112 '/'/<< Ooii-tis-itui Mountains and their Inhabitants. 



Give me a gun and the powder I need, a cow, ami the 

 finest horse you can find in the country and she is yours." 



" You know, dear sir," he replies, " I have not these 

 things and have not the means of buying them." 



" Go then and fight the Letsghini, the Tcherkess, the 

 Mingrelians, or any other of our enemies and take from 

 them what I require." 



Love may make here a daring, a fearless warrior, when 

 nothing else, perhaps, would, and the young man claims 

 his bride sooner than might be expected ; and this is 

 called a sale. Should we throw stones at such before 

 looking at home, and observing how much of this loving 

 humanity is bought with gold ? If, occasionally, mid 

 the desperate feuds of these tribes, damsels are stolen, 

 carried off and distributed among the victors, or sold, 

 they have at least one consolation, which is, they might 

 be worse off at home. 



As a further illustration of the painfully low and humi- 

 liating condition in which many of these people exist, I 

 will state, in brief, what occurred on my way from the 

 Black sea to the region of which I am speaking. As- 

 cending in a small-boat the Rion, that old historic Phasis, 

 before mentioned, where the Argonauts went for the 

 golden fleece ; as we could not advance after dark, our 

 little craft was fastened to the shore and we either slept 

 in it, on our blankets on the bank, or in some neighboring 

 hut, if there < latticed to be any. 



Several times we passed the night under a native roof, 

 and invariably found it sheltering extreme poverty. One 

 only I will particularly designate. It consisted of a single 

 room surmounted by a high conical roof of thatch. The 

 walls were low, and of clay, and the only light it had by 

 day was that admitted by the doorway ; and at night that 

 flickering uncertain gleam which faggots throw up to 

 make darkness visible. In the centre of the room, on 



