242 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



' Absalomed ' as any man need wish to be. 

 After this all the horses were sent back, 

 and the guns followed the old colonel on foot, 

 and were told off one after another to their 

 respective places. My post seemed as promis- 

 ing as need be, for at my feet was the junc- 

 tion of two f)aths which the wild swine had 

 trampled through the jungle and at my back 

 was a large fig-tree, the terminus probably of 

 these two lines. All round was a dense wall 

 of briars and thorny things, whose Russian 

 names were longer than their thorns, so 

 though I have a vivid memory of the latter, 

 the former are unluckily forgotten, By-and- 

 bye there was n sound of horns, and then 

 intense silence. 



After a while some hounds gave tongue 

 and carried a line apparently right past 

 where I was standing, but keen as my watch 

 had been I saw nothing either then or there- 

 after. 



