SUANETIAN HISTORY. 293 



stantin Dadiscli-Kilian, the Suanetian prince, resident at 

 Pari, was about eight years ago suspected of some intrigue, 

 and was in consequence summoned, by the Governor of 

 Mingrelia, to meet him at Kutais. He obeyed the sum- 

 mons, and was told that he must leave his home and live for 

 the future in Russia. High words ensued ; the Russian 

 officer was firm, the Prince grew violent, and finally, draw- 

 ing his dagger, stabbed and killed the Governor. He 

 escaped for the moment, but was ultimately taken and shot 

 at Kutais. His former residence, Pari, was selected as the 

 Russian military post in Suanetia, and for a short time the 

 whole disti'ict was kept under control by a considerable 

 force. The expense and difficulty experienced in carrying 

 out the unprofitable task of preserving order in this moun- 

 tain fastness appear to have disgusted the Government, 

 which probably thought that if the free Suanetians were 

 left to fight out their quarrels, the race would, like Kil- 

 kenny cats, soon be self-exterminated. Whatever the 

 motive, the troops were withdrawn, and ten Cossacks, 

 stationed at Pari, are the entire executive force at the 

 disposal of the chief of the district, and the upper or 

 western valleys are, for all practical purposes, independent, 

 and at full liberty to follow their own wicked ways of theft 

 and murder, to their hearts' content. 



This is, I believe, a coiTect description of the present 

 state of the country. Its past history is obscure and com- 

 plicated, and I cannot pretend to have made any very deep 

 researches concerning it. Suanetia seems usually to have 

 been united with Mingrelia, but at times to have been 

 treated as a province of the Imeritian kingdom. The inter- 

 nal disorder to which Imeritia w^as the prey, and the 

 weakness of its rulers, aided the Suanetians in establishing 

 then* independence. 



At the end of the fourteenth century, they made a sue- 



