63S 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



which the Oxiau fishes {ro Be/>^»- 

 rixoy) are taken ; likewise some 

 other rivers, as the Bal, Burhk, 

 Chadir, and many more. Bnt the 

 mouth of the Palus MjEotis is also 

 called Burlik, and goes into the 

 Pontus. Here is the Bosphorus, 

 on which stands the town named 

 Tamatarcha, The above-men- 

 tioned mouth is eighteen miles 

 broad. In the middle of these 

 eighteen miles lies a large flat 

 island called Atech. The river 

 Ukruch which separates Sichia 

 (Zyixi») from Tamatarcha, is 18 or 

 20 miles from the latter. Sichia 

 extends about 300 miles from the 

 Ukruch, to the river Nikopsis, on 

 which also is situated a town of the 

 same name. Beyond Sichia lies 

 the country of Papagai, beyond 

 Papagia Kasachia, beyond Kasa- 

 chia Mount Caucasus, and beyond 

 the Caucasus the country of the 

 Alans." The inhabitants of Kasa- 

 chia were consequently neighbours 

 of the Sichs or Eastern Tscherkes- 

 sians, and themselves Tscherkes- 

 sians ; for this nation is still called 

 by its neighbours, the Ossetes, Ka- 

 sach or Kessek. Ibniel Vardi, an 

 Arabian geographer, who lived and 

 wrote about 1230, mentions a peo- 

 ple called Keschek in the Cau- 

 casus, and cannot sufficiently extol 

 the beauty of their women, on 

 which subject he breaks forth into 

 the warmest praises of the Al- 

 mighty. This exactly applies to 

 the Tscherkessian women, who 

 are still accounted the most beau- 

 tiful in all Asia. Massudi, an- 

 other Arabian, who wrote near 

 two centuries earlier, about A.D. 

 947, says that many Mohamme- 

 dan merchants came every year to 

 Trebisonde, on the sea of Constan- 

 nnople, from Rum (Anatolia), 



Armenia, and the land of Kaschek ; 

 but it is a question whether the 

 Tscherkessians are here meant, as 

 he has not more precisely described 

 the situation of their country. It 

 might be that at this early period 

 they carried their slaves thither to 

 market, as they lately did to Ana- 

 pa, Dsugodshuk-Ckala, and other 

 ports of the Black Sea. Be this as 

 it may, so much at least is certain, 

 that the Tscherkessians first bore 

 the name of Kasach, and it is very 

 probable that from them it may 

 have been transferred to other 

 neighbouring nations who led the 

 same kind of life as they did. Some 

 writers have indeed asserted that 

 Ckasack in the Turco- Tartar dia- 

 lects signifies a robber, but this is 

 erroneous ; a sledge indeed is call- 

 ed Ckasack, but it will scarcely be 

 contended that the name can be 

 thence derived. It is likewise re- 

 markable that in later times the 

 Russian Cossacks were termed 

 Tscherkessians, and that both ap- 

 pellations were indiscriminately 

 employed. 



Of all the different Cossacks 

 tho^e of Little Russia are the most 

 ancient ; for their origin datesfrom 

 1340, after the Poles had reduced 

 Red Russia under their dominion. 

 It is probable that, on this event, 

 many Russians emigrated from that 

 country in order to seek an asylum 

 lower downthe Dnjeper, wherethey 

 intermingled with the Tartars and 

 Tscherkessians ; for, in general the 

 Cossacks are of a much moreslender 

 make than the other Russians, and 

 their features upon the whole more 

 handsome and expressive. The 

 invasions of Russia by the Tartars, 

 and in particular the destruction of 

 Kiew in 1415, increased the num- 

 ber of these refugees, who now ex«. 



