342 TRAVEL, AD VENTURE, AND SPORT. 



in Circassia with Messrs Bell and Longworth, and 

 had come to England with the former a perfect Mez- 

 zofanti. He spoke twelve languages fluently, and his 

 knowledge of Circassian rendered him invaluable ; 

 indeed, he is the only man I know who can speak 

 Circassian and any other civilised language except 

 Turkish or Arabic. Many of the Circassians have 

 picked up a smattering of the former in the course 

 of their visits to Constantinople, or their intercourse 

 with slave-dealers ; and Arabic is the medium of com- 

 munication between Schamyl the Xaib and those few 

 individuals among the tribes who are well-educated 

 and learned Mahometans. Circassian itself is the 

 most impracticable dialect that ever unfortunate 

 travellers attempted to acquire. It consists of sounds 

 which bear a greater resemblance to a succession of 

 sneezes and coughs than to words. It is not a written 

 language ; there is consequently no alphabet, grammar, 

 or mechanical assistance to the tyro, who has to trust 

 entirely to ear ; and then even however correct that 

 organ may be it requires long practice before it 

 catches the peculiar intonation. I attempted to make 

 a vocabulary, but no allocation of our own letters 

 could form the faintest approximation to the words 

 they were intended to express ; so I gave up the 

 attempt in despair, and tried to learn phrases. It 

 was a disheartening process, however, for although 

 the man from whom I learnt them understood me 

 whenever I repeated over my lesson, not another soul 



