman who ever lived amono;st them 
 was one of whom they will still tell you 
 admiringly that, though he was always 
 thirsty, no toolambatch ever saw him under 
 the table. On one occasion they tell that he 
 and a friend were staying a few days at 
 Piatigorsk, at which fashionable resort a 
 certain beer-loving viceroy arrived two days 
 after the Englishman ; but those two days' 
 start had enabled the latter to so drain Piati- 
 gorsk of beer that the viceroy had to send 
 to Tiflis for his favourite beveras-e. This 
 Englishman's brandy cask is still kept by 
 a certain influential Caucasian nobleman 
 amongst his most treasured relics of the past, 
 and many a time with this on his back would 
 its old owner take himself ofl" into the wild 
 mountain fastnesses, and spend days and 
 weeks amongst tribes whose society it would
 
 PUEITY OF XATIVE WIXE. 71 
 
 have been unsafe for less privileged persons 
 to court. 
 
 There is one thing; at least to be said in 
 extenuation of the Caucasian's love of his 
 native wine, whicli is that it is so pure as to 
 do little or no damage to the drinker, and is 
 not only not a producer of gout in its devo- 
 tees, but is credited with great healing powers 
 over those afflicted with this disease. I at 
 least can safely say I never met with a gouty 
 man in the Caucasus except such as had 
 come from Russia to cure themselves with 
 ' a hair of the doi? that bit them.'
 
 72 SAVAGE SVANETIA 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THROUGH RADCHA. 
 
 KuTAis is not a lively place even for the 
 Caucasus, and seen by eyes that no heavy 
 supper overnight has made captious and hard 
 to please in the morning. To us, then, on 
 the morning after the supper of princes, to us 
 who had endured nearly a week by rail and 
 another by sea, to escape from the trammels of 
 civilised life and revel in wild sport, it seemed 
 so unendurably dull that, in spite of a heavy 
 damp heat reminding one of the interior 
 of a Turkish bath, we set to work with a will 
 to get horses and prepare for a start for 
 Svanetia before dusk.
 
 START FOR SVANETIA. 73 
 
 I was up at six, and by seven had 
 manao^ed to rouse a waiter and send him into 
 the bazaar to make inquiries for horses to 
 take us as far as Oni. By ten a very mag- 
 nificent Jew, in a shiny peaked cap and dia- 
 mond studs, came to see us. A glance at him 
 sufficed. He was not the man I wanted, but 
 a rascal who, owning no horses himself, offers 
 to supply them to the unwary at twice the 
 bazaar tariff. If a stranger to Kutais closes 
 with him, he of course sublets his job to a 
 regular horseboy and himself pockets half the 
 money. He very soon found his way down 
 stairs, and unfortunately was so much an- 
 noyed at not having been able to do the 
 Englishman, that he went straight off to the 
 assemblage of horseboys, and I believe told 
 them of my imperative need of horses at once, 
 and advised them to put the screw on accord- 
 ingly. However that may be, it was not till 
 late that I managed to find a man who would
 
 74 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 undeftake to bring me four horses on the 
 morrow, and having stipulated that the horses 
 should be ready at the hotel by six, I recon- 
 ciled myself to this further delay and ordered 
 dinner, feeling limp and hoarse with the trials 
 of voice and temper to which I had been 
 subjected. 
 
 Dinner over, Frank and I set to work to 
 prepare cartridges and pack up what few 
 things we meant to take with us on our 
 journey, which done we turned in ready for 
 an early start on the morrow. But with 
 morning came no horses nor any message 
 from their owner. A protracted search re- 
 sulted in his appearance about lunch time to 
 say that he had changed his mind, and could 
 not undertake the job for less than double 
 the sum he had agreed for the previous even- 
 ino-. He had heard what the other Jews had 
 been asking us, and was ashamed of the 
 modesty of his own demands. He, too, like
 
 JEW HOESEDEALEES. 75 
 
 the Jew of the diamond studs, was sent out 
 of the hotel a trifle faster than he entered it. 
 
 Once more the business of finding a 
 horseboy and making a contract had to be 
 undergone, but with a somewhat better result , 
 for about midday (the fellow having agreed to 
 find four horses and a guide who could speak 
 Kussian by 9 a.m.) a Jew, speaking only 
 Georgian, with three (not four) of the 
 sorriest steeds since Rosmante, arrived at our 
 hotel. But we had had enouo-h of baro^aininof 
 with Jew horsedealers, so we said nothing-, 
 but packing ourselves and saddle-bags on 
 the miserable screws, turned our backs on 
 Kutais. 
 
 It was a day of insufferable heat, the sun 
 beating down on the low hills round the town 
 in a way that made my head ache in spite of 
 the green leaves inside my helmet and the 
 white towel bound round the outside. The 
 only things with life in them that looked
 
 7G SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 happy were the stolid black buffaloes whose 
 broad backs were just visible above water in 
 some of the shallows of the Rion/and even 
 they were almost too lazy and hot to flap 
 their ears. 
 
 For us in our narrow saddles, going at a 
 crawl on animals utterly destitute of any live- 
 liness, always up or down steep inclines, even 
 the beautiful scenery had not much attraction. 
 Sometimes for versts we would wind our way 
 through a succession of straggling villages, 
 half hid in neat well-kept orchards, shut in 
 with wattled fences. The sight of them made 
 our parched lips ache for the fruit which was 
 not yet ripe. The season was not a happy 
 one in some thmgs ; too early for fruit and 
 too late to see the dark masses of rhododen- 
 dron thicket tbat fringed our path, bright 
 with its yellow blossom. We had been too 
 busy to get anything to eat before starting, so 
 that in spite of the heat, our appetites began
 
 COURTEOUS GREETEsG. 77 
 
 to be troublesome long before our day's work 
 was over ; but once having made a start we 
 determined to hold out until night compelled 
 a stoppage. Our horses, too, had nothing all 
 day ; but to this they seem used, and their 
 owner laughed at the idea of their wanting 
 food before bedtime. 
 
 All along our path we met wayfarers 
 either on foot or horseback, many of them in 
 spite of this heat exposing their bare heads to 
 the sun's rays. One fellow, v^dth a dense mass 
 of black hair. trudg;ed bare-headed and bare- 
 footed beside us more than half the day, and 
 by taking short cuts and occasionally trot- 
 ting, oftener waited for our horses than our 
 horses for him. All the men we met o^ave us 
 a courteous oTeetino;, and here round Kutais all 
 seemed happy and well-to-do. 
 
 At last when the sun had lono- ao;o set, and 
 the owls were beffinnins; to make themselves 
 heard along our wooded track, we came to a
 
 78 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 cluchan, that is, an open dram shop, a roughly 
 constructed wooden hut, with an open front, 
 in which were displayed half a dozen dirty 
 white bottles partly filled with villamous 
 watki, a bundle or two of dried fish, and a 
 thing like a defunct pig on its back, legs in 
 air, which constitutes the cellar, and is the 
 skm holdins: all the wine of the establish- 
 ment. There is another compartment in 
 which a broad board, covered with matting, 
 off'ers sleeping accommodation to all and 
 sundry, wliile through a narrow partition they 
 hear their horses busily munching at their 
 hard-earned food. AYe have seen better inns 
 than this and tasted better wine than the raw 
 red fluid contamed in the pig skin, but no rest 
 was ever much sweeter, no wine more refresh- 
 ins:, than that we obtained at the end of our 
 first day's march from Kutais. 
 
 Cest le premier pas qui coute, is peculiarly 
 applicable to the first day's ride in Tartar
 
 PLEASURES OF TRAVELLING. 79 
 
 saddles, and we were heartily glad it was 
 over, and the chickens screaming in the hands 
 of the cook. 
 
 Just as the last sounds of the horse.-' 
 feeding seemed to have ceased, and the half 
 dozen drunken peasants to have become too 
 drunk to shout any more — just, in fact, as 
 our eyes seemed closing, and we were sailing 
 away into regions of dreamless sleep, our 
 Jew roused us with the intelligence that the 
 horses were ready, and if we wanted to get 
 to Oni that day we must start at once. 
 
 It was barely dawn, and neither of us 
 were keen to leave our rest so early ; but 
 we did it with a grumble — a grumble which 
 on Frank's part was terribly intensified on 
 hearing we were to have no breakfast before 
 starting ; none, in fact, until the end of our 
 first stage. This, I think, was the point at 
 which Frank first began to doubt the plea- 
 sures of Caucasian travel.
 
 80 SAYAGE SVAXETIA. 
 
 When yon are travelling in this country 
 on horseback, and are told that it will take 
 yon a ceitain number of days to reach a par- 
 ticular spot, vou must remember that these 
 ' days ' are counted from earliest dawn to an 
 hour or so after dusk, and are not ordinary 
 twelve hour days. 
 
 'W'e soon found that our resting-place of 
 last night, Tkiboole, was situated at the foot 
 of a considerable chain of hills, up whose 
 steep sides we had now to climb. So steep 
 were they, and so weak did our ponies appear, 
 that Frank and I at once dismounted, and 
 beofan the dav with a lono^ stiff climb, to 
 which our only objection was that its labours 
 were not shared by our guide who, utterly 
 careless of his horse, sat where he was, smok- 
 ing placidly. It is to my mind one of the 
 worst traits in the Caucasian character, that 
 these people care nothing for either horse 
 or dog as friends, regarding them as mere
 
 CREST OF XAKEEALA. 61 
 
 niacliiiies, only to 1>e noticed with a kick, and 
 never tlianked by a caress. 
 
 This little climb from Tkiboole to the 
 crest of Xakerala was the only piece of the 
 road between Oni and Kutais over which a 
 droschky might not safely l3e driven. 
 
 At the top of the ridge the road led to 
 a cleft, throngh which we passed, and as we 
 went we were met ftill in the face by the 
 delicious free breezes which greet you on 
 every summit, while masses of white mist 
 just tinged with sunlight, came rolling through 
 the pass to meet us. In another minute the 
 whole view burst upon us. 
 
 The crest of the ridsre is double, and the 
 path winds through a kind of basin between 
 the two ridges, in which grow dense masses 
 of rhododendron thicket, whence rise here and 
 there, tall and gaum, a few giant pines : one 
 huge white fellow, blasted many a year ag^o, 
 towering high above the rest. The whole 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 place was wrapt in mist, througli which the 
 faint rays of the newly risen sun were dif- 
 fused, giving a peculiarly wild look to the 
 whole. Along this double crest runs a stream, 
 the Tchaouri, of deep clear water on a bed 
 of silver sand, with an exceedingly sluggish 
 current, in which we were told large quan- 
 tities of trout were to be found ; trout, too, 
 not such as are generally found in mountain 
 burns, but grand fellows of from four to six 
 pounds' weight. But though I looked care- 
 fully, and, thanks to considerable practice on 
 the Colne, am by no means slow to mark a 
 rising fish, I never saw a rise, either here or 
 elsewhere, in the three months I was in the 
 country. 
 
 Not very far from where the road crosses 
 it, this stream disappears, axid after a sub- 
 terranean course of several versts ag-ain 
 emerges. At either end of the subterranean 
 passage the country folk say the trout swarm.
 
 TROUT-SPEAKING. 83 
 
 Be3'ond this stream the forest gradnally be- 
 came more open and the trees larger, many of 
 them bemg splendid silver beeches of unnsnal 
 size ; others grand pines hoary with age, and 
 festooned with long tresses of silver-grey 
 beard-moss, which, I believe, like ivy and 
 other parasites, kills as it beautifies. 
 
 The day we crossed Xakerala happened 
 to be a holiday, and all the folk of the country- 
 side were out enjoying themselves. Hence 
 it happened that as we came down into the 
 lower land we met frequent groups of blue- 
 coated peasants carrying long poles armed 
 with tiny tridents for the spearing of trout. 
 Every male in the villages we passed through 
 seemed to be bent on fishing, and the trout 
 of the neighbouring burns must have had a 
 rough time of it before nightfall. In the 
 villages we found the idle dames of these 
 anglers, clad m many-coloured garments, and 
 hanging al^out in groups somewhere on the 
 G 2
 
 84 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 way to the church. Some few here and 
 there drew their face cloths over their faces, 
 but we found this by no means the rule 
 amongst the people of Eadcha. 
 
 Sigortsminda is one of the prettiest vil- 
 lages on the road — a busy, prosperous -lookmg 
 place in a well-cultivated plain, with a large 
 lake in its midst. The golden streaks of 
 cultivated land run out on every side, until 
 they meet and are lost in patches of dark 
 forest pine ; while far away to right and left 
 roll long stretches of purple hillside, over 
 which in the far distance loom the beautiful 
 snow-peaks of some of the satellites of 
 Elbruz. 
 
 The cottages of the village remind you at 
 once of Switzerland, being like them in every- 
 thing, even to the roofs of plank kept down 
 by boulders. Here we^ breakfasted ; and 
 here I was almost tempted to stay awhile by 
 the accounts of bears in the immediate neisfh-
 
 SCENERY OF THE CAUCASUS. g5 
 
 bourhood of Nakerala ; and though event- 
 uaEy visions of mountain sheep in the far 
 distant peaks induced me to proceed, I heartily 
 commend Nakerala, with its trout streams 
 and its bears, to any who come after me and 
 don't wish to make too great a toil of their 
 pleasure. From Sigortsminda to Oni was 
 a very weary pilgrimage, our poor little 
 beasts done to a turn, and ourselves tired 
 with much walking, our throats parched 
 with thirst, and our saddles too hot to 
 sit in. 
 
 Some of the scenery on the road would 
 amply repay any artist who would visit the 
 country ; such views as those of the ruined 
 castles beyond Sigortsminda, and the glimpse 
 of the river Hion as it hurtles along grey 
 and stern between its walls of rugged grey 
 rock at the brido-e of Tsess, beino; hard to 
 beat for beauty in any country. But no one 
 seems to have painted or even photographed
 
 8(3 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 the Caucasus, except to such a limited extent 
 as it is seen from the Vladikavkaz road ; at 
 least, if they have done so, I have never been 
 lucky enougli to come across any of their 
 sketches. 
 
 Villages were, luckily for us, of frequent 
 occurrence by the roadside ; and in each of 
 these we got a few minutes' rest and a glass 
 of rouo'h wine or water. The heat was at 
 midday almost insufferable, being as much 
 as 160° in the open ; and had it not been for 
 these frequent pauses, and the constant recur- 
 rence of a kind of plum-tree (^Cornus mas- 
 cida), bearing a small round fruit of a bril- 
 liant yellow, with the most exquisite flavour 
 imaginable, I don't think we should have 
 reached Oni that day. As it was, Frank 
 was knocked up for a day or two afterwards 
 by his exertions m the sun, and I was almost 
 as bad. 
 
 In some of the stony passes on the banks
 
 OPENING FOR ENTOMOLOGISTS. 87 
 
 of the Eion, throiigli which our road lay, 
 were vast numbers of butterflies, almost all 
 of which were new to me. Amongst them 
 were the beautiful swallow tail, a few larg-e 
 copper, and, commonest of all, a very quick - 
 winged vision of loveliness which I have been 
 unable to identify. 
 
 Perhaps the prettiest sight which met my 
 eyes all that long summer afternoon was a 
 regular troop of butterflies, swallow tails, and 
 pale clouded yellows, sitting on a small moist 
 patch of ground where a clear little moun- 
 tain spring fell from the roots of two great 
 ferns into a pool below. The heat was so 
 intense that even these children of the sun 
 had come there, I suppose, for shade and 
 refreshment. 
 
 It seemed to me then, and often after- 
 wards, that there is a field open for the 
 entomologist in the Caucasus in which very 
 few have reaped before, and in which a very
 
 88 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 plentiful harvest is waiting to be gathered in. 
 Herr Radde, the Curator of the Tiflis Mu- 
 seum, has a very good collection of butter- 
 flies ; but even I, in my two or three visits 
 to the Caucasus, though but a casual student 
 of entomology, feel convinced that I have 
 seen several varieties in my travels of which 
 there are no specimens at Tiflis. 
 
 The daylight was fast departing, though 
 the heat was far from going with it, when 
 my poor little screw stumbled along the last 
 half verst to Oni. Somehow or other my 
 friend and the Jew had fallen behind, but 
 before my mental vision was the hope of a 
 steaming samovar and a refreshing wash ; 
 so, instead of waiting for them, I pushed on 
 alone into the little medley of roughly built 
 wooden houses, called Oni, the capital of the 
 government of Radcha, perhaps the richest 
 in natural productions of any government in 
 the Caucasus.
 
 A KINDLY HOST. 89 
 
 The D'overnor's house was not much dif- 
 ferent to the houses round it, but a glimpse 
 of a cool duck uniform on a verandah inclmed 
 me to the belief that I had found the house I 
 souo'ht, and a second o-lance which descried 
 a couple of ladies sitting sipping their tea 
 confirmed my belief. AYithout more ado I 
 tied up my steed, and, climbmg the stairs, 
 saluted the ladies and presented my letter at 
 the duck uniform. Though surprised at first 
 at the extreme directness of my mode of pro- 
 cedure. Baron Geikin — for it was he — became 
 in a moment the most kindly of hosts, 
 putting his house and all that was in it at 
 our disposal at once. But in spite of the tea 
 and rest my voice would not come back for 
 nearly an hour except in dull, hollow tones, 
 which almost frightened their producer. This 
 was, however, the only effect of the long, hot 
 ride, and wore off before morning. 
 
 At Oni we spent the night and part of the
 
 90 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 next day in engaging horses, and an inter- 
 preter, presented to us as a friend by the 
 governor. It was when introducing our in- 
 terpreter to us that the Baron ventilated a 
 theory, of which we found him very full, that 
 the whole of the tribes of the Caucasus are of 
 Jewish origin, adducing in favour of his 
 theory their personal appearance, the fact that 
 some of the oldest princely families of the 
 Caucasus claim Jewish descent, and that the 
 Jews themselves aver that the Tables of the 
 Law, given to them at Sinai, are now hidden 
 in the Caucasus, three expeditions having 
 been already sent from Amsterdam to seek 
 and recover them. Besides this he alleafed 
 that all antique relics found in the Caucasus 
 were Hebrew, and that on every Tcherkess 
 prince's tomb of bygone days you will find 
 the incription, ' Potomka Sudaria Davida ' — 
 descendant of the Lord David. Besides this, 
 ' Oori,' which is used in Persian and all Can-
 
 INIINERAL-PRODUCIXG PROVINCE. 91 
 
 casian tongues for Jew, appears constantly in 
 Caucasian names of places, &c., as, for ex- 
 ample, 'Gooriel.' 
 
 Personally I can vouch for only one of his 
 statements. The inhabitants of the Caucasus 
 are wonderfully Jewish in type, and never 
 more so than when they are beautiful. A 
 beauty of Mingrelia with her raven hair, 
 rather hard black eyes, and aquiline features 
 is as purely Jewish as anj^thing can be in 
 appearance. If they are of Jewish origin, 
 their long sojourn in wild, uncivilised moun- 
 tain regions has certainly brought out many 
 of the finer traits of the race, which seem to 
 have been lost by the dwellers in towns. 
 
 The province of Radcha is, we were told, 
 peculiarly rich in minerals, and efforts are, I 
 believe, being made to attract foreign capitalists 
 to open up mines there. Along our route from 
 Oni, which we left late the following evening, 
 beds of magnificent slate cropped up by the
 
 92 SAVAGE SVANETIA, 
 
 river ; while close by the new bridge span- 
 ning the Rion where the road to Glola 
 branches off from the main road to Gebi, we 
 found just on the edge of the grand pine 
 forest fringing the river a spring of strongly 
 impregnated iron water. Near Glola itself is 
 another spring which I did not see, but of 
 which the natives had much to say in favour 
 of its wonderful purgative and other medicinal 
 qualities. 
 
 We passed one night, en route to Glola, at 
 the little hamlet of Ootsara, although we had 
 to effect a forcible entry at the inhospitable 
 duchan. It was not until the door seemed 
 yielding beneath the sturdy blows of our in- 
 terpreter, and he seemed every moment likely 
 to be within reach of the innkeeper, whom he 
 was loudly threatening all the while with 
 instant death, that the sleepy old rascal 
 turned out from his lair amongst the pigskins, 
 and let us in.
 
 NATURAL BEAUTY OF GLOLA. 93 
 
 All the houses m Ootsara are of a tem- 
 porary character, capable of bemg transported 
 {i.e. what is perishable of them) to warmer 
 climes for the nine months of snow, during 
 which the village is deserted, and indeed 
 buried. Thanks to its mineral sj)rings and 
 delightfully cool temperature, it is rather a 
 favourite resort durino- the three hot months 
 of the summer ; but ruins of rock, patches of 
 shattered forest, and a huge collection of 
 debris near the river, told a story of the fury 
 of storm and avalanche to which it is subject 
 in winter. 
 
 To say that the scenery on the road to 
 Glola is beautiful would be mere repetition. 
 Wherever you have pine forests, mountains, 
 and a rapid mountam river rushing through 
 all, the scenery must necessarily be beautiful, 
 and these elements of natural beauty you 
 have everywhere along the road from Kutais 
 to Gebi. But for all that the villasfe of Glola
 
 94 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 may vie with any in the Caucasus for pic- 
 turesqueness, as the natives say it does for 
 wealth. 
 
 In all villages in Radcha and Svanetia 
 there is a house set apart for the use of 
 travellers, which goes by the high-sounding 
 title of ' cancellaria.' Hio-h-soundino; as the 
 title is, the quarters are generally poor 
 enough — a couple of bare rooms, empty of 
 everything save the live stock left starving on 
 the premises by the last sojourner within 
 their walls, the windows glassless portals to 
 let in the cold night air, and, worse than 
 all, no possibility of privacy. Such is the 
 ordinary cancellaria. That at Griola was no 
 exception to the rule, and in five minutes our 
 kit was deposited on the floor, and our horses 
 tied to the supports of the balcony, whither 
 we had also betaken ourselves, because the 
 room indoors was too dark to be in without a 
 candle, and being little after midday we felt
 
 THE HOME OF BEUIX. 95 
 
 disinclined for artificial light as yet. On the 
 balcony there was light and life enough. 
 
 On arriving at Glola we had sent at once 
 for the starchina to whom we had a letter ; 
 and as a result of our sending, everyone in the 
 village, except the starchina, was at once in 
 attendance, so that the balcony was as noisy as 
 Babel and as crowded as the Army and Xavy 
 Co-operative Stores on Saturday morning. 
 
