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SUAXKTIA 219
on the tinofers of one hand the travellers who had visited the
country before 1868. Among
its inhabitants there was no tradi-
tion of hospitality, such as is almost universal in the East. They
not only turned the stranger from their doors, but they exacted
a payment for letting him pass them. An attempt was made to
enforce such a demand on my
last visit to Adish.
Medicine was practically TUiknown, and even now the traveller
who cures by his drugs is looked on more or less as a miracle-
monger. Goitres are prevalent, and epilepsy — possibly attributable
in part to the vile spirit extracted from barley — is not uncommon.
The natives are said to be peculiarly liable to fever when they
descend to the lowlands, and an incident I shall have to relate
affords a strong proof of their sense of danger in doing so.
Primitive poetry and local ballads often give a nearer insight
into the condition of life and the manners of a race than religious
the latter as a rule
rites and beliefs. The former are indigenous ;
more or less exotic. Dr. Eadde has fortunately jireserved several
very curious Suanetian ballads, such as are still sung under some
ancient tree, or on the march along the mountain paths. They
celebrate the golden time of Thamara, past forays across the great
chain into the land of the Baksan (the name of Terskol, a glen at
the foot of Elbruz, occurs Tartars), or among the Abkhasians to
the west. The following ballad, which records the fate of a hunter
— an early '
mountaineering accident '— gives so lively a picture
of Suanetian manners that I must venture on a rough translation.
Metki waS' a hunter of Pari, in Dadish Kilian's Suanetia. He
became the lover of the Mountain Spirit. It appears from Dr.
Radde's version that, besides having an official wife, he was also in
love with his sister-in-law, and that to the latter he revealed the
secret of her mysterious rival. How the Spirit revenged his
indiscretion, Metki, or rather Metki's ghost, tells as follows :
'
Metki is unhappy, and to be pitied. The men of Lentekhi were as-
sembled for the (lance. Into the circle of the dancers sprang a white hare;
after running round the circle it leapt between Metki's feet. Metki said to
his fellows, " Remain you cjuiet here ;
I must follow the tracks of the hare !
this has never happened to me before.
"