482 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



them, and whoever breaks his 

 oath forfeits five or ten sheep to 

 the village. Should he again vio- 

 late 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 par- 

 ties meet in the ante-hall of the 

 Messdshed, and the mulla holds 

 Tip the Ckuran. The person taking 

 the oath lays his hand upon the 

 book, and calls God to witness the 

 truth of his asseveratian ; 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 vio- 

 lently 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 hunt- 

 ing. They lay forty-one small 

 pebbles, peas, beans, or barley- 

 corns, 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 

 arfe they convinced of the infal- 

 libility of the prediction. It must 

 W «eaicss«d, however, that aaiay 



of them have no faith in these ab- 

 surdities. 



For the rest, these people, like 

 all mountaineers, are very super- 

 stitious, and relate numberless 

 stories of daemons, and goblins 

 that are said to haunt the moun- 

 tains ; of which the following 

 may serve for a specimen : — A 

 malignant spirit in female shape, 

 and having very long hair, which 

 they call in their language Ssal- 

 masti, is reported to reside in a 

 certain wood. About twenty-five 

 years ago one of the inhabitants of 

 the village caught this goblin, car-^ 

 ried it home with him, and cut off 

 its hair, which he carefully hid, 

 and by which means he rendered 

 the spirit subservient to him. One 

 day he ordered it to make some 

 bosa ; on which it set the pot on 

 the fire, }joiled 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 daemon 

 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 stili 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 Mo- 

 hammedans of the Caucasus, they 

 are Sunnites, and cherish an inve- 

 terate hatred against the followers 

 of A'li. The flesh of the Wild 

 and tame swine, i>f which thev^' 



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