Thus when a member commits a theft for the first time, and is poor, the others pay his fine, which is for the most part reckoned at the value of so many oxen. A man stole an axe while Bell was in the country, and the case was tried in the valley where he was residing. As it was the second offence, a fine of twentyfour oxen was imposed; but upon representation of his poverty the number was reduced to fifteen. Where a crime is thus repeated, the fraternities withdraw their protection, and inflict punishment upon the offender. There is throughout Circassia a price for life or weregild, which varies for rank and sex, as it did among the Teutonic tribes of the fourth and fifth centuries. These fines also are paid by the fraternities, but it is usual, according to Bell, after the commission of several homicides by the same individual, to punish him with death or slavery. fines go to the whole fraternity of the slain person; his own immediate family receiving only a somewhat larger sum than the other members. A very amiable part of these institutions is, that an obligation is felt to aid members who are in reduced circumstances, as well as the widows and families of deceased ones.

The

The fines for homicide, which we have mentioned, were intended no doubt to put an end to blood revenge; but that practice, so common and so natural for nations standing on a level with the Circassians in civilization, has not ceased. The obligation is perpetuated from father to son through generations, and sometimes involves fraternities and districts in feud with one another.

Our limits will not allow us to speak of the state of Caucasian civilization in general, nor of the capacity of this race of men for improvement. Let it suffice to say that their athletic, beautifully formed bodies and fine countenances are no bad index to their qualities of soul. If the Circassians may serve as an example of the rest, they are free, brave and generous to an extreme; polite and respectful in their manners; alive to beauty and the power of song; and inclined to the same free but chaste intercourse of the sexes which exists among the natives of the west. They can not be classed with the Orientals in their traits of character, any more than in their costumes and modes of life. In religious susceptibilities we should judge them to be inferior to many other races. Their life seems to find its centre in free personal activity, uncontrolled by religious obligation or faith. They resemble more the early Germans perhaps, than any people now existing on the face of the earth. Their great social faults have arisen from the boiling over of personal independence, which leads to invasions of the property of others, kidnapping, blood-feuds and the impossibility of establishing a settled united society. The kidnapping, for which they have been somewhat

infamous in past times, has in a good degree ceased, thanks to a common feeling and a sense of nationality inspired by Russian

invasion.

We remarked in the early part of this article that the Russians long ago entered into relations with Georgia and Imeritia: the same thing is true also of other portions of Caucasia. As early as the year 1555, under the Czar Iwan Wassilie witsch, according to Russian accounts to be found in Klaproth's Caucasian travels, several Circassian princes subjected themselves with their land and people in perpetuity to the Russian scepter. Soon after, weary of wars with their neighbors, these princes or some of them, removed to the land which is now called the greater and less Kabarda. They gave hostages for their good conduct to the Russian government, one of whom, the daughter of a prince, became the second wife of the emperor already named, and her brother was made a privy councillor. In 1568 the Russians attempted to found a town upon the Terek, which led to bloody resistance. Not long afterwards the Persians, being desirous of Russian assistance against Turkey, offered to give up to them Derbend and another place near the Caspian, if they should recapture these towns from the Turks. Between the beginning of the sixteenth century and that of the eighteenth,-to cut a long story short, the Russians had managed, by making themselves necessary to the petty Khans of the southern Lesghis and Tatars in Daghestan, or the country south of the Koissu and northeast of Caucasus, to get a secure footing there along the coast of the Caspian the rulers of a large part of that territory acknowledged their supremacy, and yet their sway was a mere name in the interior. In the land of the Tshetshes they had attempted without success to make a settlement at the embouchure of the Sunsha into the Terek; and a similar attempt had proved abortive at the mouth of the Koissu upon the Caspian. It was not until 1818 that in the first mentioned country the important post of Grosnaya was founded.

It was in this country of the Tshetshes that the modern movements in Caucasus against the Russians began, excited by the intrigues of Turkey, which by kindling up the somewhat lukewarm religious zeal of the eastern Caucasians,-the western had none at all, or were not even Mohammedans,-hoped to put obstacles in the way of its dreaded neighbor. Russsia had already got possession of the Crimea, had swallowed up the last principality of the golden Horde, had extended her line to the Kuban and across it along the plains: only the hill country was free, and its inhabitants alone united hatred of Russia, love of liberty and Mohammedan sympathies.

A religious teacher of the Tshetshes, Mohammed Mansur by name, not a mere Priest or Mollah but a Murshid or teacher also,

had already begun in the last quarter of the last century to rouse his nation to fanatical zeal against Russia. Encouraged by Turkey he preached death to the Russians through the land, headed plundering parties who returned to the mountains laden with booty, and constituted himself a sheikh of sheikhs, and even an Imam. Mansur's earnest wish was to bring the western neighbors of the Tshetshes, the Circassians, into concert with them; but though these were filled with jealousy and dislike of Russia, owing to her subjugation of the before tributary Kabards in the middle of the last century, they have proved too proud to consent to such a union. A Circassian, it is said, looks down upon a Tshetsh or a Lesghi, so that an ordinary nobleman of the former would feel himself degraded by an alliance with a prince's daughter of the latter. This together with insusceptibility to the fanatical eloquence of Sheikh Mansur, through indifference or dislike to his religion, kept them from making common cause with him, and the same feelings have continued since, although the sway of Islam and hatred of Russia have considerably increased in Circassia. Mansur's active career was closed in 1791, when he joined the Turks at Anapa, on the Circassian coast, and was taken prisoner by the Russians, in the storming of the fortress.

