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268 THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
religions and doing no work between Thursday night and Monday
morning.
The supper that evening showed the resources of Suanetia.
We all, except the Bishop, sat down to it— a company of at least
thirty. Roast mutton and boiled fowls were followed by roast
pork. Knives fell short, and plates shorter. But the baser sort
at the lower end of the table used their kinjals (daggers) for
knives, and the flat loaves—
A BUY .\T Ml'JAL
to start again for Tetnuld. M. de Dechy
excellently baked for once in
the Bishop's honour— served as
plates first and were eaten
afterwards, after the fashion of
yEneas. And there was wine
at discretion — capital, sound
Mingrelian wine, which no one
but the guides despised for its
goatskin flavour. It was long
past midnight when I retired
between the folds of my insect-
proof curtains, watched by a
solemn group of long-robed
priests and peasants, resembling
nothing so much as the bystanders
depicted in the Ra-
phael Cartoons.
The sky next morning was
less charged with vapour, and
there was a touch of north in
the wind. I was determined
was anxious not to lose
the advantage of the expected visit of the Priestav from Betsho,
and his assistance both in recovering his lost apparel and in
making final arrangements with the villagers to serve as porters.
It will be most convenient if I give here the result of our
application. Early in the afternoon of the second day, after I
had started for Tetnuld, a party of villagers came in from Adish.