feet, and

Dominican monk, who visited them in 1638, says: The Circassians speak their own, and, imperfectly, the Turkish languages. They are partly Mohammedans, and partly Christians of the Greek Church; but their religious usages are chiefly confined to placing provisions (pasta and bozza) upon the graves of the dead, and the observance of certain fasts. He adds: There is not in the world a handsomer people, nor a more hospitable The boys and girls serve the stranger bareheaded, wash afterwards his linen." In governmental and social policy, there is a sufficiently close agreement among all the Caucasian tribes, and in many respects it resembles the rude feudalism of the earlier middle ages. There is the same gradation of ranks and conditions -princes, nobles, freemen, serfs; and substantial power, whatever theory may be, rests with the family which commands the largest following, and furnishes the most ssful leaders in war. Important questions, however, are discussed public assemblies of princes, nobles, and freemen, who meet for the purpose in the open air on horseback. One of the most revolting features of the old feudalism that of compounding for homicide and other felonies by regulated payments to the relatives of the person slain or wronged prevails throughout the Caucasus. Homicide costs the offender 200 head of cattle, if the slain person be a man; but if only one of the gentler sex, the bereavement is held to admit of a lighter compensation-namely, 100 head. An insolvent offender becomes the property of the injured family, but proprietors are answerable in poche misdeeds of their serfs. Mr

the

Longworth, who visited the Caucasus in 1837, and is one of the most ardent champions and apologists of the Circassians, tells a story of a fellow who first committed a murder, which cost his owner 200 oxen, and not long afterwards mulcted him in sixty more, when he ran off to Russia with another man's wifesixty oxen being the precise tariff-cost incurred by the latter, indulgence. In one respect, these people differ essentially from the robber-chivalry of the middle ages, whom in other matters they so closely resemble: they do not at all idealise woman. Beautiful as the damsels of Circassia are admitted to be, no knight of the Caucasus sets lance in rest in honour of a lady's charms and graces, though no one can be more keenly alive than he to their market-value. Even the enthusiastic traveller just quoted admits that he at first felt a good deal scandalised by the free-andeasy manner in which his hospitable entertainer spoke of his womankind, coolly remarking of the most charming creatures in the world, that one was just at the prime age for sale-another so many hands high, so many inches round the waist, and worth, as prices ruled, so much! A thriving trade has, in fact, been driven in damsels from time out of mind by Circassian fathers, brothers, or other relatives, whose chattels they happened to be; and the apologists of Russia persist in asserting, that the stoppage, or, more correctly, the hinderance, of this girl-trade by the blockade

of the Black Sea coast, has been the chief cause of the rancorous antipathy of the Circassians to Muscovite rule-a reproach in which there is no doubt some truth, but which one is glad to find does not in the slightest degree apply to the warriors of the eastern Caucasus, by whom alone a tameless, uncompromising resistance to the Russian arms, has been, we shall presently find, organised and triumphantly sustained. And after all, this daughter-dealing, Mr Longworth and others suggest, may not be so evil a thing as at first it might appear. It has its bright side like everything else. No noble or free man can sell his child to any one of lower rank than himself in Circassia-though, of course, when the damsel is purchased for the foreign market, this liberal and enlightened provision becomes inoperative. Then the girls themselves like to be taken to Constantinople: they marry well there sometimes; and as ladies of Turkish harems, attain a higher social status than they possibly could in their own country. With the addition to this victorious vindication of a time-honoured custom, of a well-authenticated anecdote, illustrative of the keenness which long practice has given the Circassian in this delicate branch of trade, we take leave of the subject:-A young Turkish slave-merchant arrived in the spring of 1827 in the Caucasus with a purse full of sequins, destined for the purchase of a few young ladies for the Constantinople market. Of course, he was shewn the primest samples; but instead of going to work in a business-like way, the blockhead fell over head and ears in love-serious, genuine love, with one of the bewildering houris presented to him for sale! The father of the damsel quickly perceived the effect produced by his daughter's charms upon the dazzled Turk; and both he and the deluding beauty smiled gracious acceptance of the enamoured slave-merchant's offer to marry the young lady, and settle down quietly as the son-in-law of so respectable an old gentleman. Present after present of the costliest kind was lavished by the Turk upon his charmer, till at length the attenuated state of his purse, warned him that it was time matters drew to a conclusion, and he delicately hinted as much to his proposed father-in-law. Certainly; that is quite right,' coolly replied the old rogue. You have only to pay for and take her;' and he named the girl's money-price, adding, that he could not afford the slightest abatement! All in vain were the passionate remonstrances of the outwitted Turk: he could neither obtain the damsel nor the restitution of his presents; and soon, moreover, found he must get back as he best could-penniless and wifeless-to Constantinople, which he forthwith did, cursing with all his might as he went the sons of burnt fathers, amongst whom he had been swindled alike out of heart and fortune.

