78 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



their own princes, my readers can judge of 

 that for themselves when I describe our stay 

 at Betcho. 



The uncivilised Svans seem to me to have 

 already got what the Nihilists are seeking for, 

 a democracy in which no man is greater than 

 another ; no man fears or worships a God, but 

 each is a law unto himself ; all m.en are equally 

 rich or rather equally poor, and no one either 

 wields or submits to authority. 



When our pipes were lighted after supper, 

 I pulled out my note -book, and began to try 

 to draw out our host. He was a man of 

 Eadcha, the next province, and consequently 

 one who had once lived a life much more 

 nearly resembling the life of civilised humanity 

 than that he was now leading. He had 

 already passed, I think he said, eleven years of 

 his life in Svanetia, and meant to pass a good 

 many more there, until indeed his two boys 

 should have ceased to be an expense to him. 