 At Oni everyone had told us that Glola 
 was par excellence the home of Bruin ; and 
 indeed that they had not altogether lied was 
 evidenced by a couple of fairly fresh skins 
 spread out on a neighbouring cottage ; but 
 though there were bears about, we could get 
 no one to guide us to their haunts. Every 
 man in our balcony (and small as it was, it was 
 groaning dangerously under the weight of 
 thirty- one men and a woman) was a hunter ; 
 but as they had no dogs to find the bears 
 with, and had had no rain to make the ground
 
 96 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 sufficiently soft for tracking, and as above 
 all it was for tliem the only busy part of the 
 year, no one was forthcoming as a guide. 
 
 Xever havmg shot bears in any other part 
 of the world I don't know how people manage 
 elsewhere ; but for the sake of those who have 
 never seen Bruin at home, I may say here 
 that to go promiscuously into a forest where 
 they are even in large numbers is seldom 
 much good. However quiet you may be, old 
 Michael generally manages to hear you ; and 
 big and unwieldy as he looks, a blackbird 
 would make as much noise gettmg away in 
 the thick bush as he would. Though you 
 almost ran into him, unless he was very much 
 startled, the odds are he would sneak off 
 through the rhododendrons, without j^our 
 ever suspecting his presence. In places like 
 the forests on the Black Sea coast, where 
 human bemgs rarely intrude, you may, it is 
 true, catch him making an early breakfast in
 
 THE COLLAR-MARKED BEAR. 97 
 
 the chestnut clumps ; but in places like Glola, 
 where he is constantly seeing or hearing- 
 human beings, he is as hard to get a shot at 
 as the British wood pigeon. 
 
 I was the more annoyed at bemg able to 
 do nothing at Glola, as I knew that in this 
 part of Radcha the bear that occurs most 
 frequently is the species with the collar mark 
 on the neck, of which I was particularly 
 anxious to get a specimen, the more so as I 
 should like to see whether English naturalists 
 would agree with my friend Dr. Radde that 
 this collared bear is a mere variety of the 
 ordinary brown bear. That the collar is 
 distinctly visible in all ages of the animal I 
 am convinced, having seen specimens from 
 earliest cub-hood to downrio-ht old aa'e : and I 
 have the authority of all the Caucasian 
 hunters I ever met for saymg that this bear 
 is as different from the ordinary bear in dispo- 
 sition as in coat, being, though a smaller 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 animal, much more dangerous, invariably 
 charoinsr when molested. 
 
 Naturally, on arriving at Glola our first 
 business had been to order refreshment for 
 man and beast, and I know nothing more 
 trying than the difficulty of obtaining the 
 merest necessaries at large and prosperous 
 villages, when they are the end of a long 
 journey. The whole of the last long half of 
 your way — hungry, thirsty, and tired — you 
 have been consoling yourself with the thought 
 that however wearisome those last ten versts 
 may be, there is a fixed time at which, if you 
 only persevere, you may slake your thirst and 
 rest your weary limbs. What is the reality ? 
 When you have struggled to your goal, you 
 find no house to take you in for some time, 
 no food to buy, for there are no shops or 
 bazaars, and often even the water is a good 
 long step from the village. Then when you 
 have thrown down your things on the bare
 
 UNPLEASANT SURROUNDINGS. 90 
 
 floor of the beggarly cancellaria, there is no 
 place indoors clean enough to lie down on ; 
 and outside, instead of peace and rest, you are 
 mobbed by a score or two of unclean and 
 inquisitive savages, possessed also of the 
 strongest lungs in the world, who hold long 
 discourses on you, talk to you incessantly, 
 though you don't understand a word, and 
 investigate and play with every article yon 
 possess, from your telescope to your toothpick. 
 After endurins: this kind of thino; for an hour 
 or so, and finding the promises of our nume- 
 rous friends to bring food unlikely to be ful- 
 filled, I despatched our interpreter to find the 
 starchina, and bring him to me by fair means 
 or foul. 
 
 Then I wandered out into the village to 
 see what the peasants' life seemed like here. 
 As it was Sunday, of course all the men were 
 at home and idle, most of them indeed were 
 amusing themselves with a careful investiga- 
 
 H 2
 
 100 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 tion of Frank and his belono;in2:s on the 
 balcony ; and when I came back one of them, 
 a gentleman in a blue shirt, had mounted the 
 table and was delivering a spirited lecture on 
 England and the English, taking my unsus- 
 pecting friend for his text. But though none 
 were afield to-day, there was some little work 
 for the women, in the mornino; and at sun- 
 down, to spread out their stores of grain on 
 the threshinsT floor, casting; it like e'olden 
 motes in the sunbeams, and at night sweeping 
 it up again into its sacks. This done and the 
 cattle tended, the women, like the men, gave 
 themselves to idleness. There was a church 
 m the village, but I saw no one near it, though 
 some grand game heads hung up as votive 
 ofFermgs drew me thither. The whole village 
 indeed, save for our balcony, seemed deserted, 
 and it was not until an hour had slipped 
 away and I went to search for my truant mes - 
 senger, that I found the reason of this. 
 
 I
 
 EUSSIAN VILLAGES. 101 
 
 A village in Southern Russia is all one 
 lono^ straio-ht street : a villa2:e in Radcha or 
 Svanetia has no streets at all, but is a mass 
 of houses huddled together anyhow, betAYeen 
 which you squeeze through narrow little 
 alleys, of a thousand windings, over mixens, 
 round the backs of cowsheds, over precipitous 
 stone heaps, to j'-our goal. Winding my way 
 through such a maze as this I came suddenly 
 upon an explanation of the empty houses. 
 At my feet was a boiling little torrent, some 
 twenty or thirty feet wide, with high steep 
 banks, from one to the other of which a sinoie 
 pine trunk formed an uninviting bridge. On 
 the far side a beautiful lawn sloped up into 
 the forest, and half way up it stood a smgle 
 magnificent walnut tree. Here, with the flick- 
 ering light and shade playing on them through 
 the leaves overhead, reclined at least half the 
 village, round, alas ! a very dirty tablecloth, a 
 heap of cheese, radishes, and chamois flesh,
 
 102 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 half a dozen great terra cotta jars of wine, 
 and one wine glass. There were all the old 
 grey-beards of the village, including the 
 starchina, a large number of picturesquely 
 untidy women, and at the top of the group, 
 by the tree root, my truant interpreter, and 
 a man and woman in European costume. 
 Though I had no fancy for crossing the 
 bridge, I went across and joined the group, 
 bemg received with tremendous applause, 
 whilst Platon introduced me to his Russian 
 friends, a soldier and his wife staying at 
 Glola, that the woman might go through a 
 course of water cure at its springs. 
 
 As soon as I had been settled down into 
 the best place, fresh jars of wine were 
 brought, and with much unction the speech- 
 making and toast-drinking began, while as I 
 did not care for the solids, a little Tcherkess 
 girl got up into the tree and shook me down 
 walnuts for my wine.
 
 FEMALE BEAUTY. 103 
 
 In spite of all I have heard of Caucasian 
 female beauty, this girl of twelve was the 
 only really lovely Caucasian I remember to 
 have seen, but she was as beautiful as a dream. 
 As a rule the women seemed to me plain, but 
 then the Mingrelians, whose beauty is most 
 talked of in the Caucasus, are of a thoroughly 
 Hebrew type, which I dislike ; and for the 
 others I admit to being unable to see loveli- 
 ness through an inch and a half of dirt. The 
 sight of the bridge which had to be recrossed, 
 and the memory of my Kutais experiences, 
 soon prevailed over the entreaties of my new 
 friends ; and after drinking with half a dozen 
 of the ladies, and getting rid of the unpleasant 
 taste of the rough wine with a long draught 
 of the glorious natural soda water that 
 bubbled up without price and without stint 
 not far from our feet, I made my adieux, and 
 carried off my guide with me to the other 
 side of the stream.
 
 104 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 To stay in a place where Platon had found 
 friends, and where I could get no hunters and 
 no dogs, was out of the question ; so by dint 
 of never losing sight of him for a moment, I 
 made the unwillins; Platon obtain horses 
 before nightfall, and long ere the garrulous 
 inhabitants had asked us half the questions 
 they had to ask we were en route for Gebi. 
 
 Such a rare night as that on which we rode 
 from Glola to Gebi is enough to soothe even 
 spirits unhinged by haggling with Caucasian 
 horseboys ; and though the road was in places 
 dangerously bad, and a puff of hot air like a 
 furnace blast came from time to time from the 
 baked hillsides, marring the evening cool, we 
 still rode on happy through a perfect dream 
 of beauty. For the most part all was dark 
 and wild, like a realisation of one of Dora's pic- 
 tures ; but now and again the moon would seem 
 to sail up from behind some lower peak than 
 usual, and throw flashes of weird, uncertain
 
 A WAKEFUL HUSBANDilAN. 105 
 
 light on the Rion, rock-bound and raging far 
 below, while at the same time she spread the 
 forest lawns with a cloth of silver, and frosted 
 every trembling leaf with silver light. 
 
 High up in the mountains on the other 
 side the Rion we saw from time to time a 
 solitary beacon, embosomed in forest, burning 
 like a ruby on the mountain's breast. From 
 this far-away light came now and again faint 
 echoes of wild unearthly cries, whoopings and 
 whistlings, the ringing of bells and beating of 
 gongs, as if gnomes of the mountain and 
 forest were holdinof midnig-ht revel there. 
 Could we have looked closer we should have 
 found nothing more supernatural than a 
 wakeful Glola husbandman perched on a raised 
 platform in the middle of the growing maize 
 patch, which he had cultivated amongst the 
 great forest trees, whence (were he not there) 
 the long grey form of old Bruin would steal 
 out every night as the gloaming closed in to
 
 106 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 rob him of his hard-earned crop. As it is, 
 Bruin knows so well how rarely the husband- 
 man's bullets come near enough to do more 
 than startle him, that he is probably even 
 now at work in some corner where the forest 
 trees cast a shadow, and the sound of his 
 devastations do not reach the watcher's plat- 
 form. 
 
 Further on, where the track passes 
 through a scattered wood of box-trees, on a 
 boulder- studded lawn, we saw a deep pit dug 
 back into the face of a hill, which overlooked 
 the site of a now deserted maize field. Here 
 a year ago another peasant passed many a 
 silent hour (while man was at rest, and only 
 the beasts of the forest roamed the moonlit 
 woodland ways), watching with finger on 
 trigger for the four-footed enemies with whom 
 lie had to maintam the struggle for existence. 
 There is no lack of excitement for the farmer 
 here, who, when he has cleared his patch and
 
 FIEE-FLIES. 107 
 
 sown the seed, must guard the produce 
 nightly, or lose all guerdon of his labour. 
 
 After passing this hill the way wound 
 down into the bed of the Rion, no longer 
 now the broad peaceful stream, that seems to 
 have grown sluggish and stupid ere it pours 
 its full flood into the Black Sea, nor even the 
 angry, energetic torrent that overthrows all 
 obstacles, and boils onward beneath the grey 
 rocks of Tsess, but a company of half a dozen 
 small streams wanderino; throuo-h a ruinous 
 waste of stony river-bed, over which they 
 unite in whiter into a swollen cataract. Here, 
 for the first time, our attention was drawn to 
 large sparks of green light that flew glimmer- 
 ing here and there amongst the birch trees, 
 and it was some time before we realised that 
 they were the first and only fire-flies we had 
 yet seen in the Caucasus. 
 
 The last step of the night's march was 
 over a log bridge which spanned the broadest
 
 108 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 limb of the Rion below Gebi. I venture to 
 think that any English equestrian who was 
 unused to these rough constructions would at 
 first hesitate before crossing at all, and when 
 he did would certainly prefer to cross, if cross 
 he must, on his own feet and not in the 
 saddle. One of our party, Platon, came near 
 to having good cause to regret that he had 
 not done thus ; for in spite of the sure-footed- 
 ness of Caucasian ponies, the holes in this 
 bridge were in such unfair proportion to the 
 solid parts that the poor little quadruped, 
 putting a fore leg through a wide opening, 
 came on his knees and all but rolled over, 
 horse and rider, into the river below. 
 
 Of course there were no lights in Gebi. 
 Men in the Caucasus believe that Nature 
 knows best when it is time to work or play 
 and when to sleep, so that the moment the 
 sun is down, unless they are hunting or acting 
 sentinel in their fields, the villagers lie down
 
 COMFORTLESS APARTMENTS. 1C9 
 
 and sleep until a new day. Groping our way 
 through the houses, our guide stopped us at 
 last with the welcome announcement that we 
 might dismount, AVe had reached our sleep- 
 ing quarters. 
 
 A perilous ladder, no bad exercise for 
 young climbers, led to the second storey of the 
 cancellaria, where beyond a balcony were two 
 rooms, one of which had rafters to support a 
 floor, but no floor, and the other a floor, per- 
 haps, if one could find it beneath accumula- 
 tions of varied dirt. The windows were open 
 to the pure night air, or rather the casements 
 were windowless, and the air and rain when 
 there was any was as much at home indoors 
 as without. But there was a table, and in a 
 few minutes Frank had o-ot the tent-bas" laid 
 out for a pillow, whilst I took the saddle ; and 
 head to tail, side by side, with our boots in 
 dangerous proximity to each other's mouths, 
 we were soon ready for sleep and our insect
 
 no SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 enemies. But we were premature. Though 
 the village was hushed when we entered it, 
 the news of our arrival roused it, and we soon 
 had the ordinary assembly of sheep- skinned 
 savages shouting round us. 
 
 Sheepskins themselves, when worn un- 
 washed for more than three years, are not 
 savoury things to poor European nostrils, but 
 why, oh men of Gebi, why overpower that 
 comparatively innocent smell by the strongest 
 and filthiest of garlic ? 
 
 Through the first half of the night we 
 were forced to make merry with about a 
 dozen of the elders of the village, who ordered 
 wine to entertain us with, and with that fair- 
 ness for which they are remarkable emptied 
 the jars and left us to pay for them. They 
 told us the country was alive with game ; 
 that not a man amongst them but had slain 
 hie thousands and tens of thousands, and the 
 morrow we, too, should kill bears and chamois
 
 ' MAKORKHA.' Ill 
 
 within a stone's throw of the village. But 
 for all that, when the entertainment was over 
 and our endurance at an end, there was 
 not a sing-le o-uide forthcomino; for the next 
 day, nor even a horse promised to carry our 
 bao:o;a2:e. 
 
 DO o 
 
 The letters which our kind friend. Baron 
 Geikin, had given us to the starchina were, 
 no doubt, powerful and useful m their way, 
 but unluckily there is no law obliging the 
 starchina to keep at home or leave another to 
 perform his duties in his absence, so we never 
 found anyone to present our letters to. 
 
 At last, there being no dry place left to 
 expectorate upon, and no more liquor forth- 
 coming, the Elders of Gebi kindly took them- 
 selves, their ' makorkha ' (a vile kind of rough 
 native tobacco, smoked out of small pipes 
 such as opium- smokers use), and their garlic 
 off to the bosoms of their respective families ; 
 and after Platon had cleared decks as well as
 
 112 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 he was able, we drew our bourkas round us 
 and slept. 
 
 When the sun, gleaming in through the 
 roof, woke us out of our heavy slumbers, we 
 entered on another of those vexatious days 
 of bargaining, worry, and procrastination, 
 which take most of the pleasure away from 
 a tour in the Caucasus. Until eleven we 
 could find no one. Then we lost our inter- 
 preter, who went to find the starchina. Mean- 
 while, appetites of English growth began to 
 murmur and rebel at the delay of breakfast, 
 and my half-famished friend and myself made 
 sorties from our stronghold in turn in our 
 endeavours to obtain food. 
 
 Unluckily the people of Gebi don't speak 
 Russian, so without Platon we were almost 
 helpless. A quantity of small fowls had an 
 utterly demoralising effect on Frank, and had 
 it not been for extraordinary activity on the 
 part of his intended booty, I am afraid my
 
 A WELL-EAKNT BREAKFAST. 113 
 
 unfortunate friend would have been gailty of 
 petty larceny at least. But necessity is the 
 mother of invention ; and after several abortive 
 attempts, we, by our united efforts, produced 
 an exceedingly striking picture of a cockrel 
 in chalk on a neighbouring wall, after which 
 Frank crowed violently, flapped his coat-tails, 
 went through the pantomime of cutting his 
 own throat, and even of laying an egg ; after 
 which he went chuckling about the place like 
 a veritable old hen, until he was purple m the 
 face with his exertions. But our endeavours 
 bore fruit, and before Ions; we had a hatful of 
 es'o-s, and even a brace and a half of chickens 
 (three for a rouble), and what was even better, 
 learnt the Georgian for these articles of diet 
 for another occasion. 
 
 Breakfast over, we got a glimpse at the 
 official life of Gebi. The starchina, accom- 
 panied by his secretary, came to visit us, 
 carrying an official document in their hands. 
 
 VOL. I. 1
 
 114 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 The cancellaria, it seemed, was the starchma's 
 office, in which he transacted all his state 
 affairs. After a considerable search, and some 
 strong; lano;uao;e from his chief, who was not 
 quite sober, the secretary managed to find the 
 official seal of the town hidden in a crevice in 
 the wall. From another crevice he produced 
 a tallow candle, a treasure not to be matched 
 this side of Oni, and then came a fierce debate 
 as to where the seal should go. When they 
 had decided that about a dozen impressions 
 should be scattered broadcast over the written 
 part of the document, they appealed to me ; 
 and though I daresay they followed out their 
 origmal plan eventually, for the time being 
 the Elder contented himself by licking paper 
 and seal, holdins; the latter in the candle- 
 flame for a time, and then making an irregular 
 black mark at the foot of the document as 
 directed by me. After this, the seal and 
 candle were returned to their old hiding
 
 OFFICE OF STARCHINA. 115 
 
 places, and tii'ecl with the duties of office, the 
 great men took themselves off for a drink. 
 
 The office of starchina is awarded by 
 election amongst the members of each village, 
 and the duration of office was, I was told, 
 from three to seven years ; but on this head 
 my informants disagreed. As a rule, the 
 office is an unimportant one, as its holder has 
 no real authority, and the members of his 
 village community appear to obey or disobey 
 him pretty much as they please. Moreover, 
 the position is one not greatly sought after, 
 and one of our guides assured me that three 
 roubles' worth of watki judiciously distributed 
 would any day secure the election of the man 
 who gave it. 
 
 It would be unkind in me to ask my 
 readers to follow me through the hours of 
 weary haggling, under a scorching sun, to 
 which I had to submit, before horses and 
 men were at last hired ; making- agreements 
 
 ' CD (D 
 
 I 2
 
 116 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 with men who have no notion of stickino; to 
 their contracts, and searching for some glim- 
 merings of truth amongst an ocean of lies to 
 guide me in my search for game. At least 
 half a dozen times I had, after waiting 
 patiently for the advent of promised horses, 
 to go in search of their owners, only to find 
 them round the corner, not dreaming about 
 getting the animals, but eagerly debating with 
 their friends how much more they should 
 demand from me on the next interview. Half 
 a dozen times during the day, with my head 
 aching and tongue dry with talking, I had to 
 plunge my fists up to my elbows into my 
 pockets to keep them from dangerous prox- 
 imity with the rascals' noses ; and then when I 
 had almost choked myself with suppressed 
 vexation, my idiotic interpreter would lose 
 his temper on his own account, upset all my 
 negotiations, and give me all the work to do 
 over again.
 
 'THE duffer; 117 
 
 Still, when a whole day had been wasted, 
 and even the oldest man was tired of talking, 
 I had got two guides, one of whom had been 
 a bearer in Mr. Freshfield's employ in 1869, 
 and who rejoiced in the name of Yassili, and 
 who, had he not been so devoted to garlic, 
 would have been a very good fellow. The 
 other we unanimously and with great justice 
 entitled ' the duffer.' 
 
 As we mtended only to make a short 
 excursion to begin with to some tur-haunted 
 springs of bitter water in the neighbouring 
 mountains, we left our impedimenta m charge 
 of the village priest, and having had a pair of 
 sandals apiece manufactured by our gillies, 
 and received Platon's assurance that he had 
 laid in all necessary supplies of creature com- 
 forts, we left Gebi for the first time about 
 five o'clock on the evening of August 21.
 
 118 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 KEERTEESHO. 
 
 For our journey to Keerteesho, where the 
 mineral springs were, we were told we could 
 get no horses, and as the guides talked of its 
 being forty versts from Gebi, Frank and my- 
 self started up the first hill outside the town 
 with a feeling that hard times were going to 
 begin m real earnest, and if the guides could 
 honestly walk forty versts a day in such 
 country as this, we had better give up all idea 
 of attempting to do as they did. 
 
 For the first day or two of our seven or 
 eight weeks' tramping in the Caucasus my 
 friend suffered a good deal from walking in
 
 HAY-PADDED MOCASSINS. 119 
 
 sandals, becoming very footsore all at once, 
 and remaining so for a considerable time ; but 
 to me during the whole time, and to him as 
 soon as his feet had hardened, these rough 
 hay-padded mocassins were inexpressibly easy 
 and useful. To attempt to climb grass slopes 
 on the mountain sides without them would 
 appear to me madness, for while nails in your 
 boots make a noise and slide off every smooth 
 rock, your sandals are so thin and j)liant that 
 your foot can grip the hillsides like a hand, 
 and your tread is as noiseless as a cat's. The 
 sandal in use here, by the way, is laced along 
 the bottom, so as to give a better grip. 
 
 Our path to-night ran along the side of 
 a chain of wooded hills, from which we caught 
 glimpses of Gebi and the river, set in a frame 
 of leafy boughs, from time to time. As we 
 left the town further and further behind us, 
 we began to come upon small clearings, 
 patches of corn, and groups of those villagers
 
 120 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 whose absence had made the town behind 
 us seem so deserted. Half a dozen thnes we 
 came upon little parties of peasant women 
 gomg back in the gloaming to the village, 
 and so timid were they that, though our 
 guides called to them by name and assured 
 them of our harmlessness, they bounded like 
 wild things down the hillside as soon as they 
 caught sight of us, and did not even stay to 
 stand and gaze before they had put a very 
 considerable start between themselves and the 
 strangers. 
 
