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SAVAGE BVANETIA. 



out into little square plots, yielding a scanty 

 supply of rye or barley to the villagers, and 

 all round roll range upon range of barren hills, 

 while at the end of the glen towers the white 

 mass of some giant snow peak. 



In summer the scenery is so stern and 

 wild that its beauty hardly impresses you so 

 much as its savage sense of desolation. But 

 what the lives of these villagers must be like 

 when winter has shut them away from the 

 world, and a black wintry sky frowns down on 

 the silent waste of snow-shrouded mountains, 

 it is difficult indeed to conceive. Often in 

 such glens fuel is not near at hand, and food 

 is always scarce. 



Wine or spirits, to cheer the heart of 

 man, they have none ; books there are none ; 

 and for at least eight months no news 

 can come to them from the world without. 

 Lucky for the men if they are hunters, for 

 then they at least may while away a few of the 



