478 TRANSCAUCASIA. 



near Kutais, and that this one must he the Baron de 

 Longueil, whom we had met six months hefore on hoard 

 the Rion steamer. Under the circumstances, the best 

 course was evidently to accept the proposal, and claim the 

 hospitality of the only civilised being within reach. 



Though the Baron was away from home, * Madame ' re- 

 ceived us with the greatest kindness, and gave us both 

 food and beds, luxuries which, ten minutes before, we had 

 seemed little likely to obtain on this side of Kutais. From 

 the account we heard of it, farming in Mingrelia does not 

 seem to be so wholly delightful an occupation as the 

 natural fertility of the soil might lead one to suppose. 

 ' Madame ' complained bitterly of the laziness and dis- 

 honesty of the native servants, and of the excessive diffi- 

 culty of transport, Kutais, though only about thirty miles 

 distant, being often rendered inaccessible for weeks in win- 

 ter by swollen streams and the horrible state of the roads. 



September 4th. — When daylight came, we saw that the 

 Baron had built himself a pretty little villa, ornamented 

 with a verandah overgrown with creepers, and some 

 attempt at a garden. Bidding a grateful adieu to our 

 kind hostess, we remounted our horses, and started to ride 

 across the flat country that separated us from Kutais. The 

 sky was overclouded, and we could not but congratulate 

 ourselves on our good-luck in having had so perfect a view 

 the previous morning. The road leads at first across glades 

 of turf, and between copses of fruit-trees overhung and 

 knitted together by wild vines, and passes through several 

 villages. Mingrelian hamlets are all exactly alike, and 

 it would be impossible to improve on Mr. Palgrave's des- 

 cription of one : ' The houses are neither ranged in 

 streets, nor grouped in blocks, but scattered as at random, 

 each in a separate enclosure. The houses themselves are 

 one-storied, and of wood, sometimes mere huts of wattle 