 Just now the forests and mountains 
 seemed more full of people than the village 
 streets, for every one who can work is afield 
 during the short summer months, unless they 
 would with their families starve during the 
 nme months' winter. When we passed 
 through the district it was the season of 
 barley harvest, and m every clearmg were 
 bevies of girls at work with the reaping hookj
 
 BARLEY HARVEST. 121 
 
 singing while they reaped, while not a few of 
 them stopped from time to time to take a look 
 at or talk to the dirty little brat whose long, 
 wooden cradle they had carried from Gebi to 
 the field in the morning, and who now lay by 
 its mother's side as she worked. Not far off 
 in case of need the husband was doing his 
 share of the harvest, with his long rifle slung 
 from a bough close to his hand ; and busy 
 though he seemed, it would be a lucky cha- 
 mois who should pass in sight of those grey 
 crags the other side the valley without calling 
 the peasant from husbandry to the chase. 
 
 When we had done about eis^ht versts 
 roughish walking, and the evening had begun 
 to close m, our guide turned aside into a basin 
 of cornfields among the forest trees, and in- 
 formed us that one of the wigwams of boughs 
 before us was to be our camp for the night. 
 Eight versts seemed a shamefully short march 
 for a day's work, but somehow no one mur-
 
 122 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 mured. Our hut was a circular structure of 
 bent boughs put together when still green in 
 the early summer, with all their foliage left on. 
 By the tent pole in the centre were a few 
 slabs of slate, and here we soon built up a 
 fire, that lit up the interior with a ruddy glow, 
 and kept us constantly employed picking up 
 sparks which shot right and left into our 
 bedding of dry fern and hay, which was massed 
 up round the wall of our wigwam. It seemed 
 as if the whole thing must be in a blaze every 
 moment ; but this feeling soon went off, and, 
 though we were cooking our last chicken, we 
 felt no foreboding. While leaning back in our 
 scented couches we listened to peasants sing- 
 ing somewhere in the woods above us, and 
 gave ourselves up to laziness and tobacco. 
 
 After supper we took our rifles and 
 strolled out round the edges of the cornfields, 
 in the hope that somewhere where the forest 
 threw its darkest shadows we might find a
 
 SHYNESS OF WOOD XYIMPHS. 123 
 
 bear had crept silently into the barley ; but 
 alas ! the moon lit up every nook and corner, 
 and everywhere fires were burning, and the 
 loquacious reapers chattering and singing. 
 On our way back we tried to overcome the 
 shyness of some of the wood nymphs we met, 
 and made an effort at conversation with them. 
 But it was no good. Though they wanted a 
 light for their fire and cigarettes they would 
 only consent to take it when thrown to them, 
 and, having secured the ember, scampered 
 away laughing to where a low branch hut 
 just showed a few feet above some still uncut 
 corn. 
 
 Beautiful as the night was, we had to be 
 up by dawn on the morrow, and if our guides 
 were to be believed, we had still eighty-two 
 versts to tramp before our goal was reached, 
 so we left the cornfields to the reapers and 
 the bears, and turned in to roost. 
 
 Some time, about an hour before dawn, we
 
 124 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 woke with a shiver, for these clearings are too 
 near the glaciers to be ever very warm at 
 night, and, tossing on fresh logs to tlie dying 
 fire, sent such a shower of bright sparks up to 
 our now dry roof, that before we knew where we 
 were the whole edifice was beginning to burn. 
 Thanks to our exertions — chiefly Frank's, I 
 think — we stopped the fire before it had done 
 much more than burn out some of our ceiling, 
 and nothing else happened to disturb us until 
 our interpreter informed us it was time to be 
 moving. 
 
 One of the most useful of the small neces- 
 saries we had brought with us was half a 
 dozen books of the ' feuilles de savon,' 
 patented, I fancy, by some German for the 
 use of travellers. A soap-leaf by the river's 
 brim was with us the ordinary prelude to a 
 day's work, after which our mocassins were 
 dredged up from the bottom of a pool, in 
 which they had been soaking ; and after being
 
 A LIFE'S MYSTERY. 125 
 
 filled with ' tommy ' (short moiintaiii grass), 
 were put on drippmg over a pau' of stockings, 
 which had been carefully dried before the 
 camp fire durmg the niglit. I think it was a 
 kind of superstition with us ; for whatever else 
 we neglected, we rarely if ever failed to keep 
 a pair of dry stockings handy, although we 
 invariably had them soaking wet ten minutes 
 after we put them on, and kept them so all 
 day. 
 
 One of life's mysteries to me is, why 
 should damp feet in England invariably bring 
 upon me colds, rheumatism, and all the ills 
 that flesh is heir to, while in the Caucasus I 
 never went dry shod, waded a dozen times a 
 day nearly waist deep through streams of ice- 
 water fresh from its parent glacier, slept even 
 in wet things, and yet never suffered from 
 any ill effect. Amongst the peasants, too, 
 and hunters, none ever wear any other foot 
 covering than the sandal, are everlastingly
 
 ]26 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 wet, treating mountain rivulets knee-deep 
 with absolute indifference, are innocent of 
 umbrellas and waterproofs, and yet are 
 untouched by colds or rheumatism. 
 
 Breakfast time this morning brought with 
 it a terrible revelation for my poor friend, to 
 whom meat seemed an absolute necessity. 
 Our interpreter had trusted implicitly to our 
 guide's assurances that we should bag game 
 before nightfall, and the wretched little fowl 
 which we had crucified in the flames last 
 night was the only scrap of meat in camp, so 
 that we had to be content with maize-bread 
 and water for breakfast, Platon having left 
 our kettle behind, as well as other stores. 
 
 From about seven until two we followed 
 the course of the little river Tchosura along 
 the base of wooded hills, in which the clear- 
 ings became rarer and rarer as we proceeded, 
 until about a couple of versts before crossing 
 the Dombouri — a feat performed on a single
 
 A LOFTY ELEVATION. 127 
 
 pine pole — they ceased altogether. By day- 
 light we could see that every field of grain 
 was traversed m every direction by bear 
 tracks, and all along our path were signs of 
 their presence and the ravage they committed 
 on the crops ; but to look for the bears in the 
 daytime, in the dense jungle which bordered 
 our path, would have been a hopeless alFair. 
 
 At last, about 2 p.m., when our ever up 
 hill path had reached an elevation of 2,000 
 feet alcove sea level, and we had already 
 arrived in a cul-de-sac of grey rocks, backed 
 and ended by a great glacier descending from 
 a range of snow peaks in front of us, whence 
 rose the river Tchosura, our guide Yassili 
 stopped on a certain grassy knoll, and having 
 lighted his pipe and seated himself, whistled 
 loud and long. 
 
 Before the whistle was well ended, our 
 party received an addition in the form of a 
 tall well-knit man of Radcha, clad in garments
 
 128 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 of many patches, whose face, rags, and rifle all 
 proclaimed him shepherd and sportsman per- 
 haps, but certainly sportsman. He was the 
 genius of the place, the man to whom each 
 quaint branch shanty belonged, who had 
 made the camp under the pine we had passed 
 en route, who had lived and hunted here so 
 much that the men of Gebi had almost got 
 to look on Keerteesho as Simon's property. 
 And he was no bad lord of such a wild domain. 
 Tall and light built, with a steady blue eye 
 that looked you straight in the face, his long 
 lithe limbs seemed as if there was no crag in 
 the mountains round to which they could not 
 bear their owner. And his reputation matched 
 his looks. In all Radcha there is no hunter 
 like the hunter of Keerteesho, and Simon 
 is his name ; and I may add here that though 
 he had a few faults, like other men, he was 
 the finest Caucasian peasant I ever saw, and the 
 best servant and friend we met in our travels.
 
 A POOR LUNCHEON. 129 
 
 AVhen we had shaken hands and learnt 
 that the starchina had refused to let Simon 
 apply for a berth as guide and hunter with us, 
 and had instead given us one of his under- 
 lings, who admitted readily that he had never 
 killed anything larger than that liveliest of 
 insects, we at once appointed Simon hunter-in- 
 chief, and made ' the duffer ' pack-horse to the 
 expedition. We then suggested to Simon the 
 propriety of lunching, but though he had over 
 fifty cattle in the hills around, he could offer us 
 nothino' better than a mess of boiled beans in 
 a broken woodeu bowl, which he had been re- 
 serving for his own dinner. Unluckily for us, 
 whilst we were at Gebi all true believers were 
 keeping a very important fast ; and these poor 
 fellows, in spite of their hard work, were sup- 
 porting life in the keen mountain air on bread 
 and water. 
 
 Having lunched just sufficiently to realise 
 how hungry we were, we sent ' the duffer ' 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 back tliere and then to Gebi, witli orders to 
 return as soon as possible with meat and 
 wine, after which ^ve rose and followed Simon 
 up a steeper ascent than ever to the quarters 
 he had mentally assigned to us. An hour 
 and a half or two hours' walking and climb- 
 ing by goats' tracks up the steep hillside, 
 brought us to where a huge blackened stone 
 projected into the path, and here our guide 
 dropped his load and sat down with the air of 
 a man who had reached his own hall door. 
 
 A peep beyond the big stone revealed a 
 tiny cave, in which perhaps four men and a 
 fire might be packed, if each took up the least 
 space possible and no one minded getting 
 singed. Here the blackened roof, the bedding 
 of old straw, some game bones, and a couple 
 of broken pitchers, clearly indicated a favourite 
 haunt of Simon's ; and in these cramped 
 quarters, a fire having been lit, Frank and I 
 were soon installed with our interpreter. The
 
 A XOVEL EYEIE. 131 
 
 men and our host were to sleep outside, there 
 being no room for them with us. But we 
 were not allowed much rest even here. The 
 sun was now getting low in the heavens, and 
 Simon felt fully assured that ere his setting a 
 mountain sheep should die. So having left 
 our loads at the cave we began agam our up- 
 ward course, until we wound out on to the edo-e 
 of a steep cleft in one of the chief peaks, on 
 which Simon had built him an eyrie, fenced 
 in with great boulders, masked with currant 
 bushes and carpeted with hay. From here 
 you obtained a view of the chief object of 
 attraction to the tur for miles around. 
 
 High up on a bare face of grey rock, be- 
 tween the two walls of the ravine, was a bright 
 yellow stain, where a spring of iron water 
 welled constantly over the brim of a little 
 natural cup in the rock. To this, from the diz- 
 ziest of the white heights above, three thread- 
 like lines seemed to trend, worn by the feet ot 
 K 2
 
 132 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 mountain slieep, from year to year in places 
 wliich would give anything but a mountain 
 sheep vertigo to look at. One of these paths, 
 the lowest, was commanded by our eyrie, and 
 on this we all fixed our gaze intently for the 
 next few hours. 
 
 Round us nothing seemed to grow but 
 a few bilberries, but lower down we had passed 
 through deep beds of blue larkspur, broken 
 off and seen our companions eat the seed pods 
 of great tiger lilies, and almost lost sight of 
 each other amongst the tall stems of a white 
 umbelliferous flower unfamiliar to me. Over 
 the heads of the flowers now and then flitted 
 a clouded yellow, and not once or twice, but 
 several times, I saw the grand hovermg flight 
 of an Apollo, a flight which always struck me 
 as the strongest and most hawk -like among 
 butterflifes. I used often to watch these fine 
 fellows poising like a wind-hover over the 
 wild flowers, but any attempt to catch them
 
 BUTTERFLIES. 133 
 
 only demonstrated to me more plainly that I 
 had not the wings of an Apollo, and np-hill 
 a welter weight had no chance with a butterfly. 
 Besides the Apollos there were two or three 
 kinds of white butterflies, which were not like 
 any English species — one a kind of wood white 
 I think, another which might have been the 
 Bath white, and a third larger than any white 
 I know ; but of this I only saw or thought I 
 saw two specimens, and they were not very 
 near. 
 
 Meanwhile the evening has come upon us, 
 and it is getting almost too dark to see, when 
 suddenly Simon, who has been absent over an 
 hour, clutches my arm and silently signs to me 
 to follow him. Out of the eyrie we sneak 
 through a few azalea bushes, until we get 
 behind the brow of the hill, and then Simon 
 simply takes straight up-hill as if the devil 
 was at his heels. Thanks to a love of boxing 
 and other athletic exercises I am never in very
 
 134 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 bad wind, but ten minutes (or it ma}^ have 
 been only five) of such a scamper simply 
 leaves me breathless. Unable to make myself 
 understood I clutch at my guide's skirts 
 and sign to him to go slower. The look of 
 indignant surprise and pity he bestows on me 
 is rather worse than a knock-down blow, but 
 thank heaven he does go a trifle slower for a 
 while. To him, knowing every stone on the 
 hillside, it is all very well, but for me I have 
 been putting my feet down recklessly and in 
 ignorance ever since I started. Poor Frank 
 put his arm out on the way to the eyrie, 
 though thanks to luck and experience he got 
 it in again almost at once, and the way to the 
 eyrie was as a high road compared to this via 
 diaholica. 
 
 At last Simon sees I can go no further, and 
 signing to me to sit down on a spot to which 
 it requires all the energies of ten trembling 
 fingers to cling to keep vc\j position, dis-
 
 A NEAK SHOT. 135 
 
 appears into the darkness above. Then I sit 
 and wait for what seems hours, wondering if 
 this hunter of Radcha intends me to remain 
 extended for ever, a modern Prometheus, on 
 these Caucasian rocks. To get down by 
 myself in the darkness from my present perch 
 seems out of the question, and night spent 
 there almost equally so. 
 
 At last I hear a shot, and some few minutes 
 after Simon comes skipping and sliding down 
 alongside me, as if he were merely descending 
 the mound in Greenwich Park. The light 
 had been too bad for him to make sure of his 
 shot, but he had got very near and believed 
 he had wounded a tur, a surmise confirmed on 
 inspection next morning ; for though we never 
 bagged the poor beast, the stones were red 
 with its blood. 
 
 On our way back to the cave we heard 
 showers of stones come rattling down from 
 the rocks around us, as another herd came
 
 136 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 down to drink ; but it was too dark even for 
 Simon to climb now, and far too dark to shoot, 
 so we let tliem drink in peace, and went back 
 to our supper of bread and water with an 
 appetite that even made such poor fare 
 palatable. 
 
 Thanks to my restless friend, the impos- 
 sibility of arranging myself on the uneven 
 boulders that formed my bed, and Simon's 
 thousands of insect retainers, I slept but little 
 that night, and was not very sorry when I 
 was turned out into the starlight to climb up 
 to our ambuscade once more. This time no 
 tur came, they had all drunk in the dark 
 hours of the night, and had now taken them- 
 selves back to their haunts in the dizzy peaks 
 above, so we had our vio;il for nothins;. 
 
 One of the peculiarities of Keerteesho was 
 the want of bird-life. In a bush near us I 
 watched for awhile a pair of (I think) moun- 
 tain accentors, and once I saw a pair of rock
 
 TUR-WATCHING. 137 
 
 pigeons far away below us, while on the way 
 up I recognised once or twice the droppings 
 of black game ; but save for these I saw no 
 sign of bird life nor heard any note. 
 
 The worst of this system of watching for 
 tiir at their drinking-place or ' lick ' is that 
 the sportsmen must keep out of sight and 
 quiet all day, for once let some wily old 
 veteran sight a man in the vicinity of his 
 haunts and not a tur will come near the 
 spring for a day or two. 
 
 When the vioil of the mornino; was over, 
 we could only creep away back to our cave, 
 and there wile away the time as best we might 
 until four o'clock came round again. We had 
 now had two days' fasting on bread and water, 
 when towards noon we caug-ht sio-ht of ' the 
 duifer ' toiling up to our camp well laden with 
 chickens and a skin of wine. The reception 
 he met with was enthusiastic, and we all got 
 to work at once to prepare a feast.
 
 138 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 Our cooking utensils were of a primitive 
 order — one blackened earthenware pot, in wliich 
 we boiled one diminutive fowl at a time, and 
 a broken wooden cup, from which we drank 
 the soup in turns. But though rough they 
 served our turn, and being refreshed we began 
 to thmk of preparing a more comfortable 
 abode for ourselves than the smoky little 
 bear's den, with its blackened boulders and 
 cramped accommodation. But it was no good. 
 There was not a level place on which to pitch 
 our tent apparently nearer than Gebi. So we 
 had to give it up. 
 
 All day long our men sat smoking and 
 cleaning their rifles, and a wilder or more 
 picturesque group than they made it would 
 be hard to imagine, in their sheepskm tur- 
 bans, brown cloth gaiters, sandals, canvas 
 shirts and long togas originally of a rock 
 brown, but now so patched with cloths of 
 every hue — red, brown, yellow, and grey — that
 
 A PICTURESQUE GROUP. 139 
 
 it would be hard to find much of the original 
 material left ; yet all the colours blend so well 
 and are so cjuaintly like the lichen-covered, 
 iron-stained rocks around, that it is not easy 
 to beat them as stalkmg costumes. 
 
 Two or three beads and a charm hang 
 round each wild fellow's neck ; at his waist is 
 a belt with flint and steel, dagger, gun-screw, 
 bullet extractor, and every other necessary 
 gunner's tool. Everything else that his sim- 
 ple wants require is to be found in the breast 
 of his shirt; and the proverbial schoolboy's 
 pocket would not compare for variety of con- 
 tents with a Caucasian shirt front. Tobacco- 
 pouch and pipe, lumps of rock-salt to eat with 
 his beans, dried galls of mountain sheep to 
 cure every ailment to which he is subject, 
 bullets, matches, tmder, and a score of other 
 odds and ends are produced as they are 
 wanted from this inexhaustible store-room. 
 That his coat is ragged is small wonder, for,
 
 140 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 apart from the ravages of the rocks, every 
 time he loads or cleans his rifle he tears off a 
 strip from his coat-tails, and every wonnd 
 that wants stanching is supplied with a ban- 
 dage from the same quarter. 
 
 All three of our men have all the hair 
 shaved close off their heads, and one of the 
 amusements of the day was to sharpen a 
 pocket-knife of mine and shave each other, a 
 process more sanguinary than successful. 
 None of the four seem in the least degree to 
 consider themselves as servants ; but even the 
 worst of them was always ready to serve us, 
 and give up the best of everything for our 
 use, while Simon's watchfulness and motherly 
 care for our safety became almost oppressive. 
 
 Towards afternoon there was a great 
 palaver amongst the men, and after much 
 discussion, Simon and Yassili gave me to 
 understand that I was to follow them to the 
 highest of the watch- stations, to which none
 
 'THE NEST.' 141 
 
 of US had ascended as yet, while Frank kept 
 guard below. 
 
 I have seldom had such a disagreeable 
 climb as that first ascent to ' the nest,' as we 
 called it, and though, before I left the moun- 
 tains, I should not have thought much of 
 doing it alone, my grip of Simon's coat-tails 
 was uncommonly tight as I went up for the 
 first time. However, thanks to these and 
 Yassili's stalwart shoulder propping me up 
 from below, I made a safe, albeit undignified 
 ascent, stopping to take a draught of the 
 mineral water at the tur's lick on the way. 
 
 The spring bubbles up in a tiny natural 
 cup, and is so strongly impregnated with iron 
 that two or three mouthfuls are as much as 
 you can swallow. Both my guides drank of 
 it greedily, alleging that it gave strength and 
 renewed health to the drmker. 
 
 ' The nest ' was a mere ledge high uj) on 
 the bare face of the clifi", with no apparent way
 
 142 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 up or down ; a bit of rock jutting out above 
 sheltered it from the rain, and a small col- 
 lection of boulders on the outer edge fenced it 
 in and hid its inmates from sight, leaving 
 perhaps three feet in width by seven in length, 
 on which Simon and I had to dispose our- 
 selves for the night. It was a wild bed, and 
 the less you looked over the edge into the 
 precipice below, and calculated on the chance 
 of tossing in your sleep the better you liked 
 it ; but regrets were useless, and as I watched 
 Yassili scrambling down to safer sleeping 
 quarters, I felt I was a fixture until broad 
 daylight came again. Neither Simon nor I 
 spoke. We could not make each other under- 
 stand if we wanted to, and besides, as we 
 watched the light fade, and the stars come 
 out and glisten on the riven snow peaks, so 
 little higher than ourselves, a silence came 
 down upon us that no doubt he felt, as I did, 
 it would be sacrileo-e to break.
 
 A SMOKING PROVERB. 143 
 
 Presently, when the night fully set in, 
 and there was no longer any chance of the 
 tiir coming until the morning, my companion 
 dusted away a few of the biggest of the stones 
 from my couch, rolled up his coat as a pillow 
 for my head, and curled my hourka round 
 my feet. Then he went to the edge, and 
 standino; with his hat off, lookino- above the 
 highest peaks, his lips moved silently for a 
 few minutes, and as the silver starlio-ht lit 
 up the stern weather-worn features and keen 
 earnest eyes, I could not help thmking that 
 man's faith, whatever it was, seemed worthy 
 of his surroundino;s. Of course I o-ave him 
 back his coat, and as nothing on earth would 
 stop his smoking, lit my own pipe, too, before 
 I turned in. ' If the wind is right for you,' 
 Simon always insisted, ' a pipe will do no 
 harm, and if wrong for you, then abstinence 
 from the beloved weed can do no good.' So
 
 144 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 he always smoked, and I believe lost me many 
 a good head by doing so. 
 
 A boiirka (Caucasian blanket) is a won- 
 derful thing for warmth, and once wound 
 round you, so as to exclude the air, you can 
 keep warm in the coldest night. On this par- 
 ticular night, even my stony couch could not 
 keep me awake, and it was only at intervals, 
 when my gillie roused me, that I learnt what 
 was happening round us. 
 
 Twice, as we listened, showers of small 
 stones came rattlmg down from the peaks 
 above. Then there would be a long pause. 
 Again a rattling of stones, and then a sharp 
 ' djik, djik,' half whistle, half bleat. Two or 
 three herds came to drink in the night, though 
 towards midnight a storm broke over the 
 mountains, giving us glimpses of the peaks 
 around standing out black and stern in a pale 
 flood of lio:htnin2:. 
 
 For a time the storm seemed exactly over-
 
 MOUNTAIX SHEEP. 145 
 
 head, and the big ram drops splashed off our 
 protectmg rock above m a way that made us 
 crouch closer under its kindlv shelter ; then it 
 passed away, and for nearly an hour after- 
 wards we could hear it moaning and rattling 
 among the distant peaks. 
 
 Then we slept again until about 3 a.m. 
 I suppose, when I once more felt Simon's grip 
 upon my arm. Xow it was no longer night, 
 but a dim shadowy light, in which a few 
 weird rock shapes were indistinctly visible, 
 and the stars were o-ettino; white in the 
 heaven. 
 
