The Caucasian Mountains and their Inhabitants. 117 



the Caucasus, where, in some of its ravines, nestled the 

 humble cottage of the little captive. Byron's words of 

 the dyirig gladiator, breathed there then, their sad music 

 through my memory. Do you suppose this rescued child 

 to have been happy ? I could read on her face a painful, 

 discontent ; that her fair young hopes had been blighted ; 

 that her almost infantile dreams, which like bright 

 winged humming-birds had flitted about her pillow, had 

 vanished; the sultana's garb and jewels had turned into 

 the drapery of servitude. 



I have mentioned this California expedition because it 

 happened to be a parallel case with many in the Cauca- 

 sian realm which are stigmatized and loaded with all the 

 epithets that can harrow up one's soul, and fill the heart 

 with grief. I have said enough to show you how much 

 more beautiful our life is; but I speak of things as they 

 are in the orient, as they must be with their necessary 

 surroundings. You cannot make the lily of the valley 

 thrive on the bleak mountain tops. You must prepare a 

 congenial soil and atmosphere ; then you may begin your 

 transplanting. 



To return : I knew of two young women of Mingrelia, 

 on the banks of the Phasis, persons of considerable 

 beauty, who told an acquaintance of mine in Tiflis, that 

 they were going voluntarily to Stamboul, our Constanti- 

 nople, as soon as one of these slave expeditions was 

 inaugurated, and they could avail themselves of it. Now, 

 if on their way, full of hope and joy, full of the belief that 

 they were to better their condition — that same belief, 

 hope and trust, which multitudes of our own country- 

 girls have when they go from their staid homes on farms, 

 to large and brilliant cities ; now I say, if on their way, these 

 two Mingrelian sisters were captured by the Russians, 

 deprived of their liberty of action, and made servants of, 



