BREAK-NECK EOADS. 107 



spill in the dark, my rifle going one way, and 

 all my other impedimenta going other ways, 

 leavmg me, with knees and fanny bones 

 numbed with pain, to grope about and collect 

 my belongings as best I could. The men 

 were too far ahead in the dark to call to them 

 for assistance, so I had to help myself and 

 trudge on uncomplainingly, and I still pray, 

 as I prayed then, that those Russians who 

 have the charge of the roads in Svanetia, and 

 into whose pockets the Crown money goes, 

 may be condemned to ride through eternity 

 in Tartar saddles on Svanstian nao-s, over the 

 break-neck ways they have been paid to 

 neglect. 



Just before my tumble we had passed the 

 important village of Ipari, built, as these 

 villages all seemed to be, in detachments. 

 The first storey of the village, some eight or 

 ten towers and their surroundin«x huts, was 

 built rifrht on the ed^-e of the Ino;our. The 



n O O 



