CHAPTEB Till. 



BELA A STORY OF THE CAUCASUS. 



g AVING followed the Circassians 

 in their transformed appearance as 

 Egyptian Mamelukes, we now return from 

 this digression, to their mountain homes. 

 j There is a tale by Lermontof, a young 

 JpVy Russian author, who died prematurely about 

 i$tJ four years ago, in which the character and habit 

 of the mountaineers are illustrated with great dramatic 

 force. As the story, which is full of human interest, 

 turns also in a great degree on the fortunes of a 

 horse, it comes fairly within the scope of the present 

 work ; we shall therefore present it here in a con- 

 densed form. In the original it takes the shape of a 

 conversation between the author, and the commandant 

 of a Russian fort, on the Terek, a rough unlettered 

 soldier, but a man of excellent heart. We shal 



