490 



C I RCASSI A. 



nd durable. A few article* of leather, embroidered 

 housinfr* for horse*. 4c. are alfo fabricated in thii coun- 

 try. The principal traffic of the .Circassians consists 

 in (Uvrt, honey, wax, skins of cattle, drer, and tigers. 

 Their agricultural produce i* barely sufficient for their 

 own oe. Sheep and honei are coniiderable articles of 

 their commerce, particularly the latter, which ell at 

 wty high price*. They have no money, and their whole 

 commerce u carried on by exchange. Upon the whole, 

 the balance of trade would be considerable against them, 

 but for the number of slave* which they frequently ob- 

 tain in their predatory cxcnriion*. These are chiefly 

 Georgian* ; and the daughter* of *uch slaves receiving 

 the tame education, and being fashioned to the desired 

 shape in a similar manner as the young women native* 

 of the country, are sold, according to their beauty, from 

 L. 20 to L. 100. These latter, it is said, enter also them- 

 elve* largely into the tame description of traffic, being 

 told for the use of the seraglios in Turkey and Pereia, 

 where they often marry to great advantage, and thus 

 make the fortune of their families. Th merchants 

 who come from Constantinople to purchase these girls, 

 are generally Jews, who, as well as the mothers, are re- 

 ported to be extremely careful in preserving the chastity 

 of the young women, knowing the value that is set by 

 the Turks, particularly, upon the marks of virginity. 



The two opposite customs, or iawi, those of hospita- 

 lity and of revenge, are in general and sacred observance 

 with the Circassian knights, as amongst most others of 

 the nation* of the Caucasus. The former, distinguished 

 Ky the name of Kunak, is established on fixed principles ; 

 and every person submitting to its protection, is, of con- 

 sequence, perfectly secure from all injuries. He who re- 

 ceives a stranger into his house, defends him, if the oc- 

 casion requires it, not only with his own blood and life, 

 but also with that of his relatives. He furnishes him 

 at hi* departure with an equestrian escort, is answerable 

 for him to his kinsmen ; and his murder, or any in- 

 sult offered to him, is punished as severely as in the 

 ca*e of a relation. A stranger who intrusts himself 

 ' > the patronage of a woman, or is able to touch with 

 his mouth the breast of a wife, were he an enemy, or 

 even the murderer of a kinsman, is, in consequence of 

 the interest thus secured to himself, spared and protected 

 as if he were a member of the family. Bloody revenge 

 u practised with an equally conscientious and scrupulous 

 precision. The murder of a family-relation must be aven- 

 erd by the next heir, or the nearest in blood, even though 

 lie was an infant at the time when the deed was com- 

 mitted. For the accomplishment of this purpose, eve- 



ry description of vindictive malice is allowed ; but either Citawia. 

 in a more public, or a more clandestine manner, the life ~^^Y^^ 

 of the murderer must be taken away, if the injured party 

 would not subject himself to the penalty of being consi- 

 dered and treated as an outcast from society. Nay, 

 this desire of revenge is hereditary in the successors ar.4 

 the whole tribe ; and such is the spirit of resentment, 

 that even all the relations of a murderer are considered to 

 be involved in his guilt. It is through this extreme infa- 

 tuation to avenge the blood of relatives, that must of 

 the feuds are generated, and the occasion, consequently, 

 produced for so much bloodshed among all the nations of 

 the Caucasus'; for unless pardon be purchased, or ob- 

 tained by intermarriage between the hostile families, the 

 principle of revenge once excited, is thus in danger of 

 being propagated to the latest generations. There is 

 such a thing known in these regions as the price of 

 blood. The name by which such a compensation is dis- 

 tinguished, is Thlil-uasa. Princes, however, and nobles, 

 accept of no price in such a case : it is an established law 

 among them, to demand blood for blood. 



The education of the children of the Circassian princes, Education, 

 is of a nature calculated to suppress from the earliest in- 

 fancy every feeling and affection peculiar to consanguini- 

 ty. Sons and daughters are, immediately after birth,* en- 

 trusted to the care of a nobleman, frequently none of the 

 most wealthy of that order ; f and the parents, especially 

 the father, have no desire to see a son, till he is grown up 

 and capable of bearing arms, nor a daughter till after her 

 marriage. The foster father of a young prince, is obli- 

 ged to take upon him the whole charge of his educa- 

 tion ; he instructs him in all the schemes of robbery 

 which are in greatest estimation amongst those eques- 

 trian knights, and provides him with arms as soon as he 

 is strong enough to wield them. In return for all which 

 attentions to initiate him in the predatory arts, he re- 

 ceives from his grateful pupil, at his entrance into life, 

 the greatest share of the booty which he is able to ob- 

 tain. In the education of the female children, it is a 

 primary object, at whatever expence to them of priva- 

 tion and wretchedness, to give them the desired slen- 

 derncss and elegance of form. They are trained to all 

 ornamental work in the domestic economy of females, 

 especially to embroidery, weaving of fringe, sewing of 

 dresses, and the plaiting of straw-mats and baskets. A 

 nobleman entrusted with the education of a young prin- 

 cess, is required, in fine, to procure for her a husband 

 of an equal rank, or, in default of that concluding service, 

 he is liable to be punished with the loss of his head. J; 



In their amusements, the youth of both sexes among 



A different account U, that girls are educated at home by their mothers ; that it is only the male-children who arc thus committed 11 

 i he guardianship of strangers; and that, even with respect to them, the father, at their birth, docs no more than choose a person wh 

 ii, at * future period, to discharge towards them the duties of preceptor. When a year old, it is said, they are presented with play- 

 thing*, and with arms ; and if they appear to prefer the latter, this event is celebrated with great rejoicings. At the age of seven, or, 

 aerorAnjt to other*, of twelve, they leave their fathers' houses for those of the appointed preceptors, by whom they are taught to ride, 

 lo use arms, to steal, and to conceal their thefts. The epithet thief, it is remarked, is not here a ground of reproach, otherwise than 

 it iinplio detection. Indeed, dtxteiit) in the arts of pillage is the great object aimed at in education. From the simpler elements of 

 petty pilfering, the youth are therefore trained by degrees, and led on to the practice of more considerable and dangerous robberies, 

 and return not to the paternal mansion, till their cunning, address, and strength, are esteemed to be in some degree perfected. The 

 preceptor U recompensed, for the (rouble and expence at which he may have been in their education, by nine-tenths of the booty 

 which they iruy tare acquired during the period they were under his tuition. 



+ Sometime* the pmon pitched upon to receive that trust, is a prince of another family. 



J The cuuom of committing, in this manner, the education of children entirely to strangers, has been supposed to be peculiar ts 

 the Circassians. But every where amongst the mountaineers of Caucasus, who universally subsist, in a greater or a less degree, by 

 the practire of robbery, similar object*, at least, are had in view in the education of youth. It is said, that the system of tuition al 

 luded to. Is persevered in among-.t the Circassians, chiefly with the design of preventing the bad effects to be apprehended from the 

 excess of parental indulgence. At the same-time, it isto be observed, that as the education of a child renders the preceptor, in ef- 

 f-rt, a htod of adopted father, and as this nation is extremely vindictive, u per on who has killed any relative of a family, sometimes en- 

 dvors to steal away a child belonging to it, for the purpose of educating him, that, by this means, a door muy be opened for a re- 

 conciliation. It is father stated, thai a vassal contrive* to Meal, upon occasion, and to educate the son of his prince ; a he has nc 



