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. 



