A SUANETIAN FARMHOUSE. 3'25 



The people in tlie fields were a wild-looking race, 

 and the women had the rough inqnisitiveness of savages. 

 Francois' personal appearance seemed to take their fancy, 

 but though flattered at their admii-ation, he was not 

 disposed to return it. We none of us lost our hearts 

 to the female portion of the population on the south 

 of the Caucasus ; the vaunted and undoubted beauty 

 of the Georgian race cannot withstand the exposure to 

 weather, and the field-work at an early age, which is the 

 lot of the women of the mountain tribes, and the traveller 

 who wants to see the houris with whom popular fancy 

 j)eoples the country had better stay at Kutais or Tiflis. 

 We passed through several clusters of houses, and, having 

 left behind us a knoll crowned by one of the small square 

 chapels characteristic of this region, were led by our 

 horsemen to an isolated farmhouse. The owner was out 

 haymaking, and his wife, a hideous old shi'ew, would not 

 open the door to so large a party of strangers without 

 leave from her lord. After a long delay, during which 

 we had nothing to do but to watch the clumsy, heavily- 

 laden carts, drawn by oxen, bringing in the hay, an old 

 peasant arrived, and we were admitted within the gates. 

 We found a regular farmyard, stocked with pigs and 

 poultry, and guarded by a dog. The building consisted 

 of two or three rooms on the ground-floor, and a large 

 barn, full of new hay, which we appropriated to om' use. 

 A projecting balcony afforded us a sunny spot on which 

 to spread our mattrass, while waiting the result of the 

 always lengthy preparations for dinner. So peaceful and 

 pastoral was the scene before our eyes, that it was difficult 

 to realise how many deeds of warfare and bloodshed had 

 taken place here, even within the last few years. The 

 inhabitants of Latal were formerly engaged in constant 

 struggles against the Dadisch-Kilians, whose authority 



