98 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



heard the story repeated wherever I have 

 been, I can only hope it is over-coloured ; 

 but if it should be true, it is little wonder that 

 men who can have no trust in their wives, 

 can feel no safety in their home relations, and 

 have but little faith in the showy religion of 

 their own church, become discontented and 

 dangerous members of society. 



In the Caucasus before the war, Caucasian 

 women were as famed for their purity as for 

 their beauty, and the erring maid or faithless 

 wife when detected, lost friends and relatives, 

 was hunted from her native village, and had 

 to hide her shame amono;st strano-ers, even if 

 her life was spared to her. Now if the natives 

 are to be believed all this is changed, and if 

 two married women fall out, the chances are 

 that the first taunt hurled from one at the 

 other will be, ' Why, you ugly shrew, you've 

 got a husband, poor fellow, but not a single 

 lover to your name.' 



