48S 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



and other articles belonging to the 

 chur<;h are deposited. These places 

 the Ingusches will not suffer any 

 person to explore. During my 

 second visit to Mosdok, however, 

 1 procured two tattered Greek 

 manuscripts on the Liturgy, on 

 soaooth cotton paper, which had 

 been brought away by a Capuchin 

 missionary who had once pene- 

 trated (o the country of the In- 

 gusches : they properly belonged 

 to the Catholic mission, but were 

 exchanged with me by the Jesuits 

 for some other books of more 

 utility to them. 



The Great Ingusches are much 

 more hospitable and sociable with 

 strangers than those residing on 

 the Assai, and have borrowed their 

 manners and customs from the 

 Ossetes and Tscherkessians. At 

 entertainments the host always 

 waits upon his giiests, and eats 

 only what the latter throw to him. 

 He sets before them the head and 

 breast at once ; of these each is 

 expected to partake, but the ears 

 are allotted to the boy to remind 

 hira of the duty of obedience. 

 After eating the flesh, they drink 

 the broth. They squat round in 

 a circle to the repast, at which 

 they use nothing but their fingers. 

 Their burial-places are vaults of 

 masonry above-ground, with a 

 small aperture on the west side by 

 which the corpse is introduced ; it 

 is afterwards closed with stones, 

 and the women fasten it with the 

 braids of their hair. For persons 

 killed by lightning, they erect 

 poks to which thev attach the 

 head and extended skin of a goat. 

 Respecting the time of their set- 

 tlement in the country which they 

 now inhabit they are totally ig- 



norant; but the ruined church on 

 the northern hills, at which those 

 offer sacrifice who do not go on 

 pilgrimage to that just described, 

 evinces a pretty high antiquity. 

 Their flocks and herds are con- 

 siderable, and they have a good 

 breed of horses. The more opu- 

 lent let their cattle, and find this 

 method both safer and more ad- 

 vantageous. Ten sheep with ten 

 lambs yield every three years a 

 profit of eight head, so that the 

 owner must receive back twenty- 

 eight head. Should the farmer 

 have the misfortune to lose the 

 sheep, he pays a cow every three 

 years in their stead, till he can 

 return the proper number. For a 

 cow with a calf, a sheep is annu- 

 ally given ; and for a mare a cow, 

 together with half the foals she 

 drops; or in ten years three sheep, 

 the mare with foal, and half the 

 foals dropped during that time. 

 This practice has the authority of 

 a tacit law among these people. 

 For a certain tribute also they 

 take the indigent and defenceless 

 under their protection. They ob- 

 serve the great fasts of the Greek 

 church, but that is the extent of 

 their knowledge of Christianity. 

 On these occasions they perform 

 their pilgrimages to the holy 

 places, and after harvest to the 

 cavern with the iron cross. They 

 relate many extraordinary stories 

 concerning these sanctuaries ; and, 

 among the rest, of a vault in the 

 valley of Schalcha, which is built 

 of stone. Here a passage is said 

 to lead through nine doors to a 

 cavern, where large books, a gold 

 candlestick, a chest full of va- 

 luables, and a man and woman are 

 preserved sound and uninjured. 



