EUSSIAN VILLAGES. 101 



A village in Southern Russia is all one 

 lono^ straio-ht street : a villa2:e in Radcha or 

 Svanetia has no streets at all, but is a mass 

 of houses huddled together anyhow, betAYeen 

 which you squeeze through narrow little 

 alleys, of a thousand windings, over mixens, 

 round the backs of cowsheds, over precipitous 

 stone heaps, to j'-our goal. Winding my way 

 through such a maze as this I came suddenly 

 upon an explanation of the empty houses. 

 At my feet was a boiling little torrent, some 

 twenty or thirty feet wide, with high steep 

 banks, from one to the other of which a sinoie 

 pine trunk formed an uninviting bridge. On 

 the far side a beautiful lawn sloped up into 

 the forest, and half way up it stood a smgle 

 magnificent walnut tree. Here, with the flick- 

 ering light and shade playing on them through 

 the leaves overhead, reclined at least half the 

 village, round, alas ! a very dirty tablecloth, a 

 heap of cheese, radishes, and chamois flesh, 



