THE SUANETIANS AND THEIR HOME. 381 



summits in double lines, in tlie troughs between wliicli lie vast 

 neves. On either flank of the rigid granites lie beds of friable 

 schists, whose green, rounded outlines afford a striking contrast to 

 the snowy precipices of the great chain on which they abut. On 

 the south Suanetia is fenced in by the lofty slate ridge of the 

 Leila, which, running parallel to the main chain, attains a height 

 of over twelve thousand feet, and bears very considerable glaciers 

 toward its western end. In this direction the river escapes, be- 

 tween high spurs of the two chains, through a narrow porphy- 

 ritic gorge, which is not at present passable for horses. On the 

 east a low, grassy down (eight thousand six hundred feet), only 

 sixteen hundred feet above the highest villages, leads into a path- 

 less maze of forests and flowers — the wilderness in which the 

 Skenes Skali, a tributary of the Rion, has its sources. Within 

 these ridges and gorges the inhabitants have lived for centuries, 

 isolated from the outer world, forgetting and forgotten. 



They are first mentioned by Strabo, under the name of Soani, 

 as a powerful nation ; but Suaneti, as far as I could learn, is what 

 they now call themselves. At the last census they numbered 

 about twelve thousand. Over one third of the race, known from 

 the native prince who ruled over them as the Dadian's Suane- 

 tians, live on the upper Skenes Skali. They have been more or 

 less merged in the surrounding Mingrelian populations. The Sua- 

 netians are mentioned by Pliny and Procopius. Their country 

 was reserved by Chosroes for Persia in his treaty with Justinian. 

 It was converted to Christianity before the tenth century, and 

 covered with small chapels or churches. Seven hundred years 

 ago it formed part of the kingdom of Queen Thamara, the heroine 

 who occupies the place of Alexander or Charlemagne in Geor- 

 gian legend. . The Suanetians still chant ballads in her honor. 

 Suanetia soon fell off from the Georgian kingdom. It became, 

 at some time in the last century, wholly unattached. Since that 

 time the district has enjoyed a complete form of communal rule. 

 Each community is made up of several villages, originally con- 

 sisting each of members of the same family or gens, but now in- 

 cluding several families. Members of the same family can not 

 intermarry. Women and pasturage rights have been occasions 

 of many feuds and vendettas. When a woman changed hands or 

 husbands, the parties concerned could not always agree on the 

 value in cattle — the Suanetians had no money — of the lady ex- 

 changed. Hence arose assaults of persons and batteries of tow- 

 ers. The affairs of the hamlet, so far as they were not settled by 

 appeals to arms, were regulated by an assembly of adult males, 

 in which unanimity was required for a valid decision. The for- 

 eign relations of the Suanetians consisted, for the most part, in 

 predatory excursions into their neighbors' pastures. They were 



