very clean, are built of fir; they have no fire-places, and small windows. Their principal household utensils consist of a variety of copper kettles, which are hung up by means of a hook over the fire, and come by way of Ssochum ckala'h from Anadolia. The bedsteads are of wood, raised but very little from the floor, and covered with carpets and pillows. Their arms at present are guns, pistols, sabres, and daggers; formerly they used shields (Chalchan) also, and two different kinds of hunting-spears, called Ssungeh and Madshurá. They have no wheeled carriages, owing to the mountainous nature of the country, but transport every thing upon packhorses. When one man has killed another, the relatives of the latter strive by all means to revenge his blood by the death of the murderer; and thus, according to their notions, to give rest to his and their own souls. Nevertheless it frequently happens that a prince endeavours to reconcile the parties, whom he invites to his house, with all their relations; an ox or a sheep is slaughtered and eaten, copious potations of beer succeed, and before they part a reconciliation is generally effected. If the person whose duty it is to avenge the death of his kinsman be poor, or deficient in spirit, or if the deceased have no relatives capable of imbruing their hands in the blood of the murderer, the reconciliation may also be brought about by means of presents to the value, very often, of more than 600 (silver) rubles. These are called Chanbahasé by the Ckaratschai. Should the murder have been unVOL. LVI. intentional, still it is considered as a crime; but a reconciliation is much more easy, and seldom fails to be effected. The princes of the Ckaratschai marry daughters of Kabardian usdens, and these usdens take for their wives the daughters of those princes. The kalim, or price paid for a wife in arms and cattle, exceeds in value 1000 (silver) rubles. The manner in which they bring up their children is very strict and commendable. When a son is disobedient to his parents, and fails to amend his conduct after repeated admonitions, he is placed in sight of the whole village at the door of the Messdshed, and seriously exhorted to alter his behaviour. Should this have no effect, his parents disown and turn him out of doors, having previously furnished him with such things as are most necessary, and never must he afterwards show his face in his father's house. If his conduct should still be too scandalous, he is even expelled from the village, and forbidden to return as long as he lives. Treachery is a crime so upcommon as scarcely to be known to them even by name; and should any native be guilty of it, or a stranger come among thein as a spy, all the people fly to arms to apprehend him, and he infallibly pays the forfeit of his life for the offence. In general they do not rest till they have literally cut him in pieces. When the inhabitants of Ckaratschai have any important business to discuss and decide upon, the elders assemble in the Messdshed. In concluding agreements both parties must swear to observe 2 I them, them, and whoever breaks his bath forfeits five or ten sheep to the village. Should he again violate the covenant, he must, after paying the penalty, bind himself by a new oath to the faithful per formance of the engagement, and no instance is known of a man having broken this double oath. In taking oaths the following ce remonies are observed: the parties meet in the ante hall of the Messdshed, and the mulla holds. up the Ckuran. The person taking the oath lays his hand upon the book, and calls God to witness the truth of his asseveration; on which the ceremony concludes, and the oath is considered inviolable. When any one dies the women set up a terrible howl, beating their breasts, and tearing their hair; but the men who attend the funeral strike themselves violently with their horse-whips on the forehead, and mangle the lobes of their ears with knives. On their return, however, they drown their grief in copious liba tions of beer. The Ckaratschai have recourse to divination, more especially be fore they mount their horses to undertake a journey or go a hunting. They lay forty-one small pebbles, peas, beans, or barleycorns, in several heaps, according to certain rules, and from their number and relative situations they predict the success or failure of an enterprise. If the omens prove propitious, they hasten to put their design in execution; but if unlucky, nothing can induce them to stir a step,-so thoroughly are they convinced of the infallibility of the prediction. It must be confessed, however, that many of them have no faith in these absurdities. For the rest, these people, like all mountaineers, are very superstitious, and relate numberless stories of dæmons and goblins that are said to haunt the mountains; of which the following may serve for a specimen :malignant spirit in female shape. and having very long hair, which they call in their language Ssalmasti, is reported to reside in a certain wood. About twenty-five years ago one of the inhabitants of