TRAVELS IN CIECASSIA. 367 



Schacho, our guides pointed out to us amongst the 

 bushes the leaves of a plant resembling as nearly as 

 possible the tea-plant of China, and from which they 

 assured us the natives were accustomed to infuse a 

 similar beverage. We never had an opportunity of 

 tasting Circassian tea. The valley of the Schacho 

 was prettily cultivated, and the scenery assumed a 

 somewhat softer tone as we descended from the 

 higher elevation. We stopped to rest in a grove of 

 magnificent trees, where some singular monuments 

 arrested our attention. Large masses of rock, which 

 protruded here and there from the hillside, had been 

 smoothed by the hand of man, and presented an 

 almost perpendicular plain surface about six feet 

 square. On each side the rock had been shaped into 

 somewhat the form of a buttress, so as to give a sort 

 of finish to the work, and in the centre was a circular 

 aperture about eighteen inches in diameter. Upon 

 looking through this, we perceived an excavation in 

 the solid rock, of about six feet square and four in 

 height. The roof was formed by a single slab of 

 stone, which had apparently been hewn for the pur- 

 pose, and placed upon the top. The hypothesis 

 which most immediately presented itself to our 

 minds, upon inspecting these singular cavities, was, 

 that they were sarcophagi, although it was difficult to 

 divine the object of the circular aperture in front. 

 We asked the guides their explanation of the mystery, 

 and they said that in former times their country was 



