60 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



table with a force that made the plates rattle. 

 Then all sang in chorus a kind of thanks- 

 giving to the giver of the feast, to a tune which 

 sounded rather like a Greo;orian chant. In 

 about another minute the glasses were re- 

 charged, some one else's health proposed, and 

 the same ceremony performed in its honour. 

 This kind of thing continued until every one's 

 health had been drunk, by which time seven- 

 teen honest tumblers had been emptied by 

 each member of the dinner party, no small 

 feat for men not used to large libations. 



There was only one trifling distraction 

 during this first part of dinner, which was 

 owing to the bodily peril of a member of the 

 party. One of the princes, it seems, had left 

 the table unobserved, and sought solitude in 

 the yard below the dining-room, whether to 

 escape his fair share of wine or devote his time 

 to hatching an extempore joke still remains a 

 mystery. However, we were roused to a 