the village caught this goblin, carried it home with him, and cut off its hair, which he carefully bid, and by which means he rendered the spirit subservient to him. One day he ordered it to make some tosa; on which it set the pot or the fire, boiled the pease, and when the soup was ready the master and mistress went out, leaving two little children only in the house. These soon begged the spirit to give them something to eat, which it promised to do, if they would tell where its hair was concealed. No sooner had they shown the place where it lay, than the dæmon snatched up the hair, and was thus released from subjection to its master. Upon this it threw the two children into the pot full of boiling bosa, and fled back to the wood, where it is still said to reside. They deem it a great crime not to observe the fasts prescribed in the Ckuran, and to omit their daily prayers. Like all the Mobammedans of the Caucasus, they are Sunnites, and cherish an inveterate hatred against the followers of A'li. The flesh of the wild and tame swine, of which they were were formerly very fond, they now hold in the utmost abhorrence, and they consider a person who only touches one of those animals as impure, - In temper they are extremely warm, and the smallest trifle that can be construed by them into an affront instantly inflames their resentment against the offender; but they are soon pacified again, and easily convinced of their error. Upon the whole, it may be justly asserted, that they are the most polished tribe in the Caucasus, and surpass all their neighbours in mildness of manners. To their superiors, the Kabardian princes, they pay the utmost respect and obedience, executing all their commands with cheerfulness and punctuality. They assist their poorer brethren with gifts, and in a variety of ways; the rich lend them their oxen, and find them employment, for which they pay them well, so that they are enabled to live in a comfortable manner. The Ckaratschai manufacture themselves none of those articles which require great pains and patience, and procure even their guns, sabres and daggers from the neighbouring Tscherkessians, from Ssochum-ckala'h, and from the Abasses. Their territory yields neither salt nor iron. These necessaries, together with lead and other metals, they purchase of the Tscherkessians and the Nogays. For salting their winter provisions they use the water of a spring not far from Chursuk, with which also they cook their victuals. They have scarcely any other kinds of beverage than beer and bosa. From wheat and barley, indeed, they distil a brandy which is very strong and intoxicating; but they seldom drink it, as it is forbidden in the Ckuran. They make a stock of beer and bosa for winter. They have no honey, because the climate is too cold for bees in winter, and they know nothing of the management of hives. What honey they want they obtain from the Kabardians, but use it only for preserving cornel-berries and other fruit. Their mountains produce both sulphur and saltpetre; and to procure the latter they are not obliged, like the Tscherkessians, to sprinkle the ground of their sheepfolds and pens with ley. Their gunpowder is fine and remarkably strong. The produce of their manufactures, as cloth (schal), felts (kuss) for carpeting, furs, boods (baschlik), &c. they sell partly to the Imerethians and partly export to Ssochum-ckala'h, a Turkish fortress on the Black Sea, which contains great quantities of merchandize, and carries on a considerable trade with the western Caucasus. They receive in return cottons, silks, tobacco-pipes, for which there is a great demand, Turkish tobacco, needles, thimbles, and otter skins. Their traffic with the Kabardians, from whom they procure salt and other Russian produce, is much less extensive; indeed they can supply themselves much better with all they_want through the channel of the Turks,. and at a much cheaper rate, on account of the water-carriage frora Constantinople. They have also some dealings with the Ssuazes, who are called Ebse by the Basianes, and principally supply them. with sulphur and lead. THE INGUSCHES. From the Same. The Ingusches are industrious, especially the women, who not only attend to the domestic concerns, but make clothes for their husbands, fetch home fire-wood frequently from the distance of eight wersts, and carry very heavy burdens over the hills. Almost all the clevated valleys are destitute of wood, which must be brought with great labour from the lofty mountains. This, as I should suppose, is the chief reason that their houses are built of stone, with flat roofs. They whitewash the exterior of their buildings and towers, though they are not very tenacious of cleanliness within. They build together in families, and often fortify their villages with walls and conical towers from sixty to ninety feet in height. Their fields lie contiguous to their habitations; the animals which they keep are hogs, sheep, asses, mules, a few horses, and horned cattle; for the deficiency of pasturage admits of a small number only of the