 All round us the clatter of stones was inces- 
 sant, and the sharp calls of the mountain 
 sheep were close and frequent on all sides, 
 while the bleating of the young kids told 
 us plainly that a large herd was drinking 
 close to us. But strain our eyes as we would 
 not even Simon could see anything of our 
 visitors for nearly half an hour. At last he 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 made one out as the bleating grew less fre- 
 quent, and the stones had almost ceased to 
 rattle. Followmg his directions I, too, made 
 out what seemed like the grey ghosts of two 
 goats rapidly disappearing into the clouds on 
 the other side ; and, obeying his directions, 
 though I could not hope to hit, I fired right 
 and left at what he afterwards told me were 
 two young kids, the last of the herd, slowly 
 following their impatient dam into the safer 
 heights. 
 
 I suppose I ought to have felt disgusted 
 at my night's fruitless watch, but I am afraid 
 I didn't, forgiving myself even for my miss, 
 and watching the waves of mist, driven like 
 white smoke through the green and grey 
 rocks, with a pleasure that the consideration 
 of an unnecessarily prolonged stay in our nest 
 by no means destroyed. At length it cleared 
 sufficiently for us to find our way down to
 
 DOZIXa CHAMOIS. 147 
 
 our comrades, wlio had had no better luck 
 than ourselves. 
 
 Lying that mornmg, after breakfast, out- 
 side our cave, we made out on the rido;e 
 beyond the Tchosura a large herd of chamois 
 feeding and playing in a hollow of the hills, 
 which the morning sun had not yet pene- 
 trated. Tired of so much inaction as we had 
 been doomed to for the last three days, I at 
 once proposed that we should attempt to stalk 
 them ; but to this my guides gave a decided 
 negative, at least for the present, so that I 
 had to content myself with watching the 
 bonny beasts through my glass. 
 
 At last the sun crept into the hollow and 
 banished the cool shadows, whereupon the 
 whole herd left off playuig and feeding, and 
 one by one lay down in the tall herbage. 
 None of them seemed easily pleased with their 
 lairs, for, after lying for some time with their 
 heads held well up, they would rise and take 
 
 L 2
 
 148 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 a steady stare all round, after whicli they 
 again lay down. At last, however, they were 
 all at rest, and Simon shut his glass with an 
 energy that meant the first act was over. 
 
 The chief difficulty was the river, over 
 which there was no brido;e for miles, and to 
 wade which all, except Simon, said was im- 
 possible. By dint of coaxing and determi- 
 nation, I eventually wrought on Simon (who 
 was the only really keen sportsman among 
 them) to make the attempt. Frank decided 
 not to come with us, but to try later on for 
 bears. 
 
 Down at the river's edge the rough water, 
 whose depth we had not yet fathomed, fright- 
 ened Yassili into a determined refusal to have 
 anything to do with our venture. Remem- 
 bering a very nearly fatal ducking I had once 
 before in a Caucasian torrent, I myself did 
 not feel too keen for the plunge, but Simon 
 had me by the hand now, and we were in for
 
 CAUCASIAN TORRENTS. 149 
 
 it together. It was terribly strong and deep, 
 that source of the Tchosura, and the way it 
 surged and swept round its great boulders, 
 wetting us above our waists, was the reverse 
 of reassuring. Besides, it was cold as death. 
 But we kept a good grip of each other's hands, 
 and struggled safe to shore to stamp the 
 water out of oar sandals, and laugh at the 
 rueful face of our friend upon the further 
 shore. My gallant Simon soon plunged m 
 agam, and for a moment, as he and A^assili 
 staggered about in mid-stream, blundering 
 amongst the big boulders, I was afraid I 
 should have to wade back alone. If they had 
 lost their footing, as they so nearly did, I 
 should have been powerless to help them, but 
 as good luck would have it, they just managed 
 to right themselves in time. 
 
 Crossing these little mountain rapids costs 
 many a good man's life in the Caucasus, and 
 one of the best of servants, my poor Stepan,
 
 loO SAVAGE SVA^'ETIA. 
 
 who served me faitlifullv at Golovinsk, some 
 four years ago, met his death in a rapid he 
 and I have prol3ably waded together a score of 
 times. Poor fellow ! he was very rough and 
 untaught, but an unselfish good servant to 
 me for all that. 
 
 Once over the stream, our way was easy 
 enous^h. The bed of a winter torrent aiforded 
 us a road, stony and toilsome indeed, but by 
 no means difficult. That we were not the 
 only passengers by it, numerous bear-tracks, 
 broken raspberry canes, and other signs made 
 very manifest, but the wayfarers whose tracks 
 we saw move about very little, except at night, 
 so we saw nothing of them. 
 
 When we had reached the spot at which I 
 expected to sight the chamois, Simon crept 
 on ahead through the thick rhododendron 
 bushes, and after an absence of a few minutes, 
 came back saying we had had our climb for 
 nothing. The game had moved on, Hoping
 
 A FEUITLESS HUNT. lol 
 
 to find the chamois at no great distance, we 
 pushed carelessly through the rattling scrub, 
 when, just as we reached the edge of a small 
 precipice, the sound of loosened boulders 
 bounding away into the valley below drew 
 our attention, and there, a hundred yards 
 below us, roused by our presence from their 
 noon-day siesta, was the whole herd goiTig as 
 hard as they could lay legs to the ground, 
 bounding over rocks and boulders as if they 
 were furnished with wino-s rather than leo;s. 
 
 I suppose some of those who read this 
 have missed a runnmg deer before to-day, so 
 they at least won't be hard on me, as those 
 might who have only fired at marks. After 
 all my trouble, I missed right and left, star- 
 ring the rock with both barrels a few inches 
 over my game. 
 
 I don't know what other men think about 
 it, but to my mind an ' Express ' rifle is by no 
 means the best weapon for running shots, and
 
 152 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 for the future I am mightily tempted to use 
 a smooth-bore with no back sight to bother 
 me. If your beast will only remain stationaiy 
 for a few seconds, nothing can touch an 
 Express ; and in self-defence I may say that I 
 have always made really good shooting with 
 it under such circumstances, but I have, I am 
 afraid, yet to learn how to shoot snap shots 
 with my favourite weapon. I always shoot 
 high. 
 
 After this failure sadness came down on 
 me like a cloud, and as I sat munching 
 bilberries and listening to the long shrill 
 whistle of the evil little beasts who had 
 eluded me, now half way into the next 
 province, I came to the conclusion that 
 Keerteesho was an unlucky encampment, and 
 the sooner we made a fresh start the better. 
 
 On arriving in camp, I found Frank had 
 also had an unsuccessful cruise, having found 
 quantities of fresh bear tracks and one lair only
 
 EETURN TO GEBI. 153 
 
 just deserted, but no bears. This being the 
 case, it was not hard to induce him to see 
 with my eyes ; and next morning we were 
 en route for Gebi agam, doing the distance 
 back in rather less than half the time we took 
 coming — a by no means singular incident in 
 this country, where the road out is invariably 
 represented as three times longer than it 
 really is.
 
 154 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 SHUKACHALO. 
 
 When we came back to Gebi, empty-handed 
 and crestfallen, vre felt far too humble to 
 resent the sneers of those local Nimrods who 
 had bade ns go forth certam to return m a 
 day or two laden with the spolia ojnma of 
 the mountams. To our surprise, instead of 
 contempt we met with universal sympathy, 
 and in answer to our oft repeated, ' Never 
 killed anything all the week,' the simple faces 
 of those who had told us of the largest bags 
 made daily within a mile or two of Gebi, 
 beamed a cheerful, ' Well, there's nothing very 
 wonderful in that ! ' But as we beo^an to know
 
 THE VILLAGE PRIEST. 155 
 
 the men of this country better we understood 
 these thmgs ; for, in spite of the quantity of 
 game round Gebi and the much vaunted 
 prowess of the hunters of that mighty city, so 
 bad are their guns and so mdifferent their 
 shootmg, that the return of a hunter other 
 than empty-handed becomes at once one of 
 the events of the year. 
 
 But though far from truthful, the men of 
 Radcha are hospitable souls, and having left 
 the wretched cancellaria, round which the 
 odour of Yassili's garlic still clung, we made 
 ourselves comfortable at the village priest's, 
 and received the guests who came trooping in 
 to see us there. First there was the priest 
 himself, proud possessor of the only two 
 glasses in Gebi and sole owner of a real teapot. 
 The possession of these articles alone, and his 
 knowledge of a little Russian, raised him at 
 once to a stratum of civilisation which the 
 humble men of Gebi regard with pride and
 
 156 SAVAGE SVANETIA, 
 
 respect. Having duly admired these wonders 
 of civilisation we proceeded to make use of 
 them, while about every five minutes a fresh 
 arrival brought us some trifling ofl'ering for 
 our feast. 
 
 Simon, the ragged and unkempt, returned 
 after about half an hour's absence, clean 
 shaved, in a bright red shirt and nearly new 
 tcherkesska, with a big brass chain hanging 
 across his manly bosom and a look of 
 conscious pride and self-respect on his face 
 that would have become a churchwarden. 
 Better than all, he was the bearer of three 
 immense cheese cakes and a jug of milk from 
 his wife, which, together with a host of other 
 supplies, were provided gratuitously for our 
 entertainment. 
 
 Poor Simon and Vassili had to content 
 themselves with a mess of beans and bread, 
 but our interpreter Platon, disregarding the 
 mandates of his religion, treated the fast with
 
 FINANCES. 157 
 
 contempt, and joined heartily in our supper. 
 His friends and co-religionists of Gebi, instead 
 of appearing shocked at the laxity of his 
 religious principles, seemed to admire him as 
 a being of superior culture, for whom of 
 course the laws concerning feasts and fasts 
 were not meant to be so bindmg as they were 
 for themselves. 
 
 After supper we had to go seriously into 
 money matters, and we were obliged to yield 
 to the unpleasant conviction that unless we 
 could obtain money at once we should have 
 to return to Kutais. It seemed a risky thing 
 at first sight to trust our mterpreter with any 
 large sum, but there was no other way out of 
 our difficulty ; and to go back to Kutais, to be 
 stifled by the heat and driven mad by the 
 difficulties of making a fresh start, was not to 
 be thought of. So we gave him thirty pounds 
 in circular notes and letters to some friends of 
 ours, and having secured his native passjDort
 
 158 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 and most of his clothes under the pretext of 
 taking care of them for him, we made arrange- 
 ments for him to leave Gebi for Kutais next 
 morning, to return in a week's time, and 
 rejoin us at our camp beneath the glacier of 
 Lapur. 
 
 The next thing to be thought of was the 
 means of communication with our guides in his 
 absence, as there is always a chance of the 
 language of signs breakmg down before the 
 end of a week, and the rest of the evening I 
 spent in collecting a vocabulary of the 
 Georgian words most likely to be of everyday 
 occurrence. This done, I turned in and slept 
 long and soundly, until the crowing of cocks 
 and a contmued droning sound in the court- 
 yard below the balcony woke me to a sense 
 that Sunday mornmg had come, and the fifteen 
 days' fast of the death of the Holy Virgin was 
 ended. 
 
 The droning under the balcony was an
 
 AX ACCEPTABLE PRESENT. 159 
 
 earl}^ morning service being conducted by my 
 host the priest, who in his shirt sleeves stood 
 bare-headed beneath the ladder which led to 
 our room, and intoned, I believe, a species of 
 liturgy to a congregation of two at a pace 
 which no clergpnan of the Church of England 
 could hope to rival. His congregation must 
 have known their prayers uncommonly well if 
 they recognised any of them at that railroad 
 speed. 
 
 When the service was over, our host came 
 up to us and brought us a parcel which had 
 arrived for us from our friend Baron Geikm, 
 contaming a present of a bottle of liqueur, 
 some tobacco, and other luxuries. 
 
 After writino- a note of thanks to the 
 
 o 
 
 Baron, we started Platon off with it, and 
 went down to the river to try if we could see 
 any trout rising, as the priest assured us that 
 he frequently caught a nice basket of fish 
 close to the town by a primitive kind of
 
 160 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 ' daping.' However, I was as unlucky here as 
 elsewhere in the Caucasus, never having seen 
 a trout rise during the whole of my autumn 
 campaign. 
 
 As we strolled up from the river Gebi 
 presented a different aspect from that which 
 it wore a week ago. Then all the streets were 
 still, all the houses empty save for a few old 
 crones long past the possibility of work. Now 
 at every street corner men less ragged than 
 usual were loafing, laughing and smoking, 
 while troops of women in bright coloured 
 garments and gaudy turbans were sitting 
 on the house ladders, or hurried chattering 
 through the town. But in spite of all the 
 merry making, Simon the hunter was waiting 
 for us when we/got home, to tell us that if we 
 would engage a half- starved looking creature, 
 whom he called nephew, as horseboy, the said 
 nephew would act as interpreter for us, and 
 have horses ready for a start that night.
 
 AN IMPOSING EXPEDITION. 161 
 
 I very soon found that Deto's only claim 
 to being a Russian scholar was the possession 
 of a ragged old Russian uniform which he 
 wore, and a lively memory of a Russian term 
 of abuse, no doubt often applied to himself. 
 These were hardly good qualifications for an 
 interpreter, but to please Simon, Frank and I 
 engaged the fellow ; and towards evening he 
 came to us with a raw-boned old mare and 
 her foal, with which for our bao-o;ao;e animals 
 we started for Lapur and Svanetia — not a 
 very imposing expedition to look at, as we 
 trudo-ed out of Gebi, the foal making occa- 
 sional attempts to bolt for some tempting 
 pasture to our right or left, attempts which 
 Deto and Simon did all they knew to frustrate, 
 while the old mare, laden with a large black 
 kettle, our saddle-bags and guns, formed the 
 centre of the main party. 
 
 On our way out of the town we passed 
 one of the strangest scenes it has ever been 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 my lot to behold. Just where the houses 
 cease and the valley of the Rion begins again, 
 stands one of the regulation green and white 
 Russian churches, not a large or gorgeous 
 edifice by any means, but about the best in 
 Radcha. Round this on Sunday evening was 
 a circle of fires, and on every fire a caldron, 
 such as (only larger than) the caldron 
 commonly supposed to have been used by the 
 witches in the incantation scene in ' Macbeth.' 
 Round each fire squatted a crowd of such 
 wild and loquacious beings as can only be 
 found by the banks of the Rion, while between 
 and about the caldrons were huge piles of raw 
 meat, the mortal remains of nine bullocks 
 slain to keep the feast which follows on the 
 fast of the death of the Viroin. Seven of 
 these bullocks were a present from the muni- 
 cipal body of the town, the other two beasts 
 were provided by subscription ; nine bullocks 
 being considered necessary to feed the hungry
 
 A STRANGE FEAST. 1G3 
 
 inhabitants of the 140 houses which g-o to 
 make up Gebi. In the pots were seething 
 huge messes of tripe and other tid-bits, of 
 which a burly cook offered us a sample on 
 the end of a hug-e trident. Nor were the 
 kindly fellows content to let us leave them in 
 their feasting without something to cheer us 
 on our way, but insisted on our men canying 
 off a portion to consume later on. 
 
 When all those gathered round the caldrons 
 have fed to repletion, the remnant of the 
 feast is divided amongst the heads of houses, 
 according to the number of souls in each 
 family, so that before night every morsel has 
 been cleared away. If they were as other 
 men are, what an opportunity there would be 
 for Cockle or Eno during the next fortnight ; 
 but as it is there are no doctors in Radcha, 
 nor any quacks, therefore perhaps indigestions 
 are unimpaired and appetites enormous. 
 
 For half a mile down the river a little 
 M 2
 
 164 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 band of followers came with us to speed the 
 parting guests, and then we were left to our- 
 selves, silently plodding on into tlie quiet 
 glens of the mountains that separate Eadcha 
 from Svanetia. 
 
 Just before the gloaming a whistle echoed 
 shrilly through the glen, and a tall shepherd 
 came racing down from some hut hidden in 
 the woods which clothed the slope above us. 
 By the kiss of greeting which he gave Simon 
 we concluded he was some relative of his, and 
 that he was a good fellow we felt certain when, 
 doffing his shako of sheepskin, he presented us 
 with a huge bowl of curds and whey. To 
 devour this at our leisure we retired to a little 
 fern-hung dell, where a bright mountain 
 stream sparkled up from a bed of moss, and 
 here at our guide's suggestion put down our 
 burdens and ate our evening meal. 
 
 All round was absolutely silent : no harvest 
 cries came from the corn-lands, no birds'
 
 THE CLAIMS OF SPOET. 1G5 
 
 voices broke the woodland silence, and by our 
 guides' movements, as well as by their con- 
 versation, I knew that game was not far off. 
 Now I admit I don't like shooting on Sunday. 
 It may be a puerile superstition — and I fear I 
 can give no very valid reason why one should 
 not as soon shoot as travel on that day — but we 
 are all of us creatures of habit and impulse, and 
 on this evening in particular I didn't wish to 
 break my rule. However, the temptation was 
 too strono- for me, and when the evenino- had 
 fairly closed in and my men had at last loaded 
 their ancient fire-arms satisfactorily, Frank 
 and Yassili took one line and Simon and I 
 another, pushing our way up hill through the 
 belt of woods, until we gained a kind of table- 
 land or ridge, where between two belts of 
 forest trees a long waving line of yellow 
 corn-fields caught the last light of the August 
 evening. 
 
 For two evenings now no noise of men or
 
 1G6 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 lio-ht of fires had broken the sohtude of the 
 place, and it was Simon's hope that this 
 peaceful state of things would induce cautious 
 old Michael to forget his usual prudence and 
 come out openly before nightfall to feed among 
 the crops. Here and there among the corn- 
 fields were little clumps of forest, or fragments 
 of dark rock, and now and again you came 
 upon patches of corn which seemed to have 
 wandered within the dark circle of the great 
 trees and become islanded and imprisoned 
 there. Here it was that we crept about with 
 most silent steps, conscious that no more 
 jfitting supper-room could be fashioned by 
 nature for our prey than these dim and silent 
 corners. 
 
 We had just topped a long swell of corn- 
 land ; and having convinced myself, in spite 
 of the waning light, that all the charred and 
 blackened stumps which stood among the 
 corn were stumps indeed, and were not in
 
 ' THERE'S ONE ! ' 167 
 
 motion, I was enjoying the broad bands of 
 cinnamon -coloured cloud in which the dark 
 peaks of the distant mountains seemed floating 
 islands, when Simon dragged me down on my 
 knees with the single word ' arrees ' (' there's 
 one ! '). One look was enough at Simon's face, 
 working with intense excitement, and then 
 trusting entirely to him I forbore to gratify 
 my own eyes, but slunk away on hands and 
 knees until we were well below the level of 
 the little hill from which my man had viewed 
 the game. 
 
 Xot far from where we were was one of 
 the forest islands I have alluded to, from 
 which a long peninsula of dark trees stretched 
 out towards the point at which the bear was 
 feedino'. Gointr at a run we were soon in its 
 shadow, and in a few minutes more were 
 peering over a huge boulder at the long tawny 
 shape that looks so different moving silently 
 in the shadow of its native forests from the
 
 108 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 poor spiritless beasts who disgrace the name 
 of Bruin in the Zoo. 
 
 From where we were we could not hear 
 him as he moved, nor was he in the least 
 degree conscious of our presence, and I would 
 gladly have watched him longer, but Simon 
 was boiling over with impatience, and the 
 bear was feeding every second more and more 
 into the shadow. So I tried to balance my 
 rifle on Simon's alpenstock for a rest, and 
 though I could not see my foresight clearly, 
 aimed low and pulled trigger. Not for the 
 first time since I have bee^iin bear-shootino; 
 did I become conscious of the fact that with a 
 quick swing of his huge body my old enemy 
 had galloped off without a sound into the forest, 
 apparently untouched. Whether he was hit 
 or not I don't know — he evidently was not 
 very badly hurt ; and owing to the bad light I 
 felt very little confidence in my shooting and 
 did not attempt to follow him, though I have
 
 WASTED OPPORTUNITIES. 1G9 
 
 known a bear take a mortal wound without 
 a whimper and go off as if nothing had 
 happened. 
 
 Simon was not so angry as I expected, 
 and seemed to think he had over-rated my 
 rifle's powers, and to be resolved another 
 time to get me as near as he would requu-e to 
 be himself. That night we saw no more 
 bears, but twice during the night we heard 
 the echoes rattling amongst the hills m 
 answer to Frank's rifle far away at the other 
 end of the table-land. Gradually it grew too 
 dark to see, and then we left the fields, and 
 after half an hour's scrambling' and sliding- in 
 the dark, we saw the light of our camp fire 
 glimmer up from the meadow by the river's 
 edge through the last fringe of the lower belt 
 of woods. There was no time then for build- 
 ing up a ' palagan ' (hut of boughs) or 
 erecting our tent, so we piled up our log fire 
 to enormous dimensions, rolled ourselves in
 
 170 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 our bourkas, and prepared to make a night of 
 it, ^ sub Jove fingido.' 
 
 Frank came in soon after us with a tale 
 like our own of wasted opportunities. His 
 first shot had been a lucky one, equally distant 
 from himself and his guide, the result of the 
 accidental discharge of the abominably con- 
 structed ' Peabody ' with which he was handi- 
 capped. The second shot had been at a bear 
 which he and Vassili had met at fairly close 
 quarters, but which, thanks to the dark, 
 escaped with nothing worse than a bad fright- 
 ening. We ought, perhaps, to have been sad, 
 and held ourselves as of very small account 
 for the way we had let our bears off, but I am 
 afraid all proper sense of shame was dead in 
 us ; so we blamed the twilight, blamed the 
 rifles, blamed anything except ourselves, and 
 blessing the man who first taught the use of 
 tobacco, looked hopefully forward to another 
 day at the deserted corn-fields on the morrow.
 
 UNEXPECTED VISITORS. 171 
 
 About 1 A.M., when the camp fire was 
 dying out and our sleep was at its soundest, 
 a party of shepherds from Gebi arrived on the 
 scene, and with that glorious want of cere- 
 mony that characterises their race, woke us out 
 of our slumbers and re-lit the fire. All they 
 wanted, good simple souls, was a chat, and it 
 never occurred to them that we should not 
 see things from their point of view. It is no 
 good getting in a rage when you can't make 
 yourself understood, so I made the best of it, 
 and I was rewarded for my forbearance by 
 bemg allowed to go to sleep agam m about 
 half an hour's time. 
 
