272 Journal of a Tour through Georgia, [June, 



" Their dwellings were under ground, the mouth resembling that of a well, 

 but spacious below; there was an entrance dug for the cattle, but the in- 

 habitants descended by ladders. In these houses were goats, sheep, 

 cows, and fowls, with their young." Throughout Georgia the inhabi- 

 tants make an excavation in the ground, and then build up the sides 

 with large stones. Upon this they lay rafters, and cover the whole 

 with earth, so that in walking through a village, it is very difficult to 

 tell whether you are upon a house-top or on the bare ground. An aper- 

 ture is left at the top to light the room inhabited by the family, who 

 are only divided from the cattle by a thin planked partition. 



To the traveller indeed, nothing very enlivening presents itself ; the 

 roofless remains of hamlets that have been destroyed by the tyranny of 

 rulers frequently occur, and old burying places which mark the spots 

 where man once has been. Every thing, in short, indicates that the 

 Government is a bitter enemy to the prosperity of the people. 



At Saganlook, the range of mountains made an acute angle, direct 

 south ; and thence continued stretching along the acclivities which 

 formed an alpine wall to our road. On quitting the village we bade 

 adieu to the often travelled Erivan road, and some crumbling towers ; 

 and descended a narrow ravine into a valley bounded by an inconsider- 

 able but romantically situated lake. The hills on our right presented 

 the habitations of the peasantry ; who appeared poor and wretched. 

 On leaving the valley, an abrupt ascent brought us to an open tract, 

 of country. The plain to the southward of our route was bounded by 

 a flat horizon, from which every successive mountain rose, as we ad- 

 vanced, like objects when first seen at sea ; while to the eastward of 

 our direction, the turbid river Cyrus playfully meandered through a fine 

 though uncultivated soil, until it was lost in the capricious stratification 

 of the inhospitable looking mountains. 



This part of Georgia is now called Kartalinia, and was the ancient 

 Iberia. Ptolemy describes it as bordered on the north by the Sarma- 

 tian mountains ; to the south by a part of Armenia ; to the east by 

 Albania, and to the west by Colchis. Many of its towns and villages 

 are mentioned by him, and also by Strabo, who travelled through this 

 country, and who speaks of its being a luxurious and flourishing state. 

 A distressing contrast it now presents ! An independent kingdom, 

 reduced to the abject situation of a province ; and not immediately to 

 the sovereign power itself, which might dispense consequence with 

 near union ; but through the double vassalage of a medium, being an 

 appendage to another subject province — that of Georgia. Invasions from 

 rival neighbours swept off the brave population of this little kingdom ; 

 and the final blow was struck by those who possessed ambition, without 

 the manliness to maintain it th oi ^selves. Like other powers who have 



