OUR HOST. 79 



It gives yon an idea of the kind of man 

 yon may often meet in Russia, when yon con- 

 sider that the sons of our worthy host, born 

 among these savage Svans, having passed 

 their childhood amongst the hardships and 

 poverty of the village life of Mookmer, were 

 then, the one a young officer of artillery, and 

 the other studying for some profession at one 

 of the ffreat Russian universities. What 

 wonder that men whose lives are so full of 

 such starthng contrasts, and whose purses are 

 of necessity too empty to enable them to lead 

 the new life into which they are plunged, lose 

 their heads and become crazy with the follies 

 of Nihilism or any other violent and revolu- 

 tionary gospel which they encounter on the 

 ' threshold of their new lives ! 



As our host seemed a man of considerable 

 education for a Caucasian village priest, and 

 as he had had ample opportunities of judging 

 of the people amongst whom his lot was cast, 