 The last I saw of them was a glimpse 
 of five or six forms in sheepskins squatting 
 round the fire and smoking, without appa- 
 rently any idea of going to sleep that night. 
 Next morning, though I was up by daylight, 
 shepherds and flocks had gone, and left no 
 trace behind them.
 
 172 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 As it was no good going into the corn- 
 fields until evening, we determined to try the 
 spur of mountains at whose foot we were 
 camped for chamois. Frank and Vassili took 
 the low end of the spur, while Simon and I 
 climbed the higher part at the other end, in- 
 tending to meet about the middle. 
 
 The climb through the forest to the top of 
 the ridge was about as severe exercise as any 
 man would care to take, for, in addition to the 
 constant steepness of the ascent, the under- 
 growth was so luxuriant as to entirely stop 
 the way from time to time. These enforced 
 halts were seized on eagerly by Simon to 
 collect currants, raspberries, the young seed 
 pods of the great lilies, and half-a-dozen other 
 things which these men eat. 
 
 All through and through the tangle of 
 weeds and brush ran bear slides, places down 
 which old Michael had slithered when he left 
 his lair to seek the fruit bushes of the valley.
 
 bruin's summer residence. 173 
 
 By-and-bye we came to a dark corner, where, 
 high up, just above the belt of wood on the 
 edge of a watercourse, a big rock and a dwarf 
 birch-tree formed between them the most kix- 
 urious shelter from the noonday sun. Here 
 Bruin had made his lau', and from the tracks 
 on all sides we had no doubt it was one of his 
 favourite summer residences. As he was out, 
 we borrowed his place and had a really good 
 rest there. 
 
 In another half- hour we reached the top of 
 the ridge, a series of small peaks with chasms 
 between each, which frustrated our original 
 plan of operations entirely. The summits 
 themselves were covered knee-deep in bilberry 
 bushes, the dark blue fruit of which, where 
 the sun had not yet thawed it, making the 
 most delicious iced dessert I ever tasted. 
 
 Looking down on the other side of the 
 ridge, all was rum and desolation ; riven 
 rocks, precipitous walls of grey slate, great
 
 174 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 fields of moraine, and at the bottom a glacier, 
 from which sprang a considerable stream, 
 whose course eventually led us almost back to 
 camp, but along the most diabolical road any 
 tired sportsman could imagine. 
 
 On one of the peaks, in a thin birch -tree, 
 I saw what I am almost certain was a scarlet 
 bullfinch {Pyrrhula Erythrina) ; but if so, 
 the figure in Morris's ' British Birds ' is some- 
 what highly-coloured. It was very tame, and 
 though it saw me, seemed only curious to 
 know who I was, and in no degree suspicious 
 of danger. Whilst I was watching it, hoping 
 to hear its call-note, as some additional clue to 
 its identity, I heard a shrill whistle from the 
 other side the ravine, and there, well out of 
 shot, half-way up an incline accessible only to 
 chamois, flies, members of the Alpine Club, 
 and other creatures with prehensile feet, was a 
 chamois at graze. He had not seen us yet, 
 nor I think got our wind, though the fall of
 
 CHAMOIS' WHISTLE. 175 
 
 some rocks which we had set in motion 
 during our ascent had startled him from his 
 siesta. 
 
 Whilst I was watching him and regretting 
 the impossibility of getting at him, another 
 whistle close to me made me start and grip 
 my rifle nervously. I began to think I must 
 be close to a herd, but peering round an angle 
 of rock, I saw Simon shaping his mouth for a 
 repetition of the call, and so well did he do it, 
 that he brought the suspicious little beast 
 several hundred yards nearer to us, though 
 unfortunately in such a direction that he got 
 our wind, after which his doubts and himself 
 disappeared simultaneously. 
 
 On our way back to camp we stirred a 
 troop of four more chamois, two hinds with 
 their fawns, but I was not keen to shoot them, 
 and probably could not have got to them had 
 I been so inclined. Some distance below the 
 glacier, among the river boulders, T saw a
 
 ]7G SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 specimen of what I should most assuredly 
 have put down as the great copper butterfly, 
 only that I cannot conceive what a great 
 copper was doing in such an unlikely place. 
 
 We also saw a bird which I have seen 
 once or twice since in Svanetia, and have not 
 been able to identify. His size was about 
 that of a jay, and his flight somewhat like 
 that bird's, only more undulating and not so 
 clumsy. His head, neck, and shoulders were 
 grey, body apparently chocolate -coloured, 
 while as he flew a crescent of rosy crimson 
 seemed to stretch from wing to wing. A few 
 of the wing feathers appeared to be tipped 
 with white. On the top of the ridge, besides 
 the bullfinch, I saw a pair of finches of some 
 kind, and numerous traces of the presence of 
 what, from Simon's description, I suppose to 
 have been black game ; but with the exception 
 of these and a hoopoe or two in the valley by 
 our camp, a landrail flushed in the corn by
 
 PLEASURES OF MOUNTAINEERING. 177 
 
 Frank, and a black woodpecker or two, 
 Shukaclialo was very destitute of birds. 
 
 Frank, it seems, had very soon had 
 enough, of the pleasures of mountaineering ; 
 in fact, that hatred for all high places which 
 afterwards became a passion with him, had 
 already taken root. After a comfortable 
 snooze on a couch of mountain moss, he had 
 come back early, and set to work like a 
 man at constructing our camp ; and a tent 
 firmly erected, and well lined with fern and 
 dry leaves, a blazing fire, something to eat, 
 and a pile of fuel cut into lengths, all ready 
 for burning, bore witness to his energy. 
 
 As the corn-fields were close at hand, we 
 did not hurry over our evening meal, but 
 rested and refreshed ourselves at leisure. 
 This Shukachalo week was certainly the most 
 luxurious time we spent in the Caucasus, and 
 if I wanted to make a good bag of bears and 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 chamois comfortably, Shukaclialo would be 
 one of the first places I should visit. 
 
 Having lighted our pipes, Frank and I 
 strolled off, each to his ground, for the night. 
 The big stretch of corn-fields, as being nearer 
 and of greater extent, was assigned to my 
 friend, who, as he had never killed a bear, 
 was the more anxious to do so now. 
 
 For me, Simon had decided on a little 
 patch of his own, somewhat higher up the 
 mountain- side, and a good deal further from 
 camp. Here he and I arrived just after sun- 
 set, and hid ourselves away behind a fallen 
 tree in the midst of the standing corn. 
 
 The evening was perfect. No breath of 
 wind stirred the full ears, not a rustle came 
 from the regiments of dark trees that seemed 
 in the gloaming to be marching down into 
 the little yellow basin of corn-field. 
 
 Looking out across the lower end of the 
 basin, we had a view of the course of the now
 
 BEAR-WATCHING. 179 
 
 insignificant Rion, as it wound its way far 
 below amono'st an endless succession of hills. 
 
 Right in front of us, but far away, rose 
 three majestic peaks, between two of which 
 the frozen waves of a o-reat giacier showed 
 from time to time through a kind of foamy 
 rose-coloured mist, half sunset, half coming 
 storm, such as you see so often in Ivazov sky's 
 pictures. 
 
 A flight of chattering martins wheeled 
 and manoeuvred in the sky, their notes the 
 only ones which broke the perfect stillness. 
 Little by little the rosy light died out, the 
 martins disappeared, the mist cleared off, the 
 trees stood out in darker outline, and the 
 silence became more intense. The stumps 
 of trees in the field seemed to shift and change 
 places in a noiseless, mysterious way, which 
 eluded your sight and hearmg equally. 
 Looking along the barrels of my rifle, I be- 
 came conscious that the foresight, and indeed 
 
 N 2
 
 180 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 the end of my barrels was no longer visible. 
 Taking out a piece of white paper, I rolled it 
 round a bit of twine and then fastened it, a 
 clumsy but effective sight, near the muzzle of 
 my rifle. 
 
 After waiting another half-hour, Simon's 
 patience became exhausted, and rising he 
 signed to me that it was no good waiting any 
 longer that night. Rather disappointed, I 
 followed him across the field, when just as we 
 were leaving it the sharp, distinct snap of a 
 bough in the forest at our backs set my heart 
 beating. Boughs don't break in that way 
 by themselves, and it was not very long before 
 Simon and I, kneeling, with straining ears, 
 amongst the barley, heard another twig snap, 
 this time just on the confines of the field 
 itself. Then there was absolute silence for 
 ten minutes, and we feared he had winded us 
 and gone, when about two hundred yards 
 below us, moving slowly and silent as a
 
 THE EERINESS OF BRUIN. 181 
 
 shadow, we made out a great brown form, 
 looking twice its real size in the dim light. 
 
 There is something undeniably eery about 
 Bruin at night. The mysterious way in 
 which he appears from the dark recesses of 
 the thick woods or the distant peaks, where 
 he has been keeping out of sight all day ; his 
 slow, solemn movements, and the absolute 
 silence he keeps, make him different from 
 all other beasts. The boar can't help grunt- 
 ing out his pleasure, or holding converse with 
 his kind ; the wolf and jackal make the night 
 hideous with their bowlings ; everything else 
 is more or less noisy, but Bruin alone steps 
 out of the darkness, silent as a shadow, to 
 return as noiselessly as he came. 
 
 Just below us was a slope of short grass 
 between the patches of standmg corn, and 
 here the bear seemed likely to cross. This 
 would be our chance, as the dark line of his 
 back just above the ears of corn did not
 
 182 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 present the best of marks. Quiet as the big 
 shadow seemed, his progress was scarcely- 
 more noiseless than ours, so that when he 
 emerged on one side of the bare patch Simon 
 and I were not a hundred yards from him. 
 As he passed us without a suspicion of our 
 presence, I made a sign to Simon to stand 
 up ; and if poor old Michael had looked 
 straight at us the next moment, so blind is 
 he at night, he would probably not have 
 known those two tall dark shapes from the 
 trees around. 
 
 Another half-dozen paces into the open, 
 and then as the rifle I am resting on Simon's 
 shoulder rings out on the stillness, the big 
 shadow writhes for a moment on the ground, 
 and then tearing at the wound lurches heavily 
 away into the dark fringe of woods to our 
 right, grunting and groaning horribly as he 
 goes. 
 
 The bear never knew where the bullet
 
 NO LACK OF SPORT. 183 
 
 came from, and if lie had noticed us would 
 probably not have charged ; but still Simon 
 was ri2:ht in refusino; to follow him until 
 mornixig, when I felt pretty confident we 
 should find him. 
 
 Whilst we were talking over the events 
 of the last few minutes, one of the big tree- 
 stumps which I had been watching half un- 
 consciously galloped off" to another part of 
 the field. Simon saw it as soon as I did, 
 and stalking silently round the lower edge 
 of the basin, we almost ran up against a third 
 bear, when unluckily I coughed, and sent 
 him ofi" m double quick time before I could 
 get a shot at him. 
 
 The moonhght was now very brilliant, 
 and the little field seemed literally ahve with 
 bears. We distinctly made out four, besides 
 the one I had shot at, and one of them, a 
 very large fellow, with a coat that looked 
 like silver in the moonlight, gave us employ-
 
 184 SAVAGE SVANETIA, 
 
 ment for the next half hour. I could cer- 
 tainly have bagged this bear, but for my 
 guide's intense desire to kill him himself; 
 and as I always find it best to humour these 
 fellows, I let him try to get a shot. Half 
 a dozen times he got fairly near to the stupid 
 brute, but it took such a long time to fix the 
 alpenstock in the ground, and adjust the rifle 
 on the rest so made, that the bear began 
 to move again before my man could pull 
 trigger ; and it is an article of the faith of 
 these primitive sportsmen never to waste a 
 charge on a moving object. 
 
 At last the bear heard us, and took him- 
 self off, when, as the others we had seen 
 were no longer visible, we went back to 
 camp. Here, when my story had been told, 
 an immense amount of hand- shaking had to 
 be gone through with the men, who all looked 
 on my bear as already skinned and brought 
 in. I can't say I felt as comfortable about
 
 OUR FIRST HEAD OF GAME. 185 
 
 him, and as it was our first head of big game 
 since we had been in the country, Frank was 
 as keen about it as myself. 
 
 The result was that our men were roused 
 uncommonly early next morning, and after 
 a very hurried and slightly indigestible break- 
 fast of skimmed milk, cheese, hazel nuts, and 
 tobacco smoke, we went to look for Bruin. 
 
 There we found him, gashed and gory, 
 not a hundred and fifty yards from where he 
 fell, dead and stiff, having apparently had 
 only just strength enough to get back to 
 covert before he died. He was rather a large 
 bear, and we rejoiced over him accordingly ; 
 nor was this the first time he had come in 
 contact with man, as a small native bullet 
 which we found just under the skin of his 
 neck clearly proved. 
 
 Having skinned him, we left him where 
 he lay, and went back to camp, determined 
 to do no more until evening. As we left the
 
 1G8 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 scene of my last night's adventure, we met three 
 young women — friends, relatives, or lovers 
 of Simon's — who were the first of the return- 
 ing harvesters. They had been here some 
 time already ; and had, before commencing 
 work, been collecting a large cloth full of 
 fungi, of a kind which grows on fallen timber. 
 These we bought, and afterwards made into 
 soup. 
 
 At the camp a herd of goats just arrived, 
 en route to some mountain pastures further 
 up stream, caught the eye of our chief of 
 commissariat ; and, in spite of his ignorance 
 ' of the language, it was not long before Frank 
 had selected a plump little black sheep from 
 among the goats, and was making signs to 
 Simon that he wanted it converted into chops 
 in the shortest possible space of time. Here 
 some religious scruples interfered, and it was 
 not until he had said a very long prayer 
 over his victim, that our man turned butcher.
 
 PRESAGE OF BAD WEATHER. 187 
 
 Whilst this was going on, a very ragged 
 small boy, sole guardian of about forty goats, 
 came down from the grass slopes of the oppo- 
 site ridge with a batter pudding in a wooden 
 bowl for us, and a present of sour milk. We 
 gave the wee chappie some small silver, where- 
 upon he kissed our hands and went off happy. 
 All day long Vassili kept croaking about 
 the weather. A snake, he said, had bitten 
 the moon last night, which accounted for its 
 having turned blood red before it set, and 
 presaged bad weather to come. And Yassili 
 was right. As the evening came on, heavy 
 clouds came up all round, and the muttering 
 of the thunder could be heard every now and 
 again amongst the peaks. But fine or stormy, 
 this was the last night on which the fields 
 would be fairly quiet, so Frank and I each 
 moved off to a fresh hunting ground at an 
 early hour, having a somewhat longer trudge 
 than usual to our posts.
 
 188 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 The scene of this night's vigil, as far as 
 I was concerned, was between two tiny fields 
 at a great height, divided from one another 
 by a steep grass-bank, so that they looked 
 like two steps of corn. There was a deserted 
 log-hut in one — the lower one, and the forest 
 was so thick on all sides that the place was 
 almost dark before sunset. There were no 
 signs of bear, moreover, so I had very little 
 hope of success ; and sat on" the grass-bank 
 watching the lower step, while Simon, perched 
 a foot or two above me, watched the upper, 
 listening rather for the hoped-for report of 
 Frank's rifle than for the tread of game 
 coming my way. 
 
 Presently the thunderstorm gathered, 
 black and furious, right over our heads, and 
 for a time the big pelting drops drove us 
 into the log-hut for shelter. Presently the 
 rain ceased, and Simon and myself took our 
 places on the slope again, chiefly interested
 
 *A BIG boulder; 189 
 
 in watching the Hghtning play among the 
 mountains round us. 
 
 Below our place of vantage was a piece of 
 level grass, with here and there a great grey 
 stone upon it. My eyes were unconsciously 
 bent on this spot when a vivid flash of 
 sheet lightning lit up the whole scene, and 
 showed me that what I had only taken for a 
 bigger boulder than the rest was a bear 
 coming slowly and deliberately straight to my 
 feet. Of course I fired as quickly as I could, 
 for he was already within thirty paces, and in 
 another moment would probably have dis- 
 covered us and bolted. As it was he came 
 down all in a heap, and then picking himself 
 up, plunged forward in our clirection. I 
 thous^ht for a moment he was charoins:, 
 and though I could only see very indistinctly, 
 gave him my second barrel, which missed 
 him clean, but had the effect of turninsf him. 
 
 I have no doubt the idea of attackins; us
 
 190 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 never entered his head, and his apparent 
 charge was owing to a blind desire to escape 
 from a danger coming from he knew not 
 whence. Be that as it may, he very soon dis- 
 appeared in the darkness in the direction of our 
 homeward road. This was unlucky, as Simon 
 had a distinct objection to meeting a wounded 
 bear in the dark, and it was now rapidly 
 becoming so dark that we could scarcely find 
 a way through the branches heavy with the 
 drops of the thunder- shower. I don't think I 
 felt quite easy in my mind, as the lightning had 
 become so close and was so vivid that we felt it 
 safer to cover up our guns ; and what with this, 
 the darkness, and the denseness of the jungle, 
 it was just as well we did not blunder into the 
 arms of the wounded savage. But we might 
 have spared ourselves our anxiety, for when 
 we went to seek him next morning we found 
 we must have almost walked over his dead 
 body the night before, his strength having
 
 MARES MILK. 191 
 
 scarcely availed him to get clear of the corn- 
 field. 
 
 In camp my friend was congratulating 
 himself that our good little tent kept out 
 the heavy rain, and the men were building 
 themselves an awning of boughs, over which 
 they spread the skin of the first bear, after 
 which, having appropriated Frank's bourka, 
 they stretched it over four of them, and 
 so smoking and chatting set the storm at 
 defiance. 
 
 With our tea to-night we had an unusual 
 luxury, thanks to the foal we brought with 
 us having decamped ; for whatever mare's 
 milk may be like neat, I can vouch for it that 
 the produce of our old mare was a distinct 
 improvement to the tea, and henceforth to 
 milk her was one of our daily duties. 
 
 When he had seen us made comfortable 
 for the night, the gallant Simon borrowed my 
 revolver and went ofi* to his lower corn-field
 
 192 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 to protect his three Lady friends. Shortly 
 afterwards, Vassili went too, and the rascals 
 were not worth their salt for a couple of days 
 afterwards. Such is the effect of love. On 
 their way up they met a bear at rather close 
 quarters, but being only armed with my 
 revolver, they wisely let him alone. 
 
 There is little doubt in my mind that in 
 spite of the reapers we should have got more 
 bears had we stayed on at Shukachalo, but as 
 he had not been lucky, Frank was tired of the 
 place ; and for my part, having killed a good 
 many bears before, I was more anxious to get 
 on into Svanetia for mountain game, than 
 to stay on here, however successfully. So on 
 September 1 we hauled down our tent, and 
 packing it and our trophies on the old mare, 
 marched up stream for the much talked of pas- 
 tures of Lapur. 
 
 Before I close this chapter, let me say to 
 any one who cares to kill bears and chamois, I
 
 WHEN TO BAG BEAES. 103 
 
 know no better centre than the old town of 
 Gebi. From there yoii can go to Shnkachalo 
 before harvest, or dnring the feast at the end 
 of August, and I am convmced that at least 
 one day out of every three you ought to bag 
 either chamois or bear, while you can always get 
 provisions sent from Gebi to your camp. But 
 for bears, if a large bag of these beasts is your 
 object, you should go in June, when the snow 
 is only just leaving the hillsides, when there 
 are no fruits and no crops, and the only food 
 is the young grass, as it springs green and 
 tender where the sun has melted away the 
 snow. 
 
 Here, so say the natives, in the spring [i.e. 
 end of May and June) you may see parties 
 of bears, from two or three to six or eio'ht in 
 number, gaunt with their long winter's fast, 
 and with their coats rough and thin. Whether 
 they would be worth shooting in this condi- 
 tion I don't know ; but as a matter of experi- 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 ence, if it were not for his surroundings, the 
 shootmg of a bear is not productive of much 
 excitement. Perhaps when they were hungry 
 and in company they might make things a 
 trifle too exciting ; but of this I cannot speak, 
 as I never tried it, and the natives I have 
 come across are in the same position.
 
 195 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 BY THE SOURCE OF THE KION. 
 
 ' Twenty miles at least from Shukaclialo to 
 Lapur.' Such was the verdict of our guides, 
 but knowing how little idea they had of 
 distance we rather doubted their statement. 
 At about 8 A.M. we started, determined to do 
 the distance in one day, a feat which our men 
 declared impossible. For once they were 
 nearly right ; it was a really hard day's work, 
 almost too hard for the old mare and for my 
 friend's heart. It was not until after those 
 weary hills that he began to suspect that 
 mountaineering made his heart beat a trifle 
 faster than it had any right to, and when I 
 
 2
 
 196 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 put my hand on it; and felt it thumping 
 against his sides, I was fairly frightened, 
 though I admired his pluck for doing the 
 heavy collar work we had been doing all day 
 as gamely as he had done. 
 
 The first few versts were easy going 
 enough, the track being by the bed of the 
 Rion, with our faces set towards the peak 
 and glacier of Erden. As we crossed the 
 Kalmac, a small tributary of the Rion, I 
 actually saw and caught a tiny trout, just 
 enough for me to be able to swear that there 
 are such fish in these streams. 
 
 By the banks of the Rion, we noticed for 
 the first time to-day the lovely velvety wings 
 of the Camberwell beauty, a butterfly tliat 
 during the rest of my journey became the 
 very commonest of all the many objects of 
 beauty around us. Near villages they seemed 
 as difficult to catch as they would be in 
 England, but about Lapur they were as tame
 
 'ST. PARTRIDGE I' 197 
 
 as domestic creatures, settling close to and on 
 more than one occasion absolutely upon my 
 person. Is it I wonder a matter of common 
 knowledge that butterflies are like birds and 
 other living things, in that, where they know 
 man they avoid him, but where he is new to 
 them, are as fearless as birds under similar 
 circumstances ? 
 
 Towards ten o'clock we left the river-bed, 
 and then it was that our work began ; and 
 remembering that to-day was September 1, 
 thoughts crossed our mind of those cool places 
 under high hawthorn hedges in Old England 
 where, when the morning's ground had been 
 beaten, the hamper would be unpacked, and 
 certain sparkling ' refreshers ' from bottles 
 brilliant in silver foil, or big-bellied honest 
 brown jugs, would be administered to the 
 weary gunner. Alas, that we had nothing 
 better to drink j^our health in ' St. Partridge ' 
 than the mountain stream afforded : none of
 
 198 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 your devotees would have pledged yon in a 
 deeper draught than Frank and I as we toiled 
 up those endless grass slopes. 
 
