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THE ASCEXT OF TETNULD 267
of the valley only the white snout of the Zanner Glacier is seen
beyond the dark cliifs and forests of a deep gorge.
Next day we despatched the priest's son with 15 roubles (28
shillings) to Adish to try to recover our goods. In case of his
failure we sent the Suanetian Cossack to Betsho to inform the
Priestav of our loss.
About noon I, with two of the guides, made a futile start for
Tetnuld. We got on the wrong side of the gorge leading to the
Zanner Glacier, and after spending some liours of storm under an
impenetrable pine, came back again. The weather all day was like
that of the English Lakes, storm and gleams, and we had some
wild visions of Ushba hung
witli cloud-banners.
Tlie following day was all storm and no gleam. We had, how-
ever, our fill of entertainment indoors. It was a day of arrivals.
First there was the advance of the Russian forces to avenge
the Rape of the Shirts. They consisted of a splendid
old Cossack
sergeant — quite the popular ideal of a Cossack—and his two men,
a mild, broad-faced Russian youth and a weak Suanetian. This
trio marched on Adish, and, very mvich to our surprise
and their
credit, successfully arrested the ten leading villagers.
Another arrival was promised us— no less a person than the
Bishop of Poti, the first Bishop who, in historical times, liad
penetrated Free Suanetia. From, so fever-stricken a see one might
naturally look for a pale ascetic. Our prelate, however, was much
the reverse— a man of sturdy frame and sense. But I am antici-
pating.
It was towards evening before the path that descends
the beautiful slopes above the village became alive with horses.
The cavalcade was divided into many detachments, camp-servants
with huge saddle-bags, long-haired priests, singing-men with dark
locks and melancholy stag-like eyes. Last came the Bi.shop himself
a large, thick-set man in imposing ecclesiastical vestments, attended
by his secretary and a Mingrelian gentleman who talked Fi-ench
and had spent some time at Geneva. Through the latter I had
told me that the first sermon
• some talk with the Bishop, who
he preached to the Suanetians would be on the necessity of
giving up their eclectic practice of keeping the holy days of three