20 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



guiding and urging the clumsy and stupid 

 brutes along the rugged track. On the sledge, 

 in a single shift and no shoes, poised on 

 the bare framework of poles which made the 

 sledge, was in every case a wee boy, son of 

 the farmer probably, who, balancing himself as 

 the crazy vehicle bumped over the uneven 

 places, shrilled at the beasts in his childish 

 treble, and during the day lived with them 

 and watched them while the father was at 

 other work. 



A young Svan begins life early, and has to 

 make himself of use almost as soon as he can 

 talk. Though never so hard worked as our 

 English peasant, he begins life earlier and 

 works to the end, from the days of infancy 

 when his father first takes him to mind the 

 bullocks, to those last days, when too old 

 almost to stand upright, he lies all day in the 

 sun on the threshing floor, and earns his share 

 of the rye-cake by plucking up the blades of 



