302 SUATs-ETIA. 



gazing at our proceedings with an air of absolute stupidity 

 wliicli was provoking to witness. When we got rid of 

 them for the night, we drew the bench across the door, 

 piled our baggage in the corner close to us, and with our 

 revolvers under our heads dropped off to sleep. 



July ISth. — Fran9ois, who was the first to go out in the 

 morning, came back with the intelligence that there was 

 ' quelque chose a voir.' On our following him out of the 

 barn, and looking towards the head of the valley, where 

 on the previous afternoon nothing but clouds had been 

 \dsible, our eyes were greeted by an enormously high 

 mass of rock seamed with snow and ice. Over break- 

 fast we held a consultation as to our arrangements, 

 and agreed that, at all events, the day must be spent at 

 Jibiani, and that we might walk up towards the sources 

 of the Ingur, and gain a view of the' glaciers from which 

 it rises, while Paul and Francois were employed in clean- 

 ing and mending the parts of our equipment which had 

 been injured in our journey from Gebi, and in bargaining 

 for and cooking a sheep. On a knoll above the village 

 stands the church of Jibiani, which, like all those in 

 Suanetia, is a low square building without tower or belfry. 

 Radde met with some opposition when he proposed to 

 enter it, and we did not attempt to do so. According to 

 him, the interior contains a collection of the horns of 

 chamois and bouquetin, two crosses on either side of the 

 altar, and some remains of rude frescoes on the walls. 



The path, after mounting for some little distance on the 

 left bank of the stream, crossed it by a bridge, from which 

 there was a picturesque view down the cleft through which 

 the water finds a channel. On the way we passed herds of 

 cattle, all bullocks, and families of lean pigs, wandering 

 about the hillside. The head of the valley is occupied 

 by a wide bare pasturage, above which the central chain 



