Having thus assisted at the preparation of the food of the poor mountaineer, let us join Klaproth at the table of a prince. A long striped cloth, about a yard and a half wide and very dirty, was spread for his party; on this was placed for each guest an oval-shaped wheaten cake, three spans long by two wide, and scarcely as thick as a finger. A number of little brass bowls, filled with mutton and boiled rice, roast fowls, and cheese cut in slices, were then brought in. As it was a fast day, smoked salmon with uncooked green vegetables was served to the prince and his subjects. Spoons, forks, and knives are unknown in Georgia; soup is eaten from the bowl, meat is taken in the hands, and torn with the fingers into pieces the size of a mouthful. To throw a tid-bit to another guest is a mark of great friendship. The repast over, grapes and dried fruits are eaten. During the meal a good red native wine, called traktir by the Tartars, and ghwino by the Georgians, is very freely circulated. It is drunk from flat silver bowls greatly resembling saucers. Klaproth's account of the different incidents of his journey is no less interesting and vivid than this description of the manners of the people. Take, for instance, what he says of his trip to the sources of the Terek, the site of which had been pretty accurately indicated by Guldenstaedt, although he had not visited them. "I left the village of Utzfars-Kan on the 17th March, on a bright but cold morning. Fifteen Ossetes accompanied me. After half an hour's march, we began to climb the steep and rugged ascent leading to the junction of the Utzfars-Don with the Terek. This was succeeded by a still worse road, running for a league alongside of the river, which is scarcely ten paces wide here, although it was then swollen by the melting of the snow. This part of the river banks is inhabited. We continued to ascend, and reached the foot of the Khoki, also called Istir-Khoki, finally arriving at a spot where an accumulation of large stones in the bed of the river rendered it possible to cross over to the village of Tsiwratte-Kan, where we breakfasted. Here the small streams forming the Terek meet. I was so glad to have reached the end of my journey, that I poured a glass of Hungarian wine into the river, and made a second libation to the genius of the mountain in which the Terek rises. The Ossetes, who thought I was performing a religious ceremony, observed me gravely. On the smooth sides of an enormous block of schist I engraved in red the date of my journey, together with my name and those of my companions, after which I climbed up to the village of Ressi." [Illustration: "Fifteen Ossetes accompanied me."]