FRANK'S LOG. 169 



charge's appreciation of the comparative civi- 

 lisation of Kutais by too much luxury en 

 route. 



Though they passed daily through villages 

 these fellows never managed to reach them at 

 such time as to enable them to pass the night 

 under a roof, and for the most part Frank 

 had to camp out. Besides this, taking advan- 

 tao-e of his ignorance of the lano;uao;e, the 

 guides continually extorted from him money 

 for food and whiskey, so that from the time he 

 and his party started until they reached the 

 goal of their journey, a large proportion of 

 his followers were generally drunk — so much 

 so indeed that in crossing one river, one or 

 more of these drunken horsemen rolled help- 

 lessly from their saddles into the cool flood at 

 their feet. 



Glancing through Frank's rough log, I 

 find that the instructions as to food resulted 

 in menus such as this : — ' Tuesday, 5.30 a.m. 



