112 SAVAGE SYANETIA. 



US with the cheerless story of no food, no fire, 

 no shelter to be obtained for that night. The 

 faint-hearted amongst us suggested a night, 

 suh Jove frigido, and as it had to be done, 

 proposed that we should begin at once ; but 

 a lively opposition, whose imagination dwelt 

 fondly on the flesh-pots of Svanetia, held out 

 against this heresy. 



All things come to those who know how to 

 wait, and in the end a man of Mulach, the 

 secretary of the village Elder, adorned with a 

 brass medal as big as a cheese-plate, came all 

 unwillingly to us. The sight of a real three 

 rouble note brought him back to comparative 

 liveliness ; and before we had had time to 

 completely freeze in the courtyard, we were 

 led into a long low shed, in which a fire, fed 

 by fragments of the rafters from the roof, i^c, 

 burned merrily on the floor. Here we supped 

 somewhat meagrely ; but if we did not feed 

 well, no one could have taken exception to our 



