ena, and wolf, and plenty of smaller game, with seldom a
roof to cover him other than the vault of heaven; but the ordinary
traveller is likely to encounter difficulties and delays that he would
prefer to avoid. Christianity was here introduced by Justinian, who
constructed many churches that would have been notable specimens
of Byzantine architecture, had the Abkhases not destroyed them in
their struggles against the Russians, every such edifice being
occupied and converted by the latter into a military post. One
church, at Pitzunda on the coast, remarkable as being the place
to which John Chrysostom was banished at the instance of Empress
Eudoxia--although the exile never reached his destination--having
escaped the general destruction, has been thoroughly restored of
late years, and is a striking object to passing vessels. Being the
mother church in the Caucasus, Pitzunda, then Pityus, continued to
be the seat of the Catholics of Abkhasia until the Twelfth Century.
Practically, the Abkhases are at present heathens.

Farther south, and extending some way inland from the sea, is the
principality of Mingrelia, where we again tread classic ground,
inasmuch as our wanderings have brought us to the AEa of Circe and
the Argonauts. In a Mingrelian landscape we are struck at the aspect
afforded by the numerous whitewashed cottages as they dot the
well-wooded hills. The Mingrelians, too, like their neighbours
whom we have just quitted, are incurably given to indolence, except
in the making of wine from their abundant vineyards; otherwise they
are content to live on the produce of their orchards, prolific
through the interposition of a beneficent Providence rather than
to any agricultural diligence on their part. They may certainly be
included amongst the handsomest people in Transcaucasia, with their
well-defined features and usually raven black hair. The Dadian, or
prince, is the wealthiest of the dispossessed rulers: the foresight
of his predecessor and his own European training having taught
him the danger of disposing of land and squandering the proceeds,
rather than preserving the property and contenting himself with
a smaller income.

Between Mingrelia and Abkhasia courses the Ingur, and if we ascend
to near its water-shed--a journey easily accomplished on horse-back,
say from Sougdidi, the well-known military station--we should find
ourselves amongst a very wild and singular people, the Svanni,
whose complete subjugat