638 



Potter's Travels in Georgia, Persia, i(c. 



for pleasure, these i)eoi)le are so foiul 

 of it, tliat like flu; Turks in the case of 

 opiiuH, they prolong its application to 

 sticli an extent, as nltinialely to be 

 equally injurious to tlieir streugtli ami 

 j»ersoual appearance. Sonu; jiass many 

 hours every day in tliis debilitating at- 

 mosphere, independent of one whole 

 day in each week ; great part of which 

 however, is spared from the water, to 

 be spent in making up their faces, black- 

 ening the hair, eye-brows and eye- 

 lashes, so as to render only occasional 

 repairs necessary during the ensuing 

 week. Thus occui)ied in tlie vaulted 

 room, these Eastern goddesses, growing 

 in renewed beauty under the hands of 

 tlieir attendant graces, meet each other 

 in social conference ; discussing family 

 anecdotes, or little scandals of tlieir ac- 

 quaintance; and. not unfrequently, lay- 

 ing as entertaining grounds of retalia- 

 tion, by the arrangement of some little 

 intrigue of their own. For, I am told, 

 there are days in the week when any 

 lady may engage the bath for herself 

 alone, or with any other party she may 

 choose to introduce as her companion. 

 The good dame who was our conduc- 

 tress, I understood, is never backward 

 in pi'eparing siu'h accommodation. 



CIRCASSIAN WOMEN. 



They arc taviglit by their mothers 

 not merely the use of the needle in de- 

 corative works, but to make their own 

 clothes, and those of the meu of their 

 family. Soon after a female infant is 

 born, her waist is encircled by a leathern 

 bandage, sewn tight, and which only 

 gives way afterwards to the natural 

 £[rowth of the child. It is tlien replaced 

 by anothcj-; ami so on till the shape is 

 completely formed, according to the 

 taste of the country. The tirst night 

 of her nuptials, the husband cuts the 

 cincture with his poigniard ; a custom 

 something dangers, and certainly ter- 

 rific to the blushing bride. After mar- 

 riage, the women are kept very close, 

 not even their husband's own relations 

 being suffered to visit tliem ; but what 

 seems an extraordinary inconsistency, 

 a man has no objection to allow that 

 privilege to a stranger, whom he per- 

 mits to enter the sacred precincts of his 

 home, without himself to be a guard 

 over its decorum. For it is a rule with 

 the Circassians never to be seen by a 

 third person iu the presence of their 

 wives ; and they observe it strictly to 

 their latest years. 



On the moniing of the celebration of 

 ).,& marriage, t!xe bride presents her in- 



tended husband with a coal of mail, 

 helmet, and all otiier articles necessary 

 for a full equipment for war. Her fa- 

 thei", on tiie same day, gives her a small 

 ]>ortioii of her dowry; while he at the 

 same time, receives from his son-in-law, 

 an exchange of genealogies ; a puncti- 

 lio, onwhicli tliey ail pi(jue themselves 

 with as great a nicety, as on any jM)int 

 of personal Iioiiour ; every man beinjj 

 more or h^ss esteemed, according to the 

 purity and illustrious names of his de- 

 scent!! When the first child of the mar- 

 riage is born, the father of the bride 

 pays up the residue of her fcntune to 

 the husband; presenting her, at tlie 

 same auspicious moment, with the dis- 

 tinguishing badges of married women 

 (never put on with this tribe until oflT- 

 spriug is the fruit of union,) which ho- 

 nourable marks arc, a l()ng white veil 

 over a sort of red coif: all the rest of 

 the dress being white also. Indeed, 

 Mhite is universal with the women, 

 married and single, but the men always 

 wear coloius. The wife has the care of 

 her husbands arms and armour ; and 

 she is so habitually anxious he should 

 not disgrace them, tiiat if she have the 

 most distant idea he has used thimi 

 with less bravery, in any particular 

 action, than his brethren, she never 

 ceases assailing him with reproacii and 

 derision, till he washes away the stain 

 of imputed cowardice, either in the 

 blood of his enemies or his own. At 

 present, the professed religion of these 

 people is INlahomet^iu ; but this sort of 

 female heroism, speaks more like the 

 high mind of a Spartan virgin or a Ro- 

 man matron, than one of the soulless 

 daughters of the Arabian prophet. For- 

 merly the Christian faith hatl madt^ 

 some progress among them, but not a 

 vestige of its ordinances is now to be 

 found. Hospitality, however, is an emi- 

 nent virtue with the tribe of the .true 

 Circassians; and it is no inconse- 

 quential one, in the remote regions of 

 savage men, and more savage hostility. 

 One of the courtesies peculiarly reserved 

 by tliis tribe, to do honour to strangers, 

 I have already mentioned ; tliat of ad- 

 mitting them to the sacrednessof their 

 domestic hearths ; but this .sort of wel- 

 come goes still farther, and even to a 

 preposterous length (to say the least of 

 it) amongst other tribes of the Cauca- 

 sus, and particularly that of Kisty. 

 When a traveller arrives at one of their 

 abodes, the host orders one of his daugh- 

 ters to do the honours of his reception, 

 to take care of his horse aud baggage. 



