76 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



among the inmates of the house, you Avould find 

 no one to molest you. On the contrary, here 

 in Mookmer, we were no more safe from the 

 molestations of the crowd than we should 

 have been had we camped m the main 

 thorouo-hfare outside our host's door. We 

 literally could not get room to clean our guns, 

 so great was the crush round us, and when 

 the priest's wife av anted to get to the door of 

 her husband's house that she might go out 

 and get water, she had to creep along over 

 the beds, because there was no room for her to 

 pass out elsewhere. Once or twice the priest 

 expostulated, but very feebly, as if he knew it 

 to be utterly useless, and when I suggested 

 that he should at the very least order the chil- 

 dren and young lads out, he explained to me 

 that these Svans had no notion that they 

 were intruding ; everybody's house in the vil- 

 lage was public property in some sort ; no one 

 dreamed of such a thing as privacy at Mook- 



