188 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



night, and right glad were we to see the roof 

 of the hut just showing above the tall spear- 

 like heads of a luxuriant maize crop. No- 

 where, I should think, does the maize grow 

 finer than on the Ingour, and not the worst 

 dish in the world for a hungry man is a green 

 head of this corn baked amono-st the wood 

 embers. At least so we thouoht when we 

 followed Imat the settler into his tent and 

 accepted a head apiece to stay our stomachs 

 until dinner time. 



These summer settlers on the Ingour 

 have a far better life of it than their brethren 

 of the villages. Their houses are not, 

 properly speaking, habitable, but they are 

 wind and rain proof ; and after living amongst 

 the stone heaps of Ushkul, these wooden huts 

 look quite couifortable by comparison. We 

 had arrived at Imat's hut in the very nick of 

 time too, for only now was he returning from 

 offering the head of a chamois killed yester- 



