138 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



for the purpose of reporting on the agricul- 

 tural capabilities of Svanetia. 



Having seen perhaps more than my share 

 of the results of card-playing years ago in 

 Southern Russia, I never care to take a hand 

 at ' preference ' or any other of their games, so 

 whilst the princes and mighty ones grew 

 hilarious over their successes, or unbecomingly 

 savage over their losses, I retired to a corner 

 with a Monsieur Schemanovsky, agronome 

 to the Government of the Caucasus, from 

 whom I elicited, over a glass of tea and a 

 multitude of cigarettes, some scraps of infor- 

 mation regarding the products of the country. 



Even the Government at Tiflis seems to 

 know but little of this its last acquired province 

 of the Caucasus. Poor and inaccessible as it is, 

 it has never seemed to the conquerors worth 

 while to take much notice of it. Now and again 

 it has given them serious trouble, as when the 

 thirty-five Svans of one of the villages near 



