364 TEAVEL, ADVENTUEE, AND SPOET. 



that in any other country the former would fetch a 

 far higher price than the latter. It is very seldom 

 that a Circassian will give two horses for one girl. 

 We laughingly asked some of these young ladies if 

 they would come with us to Stamboul, and their 

 eyes sparkled with delight at the idea, as they 

 unhesitatingly expressed their willingness to do so. 

 A Circassian young lady anticipates with as much 

 relish the time when she shall arrive at a marketable 

 age as an English young lady does the prospect of 

 her first London season. But we have prevented the 

 possibility of their forming any more of those brilliant 

 alliances which made the young ladies of Circassia 

 the envy of Turkeydom. The effect is, in fact, very 

 much the same as that which an Act of Parliament 

 would have in this country forbidding any squire's 

 daughter to marry out of her own parish, thus limiting 

 her choice to the curate, the doctor, and the attorney ; 

 and the result, in all probability, will be anything 

 but beneficial to the morality of the community. 

 Hitherto the female portion of society was influenced 

 by a powerful, though perhaps an unworthy motive, 

 to maintain that propriety of conduct, a violation of 

 which would seriously have depreciated their value 

 in the market. Now that restraint (and among a 

 savage people it is difficult to substitute a more 

 efficient one than interest) is withdrawn, in the 

 absence of any moral principle no motive exists to 

 induce them to cherish that virtue which the sup- 