A few words upon the dress and equipments of this singular people, and we pass on to their recent history and achievements. The dress of the men consists of a sheep-skin cap, a close-fitting

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frock, with loose hanging sleeves, fastened by loops in front, ornamented with two parallel rows of cartridges. The trousers are wide, the shoes of black or morocco leather, trimmed generally with silver. They are extremely vain of this showy dress, and in the art of tailoring, consider themselves far in advance of the most enlightened of the Franks. "You English,' observed Shamuz Bey to Mr Bell, a friend and comrade of Mr Longworth-you English have invented steam - engines, steam-boats, infernal machines for blowing up ships, and many other wonderful things; but I cannot compliment you upon your pantaloons, which are much too tight.' The arms of the Caucasians are a long rifle, slung over the shoulder; two swords, one resembling those used by the British light cavalry, the other the short, straight, Roman weapon, which is worn in the left girdle; and one pistol. They also, when on service, carry a forked stick, to be thrust upon occasion into the ground, and used as a rest for the rifle. The better sort of female dress is a bodice of green or blue silk, having a row of silver studs in front; a girdle, fastened with silver clasps; a skirt of striped silk; loose Turkish trousers; and ornamented morocco slippers. Married ladies veil their faces in a stranger's presence; but the single and unsold are considerately permitted the display of attractions necessary to secure a husband or a purchaser. We may add, that woman is held to be so entirely an inferior being to man amongst the gallant Tcherkessi, that the highest lady in the land rises on the instant the meanest of the male kind enters her presence, and does not presume to reseat herself without his expressed permission. If, moreover, a damsel chance to meet one of the lords of the creation on the public road, she stands still, and waits, with 'downcast eyes and hands meekly crossed,' till he has passed, dropping one or two graceful courtesies the while a custom not without its advantages, in a matrimonial or commercial sense, according to Mr Longworth, inasmuch as he was never more impressed by female beauty, than when he saw it thus meekly address itself to the sympathetic admiration of male passers-by!

The tumultuous tides of conquest that in different ages of the world have poured through the gates, swept round the base, and past the shores of the Caucasus, produced, in a relative sense, but a slight and transient effect within its secluded fastnesses. Even the disruption and fall of the Roman Empire found no echo, or at least has left no memory there; and till but the other day in the life of nations, the Caucasian cordillera was thought of only as the rude abode of numerous wild, diversified tribes, chiefly remarkable for their warlike and predatory habits and instincts. It is not till 1264, when the Genoese obtained, by their treaty with the Greek emperor, the virtual monopoly of the trade of the Levant, by the Black and Caspian Seas and the north of Persia, that the Caucasus and its inhabitants reappear with any distinctness on the page of history. The Genoese built fortified mercantile stations