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The European wars, which broke out soon after this, left Russia no leisure to attend to the tribes around Caucasus, which refused to acknowledge her sway; and the occupation of Georgia may have required all her disposable force. On their part the tribes in many instances paid tribute; and were allowed to pursue their own policy in regard to internal affairs undisturbed. About 1820 arose another fanatical religious teacher, a Tshetsh apparently by birth, called Kasi Mohammed, and afterwards Kasi Mollah. About the time when he commenced his career as a preacher and Murshid, a frightful act, performed however by another fanatical priest, illustrated the frenzy of these men. band of Tshetshes had taken a Russian fort, and put the garrison to the sword. The Russians, after recapturing the fort, attempted to persuade the tribe to surrender the authors of the mischief. A deputation was sent by them to two generals in the fort; but only the leader, this same priest, was allowed to enter. The irritating language of the generals transported him into such a fury, that he slew them and several others with his dagger, before he could be cut down himself. This savage deed led Jermoloff, the very able governor of Georgia, to make an expedition into the land of the Tshetshes, and his severities kept them in awe for some time.

Kasi Mollah, being opposed by other priests among the Lesghis, who were jealous of his influence, found it necessary at first to establish himself by decision and even by bloody measures. He

then turned his arms against rulers of Lesghian districts who refused to take his part, or were in alliance with the Russians; and perpetrated horrible atrocities upon Tarku, the capital of the most important prince in Daghestan. But Russian armies pursued him every where and wrested his conquests from him; until finally he was shut up in a walled village called Himri, which he had made his residence, where, on its being stormed, he was found among the slain in 1832.

Meanwhile a Lesghi, named Hamsad Beg, who became at Kasi's death the leader and Murshid of the party opposed to the Russians, had already begun his career, and had cooperated with Kasi. There is a little republic of Lesghis, called the Dshars, on the south declivity of Caucasus, near the Alasan, a branch of the Kur; the inhabitants of which had pursued the honorable employment of stealing Georgian maidens and other persons, whom they sold for slaves to the Turks, at Achalzik upon the Kur. This town in fact, and Anapa on the Circassia coast were the principal slave markets in Caucasia where Turkish voluptuousness obtained its supplies. Both places fell under Russian sway in 1829. The robbing Lesghis were punished by Paske witsch then governor of Georgia. On his departure to engage in the Persian war, they became refractory; and General Rosen in a very faithless manner, during a negotiation, seized the persons of Hamsad Beg and of his brother. The emperor disapproved of this measure, and the chiefs were sent back laden with presents. On regaining the mountains they returned the presents with scorn, joined Kasi Mollah and became embittered foes of Russia.

This new leader appears to have fallen short of his predecessor in fanaticism and the power of eloquence which accompanies it; but to have surpassed him in military capacity. His course however was but a brief one. Sensible of the sway which princely families allied to Russia exercised over the minds of the people, he attempted to exterminate the family of the Khans of Avar, and had partially succeeded, when he was murdered in a mosque by conspirators, whom his faithless cruelties had stimulated to vengeance.

Hamsad's power devolved upon Shamil, the very extraordinary man, who has for fourteen years baffled Russia's best generals, and displayed abilities equal, if not superior, to those of a Sertorius, a George Castriot, or an Abd el Kader. In war Shamil seems to unite great cunning and coolness in plan with the proper degree of bravery. But he is not a mere military leader; his sway over minds is very great; and he is more indebted for his success to his power of uniting the tribes, than to any other source. He seems less to be a fanatic himself than to use the fanaticism of the people, as his instrument in carrying out his

plans. He has learned something of the art of warfare either from observation of Russian practice, or from Poles who have been captured or have voluntarily joined him. His patience is remarkable. He will allow the Russians to go on their way ravaging and conquering unresisted, until, when they have penetrated far into a hostile district, and their supplies are likely to be deficient, he suddenly appears at some defensible point, disputes their passage at every step, and, if compelled by their artillery to yield, leaves a fearful impress of himself upon the thinned ranks of their regiments.

To follow Shamil in his career would exceed our limits, and there is no accessible map, which we know of, that can afford to the reader much assistance in tracing out his carapaigns. We will only meantion one or two particulars of his adventures; premising first that the scene of conflict has been, more than any where else, in Lesghistan along the river Koissu, and in the land of the Tshetshes to the west of that stream, where Shamil, who pertains by birth to that tribe, had his residence amid an almost impervious wilderness of woods.

From 1834 until 1840, Shamil's measures were those of a guerilla partisan, usually retreating before superior forces, but occasionally making a stand and fighting with desperation. On one occasion, he defended a village against Gen. Faesi and an army of 12,000, fighting and retreating from house to house; and after this kept up active operations until late in the autumn of 1838, when both parties retired claiming the victory. In a subsequent campaign he shut himself up in a very strong rockfortress, called Achulko, which he had further protected by the defenses of art. The Russians used all their resources to take it, and finally succeeded when nearly all the garrison had fallen. On entering they found Shamil neither among the prisoners nor the slain. The story of his escape, whether to be relied upon or not, is sufficiently illustrative of his fertility in resources. Word was brought, two days before the complete reduction of the fortress, that he was going to let himself down the perpendicular side of the hill by a rope, and so effect his escape. Trusty men, stationed near the spot, on hearing a noise about midnight, perceived that several Lesghians were effecting their descent in the way mentioned, one of whom was clad in white like Shamil. They issue from the station where they lie concealed, capture the would-be runaways, and convey them to the camp. Great was their chagrin on finding that the prisoner in white was only a counterfeit Shamil, whilst the real one, after the capture had been made and all was still, let himself down in safety, swam the Koissu and disappeared. This adventure and a previous one gave him a mysterious sanctity in the eyes of the people. It was said that Mohammed had delivered him, in order to drive