 At first we faced the long slope of green 
 hills gaily enough — it would be a good climb, 
 but we could see the end of it ; and even 
 when we had gained a view of another equally 
 high beyond it we did not despair. But when 
 four o'clock came and hill after hill, each 
 longer than the other, rolled endlessly up- 
 wards from every ridge we gained, I joined 
 heartily with Frank in anathematising such 
 a lying landscape, and devoutly agreed with 
 him that this sort of scenery would be greatly 
 improved by being rolled out flat. 
 
 On the very top — for we did get there 
 eventually, and found it to be between four 
 and five thousand feet above sea level — we 
 found still traces of the wandering tribe of 
 Bruin, though whether he had come there to 
 enjoy the view or grub up the roots of the
 
 PITCHIXCt our tent. 199 
 
 few canary coloured crocuses which grew 
 there remained a mystery. 
 
 Below us lay ranges of low rocky hills, 
 covered with rhododendron scrub and a 
 scattered wood of birches. Two or three 
 small rivers met in the valleys below, and 
 opposite to our great grass fells were the 
 glaciers and peaks of Lapur, Yedenna, and 
 Passimta, whence issues the infant Rion. 
 
 In the valley at the foot of Lapur we 
 pitched our tent and listened to Simon's 
 account of the wild doings of Svanetians and 
 the men of Radcha on this border-land ten 
 years ago. Even now the capital goat 
 pastures and sheep runs of Lapur are seldom 
 used, for over the glacier of Matchkapar is a 
 pathway risky to cross and uninviting to look 
 at, over which even in the present days of peace 
 the roving men of Svanetia and the Tartars 
 from the other side the range not unfrequently 
 steal down upon the unsuspecting shepherds 
 of Gebi.
 
 200 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 In spite of the good day's work we had 
 done Simon and I, for the larder's sake, made 
 a short investigation of the nearer hillsides, 
 hoping to add a chamois steak to the humble 
 meal of maize bread and water with which we 
 must otherwise end the day. Meanwhile, 
 Frank pitched the tent, so that when we came 
 in empty-handed at dusk we had at least 
 somewhere to lay our heads. 
 
 When limbs are fairly tired, and the 
 digestion not tasked beyond its powers, the 
 nights seem shorter by half than they are at 
 home in England, and it seemed to me that 
 I had only just dozed off with my pipe 
 between my teeth when Simon shook me up 
 to say a chamois was in sight. ' Hang the 
 chamois ! ' was certainly my first remark, or 
 somethmg at least as strong ; and when in a 
 generous mood I offered the shot to Frank, 
 rousmg him to do so, his remarks were made 
 in such extremely graphic Berkshire that I
 
 A SPLENDID BEAST. 201 
 
 fairly fled. Xever did mortal man feel less 
 inclined for early rising than I did on 
 September 2, and my legs were so stiff from 
 the work of the previous day that I could 
 almost fancy I heard them creak as I bent 
 them. 
 
 After an hour's climb, we were lying on a 
 knoll above the dell wherein the chamois was 
 feeding;, waitino- until the old buck should 
 have finished his breakfast and composed 
 himself for his mornmg nap. He looked a 
 splendid beast as the light fell on his red- 
 brown sides, wet with the dew he brushed off 
 the tangle of larkspur, through beds of which, 
 briofht with its blue blossoms, he had made 
 his way to the wild thyme on which he was 
 then feeding. 
 
 Unluckily, when the sun began to dry up 
 the dew and make the place too warm for our 
 chamois, he moved off at a dainty trot to a 
 thicket of birch trees, and here probably lay
 
 202 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 down for the clay. We never saw him again 
 at any rate that day. 
 
 The next three days of our stay at Lapiir 
 were days of fasting and bad kick. When we 
 got back to camp after our early morning 
 stalk, we found the last scrap of meat was 
 finished, and our mornino- meal had to be 
 one of maize cakes and currants, a pretty 
 sounding menu, but one which does little 
 towards filling the aching void. 
 
 As the sun got stronger, a plague of flies 
 manifested itself, small stupid beasts, who 
 had not the least idea of avoiding the hand of 
 the avenger, but generally managed to extract 
 a drop of your blood before vengeance over- 
 took them. 
 
 Naturally our thoughts reverted to our 
 pipes, and having filled and lighted them, 
 our enemies fled for a time. ' By the way, 
 old fellow,' said Frank, ' that's the last pipe 
 of my bird's-eye, I suppose we shall have to
 
 HAED TIMES. 203 
 
 take to the beastly cigarette tobacco those 
 fellows smoke.' 
 
 For some weeks past my friend, with a 
 good nature none but smokers can appreciate, 
 had provided me with tobacco, a supply of 
 the soothino; weed beino- the one thins; I had 
 foro'otten on leavins; home. Xow even his 
 monster pouch was empty, and on inquiry we 
 were horrified to hear that Platon, our inter- 
 preter, had given the last of our stock of 
 native tobacco to the priest at Gebi. So for 
 days there was neither meat nor tobacco in 
 the camp. We had a little tea left, which we 
 used to drmk out of a couple of wooden 
 bowls ; but as our sugar was all finished and 
 it took some time to get used to the salt 
 which the men substituted for it, to say 
 nothing of the fine woody flavour which the 
 tea drew from our cups, even tea drinking 
 was not an unmixed pleasure. 
 
 As for the men, the tobacco famine fell on
 
 2^4 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 their spirits with a crushing effect ; life without 
 a pipe was a thing unbearable, so before long 
 I noticed old Yassili come to the fireside with 
 some dried leaves of a big hollow-stemmed 
 plant {Angelica officinalis), which grew in 
 quantities all over the hillside. This he 
 chopped very fine, and by dint of holding a 
 live coal to the pipe during the whole opera- 
 tion, orot a smoke out of it. Simon seemed to 
 prefer the pith of what I fancy was a kmd of 
 willow, smoking it in its stem, cigar fashion. 
 These substitutes, however well they might 
 suit the men, were more than our heads could 
 stand, though we subsequently managed to 
 extract some grains of consolation from a pipe 
 filled with the scrapings off the outside of a 
 burnt maize cake. 
 
 Fruit was our one luxury, and I know of 
 nothing more refreshing than the huge pear- 
 shaped purple currants, which grew in quanti- 
 ties all round us. This fruit is not altoo;ether
 
 FRUIT PUDDING. 205 
 
 like any I have seen elsewhere, the shape bemg 
 different, the berry larger ; and though the 
 colours vary from that of our red to our black 
 currant, the fruit, even when withering, never 
 tastes quite ripe. Once we tried a fruit 
 pudding, being anxious to demonstrate to our 
 natives their folly in never using the fruits 
 round them for cooking purposes. 
 
 Except in its raw state the Svanetians and 
 men of Radcha make no use whatever of the 
 vast quantities of fruit which ripen and fall 
 unused on every hillside in their country. 
 Fond as he is of it, there is such a prodigal 
 supply of raspberries and currants that even 
 Bruin is dainty, picking and choosing as he 
 feeds. 
 
 Unfortunately our efforts at reform in this 
 matter were not as successful as they deserved 
 to be. Neither Frank nor I knew the secret 
 of making a crust, moreover, we had no 
 sugar ; and in the end the huge mess of bluish
 
 206 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 porridge whicli we produced, served only to 
 stamp more decidedly our friend Deto as a 
 man of appetite invincible. Even he, though 
 he shovelled it down manfully, remarked from 
 tune to time that he thought it would have 
 been very good without the currants. 
 
 Meanwhile, where was Platon ? Day 
 after day we scanned the crest of the ridge 
 above us, but no vision of a dh*ty white 
 iLcherkesska rewarded our investigations. Had 
 he indeed gone off smiling with our thirty 
 pounds in his pocket, and should we never see 
 his hungry-looking face again ? It began to 
 look extremely probable. 
 
 We had rigged up our tent on the piece 
 of ground most nearly level within reach of 
 our camp, and though that was on such a 
 slope that Frank, who had taken the lower 
 side, had to be kept in by a kind of earth- 
 work, so great was his power of sleeping that 
 he got through the night very comfortably.
 
 A NATURAL BATH-ROOM. 207 
 
 As for me, I was grieved more than I cared 
 to tell liim, to notice how the want of food 
 was tellmg on his manly form, the fact being 
 that when in my sleep I began to roll down 
 on top of him his elbows and ribs seemed to 
 have acquired a power of penetration not 
 natural to them under happier circumstances. 
 
 AYe had one great luxury at Lapur. Com- 
 ing down from the birch wood was a stream 
 of the clearest, coldest water that any tub- 
 lovmg Briton ever revelled in. Just before 
 getting into the valley, some huge boulders 
 had dammed its course, forming a natural 
 bath-room with a continual supply of fresh 
 water, and natural curtains of ferns and cur- 
 rant bushes. Here we passed some of our 
 happiest moments, though here also was laid 
 upon us that last straw which nearly broke 
 the back of our endurance. 
 
 There is a beast, a creej^ing thing, which 
 many worthy Mussulmen seem to love to rear
 
 208 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 upon tlieir persons. To the improperly edu- 
 cated Englishnian the mere mention of this 
 creature is an offence. Judge then of our 
 consternation when we found that we too 
 were not exempt from the wandering hordes 
 of this insect pest. 
 
 Quick as we could get them off, shirt 
 followed jersey and coat waistcoat into the 
 depths of our bathing pool, and here with 
 boulders piled upon them we left them, walk- 
 ing back to camp in naked innocence. For 
 the rest of that day we devoted ourselves to 
 the laundry, and during the whole of our stay 
 at Lapur always had one shirt on, and another 
 in the wash-tub. 
 
 Every night before turning in to rest, our 
 men insisted on our loading our weapons, as 
 they suffered from a lively fear of wandering 
 Svanetians. Three of these gentry passed us 
 without a word the day after we arrived ; 
 wild-looking fellows with long, unkempt hair.
 
 IN SEARCH OF GAME. 209 
 
 and dressed entirely in sheepskins, driving 
 the most miserably thin cow human eyes ever 
 gazed on. They had come doAvn the glacier, 
 so that for some time it would be useless to 
 watch for tur at their drinking place, as these 
 shy beasts would leave the peak for a day or 
 two after having seen men upon it. 
 
 Every day Frank and myself went out in 
 search of game, he generally taking the river 
 bed, whilst I climbed to the top of the ridge. 
 Twice I saw chamois, and once, after watching 
 the pretty beasts' camp in a position which we 
 thought accessible, Yassili and I essayed to 
 stalk them. What a subject they would have 
 made for such a pencil as Wolfe's, as they lay 
 grouped round a rocky knoll, on the very 
 summit of which, in the shadow of a thin birch 
 bush, lay the leader of the herd ! 
 
 After a long and difficult stalk, as we crept 
 down a steep incline above them, up went 
 Yassili" s heels, and with a crasli he shot 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 througii a bed of dry rhododendrons, almost 
 into the middle of them. Most of the chamois 
 had disappeared at the first sound of his 
 sudden descent ; but when Yassili managed to 
 stop himself, there was one small head looking 
 about in a puzzled way over the top of a heap 
 of boulders about one hundred yards below. 
 
 Yassili made signs to me, and as quickly 
 as I could I got to his side ; but long before I 
 could get to him, my worthy hunter had 
 erected his alpenstock, rested his rifle thereon 
 and — frightened away my last chance. I 
 refrained from kicking Yassili, and was re- 
 warded by getting a long shot at two of the 
 herd as they scampered up the opposite side of 
 the ravme. One of these I believe I hit very 
 hard, but though we marked the place into 
 which it seemed to fall, we could never find it. 
 
 So we went home again to the tune of 
 ' Ararrees ' (pigeon Georgian for ' haven't got 
 anything !'). This continued want of food
 
 A FORAGING EXPEDITION. 211 
 
 and success was now really beginning to tell 
 on us, as indeed a life sustained on currants 
 and hope very well might ; and on Saturday 
 morning, as Platon had not re-appeared, we 
 determined to send out Deto, the cook, on a 
 foraging expedition. 
 
 Simon had an idea that there was some- 
 where on the Radcha side of the hills a herd 
 of goats feeding, which had left Gebi as soon 
 as the shepherds had heard that there would 
 be a chance of pasturing their beasts on the 
 slopes of Lapiir, under the protection of the 
 redoubted Simon and the rifles of the Enoiish- 
 men with him. 
 
 It was past the hour of dusk that evening, 
 and we had been forced to sup as usual on 
 maize gruel, when the sight of Deto and the 
 old mare toiling down the hillside roused 
 fresh hopes and appetites within us. On his 
 saddle he had a small black sheep, still alive, 
 bound in such brutal fashion that the cords 
 
 p 2
 
 212 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 had cut tlirono-h its skin, and must have caused 
 it exquisite torture. In sj)ite of his success in 
 the foraging line, Deto got into very hot water 
 that night, and if he ever fetches a sheep for 
 another Englishman he will prohably kill the 
 poor brute before tying it on to his saddle. 
 
 Once the coup de grace had been admi- 
 nistered by Simon, it was wonderful to see the 
 way in which that sheep changed in appear- 
 ance. In about an hour the only trace left of 
 it was its curly black coat, and a single leg 
 of mutton hangmg to a pole by the fireside, 
 all the rest of the carcase beino- either de- 
 voured or cooking in our caldron. 
 
 All that night Simon, Yassili, and Deto 
 never left off eating. Deto especially had 
 barely time to speak, so busy was he making 
 maize cakes and eatino- entrails, which he duof 
 from time to time out of the embers with his 
 fino;ers. Thouo:h no men can stand star- 
 vation better than these Caucasian mountain-
 
 A DESPERATE EFFORT. 213 
 
 eers, Simon being especially gifted in that way, 
 once let them get hold of meat and they gorge 
 with the same greediness and improvidence 
 that dissrnsts one in the African savao-e. 
 Lookmg at Deto, our cook, by the firelight, 
 one knew what the face of a were wolf should 
 be like. 
 
 On Sunday evening our larder was nearly 
 as bare as before Deto's expedition, and it did 
 not want this last inducement to action to 
 make me determine that I would do all I knew 
 in the next few days to change my luck. 
 
 Xearly three weeks had gone by, and 
 although I had killed a couple of bears, I had 
 not yet secured a single head of chamois or 
 ibex. At dusk on Sunday I lay down for a 
 few hours, after which my men roused me in 
 the dark, and all unwilling, with misty eyes 
 and uncertain steps, I had to follow my swift, 
 silent Simon over unseen boulders, which 
 threatened dislocation at every blind stride,
 
 214 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 through tall tangled weeds, heavy and wet 
 with the night dew, drenching and chilling us 
 to the bone, through groves of willows which 
 swung back viciously as Simon passed, and 
 cut his follower sharply across the face. 
 
 Once out of the thickets of the low land, 
 Ave had a stiff up-hill scramble for half an 
 hour, then we plunged waist-deep through a 
 stream that came down from the glacier, close 
 to the foot of which we now were, ten more 
 minutes along a narrow break-neck ledge 
 covered with short dry mountain grass, the 
 last half-dozen steps so ticklish that I was not 
 ashamed to grip Simon's helping hand, and 
 then swing round a sharp projecting corner 
 into a little straw-lined cave, which was our 
 post for the night. 
 
 A rumour had reached us that a party of 
 hunters from Svanetia had been about the 
 glacier for some days past, and as Simon 
 thought it quite possible they might dispute
 
 A PUZZLING PEOBLEM. 215 
 
 our possession of the eyrie, he had insisted on 
 Frank and Yassili joining our party. When, 
 however, we found no trace of any rivals, he 
 listened to Frank's suggestion, and the end of 
 it was that my friend and his hunter went 
 back to cam23. 
 
 How it was that m these mountaineering 
 exploits we never suiFered from cold and rheu- 
 matism, or any of the other ills that assail us 
 at home, I could never quite comprehend. 
 All that night, for example, I passed shivering 
 on my rocky ledge, wet to my waist and 
 chilled by the wind that whistled over the 
 glacier. But I never felt any evil results from 
 the exposure next day. 
 
 As soon as the moon rose, we kept a very 
 careful outlook, but of course the wmd shifted, 
 and when next mornmg we began with stiff 
 limbs the climb to the top of the glacier, 
 which we had determmed on the night before, 
 we found that the ' djikve ' had come to
 
 216 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 within about a hundred yards of the spot at 
 which they would have been within sight and 
 range of our rifles, and then, getting our 
 wind, turned and bolted. 
 
 During our night watch, the peaks above 
 had been to us as another world, still with 
 an awful silence, cloud-wrapped and full of 
 mystery, from which we waited for the wily 
 mountain beasts to creep down to our world 
 below. Now, as we faced their stiff ascents, 
 they were revealed to us in all their wild 
 barrenness. Of herbage there seemed abso- 
 lutely none, but ridge upon ridge of hard 
 argillaceous rock, its inverted strata brittle as 
 glass, but with edges sharp as razors lace- 
 rated our feet and hands until my mocassins 
 were red with my own blood. 
 
 The only flower we saw was a large kind 
 of daisy with a yellow centre, surrounded 
 by a circle of close j^ink petals. 
 
 Twice we caught vanishing glimpses of
 
 SNOW PARTRIDGES. 217 
 
 chamois, but on both occasions well out of 
 rano-e. Wherever we climbed the rocks were 
 covered with the droppmgs of chamois and 
 ibex, and we constantly heard the long whistle 
 and saw the strong grouse-like flight of those 
 splendid birds, the Caucasian snow partridges 
 (Tetrao Caucasicus), which abound through- 
 out the peaks round Lapur, and in all the 
 mountain range of Svanetia and Daghestan, 
 Wherever the mountams are most bleak, 
 destitute of all herbage, and the crumbling 
 slopes are most patched with snow, the long 
 wild whistle of these birds used to attract our 
 attention. Their colour makes them hard to 
 distinguish amongst the grey rocks which 
 form their home, and even when you have 
 seen them alight it is by no means easy to 
 keep your eye on them, as they run and 
 crouch like French partridges amongst the 
 stones. 
 
 Once I came upon an old cock going
 
 218 SAVAGE SVAI^ETIA. 
 
 througli a sort of war dance by himself on a 
 terribly dizzy place, and watched him with 
 his tail spread like a turkey's over his back, 
 sidling and curtseying for a long time, but it 
 was not until I threw a stone at his head that 
 I knew the hens were running about near 
 hun. I had a great mmd to shoot him for 
 some of my naturalist friends in England, even 
 thouo'h it cost me all chance of a chamois or 
 
 o 
 
 ibex for the day ; but I reflected on the state 
 he would be in after coming in contact with 
 an ' Express ' bullet, and spared him. 
 
 Frank tried once or twice to secure some 
 of these bhds, but cruel fate, which was 
 always throwing them in the way of my rifle, 
 never gave him a chance with his No. 12. As 
 a rule, I fancy he was hardly high enough for 
 them ; for these birds live in exactly the 
 same places as the ibex, and where you find 
 one the other will not be far distant. 
 
 It was broad daylight when we at last
 
 A DANGEROUS ROAD. 219 
 
 emerged on a moraine not far from the summit ; 
 and running across it, cut tlie path over the 
 glacier from the Tartar country on the other 
 side. That it was not too safe a road, the 
 remains of a man and the bleached bones and 
 broken saddle-trees of his two horses scattered 
 broadcast amongst snow and rocky debris, 
 bore painful testimony. Poor fellow ! he must 
 have been a Tartar I should think of the 
 richer classes, as the paper of his tobacco 
 which we found showed it to be of an ex- 
 pensive manufactured brand, and not the 
 rough native stuif smoked by the men of 
 Radcha. 
 
 The greater part of the day was spent by 
 us wandering about along the ruinous paths 
 of former avalanches, among the highest of the 
 sterile snow-covered peaks, and in all places 
 where that wildest of earth's denizens, the 
 Caucasian ibex, was likely to be found ; but, 
 alas ! for our evil fate, other sportsmen had
 
 220 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 been before us, and our prey had moved oif to 
 lonelier fastnesses. 
 
 Not once or twice but many times during 
 the day, we came across the lairs of Svanetian 
 hunters ; dens like the dens of wild beasts, 
 between great masses of upright slate rock, 
 on the very edge of the highest ridges. 
 
 What always seemed most strange to me 
 in the nature of these men, when I came to 
 know them afterwards, was that there seemed 
 so little superstition or poetry amongst them. 
 Surely some wild legends should grow out of 
 the minds of men who pass long solitary 
 nights in these lonely heights, their only 
 music the keen shrill signal of the chamois or 
 'djikve,' the rush of the wild hawk's wing, as it 
 brushes close past their lair, the throbbing of 
 the mountain breezes round the peaks, and the 
 murmur of the mountain stream. But if they 
 had any folk lore amongst them, if the armies 
 of mist and cloud and the voices of Nature in
 
 CHARACTER OF MOUNTAINEERS. 221 
 
 her loneliest moods, had anj' sulotle significa- 
 tion for them, my interpreter never had tact 
 enouo'h to draw them out, and io-norance 
 of their language prevented me using my 
 opportunities. 
 
 Neither did I ever meet in the Caucasus 
 with that ' habitual melancholy of the moun- 
 taineer ' of which I have read once or twice ; 
 faces full of sad resignation to their lives of 
 hardship, drawn and earnest with frequent 
 looking on death. Au coJitraire, my moun- 
 taineers as a rule were hard, enero-etic fellows, 
 with faces tanned bv wind and rain, brio-ht 
 and ruddy with frequent baths of pure moun- 
 tain air, but by the camp fire garrulous fellows, 
 with the spmts and appetites of men in hard 
 training, and a power of smoking bad tobacco 
 whilst climbing the longest and stiff'est ascents, 
 which must be witnessed to be believed 
 However, the mists were gathering, so casting 
 a last glance over the ridge towards Kabardah
 
 222 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 and the land of the Tscherk Tartars, lands 
 which I mentally determined to explore 
 another day, we scrambled back to camp. 
 
 I don't think that night either Frank or I 
 said much ; we were both hungry, and one at 
 any rate dead beat. But there was to be no 
 rest for me. Long before the dawn had really 
 come, Yassili and Simon had me out of my 
 bourka, and told me we must start at once for 
 another peak to our rear, called Luxhanova. 
 I felt as if I could not possibly do another 
 hard day's work yet, and turned wistful eyes 
 on Frank ; but a better mood prevailed, and I 
 remembered that I had not two more months 
 in the Caucasus, and there would be lots of 
 time for sleep and no chance of ibex in Eng- 
 land. So I hastily made up a cast of flies for 
 my chum, who was in my absence to have a 
 try for trout in a neighbouring stream, the 
 Khedovra, and then followed my men up the 
 sloping fells.
 
