82 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



Money is hardly ever used by the Svans, 

 and many were our trouhles from the im- 

 possibility of changing the three rouble notes 

 (in which our order on the Kutais bank had 

 been paid) into smaller money. All their 

 payments amongst themselves are made in 

 kind, and they are so suspicious of paper 

 money that they will refuse a note if it be at 

 all torn or old. 



In each long straggling series of hamlets 

 there is a priest of the Greek Church, and a 

 very small square building of stone and 

 plaster, which would perhaps hold two dozen 

 people, does service for a church. Small as 

 it is, it is ample for the congregations which 

 attend it. My friend the priest attributed the 

 building of all the churches throughout 

 Sv^netia to Queen Tamara, before whose time 

 nothing certain seems to have been known of 

 Svanetia. When Tamara appeared on the 

 scene Svanetia voluntarily adopted her as its 



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