MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



485 



most reputable employments of 

 youth; and they rob as much for 

 the sake of honour as from ne- 

 cessity. They have heads of fa- 

 milies without authority, and elo- 

 quence 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 tvackura — she who 

 rides a calf; Ossiali ivachara — 

 she who rides a bitch, &c. Should 

 an Ingusch be indebted to an in- 

 dividual belonging to any of the 

 neighbouring tribes, and not pay 

 him, the creditor gees to his 

 Kunack, or guest, among the In- 

 gusches, acquaints 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 trembies 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 ray 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 

 ofteuer 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 ray daughter ; pay me the 

 price of the bride." Such a de- 

 mand 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 

 footingr. When this scandalous 

 custom is reprobated in the pre- 

 sence 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 aiwl 

 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 covei 

 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, whicii just reaches 

 to the top of the shift, where both 



