222 THE ZOOLOGIST 



weather, and I found it a good cure for neuralgia ; in the hot 

 weather or rain it can be worn as a simple Capucine hood. In 

 other parts of the Caucasus it is carried untwisted, hanging 

 down the back ; a brilliant colour, scarlet in particular, is much 

 affected by the dandies, but the average man prefers black or 

 greenish-grey. When I saw a scarlet bashlyk thus hanging 

 down the back of the wearer, I understood for the first time 

 the theory and pedigree of the University hood. 



Life in Guria is simple ; the land is largely held by big 

 owners, and estates run into many thousands of acres, but yield 

 small revenues, as the natives are lazy, for which undoubtedly 

 the heavy climate is responsible. They are orthodox, but 

 subject to some eastern influences ; in one house where I visited, 

 the women were secluded. The Adjars of the neighbouring 

 mountains are Gurians in blood, who have accepted Islam. 

 Food is plain and coarse ; meat is poor and rare ; the staple 

 diet is hot maize-bread, exceedingly heavy, white cheese, thin 

 wine, and every day chakhokhbili, or chicken stewed in a piquant 

 sauce. A peculiar speciality of the district is santlis, a spirit 

 distilled from crushed honeycomb ; it is strong and not 

 unpleasant to drink, with a marked aroma of beeswax. The 

 aristocracy is very proud of its ancient lineage, yet very demo- 

 cratic, for peasants and labourers sit down to table with the 

 prince or big landowner. It is customary for landowners to 

 carry revolvers, sword, and Jcinjal, or long dagger ; the latter is 

 not a mere ornament, for all Georgians have the southern 

 temperament well developed. 



Guria is a hilly country but not mountainous, the greatest alti- 

 tude being about 500 ft. ; it consists of a series of small anticlines 

 of Oligocene and Upper Miocene marls and soft sandstones ; 

 the latter are impregnated with oil, which is traditionally asso- 

 ciated with the legend of Prometheus, who gave fire to mankind. 

 These sedimentary beds are broken by a few basaltic and 

 trachytic dykes and intrusions. The soft marls and mud become 

 an impassable quagmire in winter, in which horses sink up to 

 their girths, and locomotion becomes very difficult. The valleys 

 are devoted to maize and the vine, but tea and tobacco are 

 cultivated by the more enterprising landowners. The hills are 

 covered with beech and dense thickets of rhododendrons, which 



