The Caucasian Mountains and their Inhabitants. 107 



affection so greatly exceed their gratifications. New 

 perceptions are the scouts of fresh desires ; fresh desires 

 precede their own fulfillment; a just reconciliation is a 

 slow, historic process. The lives of a multitude of women 

 all around us contain a large element of unsuccessful 

 outward and inward ambitions, vain attempts and prayers. 

 This drives them back upon themselves into a deeper 

 and sadder seclusion than that naturally imposed by their 

 housekeeping, and their historic withdrawment from the 

 bustling business of the world." 



When poverty, hard labor, scanty fare, grapple with 

 the delicate sensibilities natural to women of all countries, 

 in Circassia as well as elsewhere, melancholy forebodings, 

 sadness of the face, deep depression of spirits necessarily 

 ensue; and here we may find the cause and some of 

 the consequences of the enslavement (so-called), of the 

 Caucasian damsels. To this I shall return again. 



This people, I have said, are universally steeped in 

 ignorance, and they are as universally poor, as all warlike 

 tribes and people are. The fine arts cannot thrive in such 

 an atmosphere, hence their entire absence, and the want 

 of their refining influences. Sculpture, painting, the 

 higher elements of music and poetry, are not the children 

 of fierce, hostile camps, of low, smoky huts, of earth- 

 caverned hovels ; they haunt and hallow the sanctuaries 

 of refined tastes, and breathe their inspirations through 

 the tents of peace. 



The men here think first of their horses, then of their 

 arms, then of their wives and children. The women 

 think first of their costume, then of their domestic duties. 

 If they have any music or poetry in their souls, it may 

 burn for a moment in their beautiful eyes, then sinks 

 away under a sigh of uncomprehended longings, but 

 never breaks into its legitimate metre, never soars into 

 that divine expression which smgs itself through the ages. 



