180 SAVAGE SVAJsETIA. 



any sort compass that walk in three days ; 

 loaded these men do the distance in about 

 five, but a life spent in such walks would not 

 be a very long one. 



Still as I tried to make the Svans under- 

 stand, they have little right to ask for help 

 from others if they will make no effort for 

 themselves. If for a couple of months the men 

 of Lachamul and the villages round it would 

 devote the three days of the week they now 

 keep as idle, listless holidays to road-making, 

 they would require no help from outsiders. 

 But this they will never do. 



The way from Lachamul through the 

 forest follows the course of the Ingour, keep- 

 ing for the most part to its left hand bank 

 down stream. Just below the villa2:e we 

 crossed the river, now far different from the 

 small stream at Ushkul. For the whole of 

 that day and several other days its waters of 

 dark sea green, boiled and fretted beneath our 



