244 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



deal of the vulsfar tono;ue of the Russian and 

 could use it to some purpose. 



After having seen in what manner my 

 neio;hbours used their rifles, I was not the 

 least surprised to find that though thirty or 

 forty shots had been fired, nothing had been 

 bagged. 



Once, when the hounds seemed farthest 

 from me, I had glanced down the narrow path 

 in front of me, lying on my belly to do so, and 

 had caught sight in the dim obscurity of three 

 beasts, who followed one another slowly 

 across the path, carrymg their heads like 

 hounds trying to pick out a line. For a 

 moment I thought they were pigs, and had 

 taken aim at the biggest of them, but the 

 fear of killing a hound overcame me, and I 

 let them go. 



When I crept down the path afterwards 

 and found I had let three young boar Avalk 

 ({uietly past me, at about thirty yards off, I 



