70 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



generally admired physical gifts among these 

 people, and the most popular and influential 

 Enoiishman who ever lived amono;st them 

 was one of whom they will still tell you 

 admiringly that, though he was always 

 thirsty, no toolambatch ever saw him under 

 the table. On one occasion they tell that he 

 and a friend were staying a few days at 

 Piatigorsk, at which fashionable resort a 

 certain beer-loving viceroy arrived two days 

 after the Englishman ; but those two days' 

 start had enabled the latter to so drain Piati- 

 gorsk of beer that the viceroy had to send 

 to Tiflis for his favourite beveras-e. This 

 Englishman's brandy cask is still kept by 

 a certain influential Caucasian nobleman 

 amongst his most treasured relics of the past, 

 and many a time with this on his back would 

 its old owner take himself ofl" into the wild 

 mountain fastnesses, and spend days and 

 weeks amongst tribes whose society it would 