latter. For the rest, their wants are few. Wretchedly clad in the Tartar fashion, wrapped winter and summer in felt-cloaks, they have often no other food than raw roots, and are nevertheless very temperate when the chase affords them better cheer. The oldest persons of the family sit down first to their repast, and leave those who follow them so much that enough remains, after they have done, for the children. In the observance of the rights of hospitality, in the possession of their property in common, in the equitable division of what fortune or accident throws, in their way, they lose the appearance of savage life, and seem actuated by more humane sentiments than we rapacious Europeans who style our selves polished and civilized. They are very meagre, but well grown, swift of foot, strong and indefatigable. Freedom, wildness, and gravity, are expressed in their looks. In temper they are violent, but soon pacified again; and all their passions are displayed without disguise or restraint. They consider the contempt of life as a virtue, and the slightest symptom of fear as the greatest of faults; for which reason they choose rather to lay violent hands on themselves than to submit to the will of another. Their women show the same heroic firmness, of which the following instance came to the knowledge of Count John Potocki during his residence on the Line.-An Ingusch carried a young female of his own country to Endery with the intention of selling her. A Jew from Schirwan offered 240 rubles in Persian stuffs for her, and the bargain was concluded. The buyer and seller withdrew for a moment to look at the goods; on which the girl thus addressed the by standers: "I am but a poor orphan, whom any one may abuse with impunity. My conductor promised me marriage, and now he is selling me, that he may have silk clothes. But I will take care that he never shall wear them." With these words she went out into the garden and hung herself upon a tree. Hunting, war, and marauding, are deemed by the Ingusches the most most reputable employments of youth; and they rob as much for the sake of honour as from necessity. They have heads of families without authority, and eloquence and abilities alone have any influence over them. To laws and a state of subjection they are utter strangers; and in all their transactions they are governed solely by ancient custom. The father arms his son as soon as he is able to defend himself, and then abandons him to his fate and his inclinations. The Ingusches borrow their names from animals: thus, one is named Ust, ox; a second Chaka, hog; a third Poe, dog; and so forth. The women have still more singular appellations, for instance, Assir wachara-she who rides a calf; Ossiali wacharashe who rides a bitch, &c. Should an Ingusch be indebted to an individual belonging to any of the neighbouring tribes, and not pay him, the creditor goes to his Kunack, or guest, among the Ingusches, aaquaints him with the circumstance, and solicits him to procure the payment of the debt, with this threat: "If thou dost not comply, I have brought with me a dog which I will kill upon the graves of thy family."-Every Ingusch trembles at this dreadful menace; and if the debtor denies the debt, he is obliged to swear that he does not owe it. On this occasion dogs' bones are mixed with the excrements of the same animals, and carried to the sacred rock Jerda. Here the person charged with the debt says with a loud voice, "If I deny the truth, may the dead of my family carry upon their shoulders the dead of the family of my accuser, and that too on this road when it has rained and the sun scorches !" The same ceremony takes place in charges of theft, for the Ingusches steal oftener than they lend. If a man's son dies, another who has lost his daughter goes to the father, and says, "Thy son will want a wife in the other world; I will give him my daughter; pay me the price of the bride." Such a demand is never refused, even though the purchase of the bride amount to thirty cows. They take five and more wives, and after the father's death the eldest son marries them all except his own mother, whom however any of his brothers may take on the same footing. When this scandalous custom is reprobated in the presence of an Ingusch, he replies, "My father lay with my mother, and why should not I lie with his wife?" The women of the Kists and Ingusches are small, strong and tolerably handsome; the girls, adorned with the glow of health, are very lively, inquisitive and merry creatures. Their hair in front is cut so short as to cover only half the forehead, over which they spread it with great care, making it adhere together with white lead. That on the hinder part of the head they plait in several braids, which fall over the shoulders and down the back; but married women have it done up in two braids only, each being tied with a silk, woollen or cotton fillet, which is passed round it so often that it is an inch thick near the head, and diminishes to the other extremity, which just reaches to the top of the shift, where both are |