or IMERETTA, the name of a kingdom, or rather principality, of Georgia, consisting of four provinces, is under the dominion of a prince named David. See GEORGIA.
The capital, where Prince David resides, is called Imeretia Curtays. The remains of a church announce that Curtays was formerly a large city; but at present it can scarcely be accounted a village.
Solomon, the father of the present sovereign, ordered the city to be destroyed, as well as the ramparts of the city; for he thought, and very wisely, that Caucasus was the only fortification capable of being defended by an army of 6000 men undisciplined and destitute of artillery.
The number of the inhabitants of Imeretia is reckoned to be 20,000 families; but the greater part of them live neither in towns nor villages, but are dispersed throughout the level country, each of them possessing a small hut or cottage. These people have fewer strangers among them, and they are more engaging in their appearance, than the Georgians. They are of a milder and less pugnacious character; and the principal branch of their commerce consists in wines, a considerable quantity of which they export in skins as far as the confines of Georgia. They are acquainted with no other trade; for they are poor and miserable, and greatly oppressed by their lords.
The ordinary revenues of Imeretia, like those of Georgia, arise from a tythe which vassals are obliged to pay in wines, cattle, and corn, and some subsidies furnished annually by neighbouring princes. The extraordinary revenues for the most part arise from confiscations of every kind; but notwithstanding this, the finances of the prince are so limited, that he is often under the necessity of going from house to house, to live at the expense of his vassals, never quitting their habitations until the pressing wants of his hosts absolutely compel him. It is therefore probable, that the court of the sovereign of Imeretia is as deficient in brilliancy as his table is in splendour when he dines at home. His principal dishes consist of a certain food called gom, which is a kind of millet boiled, and a piece of roast meat, with some highly-seasoned sauce. He never eats but with his fingers, for forks and spoons are unknown in Imeretia. At table he generally gives audiences respecting affairs of the first consequence, which he determines as he thinks proper; for in every country subject to his dominions there is no other law but his will.
On Friday, which is the market day, all his new edicts are published by a kind of herald, who climbs up into some tree, in order to proclaim the will of his sovereign. The Imerettans profess the religion of the Greek church. Their patriarch must be of the royal family; but it is seldom that he can either read or write; the priests who compose the rest of the clergy are not much more enlightened. The greater part of their churches are pitiful edifices, which can scarcely be distinguished from the common huts of the inhabitants but by a pasteboard crucifix, and a few coarse paintings of the Virgin, which are seen in them.