2^4 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



their spirits with a crushing effect ; life without 

 a pipe was a thing unbearable, so before long 

 I noticed old Yassili come to the fireside with 

 some dried leaves of a big hollow-stemmed 

 plant {Angelica officinalis), which grew in 

 quantities all over the hillside. This he 

 chopped very fine, and by dint of holding a 

 live coal to the pipe during the whole opera- 

 tion, orot a smoke out of it. Simon seemed to 

 prefer the pith of what I fancy was a kmd of 

 willow, smoking it in its stem, cigar fashion. 

 These substitutes, however well they might 

 suit the men, were more than our heads could 

 stand, though we subsequently managed to 

 extract some grains of consolation from a pipe 

 filled with the scrapings off the outside of a 

 burnt maize cake. 



Fruit was our one luxury, and I know of 

 nothing more refreshing than the huge pear- 

 shaped purple currants, which grew in quanti- 

 ties all round us. This fruit is not altoo;ether 