 DECEPTIVE PEAKS. 223 
 
 Xo one spoke for the first hour or so ; the 
 men were smoking and ploddmg steadily 
 upwards, one just above me, the other below. 
 It was early morning when we got to the top 
 of the fells above our camp, and along the 
 edges of the jDrecipices on the other side 
 several coveys of snow partridges were whist- 
 ling lustily. 
 
 For another hour we kept along the top of 
 the fells, and then we branched off on to a 
 spur of mountains which led to and termi- 
 nated in the peak and district of Lukhan. 
 Good heavens ! what Hars those Lukhan peaks 
 are! Every slope along whose narrow edge 
 we toiled painfully upwards promised to be 
 the last, but were we ever so strong, ever 
 so patient, were the peak ever so high, another 
 peak higher more wearisome was always ready 
 to rise with painful regularity to rej)lace the 
 one we had just topped. 
 
 About noon we sat down and ate a maize
 
 224 SAVAGE STANETIA. 
 
 cake apiece, scraping off some of its outer 
 crust to provide us with a pipe after lunch ; 
 we drank and laved our hands and feet and 
 faces at a little stream which welled from an 
 ice field in the saddle between two neighbour- 
 ing peaks, and then we gripped our alpen- 
 stocks and plodded on. 
 
 So sharp were the upturned edges of the 
 rocks that my sandals were hardly sound 
 enough to hold the mountain grass we put 
 into them, and before night my bleeding feet 
 were absolutely bare. The men were in just 
 as bad a plight, or the good fellows would 
 have given me their sandals and gone bare- 
 foot themselves. 
 
 About three o'clock I suppose it was when 
 we got to the downs of Luxhan, splendid 
 little tablelands of short grass between high 
 glacier- adorned peaks on all sides. Here we 
 sat and rested for a few minutes, and here too 
 lost the track of a huge old bear, Avho seemed
 
 LOSE HEART. 225 
 
 to have preceded us the whole of our journey 
 until now. But here, alas ! we found a track 
 far more formidable to us than that of the 
 bear. There it was, plain enough, the impress 
 of a sandal, and the square little hole in which 
 the wearer of it had stuck his mountaineer's 
 pike. AVhat with the fatigue and the dis- 
 appointment of again finding someone before 
 me, in a place not known to one hunter in ten 
 among the neighbouring villages, I faMy lost 
 heart, and I could hardly believe my ears 
 when Simon crept to my side and whispered 
 ' Djikve arrees ' (there's an ibex). 
 
 The tableland of oTass on which we were 
 ended abruptly in a precipice, from which we 
 looked down on a o-Iacier. several hundred feet 
 below. On the opposite side the glacier rose 
 a bare precipitous wall of rock, reaching far 
 above the level of the tableland on which we 
 stood, to the topmost crags of Luxhan. On 
 this wall, which as the crow flies was not so 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 2iJ6 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 very far from us, on about the same level as 
 ourselves, Simon's keen eyes bad made out an 
 ibex. At first sight and at the distance I 
 might have mistaken it for a chamois, but 
 bringing the glass to bear, I made out a 
 grand ram, with broad sweeping horns, stand- 
 ing on the narrowest of ledges, utterly unsus- 
 picious of our presence, entirely taken up with 
 the ' lick ' of bitter water at which it was 
 refreshing itself. 
 
 We had lots of time to look about us, but 
 look as we would there was no possibility of 
 stalking the ibex, in fact no way of approach- 
 ing a yard nearer than we now were. Had 
 we had Frank's long range rifle with us we 
 might have had a chance. As it was I could 
 hope for nothing but failure with my ' Express.' 
 But it was the only thing to do, so allowing 
 for the distance as well as I could I fired. My 
 men had focussed the animal with their glasses, 
 and a simultaneous exclamation of surprise
 
 ILL-LUCK. 227 
 
 came fvoni each of them. Dear me ! how well 
 my wild goat chase might have a successful 
 end here if only I could say that bullet struck 
 three inches lower. Unluckily it did not, and 
 the beast, tossing its head m surprise, trotted 
 a few yards along the ledge and stood at gaze. 
 Again 1 fired, this time getting even 
 closer than before, so said my men, but still 
 the beast was untouched ; and now, thoroughly 
 roused to the danger of his position, was 
 going wildly straight up the wall-like face of 
 the cliff. So steep was the road he chose that 
 from where we were, we had the same view of 
 his back that you have of a fly's as he crawls 
 up the window pane. I sent two more bullets 
 after him, in the vain hope of a lucky shot 
 securing for me the coveted head even now ; 
 but thou2:h one fell so near him as almost to 
 frighten him into a false step, he got away un- 
 touched. I had still four cartridges left and 
 some two or three hours of daylight, so my 
 Q 2
 
 228 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 men and myself climbed down to the glacier, 
 and tried to find a way to the crags from 
 which our escaped prey had descended. 
 
 It was getting late when we found a 
 feasible path, and my men begged me to stay 
 where we were for the night, as there was 
 wood and water, and a place which some 
 hunter had used before as a camp. But I am 
 ashamed to say I had lost my temper, and 
 nothing would do for me but another effort 
 among the peaks while daylight lasted. My 
 men's remonstrances fell unheeded, or only 
 met with a good rating in return ; and it 
 speaks well for them that they followed me 
 in spite of my folly, until that happened 
 which they had predicted. 
 
 Having climbed about half way to the 
 point at which we hoped to find ibex, and 
 being well out of range of wood and water, 
 the mists and the darkness came down upon 
 us, making further progress impossible, so
 
 A ROUGH NIGHT. 229 
 
 that the best we coiiLl do was to select the 
 biofo-est boulder near us, and arranoino- our 
 one bourka so as to afford as much shelter as 
 possible to all three, we curled ourselves up 
 and waited for morning. 
 
 I have had some rough nights in my life ; 
 one on a high peak in Daghestan on Christ- 
 mas Eve, and another carrying reindeer we 
 had killed over the heavy going of a valley 
 in Spitzbergen to our boat, but for genuine 
 misery I don't think any ever beat that night 
 at Luxlian. In Daghestan I think we had 
 tobacco, and I know we had high hopes for 
 the morrow ; while, in spite of the thirstiness 
 of a lono:-leo:2red Scotchman 1 had with me, 
 there was beer in that boat in Spitzbergen ; 
 but here, on this hillside at Luxhan, it was 
 bitterly cold and damp : we had no fire, no 
 water (had had none either since noon), and 
 only one pipe of bread crumbs between three. 
 AVhen that pipe was out the men rewarded
 
 230 SAVAGE SVANETL\. 
 
 me for sharing it with them by giving me 
 the inner corner under the boulder, and then 
 lying on top of me to keep me warm. 
 
 I don't fancy any of my friends in Eng- 
 land would care about Simon and Yassili's 
 ragged persons for bedfellows, but a man 
 perishing with cold on a damp hillside gets 
 over a great deal of squeamishness in a night, 
 and I was heartily thankful to put up with 
 my ragged companions for the warmth they 
 gave me. 
 
 In the morning we could see water about 
 two hours' march below us, and the way to it 
 was the straight road into Svanetia, via 
 Lascheti. I felt almost inclined to adopt it 
 and send back for the rest of my party rather 
 than face the ind diaholica home to Lapiir. 
 But eventually the road to Lapur was the 
 road we took, and I would rather thmk of the 
 moment when I lay down with my mouth 
 to a stream of snow water at 1 p.m. than of
 
 ' DONE TO A TURX.' 231 
 
 the weary hours I passed plodding up to it 
 with bleeding feet during the most tiring 
 mornino' I remember. 
 
 o 
 
 I was done to a turn, and I remember 
 counting my steps on the way home, and 
 wondering how many hundreds I should have 
 to count before arrivmg at the top of each 
 ascent. I know that whenever I raised my 
 eyes at the end of say 300 or 1,000 I in- 
 variably seemed no nearer than when I began 
 to count. But when our camp came in sight, 
 and Frank, the sybarite, was seen surrounded 
 by visitors, an object of interest (and doubt- 
 less of admiration), to a troop of Caucasian 
 shepherds, I almost ran the rest of the way 
 home, despite my bleeding feet. 
 
 The long-expected herd had arrived at 
 last. One of its members was already hang- 
 ing by his heels to the pole of our larder ; 
 two bowls of milk had been abstracted by 
 Frank from the mothers of the herd as a fine
 
 232 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 for butting at and otherwise maltreating our 
 tent ; the shepherds had supplied a stock of 
 coarse tobacco, and though tired and unsuc- 
 cessful, that Wednesday night was a red letter 
 night in our camp life. 
 
 We slept early that night, but Simon and 
 Yassili were getting keen about the reward 
 they had been promised for the first head of 
 mountain game killed, so I was turned out 
 again at 5.30 next morning to face my old 
 enemy, the hill, again. Frank started with 
 me, though in a different direction, in search 
 of snow partridges. Of course he had no luck, 
 while equally of course I saw quantities of 
 birds, one covey of ten, young birds, too, 
 chuckling; and cluckino; on a hillside all round 
 me, like barn-door fowls, for nearly ten minutes. 
 
 On our way up to the heights where the 
 djikve live we again sighted the big solitary 
 chamois buck, who had cost me a good deal 
 of climbing once or twice before. This time
 
 LUCKY SBION. 233 
 
 I managed the stalk myself; but just at the 
 critical moment, as he was sleeping with one 
 eye open, the old rascal caught sight of Frank 
 and Yassili coming up the hill below him, 
 and he was up and away instantly. In sheer 
 desperation I risked a shot at him, which, 
 though it missed liim (he was four hundred 
 yards off at least), turned him down hill. 
 Quick as he was, Simon was hardly less 
 active, and managed to get down to a point 
 several hundred yards below in time to get 
 another shot at him. 
 
 Lucky Simon ! The chamois gave him a 
 shot at about sixty yards, which he, as usual, 
 missed. But Fortune was kind to-day. Twice 
 headed, the buck now came straight up-hill, 
 evidently determined to make for some of 
 those mountain fastnesses wherein he felt 
 himself safe from the annoyances of mankind. 
 But en route he was obliged to pass me. This 
 time he came within about 150 yards, and as
 
 234 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 he cantered up a watercourse I gave a whistle 
 which for the moraent brought him to a 
 standstiU. I never could shoot lying down, 
 so jumping up I threw up my rifle as he 
 started off wildly again, and rolled him over 
 with a bullet, well home behind the shoulder. 
 
 I have seen a good many heads of chamois 
 killed in the Caucasus since, but none to beat, 
 and very few to equal, that of this my first 
 buck. No doubt if he had not had such large 
 horns or so red a hide, he might have passed 
 for a denizen of greater heights, but I was 
 well content with him as he was, and as I 
 look at his head in my dining-room, I don't 
 in the least regret the weary days he cost me. 
 By comparing my heads with heads of 
 chamois killed in Switzerland, I find the Cau- 
 casian much the smaller of the two. 
 
 After my four days' hard work, it was a 
 luxury to be back in camp by 9 a.m., let 
 alone the unusual satisfaction of coming back
 
 ILLNESS m CAMP. 235 
 
 with game ; and though my chamois, being 
 an old one, made the least savoury soup 
 imaginable, I had no cause to complain of my 
 game being unappreciated. 
 
 In camp I found two of the shepherds 
 looking rather down in the mouth, in conse- 
 quence of the illness of their third companion. 
 When I passed their camp at dawn this fellow 
 was sTovellmo; on the g'round in all the 
 agonies occasioned by a too plentiful repast 
 of unripe fruit. I had, at their request, given 
 him a note to Frank, who it seems had dosed 
 him, to the best of his abilities, with a decoc- 
 tion of laudanum, which we had with us for 
 the cure or prevention of cholera. As Frank 
 had no notion of the dose to be taken, and 
 the man seemed very ill, he (to use his own 
 words) poured him out about half a table- 
 spoonful, ' which, having swallowed, that 
 shepherd naturally slept.' But such was the 
 man's constitution that, though he slept all
 
 236 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 that day and night, he woke next morning 
 very pale but quite free from his internal 
 pains. Frank was rewarded by local rank of 
 Doctor, and frequent unauthorised supplies 
 of goat's milk. 
 
 That night we had a grand dinner, enter- 
 taining the shepherds with my old billy goat, 
 while we fed on mutton ; and after dinner, 
 havino; thrown on fresh losrs and lio^hted our 
 pipes, we made a musical night of it — Frank 
 wakino; the echoes with ' John Peel,' ' The 
 place where the old horse died,' and similar 
 sporting ditties (which, unfortunately, I had 
 to translate), and the men in return crooning 
 some of their native songs.
 
 231 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 LAPUE TO USHKUL. 
 
 On Friday, September 8, our long-lost inter- 
 preter, Platon, was viewed on the top of the 
 fells above us, and so great was our joy that 
 it required a mighty effort to put the proper 
 amount of silent, dignified rebuke into our 
 manner in receiving him. ^yith Platon as 
 guard, guide, and porter, came another brother 
 of Vassili's, a fine-looking fellow, who was 
 at once taken into our service. On gomg 
 into matters with our truant we found that, 
 though he had been a very expensive messen- 
 ger, some misdirections of mine were partly 
 to blame for it, and in the end we had obtained 
 what we most wanted — money.
 
 238 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 That night we made all our arrangements 
 for a start into Svanetia on the morrow, 
 and were debating on the advisability of 
 havins: one more vio;il at the nest below the 
 glacier, when a huge array of black clouds 
 sweeping up our valley from the south-west 
 settled the question for us. These clouds 
 were the vanguard of winter, and next morn- 
 ing all the higher mountains wore a thin mantle 
 of newly-fallen snow, while in the valleys 
 rain had swollen all the streams, and made 
 our party pass a most unpleasant night. 
 
 Our men under their awning covered with 
 my skins slept and would have been fairly 
 happy had not the rain put out their fire ; but 
 for Frank and myself, in our ill-arranged 
 little tente d'ahri, it was absolutely necessary 
 that we should sit upright in constrained 
 positions to prevent our bodies touching the 
 canvas, for whenever that happened in came 
 our enemy the rain. So we sat up all night,
 
 DIFFICULTIES WITH MY STAFF. 239 
 
 consuming no little of Platon's tobacco, while 
 from time to time the vivid sheet-lightning 
 gave lis quaint glimpses of the interior of 
 which we were the centre. 
 
 Luckily for us, our little tent weathered 
 the storm, and towards mornino' we orot an 
 hour or two for sleep, after which I had to go 
 through the usual difficulties with my men 
 before making a new start. First they did 
 not want to go mto Svanetia at all, then they 
 must be prepaid, and as I would not agree to 
 that suicidal arrangement, the money must be 
 paid over to Platon in their presence, to be 
 held for them until the end of their engage- 
 ment. Then they must go back to Gebi for 
 more provisions, to say good-bye to their 
 wives, to make arrangements for the tending 
 of their cattle, to get more horses, and finally 
 they urged that the country was impractic- 
 able for horses, and they must go back for 
 more bearers. But as I made no concessions
 
 240 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 to them, and they saw no chance of screwing 
 a higher rate of pay out of me, I at last got 
 them under weigh by about eleven. 
 
 Our road lay down the banks of the river, 
 which our men called Lapur, but which I 
 presume is that marked in the Russian map 
 as ' Tsxenis-tsxale,' until its junction with 
 another small stream, which they called Khe- 
 dowra. Road of course there was none, and 
 so wooded and steep were the banks that we 
 were continually obliged to cross and recross 
 the stream. To keep ourselves dry we accom- 
 plished this crossing by leap-frogging on to 
 the quarters of our baggage animals, and 
 stretchmg over pots, pans, and other impedi- 
 menta, clingmg frantically to their manes. 
 The position was difficult to maintain, as the 
 horses stumbled about among the boulders of 
 the river bed, and afforded subject for long 
 and hearty laughter. 
 
 About two o'clock we reached the junction
 
 GOOD CAMPING GROUND. 241 
 
 of the two streams, near which on the left- 
 hand bank we found the most wonderful ffuit 
 forest I ever saw. The whole of the under- 
 growth for over a couple of miles was almost 
 entirely composed of currant bushes and rasp- 
 berry canes, principally the latter, and every 
 bouo^h weio;hed down with fruit. It was 
 hopeless to try to hurry our men through 
 this tract ; and, much as I enjoyed the deli- 
 cious fruit myself, long before I got to my 
 journey's end I would have given a great deal 
 that every fruit tree between Gebi and Djuaria 
 had been barren in the year 1882. We lost 
 half our time whilst the men were o-atherino- 
 fruit by the way. 
 
 In the angle formed by the junction of the 
 two streams was the best camping ground we 
 had seen as yet. A large open space, covered 
 with abundance of fine tussocky grass, water 
 on two sides of it, and a semi-circle of beauti- 
 ful low hills running round it and down into 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 the fruit forest. Here, amongst the raspberry 
 canes, the bears had established regular 
 thoroughfares ; and, though I knew well 
 how much ' sign ' one bear is capable of leav- 
 ing behind him, I am quite sure that this 
 corner among the hills must have been the 
 regular habitat of at least a couple of dozen of 
 these animals. Had Frank cared to stay I 
 should have acquiesced in a three or four 
 days' camp here ; but as he did not, and bears 
 were not the first object of my travels, we 
 moved on, and I content myself with pointing 
 the spot out to anyone who follows in my 
 steps. 
 
 Once or twice during the day we saw 
 chamois, and wasted an hour or two stalking 
 them, gaining nothing thereby but a con- 
 firmation of a former impression, that once 
 chamois have sighted you, however favourable 
 the ground, time spent in stalking is time 
 thrown away.
 
 COISIMENCEMENT OF TROUBLES. 243 
 
 After leaving our noon-day halting-place 
 we turned up a gully to the west, and forced 
 our way painfully through the thickets of 
 weeds and flowers which clothe the foot-hills 
 below the ridge which separates the river 
 Lapur from the river Zesku. These sur- 
 mounted, our men began to look serious, and 
 our troubles really commenced. The pass 
 which they intended to cross by was known 
 only to Yassili, and his memory of it was 
 but indistmct, so that before long it became 
 evident that the chances were we should not 
 get over it that night. 
 
 For a human being the ascent was steep 
 enough to try every muscle to the utmost, 
 but for horses, and laden horses too, the way 
 seemed impracticable. Still so wonderful are 
 the mountaineering feats performed by these 
 poor-looking screws of the Caucasus that we 
 persevered slowly upwards, and had almost 
 accomplished our task when one of our horses 
 
 R 2
 
 244 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 gave in, turned restive, bit and plunged, all 
 but cominof over backwards down the narrow 
 way, in doing which he would certainly have 
 carried one or more of us with him. But 
 Simon stuck manfully to his head, and we 
 cleared out from behind him with that speed 
 care for one's personal safety excites in the 
 most weary, and for the moment the catas- 
 trophe was averted. 
 
 The top of the pass is a narrow saddle 
 with high banks on each side, and so thin is 
 the edge of the ridge here that there is not 
 level standing room for a horse at the top. 
 Here the restive one elected to have another 
 revolt, and succeeded in landing himself on his 
 side, hopelessly cast on the very summit, the 
 chief question in our minds being whether he 
 would slide head first into the valley of 
 the Zesku, or back mto the country from 
 which we had come. Meanwhile, such of our 
 property as we did not lay hands on at once
 
 DAEKNESS COMES ON APACE. 245 
 
 went hopping down hill again. By dint of 
 every man doing all he could to help ; by the 
 exertion of immense energy and marvellous 
 strength on Simon's part, we, in the course of 
 an hour, had saved our baggage and piled it in 
 safety, and what was more unhoped for had 
 got the horse on his legs again. 
 
 The dusk was now coming on apace, and 
 one glance over the edge at the road before us 
 was enough to convince the most foolhardy 
 that even goats if laden could not hope to 
 accomplish the descent successfully. So after 
 a long palaver Deto, our cook, was paid off, 
 furnished with food, tobacco, and a rifle, and 
 though very frightened and averse to the 
 undertaking, started back to Lapiir in charge 
 of the horses for Gebi. Then each man 
 shouldered all he could carry, and any foolish 
 pride which I had till then entertained in my 
 own strength vanished for ever, as I saw the 
 enormous load which by common consent was
 
 246 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 awarded to Simon as liis share. No Turkish 
 porter of Constantinople, no Swiss mountaineer 
 (not even Adolphe Foliguet, who I remember 
 to have seen carry a heavy English Lady from 
 ' les Pendants ' to the valley with scarcely a 
 pause to get his wind again) but I venture 
 to assert would have hesitated before he under- 
 took Simon's task that night. 
 
 We got safely down the precipitous part 
 of the descent while there was still some light 
 in the sky ; but before we had been blundering 
 blindly in the first belt of wood between us 
 and the valley much more than an hour, 
 night set in — a night without a moon, and no 
 stars visible through the clouds. At first the 
 men tried hard to find a way down to the open, 
 but we soon found that the end of this would 
 be a false step over a precipice, or the straying 
 of some member of our party. Then we 
 hoped that in the valley below there might be 
 some Svans, with their flocks, to whom the
 
 A PREVENTATIVE DOSE. 247 
 
 hidden ways of the hillsides were known ; but 
 no answer came back to our whistlings and 
 shoutings, so we had to give it up and camp 
 where we were. 
 
 The worst part of it was, there was not 
 a place anywhere bare enough of scrub 
 and bramble, all dripping wet, on which to 
 camp, and eventually we heaved our loads 
 into a comparatively low blackberry bush, 
 spread our bourkas over them, and sat down 
 very wet and miserable indeed. In time we 
 managed to make a fire, which only served to 
 show us what a very uncomfortable thicket 
 we were sitting in the middle of, and then 
 having taken a preventative dose of quinine 
 and a pipe, we curled ourselves into our 
 bourkas — cold, thirsty, and sulky. 
 
