100 
DUSCHETT. 
The peasants were preparing to sow wheat and barley, which, 
with millet, are the only sorts of grain they cultivate with dili¬ 
gence. From the latter, two liquors are extracted; one, an 
ardent spirit; the other, a milder drink, extremely sour and dis¬ 
agreeable. Wines are not in use in this part of Georgia ; neither 
do we see a single vine for the benefit of its grapes as a food. 
By the degree in which we draw nearer to an admired object, 
we often find that it gradually loses the beauties which attracted 
at a distance. Thus a green vale, when viewed from a height, 
seems luxuriant in cultivation; but when come to the place 
itself, we may see a morass instead of a field. In like manner, 
as we approached Duschett, the appearance of the general culture 
we had hailed from the brow of the mountain, dispersed away 
into limited spots; and we still found the traces of savage deso¬ 
lation, the footsteps of a lagging, because still insecure, industry. 
Duschett itself, is a pretty extensive town; with the remains 
of a fortress and a palace, which, in times past, were the summer- 
residence of the kings (or Tzars) of Georgia; and, I believe, a 
particular favourite with the last, the celebrated Heraclius: for 
his son could scarcely be said to have reigned. Being curious to 
have an idea of an Asiatic palace, I requested the officer com¬ 
manding at this post, to be kind enough to accompany me to 
see it and the fortress. I found a very large square, inclosed by 
high stone walls, with strong towers at the angles. On one side 
of the interior of this square, near the wall, stands the royal 
edifice; a low, unpretending-looking building, consisting of a 
single story, which is divided into small rooms, without other 
ornament than some rough carved work, in the shape of lozenges, 
on the timbers of the ceiling. Neither gilding nor paint, of any 
kind, ever seems to have touched its plain stuccoed walls. A 
veranda surrounds the whole; and its flat roof formed a terrace, 
