354 FROM TAKI TO PATIGORSK. 



woods, who luad come here to see what they could find. We 

 heard of thein elsewhere, and ultimately saw their pur- 

 chases on the quay at Poti, on the j)oint of being shij)ped. 

 The people are thus brought into contact with the Euro- 

 pean world, but its rumours echo faintly in this remote 

 corner of the continent. The princes themselves are men 

 of taste : one is a good musician ; the other, whose mind 

 seemed to be of a practical turn, has gained some informa- 

 tion during his Russian service beyond that of a purely 

 military character. Accustomed at home to nothing but 

 the perishable cream-cheeses which are alone made in the 

 Caucasus, he had been struck by the ' Gruyere ' eaten in 

 Russia, and had set to work to imitate it with very toler- 

 able success. Before our departure we saw also a number 

 of improved carts, which had been constructed under his 

 directions, to replace the clumsy machines formerly in use. 

 The facts connected with our country most deeply im- 

 pressed on his mind were, that it had produced a great 

 dramatic author named Shakespeare, and that Englishmen 

 lived entirely on beefsteaks and porter; he was profuse in his 

 apologies at being unable to supply us with our national 

 food, and offered to send up to the pasturage and have 

 a bullock slaughtered, a proposal the execution of which 

 was only prevented by our declaring ourselves quite con- 

 tented with the sheep we had just bought. 



We endeavoured to extract as much information as pos- 

 sible as to the customs and mode of life of the peoj)ie, but 

 it is very difficult to talk on any but the simplest subjects 

 through an uneducated interpreter. The sum of what we 

 gathered was, that the natives of this and the upper val- 

 levs next to the east consider themselves a distinct race 

 from the Tcherkesses, who dwell on the verge of the 

 steppes and in the mountains to the westward. The 

 people here claim to be the old inhabitants, and to have 



