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 ; 