 I believe, in the night, unlike Dr. Watts's 
 woodland sleepers, Frank and I in our little 
 nest did not agree ; but, on the contrary, 
 woke up and had a very healthy row, the bone
 
 248 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 of contention being the division of the saddle- 
 bags as a pillow, our one comfort that night. 
 Poor wretches ! I'm sure our most severe 
 critics would have forgiven us for our bad 
 tempers, if they had known how abominably 
 uncomfortable we were. At any rate we for- 
 gave one another next morning, and by 
 general consent the whole party was moving 
 as soon as there was the least glimmer of 
 dawn to guide us, and after being buffeted 
 by the wet boughs and soaked with the 
 chilly dew which they shook off upon 
 us, for the space of an hour we entered 
 upon an opening where grew the first and 
 one of the finest pine-trees I ever saw in 
 Svanetia. 
 
 From crest to foot the grand old forest 
 giant was covered with long festoons of grey- 
 beard moss, and the weight of many snowy 
 winters had bowed him, until he looked as if 
 he had not many more days to lord it over his
 
 A SVANETIAN NEST. 249 
 
 neio'hbours. Round bim and at his foot he 
 
 o 
 
 had spread a dee[) thick carpet of fallen pine 
 needles, the softest couch the forest affords, 
 and in these, snugly ensconced between two 
 projecting roots, some Svanetian hunter had 
 made himself a nest, round and cosy as a 
 bird's, sheltered from wmd and rain by the 
 boughs and roots of the old tree. Withm 
 hearing of this nest was the rush of one of the 
 little rills that run to feed the Zesku, and here 
 we drank long and greedily, only regretting 
 that we had not chanced upon these good 
 quarters the night before. 
 
 All the countiy hereabouts is a kind of 
 border or debatable land, between Radcha and 
 Svanetia. Herein no man lives and only the 
 adventurous feed their flocks. Under almost 
 every tall pine, from which water is not far 
 distant, and in every mountain cave, are dead 
 fires and blackened hearth stones, to mark the 
 place in which cattle lifter or sportsman has
 
 250 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 passed the night. In old days no race was noted 
 for more predatory instincts than my friends 
 the Svans; once or twice, so history says, 
 they have slipped over glacier and mountain 
 pass to lay waste the whole of the fair valley 
 of the Rion, spoil Oni, and once even de- 
 stroy Kutais, but this was long ago in the 
 fourteenth century. 
 
 Since the time when George III. (of 
 Georgia) was king they have done little 
 beyond an occasional attack on Gebi, to pro- 
 vide themselves with wives, or a free fight 
 with rival hunters at the drinking-places of 
 the tur. 
 
 The encroachments of that civilisation 
 introduced by the Russians have almost put a 
 stop even to these little amusements, so that 
 now there is nothing left for the restless 
 Svan but the blood-feud and the pursuit of 
 mountain game. It is in this latter that he 
 spends most of his time, and if he can kill one
 
 TKY TROUT-FISHING. 251 
 
 head just over the boundary of his neighbour's 
 domain, it is worth half a dozen killed in his 
 own mountains. 
 
 By the banks of the Zeskuskal we sat 
 down and breakfasted, and so likely looked 
 the pools, and so confident were our guides of 
 the abundance offish in the stream at our feet, 
 that whilst the others made a fire, I put 
 together my rod and proceeded to whip all the 
 likeliest places for trout. 
 
 Every kind of fly which seemed suited to 
 the tastes of uneducated fish was tried in suc- 
 cession, and then two or three of Mr. Ogden's 
 charmers for such as have reached the highest 
 standard of piscine education. But all the 
 temptations of Ogden, all the wiles learnt on 
 the Gloucestershire Colne, were of no avail. 
 Not a rise rewarded my efi'orts ; not a single 
 troutie, however tiny, accepted my invitation 
 to breakfast. So we had to be content once 
 more with our bread- and- water diet, and at
 
 252 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 eight o'clock were again moving along the 
 river's bed. 
 
 I don't think that from the time we left 
 Lapiir to the time we made Ushkul there was 
 a hundred yards level walking, except the 
 stretch of fell just outside the latter. Frank 
 and myself had to carry all we could, and 
 though that was only our rifles, rugs, revol- 
 vers, and a few odds and ends, they hampered 
 us more than the heavy loads did our men, who 
 were used to being beasts of burden all day 
 long. The sinewy Simon was the life of the 
 party, jogging along light of foot and bright 
 of eye, singing under a load that I could 
 scarcely carry a hundred yards, over the beds 
 of half-dry torrents, where the only marvel 
 was that men unladen could walk with un- 
 sprained ancles along the everlasting stepping- 
 stones ; through blind forest alleys, where 
 malicious boughs caught your pack or rifle as 
 you passed, and almost wrenched it from your
 
 DOWN-HILL. 253 
 
 back, while as soon as you were free from 
 thein, a root or bough at your feet sent you 
 sprawling on all fours. 
 
 Turning out of the wood for a moment 
 the track led down hill ; clown a hill so steep 
 that you felt it would make you ' stand over ' 
 for the rest of your life, and up the other side 
 at an inchne that made us tremble for our back 
 sinews. All the while we were passing through 
 beds of tall nettles, which stung hands, neck, 
 and face impartially. 
 
 Once during the day we stopped to dig up 
 the roots of what, to my unbotanical eye, 
 seemed a species of crocus, of a beautiful 
 purple colour, which grew in profusion wher- 
 ever the track was most trodden. The flowers 
 were very large and the bulbs gregarious, if I 
 may use such a term of flowers, growing in a 
 thick lump of from six to sixteen together. 
 This flower we saw once before at ShukachMo, 
 but nowhere else m Radcha ; whereas we met
 
 254 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 witli it in large quantities everywhere in 
 Svanetia. 
 
 Once again, towards mid-day, when we had 
 left the river's course and diverged into a region 
 of pine-trees, amongst which already lay some 
 sprinklings of new-fallen snow, we rested to 
 divide a small maize loaf (our last) amongst 
 us in a wild ravine, where a rugged grey water- 
 course came precipitously down to the valley 
 from a snow peak, which almost seemed 
 to bend over the newly-burnt pine forest 
 round us. 
 
 It was as grim and beautiful a picture of 
 ruin and desolation as nature ever exhibited, 
 and the want of my lunch annoyed me far 
 less than the want of skill in my clumsy 
 fingers to produce some souvenir of the charred 
 stumps, stern mountain, and rugged water- 
 course, with their patches of new-fallen snow. 
 
 A poor lunch is no great evil to men who 
 have work to do ; the worse it is the sooner
 
 THE CRAVINGS OF HUNGER. 255 
 
 you are ready to leave it, and the less there is 
 of it the lighter it is to carry. So argued the 
 philosophers in the burnt pine forest, though 
 five minutes before I heard one of them say he 
 would give a sovereign for a loaf of white 
 bread. 
 
 All the afternoon we walked our level 
 best, sometimes one, sometimes another of the 
 least laden amono^st us leadinof and makins: 
 the running. Neither Frank nor I ever cared 
 for walking for walking's sake, but hunger 
 was makmg us wonderfully anxious to see 
 Ushkul. 
 
 When we first left Lapur, now two days 
 ago, the men had told us that with hard work 
 we might reach Ushkul by nightfall— at the 
 worst we should be there by early morning 
 of the second day. Now the light of the 
 second day was rapidly failing, we had been 
 going so steadily and so fast all day that the 
 men had long since begun to complain, and
 
 256 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 yet when we asked Yassili how soon we 
 should sight the goal of our long march, he 
 almost broke our hearts by pointing to a 
 new ridge of mountains just coming into 
 sight, and saying, ' We'll camp at the foot of 
 those to-night if possible, and to-morrow at 
 rftid-day we shall be at UshkiiL' 
 
 After that general conversation flagged, 
 but as, by the help of my alpenstock, I kept 
 my place on a thread-like track along the 
 face of a slippery grass slope, I heard frequent 
 snatches of a soliloquy from one who was 
 behind me : ' Bless these hills ! ' he muttered ; 
 ' you don't catch me out of the vale again. 
 You're no sooner down one place than you 
 beo'in to go up another. Wish they were all 
 rolled out flat and planted with "roots." 
 Chamois and tur ! wish that fool W. had never 
 heard of a tur. Give me a covey of little 
 brown birds in the corner of every field, and 
 a little brown jug under most of the hedges ;
 
 PROSPECTING FOR A CAMP. 257 
 
 that's what I call sport ! ' And the sigh that 
 followed this last allusion was so deep and 
 heartfelt that it almost blew me off m}' pre- 
 carious footing, and must have used up all the 
 spare wind of my friend, for he never spoke 
 ao;ain until our next halt. 
 
 There was still a little light left when 
 we passed a resolution that we would go no 
 further that night. We were all in too good 
 condition to mind another two or three hours' 
 work if there was any good to be derived from 
 it ; but, as Simon pointed out, we could not 
 now hope to reach our journey's end before 
 dark, and the range in front of us was covered 
 with glaciers and new-fallen snow. The wind 
 was blowino; from the rano-e to us, and tlie 
 nearer we got to it the less we should like the 
 keenness which the new-fallen snow would 
 lend to the night air. So we prospected for a 
 camp. Now this was where Frank shone. 
 Like a certain ' grand old man,' Frank was a 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 splendid hewer of wood, and loved the work. 
 So while Simon, having thrown off his load, 
 proceeded to refresh himself by standing on 
 his head, singing and smokmg by turns, 
 Frank found two large rocks by the river, and 
 began to chop firewood. 
 
 Simon, having let off his superfluous spirits, 
 was asked to give his opinion on the site 
 chosen, and at first dissented earnestly. But 
 whilst doing so his eyes lighted on a large 
 currant bush, covered with berries, which hung 
 over one of the rocks, after which a gentle, con- 
 tented look spread over his manly features, 
 and he ate placidly and unceasingly for about 
 three-quarters of an hour, till the bushes were 
 bare, and Frank, Yassili, and I had got the 
 worst part of the camp work done. AVe envied 
 him perhaps, but we said nothing, for after all, 
 if he did only work when he chose, when he 
 did choose wlio could work like Simon ? 
 
 Havmg crammed our bourkas into the 
 cosiest crannies under the rocks, Simon fished
 
 A SEARCHING GAZE. 259 
 
 out from somewliere the relics of my first 
 chamois, and proceeded to dole out a portion 
 to each of us. We had no bread now, nor 
 any tea, but our ravenous hunger made 
 the high scented old billy-goat's flesh very 
 palatable even without salt. 
 
 By-and-bye, as we smoked a last pipe, 
 three wild-looking figures, armed to the teeth, 
 plodded silently out of the gloom into that 
 part of the forest path on which the leaping 
 flames of our log-fire cast quamt lights and 
 shadows. As they passed they turned theii 
 faces towards the blaze, and favoured us with 
 a searchino^ S'aze, which had not too much 
 friendliness in it. But they never paused in 
 their march, made no sign of having seen us 
 save for the turnino; of their heads, and would 
 have passed us without a word of salutation if 
 they had been allowed to. But whoever they 
 were, we did not feel mclined to let them go 
 unbailed ; so Simon and I jumped up, and 
 
 S 2
 
 200 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 leaving our weapons where tliey were, went 
 out to tliem. They seemed a little inclined to 
 be distrustful at first, but when they found 
 we were honest but unfortunate hunters like 
 themselves, they shook hands and came to our 
 fire. They were the least civilised-lookmg 
 people we had seen yet. Each of them wore a 
 goat's skin dressed with the hair outside and 
 the little stiff tail left on ; the skin was not cut 
 into any shape at all, but rather maintained 
 its natural outline, and in some cases was at- 
 tached to a similar one (but tailless) in front. 
 
 The effect of these rouo'h o-oat-skin 
 garments, amongst the Svans, is very odd, and 
 their caudal appendages, long hair, and the reed 
 pipes on which they played, made me feel as if I 
 had dropped in upon an evening party of satyrs. 
 
 Did I only say our guests were Svans ? 
 If I did, allow me to apologise and present 
 them to the reader as three of the most re- 
 nowned chasseurs of Ushkul, by name Gargi,
 
 A GROUP OF SATYRS. 2G1 
 
 Georgi, and Simon, called hereafter, for dis- 
 tinction sake, Simon the Less. The}^ had all 
 been out for a Sunday shoot, and having 
 (unluckily for us) eaten all their provisions 
 and killed nothing were now on their way 
 back to town, and had intended to make a 
 night march of it, if the charms of our society 
 had not led them out of their path. 
 
 They were not bad-looking fellows, in spite 
 of all we had heard against their race ; short 
 men rather, with broad shoulders, and, unlike 
 the men of Radcha, peculiar rather for their 
 abundant hair than for their shaven pates. One 
 of them, the leader of the three apparently, 
 was the most marvellous likeness of our great 
 trao'ic actor, in honour of whoui we at once re- 
 christened this first met of a (to us) new race. 
 
 But little Simon was the man who inte- 
 rested us most, for after a few inquiries our 
 Simon discovered that the little man was the 
 son of the great bear-slayer of Ushkiil, of
 
 2G2 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 s^^hose prowess we had already heard more than 
 once. On asking him how many bears the old 
 man really had killed, he said that his father 
 had kept count np to one hundred and twenty- 
 five, but that since then he had lost count, and 
 his son said he didn't think he had killed more 
 than three or four lately. Our informant had 
 himself added twenty- seven to the collection 
 of off forepaws which adorned the paternal 
 mansion. 
 
 By- and- bye our guests grew sleepy, but 
 with characteristic caution they would not lie 
 down by our fire, preferring rather to build 
 one of their own a couple of dozen yards off, 
 where, though near enough for conversational 
 purposes, they could still keep together, and 
 have an eye on the strangers. In spite of his 
 friendly manner towards them a few whispered 
 words of my old hunter's before I turned in 
 convinced me that the Radcha men were just 
 as suspicious of the Svans as the Svans were
 
 A FAITHFUL SERVANT. 2(33 
 
 of US ; and, indeed, wherever we went with 
 Simon and Vassili afterwards, we could 
 always see that, though civil and even friendly, 
 there was a kind of uneasiness in their inter- 
 course such as might exist between a cat and 
 a fox terrier on the same hearthrug, who. 
 though at peace for the moment, felt keenly 
 that it was not their normal condition. 
 
 Poor old Simon ! The term of his service 
 had nearly expired now, and he was very 
 determined to see that we left his hands safe 
 and sound. Twice I opened my eyes during 
 the night. The first time he was still crouch- 
 ing over the fire, his pipe in his mouth, and 
 at the other fire were three fio-iires also sittino' 
 up. But Simon had his eye on them. 
 
 When next I woke, I felt someone touch 
 me, and without stirring I opened my eyes 
 and saw my good fellow, having kicked 
 the logs together and added fresh ones, take 
 off his own blanket and tuck it carefully
 
 264 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 round me, and then with a shiver crouch into 
 his own few rags and curl himself up like a 
 faithful watch dog at my feet. Of course, as 
 soon as I thought he slept I returned the loan, 
 but when I woke I was rolled up in it again. 
 I was very sorry to lose Simon ; for, 
 though he would always smoke when he 
 ought not to (and indeed when he ought to 
 as well, if there is such a time), though he 
 would waste hours eating quantities of fruit 
 which would have given any three other men 
 cholera, and making scores of reed pipes, out 
 of none of which he ever got a tune, he was 
 for all that so bright-tempered, so honest, 
 light-hearted, so enormously strong, so capable 
 of enduring prolonged abstinence and fatigue, 
 so kindly and quick to see what you wanted, 
 and to supply the want, that I am bound to 
 say, in looking back, I regard him as the best 
 fellow I ever met in the Caucasus. Yassili, 
 Frank's servant, thouo-h not so strono- or clever
 
 A PLEASANT REVIEW. 2G5 
 
 as Simon, was an honest, merry rascal, and per- 
 haps in camp a harder worker than my man. 
 
 Altogether, I agree in what Simon and 
 his confreres used to say, that Radcha men are 
 the best men in this part of the Caucasus, 
 theft is unknovv^n amongst them they say, and 
 I never heard of their being particularly ad- 
 dicted to any other vices. Certainly, as we 
 crossed out of the border-land into Svanetia 
 proper on the morrow, we felt we should be 
 lucky if we found as good and genial a 
 governor or as well-ordered a province as those 
 we left behind in Baron Geikin and Radclia. 
 
 As soon as it was light we were all up, 
 and anxious to be off. As we had not seen a 
 villao^e since we left Gebi a fortnio-ht ag'o, and 
 Ushkul was reported to be almost (if not 
 quite) the largest village in Svanetia, we 
 hoped for great things on our arrival there. 
 Of course there had been rain in the valley 
 and more snow on the mountain in the nio^ht,
 
 266 SAVAGE SVANETTA. 
 
 thanks to which the jungles of angelica, 
 through which our path lay, were like a per- 
 petual shower-bath ; and the early morning 
 breeze off the snow did not help to bring a 
 glow into our limbs after our involuntary tub. 
 To do the snow justice it had made Dava- 
 chora, as the men called the mountain ahead 
 of us, the prettiest picture in black and white 
 I ever saw ; but I think if we had had an}?" 
 breakfast, even the tiniest crust, we should 
 have enjoyed the bold outlines and delicate 
 snow traceries of the mountain better. 
 
 About nine o'clock we got to the end of 
 the valley we had followed so long, and 
 another horrible series of hills to climb frowned 
 down at us from the other side of a fairly deep 
 and rapid stream. I think someone, old Simon 
 probably, tucked Frank's thirteen or fourteen 
 stone of beef and bone under his arm and 
 carried him across dryshod. If he did not do so 
 on this occasion he had often done it before.
 
 'JOLLY miserable; 267 
 
 As for myself, I was so wretchedly wet 
 already tliat a little water more or less didn't 
 matter, so not even taking the trouble to 
 jump from one high stone to another, I 
 plunged sulkily in and plodded sullenly away 
 on the other side as if a wetting to the waist 
 was all m the day's work, and didn't so much 
 matter when one was once in for bemg 'jolly 
 miserable.' 
 
 Frank and the men seemed much of the 
 same mind, and we all plodded along as if 
 we were on a treadmill, without talkino- or 
 pausing much until we gained the top of a 
 hio-h bluff about 11 a.m., from which the men 
 told us the rest of the road lay over smooth 
 downs, and the incline, if any, was down hill. 
 Then our spirits rose. 
 
 Some one said there was an iron sprmg 
 about a mile off, so we gave Simon the Less 
 twenty-five kopecks to go and bring us a 
 skinful of the water, and on this and a pipe we
 
 268 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 breakfasted. Meanwhile, in our trusting inno- 
 cence we sent on one of the Svans with the 
 bearskins to secure us a room in the village, and 
 have some bread ready and a few fowls cooked 
 by the time we arrived. Then we rested for an 
 hour, after which we showed those Svans and 
 the men of Radcha how to walk on the flat. 
 
 Frank's spirits certainly went up as the 
 road went down, and the way he strode over 
 those downs and the snatches of song he sang 
 are things which true men of Radcha will 
 never forget. But the appetite engendered 
 by early rising, hard exercise, and a breakfast 
 of iron water and tobacco smoke was becoming 
 extremely painful. 
 
 Before long, too, we came upon our three 
 avant-couriers calmly seated on a knoll by a 
 spring waiting for us to come up with them. 
 They had thought matters over, and come to 
 the conclusion that it would be plenty of time 
 to order breakfast when we got to Ushkul.
 
 A COOL CONCLUSIOX. 209 
 
 It wasn't a bit of good STrearing at them, 
 but I'm afraid it was just one of those moments 
 when a good candid expression of your opinion 
 of your fellow man is not only a luxury but 
 a necessity. Again we sent the men on ahead, 
 or at least one of them — the fellow with the 
 lio'htest load — but it was no o-ood. After 
 going some distance he threw down the bear- 
 skins which he was carrying, and said we 
 might carry them ourselves ; after which he 
 sat down by the wayside and scowled and 
 laughed at us by turns. So far the people of 
 Svanetia had not impressed us favourably. 
 
 By-and-bye we saw far up on the rising 
 ground to our right a couple of fellows with 
 some cattle, and another making hay-cocks 
 almost on the summit of the ridge. A loud 
 ' cooey ' from our guides brought an answer 
 from the hill-tops, and then in wonderfully 
 clear shrill tones they explained that if the 
 people above had aiiy bread, those down
 
 270 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 below had money, and would pay for it. 
 Whether they conld distmguish what was 
 said is a question, but they soon came bound- 
 ing down to us, and from their bashliks we 
 disinterred our first loaves of Svanetian bread. 
 Conceive a thing like a large Sally Lunn, 
 only flatter, made of a mixture of the coarsest 
 oatDieal and sand, very heavy, more than 
 half sour, and very wet. When you have 
 imagined this, you have imagined the thing 
 which the unsophisticated Svan looks ujDon 
 as the staff of life. Still, bad as it was, only 
 one of our party refused to eat of it, and 
 that one our interpreter Platon. At first 
 I was very angry with him, considering that 
 as he had been bred in the country, what 
 was o'ood enouo'h for us ouo;ht to be o;ood 
 enough for him. But he was right for all 
 that, as our disordered digestions and a vio- 
 lent attack of heartburn told us next morn- 
 m<r. To eat of the bread of Svanetia with
 
 USHKUL. 271 
 
 impunity, even an ostrich would require to 
 be nourished on it from earliest infancy, 
 otherwise it would assuredly be too much 
 even for his digestion . 
 
 It was about half an hour after this liofht 
 and wholesome meal, that we saw down below 
 us two black towers on the top of a low 
 round hill, grim -looking and ruined, like the 
 outworks of some fortified place long since 
 given up to fire and the sword. ' There is 
 Mookmer!' said one of the guides. ' Mook- 
 mer, hang Mookmer ! ' we answered ; ' where 
 is Ushkul ? ' ' Ushkvil is Mookmer,' ex- 
 plained our guide, and gradually we learnt 
 that the towers before us were on the out- 
 skirts of a collection of three hamlets, the 
 collective name for which was Mookmer, the 
 most important amongst them being Ushkul. 
 
 But Ushkul is so unique, so unlike any 
 other town or village I ever saw, so extremely 
 unlike any that I ever wish to see again,
 
 272 
 
 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 
 
 that I must give it a chapter to itself, hoping 
 that the journey thither has not been as 
 weary for my readers as it was for us. Yet 
 even for us these weary tramps were not 
 altogether wasted ; for if they taught nothing 
 else, they taught me some sympathy with 
 my horse — a sympathy born of suffering ; 
 and, I hope, whenever I remember our walk 
 thither, I shall not forget to spare my poor 
 mount at the start, in order that he may 
 be able to boil up a gallop at the finish. 
 
 iSpollistrciodt d: Co.. Fruiters, Neu-streti liquwe, London.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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 !^^ J UN 8 19711 
 
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