180 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



shots as told by the woodcutters was a vast 

 deal more useful to me. 



The villagers had most of them come 

 down from the pine forests, where they had 

 been hewins; wood, or from their fields be- 

 tween Lachamul and Etseri ; but by-and-bye, 

 as we all stood gossiping in the twilight, a 

 long file of weather-stained men, white with 

 the dust of travel, came plodding silently up 

 the course of the valley of the Ingour from 

 the opposite direction. 



Each man's back was bent beneath a heavy 

 load, and each seemed to follow mechanically 

 in the other's steps, too tired to so much as 

 look around until his course was completed 

 and his burden tossed off his shoulders in the 

 midst of the gossiping group. 



The news soon spread that some of the 

 men from Lekera had come in, and friends 

 flocked out to welcome them home. These 

 were the chief workers of the Lachamul hive, 