along the western and eastern coasts of the Caspian and Black Seas, as well for the promotion of their commerce, as to protect their depôts from the enterprises of their friends the mountaineers. The ruins of these stations are still visible in many places; and it is probable the faint impressions of Christianity still found amongst the Circassians were first derived from the Genoese. This trade monopoly lasted only till 1346, when the compact of the Venetians with the ruler of Egypt enabled the merchant-princes of the Adriatic to convert the more facile route by the Red Sea into a highway for the well-nigh exclusive commerce of Europe with the East. The Genoese thereupon gradually abandoned their establishments in the Black and Caspian Seas; and the name, almost the whereabout of the Caucasus, vanished once more from the memory of Europeans, with the exception of the more than half-Asian Turks, who early manifested a strong predilection for the beauties of Circassia, which the proximity of Constantinople to the eastern shore of the Black Sea enabled them to readily gratify; and this white slave-trade soon became a steady and prosperous one. The exigencies of this commerce, and the more legitimate one of which it was the precursor, necessitated the possession of certain fortified points on the Caucasian shore; and this circumstance, coupled with the spread of a fanatical Mohammedanism amongst the south-eastern tribes, conferred, no doubt, a species of suzerainty upon the sultan; but it appears certain that the Turkish emperors never exercised any real jurisdiction over the interior of the mountain country, and that consequently the logical position of the Caucasians, that Sultan Mahmoud could not transfer to another, as he affected to do by the treaty of Adrianople, that which he did not himself possess, is unassailable. all, this treaty-clause was but a foreseen and inevitable incident in a drama long since commenced, the development of which was destined, sooner or later, to bring the mountains of the Caucasus into prominence as a rocky barrier to the southward march of Russia, which the Muscovite flood might indeed flow round and isolate, but could neither submerge nor sweep away. Nearer and nearer, as the years swept past, the heavy footfall of the northern Colossus had been heard persistently advancing. In the north, the Crimea had been seized; in the south, Georgia was annexed; and Catherine II., to improve the communication between the southern provinces of Russia Proper and the newlyacquired Georgian territory, built the fortress of Vladi-kavkas, near the northern terminus of the Dariel Pass; and organised in its vicinity a numerous colony of Cossacks, trained to the mountaineers" mode of warfare, and bearing the designation of 'Cossacks of the Line of the Caucasus.' These, with the fortdotted lines of the Kuban and the Terek, were, and still are, Russia's advanced force on the north and east of Caucasia; for no real progress has been made in those quarters by the Russian arms since the days of Catherine. In 1806, Anapa, on the Black

After

Sea, was ceded to Russia by a convention, to which Napoleon Bonaparte was a consenting though not a subscribing party; and in 1829, the Adrianople treaty converted, as far as parchment might, the whole of the Caucasus into a Russian province.

The Emperor Nicholas intrusted the pacification' of his new dominion to an army of 100,000 men, under Field-marshal Paskiewitch, an energetic soldier, well versed in the strategy of modern scientific war. The field-marshal found his government (Le Gouvernement du Caucase) in the following dislocated condition Georgia and Mingrelia were in the possession of the Russians. In the country of the Tchetchentzes, in Daghistan, their wayering domination was confined to the Caspian coast, the gorges of the lower hills, and the valleys; in the Kabardahs and the plains of Abasia, the Kuban and Terek line of forts barely enabled their armies to maintain a doubtful rule, dependent in a considerable degree upon the possession of hostages for the good behaviour of the turbulent Circassians dwelling there. The sea-board from Mingrelia to Anapa, was in the hands of the Circassians; and in no part of the mountain-chain, properly so called, had the slightest permanent impression been made. We may, moreover, be permitted to doubt, that even this partial subjection of the northern plains could have been accomplished, but for the feuds and jealousies that have existed from time immemorial between the tribes of the Caucasus. When the dwellers in the outer valleys and steppes were attacked, the mountaineers looked coldly on; and when their turn came, the inhabitants of the plains for a long time imitated the suicidal example. It is only of late years, and under the pressure of the Russian advance, that a serious and earnest disposition to coalesce for mutual defence and support has been manifested; and it is scarcely an exaggeration to say, that the sole permanent effect produced by the colossal armaments of the Emperor Nicholas upon the Caucasus, has been the vigorous germination of a Caucasian nationality. We shall presently give abundant proofs of this; but in the meantime it is necessary to return to Marshal Paskiewitch and his scheme of government.'

The marshal's experience of Caucasian warfare, from first to last, was a rough and lengthened one; and after mature deliberation, and the failure of less onerous efforts at pacification,' he finally submitted a plan of operations to the imperial government, as the only one which, in his opinion, and in that of the most skilful of his officers, promised ultimately, though probably at a very distant day, and after an immense expenditure of blood and treasure, to bring about the desired tranquillisation of the Caucasus. Its actual subjugation, in the plain, genuine sense of the expres sion, he does not appear to have hoped for-except, perhaps, as the long-distant result of the disarming influence of commercial intercourse, his scheme merely contemplating the bridling, holding in (contenir') of the refractory mountaineers, by means of an encircling and intersecting chain of forts, requiring, as he calculated,