142 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



mountaineers of the Caucasus is one of blockade 

 merely ; the invading armies have never felt strong 

 enough to advance beyond the protection of their 

 forts in the low grounds, or to make any decisive in- 

 roads into the territory of the natives. Death or 

 captivity is the invariable fate of every Russian bold 

 enough to separate two hundred yards from his 

 column, even if no enemy should have previously 

 been in sight. Often, when a Russian force is on 

 the march, the Circassians dash through the- lines 

 and kill or carry off the officers, who consider all 

 resistance so hopeless that, on such occasions, they 

 seldom offer any. The mountaineers, penetrating 

 their line of skirmishers, have been seen thus to pull 

 them from their horses, and dash away with them as 

 a cat carries off a mouse. 



The famous Mamelukes of Egypt, the last of whom 

 v^ere treacherously entrapped and murdered by the 

 present viceroy, Mehemet Ali, were all of them na- 

 tives of the Caucasus, who had been sold as slaves in 

 their youth. Having been trained to arms, and 

 emancipated, they continued to serve their patron, 

 the Bey, as children of his house ; and such was the 

 singular constitution of this militia, that no man was 

 admissible into it except as a purchased slave. Living 

 in luxury, upon the wealth wrung from an oppressed 



