no SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



enemies. But we were premature. Though 

 the village was hushed when we entered it, 

 the news of our arrival roused it, and we soon 

 had the ordinary assembly of sheep- skinned 

 savages shouting round us. 



Sheepskins themselves, when worn un- 

 washed for more than three years, are not 

 savoury things to poor European nostrils, but 

 why, oh men of Gebi, why overpower that 

 comparatively innocent smell by the strongest 

 and filthiest of garlic ? 



Through the first half of the night we 

 were forced to make merry with about a 

 dozen of the elders of the village, who ordered 

 wine to entertain us with, and with that fair- 

 ness for which they are remarkable emptied 

 the jars and left us to pay for them. They 

 told us the country was alive with game ; 

 that not a man amongst them but had slain 

 hie thousands and tens of thousands, and the 

 morrow we, too, should kill bears and chamois 



