162 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



my lot to behold. Just where the houses 

 cease and the valley of the Rion begins again, 

 stands one of the regulation green and white 

 Russian churches, not a large or gorgeous 

 edifice by any means, but about the best in 

 Radcha. Round this on Sunday evening was 

 a circle of fires, and on every fire a caldron, 

 such as (only larger than) the caldron 

 commonly supposed to have been used by the 

 witches in the incantation scene in ' Macbeth.' 

 Round each fire squatted a crowd of such 

 wild and loquacious beings as can only be 

 found by the banks of the Rion, while between 

 and about the caldrons were huge piles of raw 

 meat, the mortal remains of nine bullocks 

 slain to keep the feast which follows on the 

 fast of the death of the Viroin. Seven of 

 these bullocks were a present from the muni- 

 cipal body of the town, the other two beasts 

 were provided by subscription ; nine bullocks 

 being considered necessary to feed the hungry 



