270 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



below had money, and would pay for it. 

 Whether they conld distmguish what was 

 said is a question, but they soon came bound- 

 ing down to us, and from their bashliks we 

 disinterred our first loaves of Svanetian bread. 

 Conceive a thing like a large Sally Lunn, 

 only flatter, made of a mixture of the coarsest 

 oatDieal and sand, very heavy, more than 

 half sour, and very wet. When you have 

 imagined this, you have imagined the thing 

 which the unsophisticated Svan looks ujDon 

 as the staff of life. Still, bad as it was, only 

 one of our party refused to eat of it, and 

 that one our interpreter Platon. At first 

 I was very angry with him, considering that 

 as he had been bred in the country, what 

 was o'ood enouo'h for us ouo;ht to be o;ood 

 enough for him. But he was right for all 

 that, as our disordered digestions and a vio- 

 lent attack of heartburn told us next morn- 

 m<r. To eat of the bread of Svanetia with 



