THE SUANETIANS AND THEIR HOME. 383 



the population to increase beyond the limits that their territory 

 would support. They had even caused it to diminish. Their 

 system was simple and effectual. They put a pinch of ashes, at 

 birth, into the mouths of all superfluous female babies. They 

 took a masculine view of superfluity. At the last census there 

 were four males to three females in the Ingur Valley. 



Poetry, where it exists — above all, primitive poetry and local 

 ballads — often gives a nearer insight into the condition of life and 

 manners of a race than religious rites and beliefs. Dr. Radde has 

 fortunately preserved a number of very curious Suanetian bal- 

 lads, such as are still sung under some ancient tree, or on the 

 march along the mountain-path. They celebrate the golden time 

 of Thamara, past forays across the great chain into the lands of 

 the Baksan Tartars, or among the Abkasians to the west. 



Under Russian rule a change is slowly coming over the peo- 

 ple ; schools, perhaps the only effectual civilizers, are doing their 

 work. Everywhere I noticed in the rising generation an absence 

 of the wild-animal expression which was the characteristic of the 

 free Suanetians twenty years ago, and which all travelers have 

 observed. 



The Suanetians are not mainly a pastoral people. They keep 

 a few flocks of sheep and herds of horses. Bullocks are used to 

 draw sledges, and are eaten in winter. But flocks and herds are 

 seldom found, as among the Tartars beyond the chain, on the high 

 pastures, and consequently there are no paths to them. To reach 

 the upper glacier basins you must find and follow almost untrace- 

 able hunters' tracks. Pigs, the smallest breed I ever saw, and 

 geese wander round the homesteads, which are guarded by dogs. 

 The villages are surrounded by barley-fields fenced in with neat 

 wattling. The paths between them are pleasant, and less stony 

 than most Alpine mule-roads. The inhabitants have learned to 

 cultivate potatoes and other vegetables. They cut a certain 

 amount of hay on the high pastures. Sometimes they cross the 

 chain in summer, and let themselves out as laborers to the indo- 

 lent Tartars ; but there is no love lost between them. The Mus- 

 sulmans look on the Suanetians with contempt as pig-eaters. I 

 heard the Suanetians hiss " Cherkess ! " at our Kabardan Cossack ; 

 and the Cossack — a mild and amiable creature, the reverse of the 

 popular idea of a Cossack — despised and distrusted every Suane- 

 tian from the bottom of his soul. A race-hatred of centuries was 

 recognizable in its ashes. 



Variety is the marked type characteristic of the Suanetians. 

 One village head-man, huge and bull-like, was like a figure from 

 an Assyrian monument. Of the three men who led our baggage- 

 horses from Ushkul, one wore the clothes and had something of 

 the air and manners of a Persian gentleman. Another was a 



