THE HUNTING GEOUNDS, ETC. ^91 



the sportsman — instead of forming one of that horde 

 of sight-seers annually discharged on the Continent 

 — to take his lounge one afternoon in Rotten Row, 

 and that day fortnight to find himself sipping coffee 

 in the midst of a circle of mountaineers, in one of 

 the romantic gorges of the Caucasus ; where a man's 

 worth is nut estimated by the length of his pocket, 

 but according to the gifts bestowed upon him by 

 Nature, and the manner in which he makes use of 

 them. Yes, my gentle reader, notwithstanding the 

 tales you may have heard of the barbarity of the 

 Circassians, in selling their daughters to tlie pander.s 

 of Osmanli harems, and the maidens' passive apathetic 

 resignation to such a fate, I maintain that it is the 

 force of circumstances alone that has brought thi& 

 revolting custom about. It must be remembered 

 that the gallant tribes of the mountains have been 

 engaged in a bloody war, against fearful odds, for 

 the last eighty years : consequently there has been 

 a continual drain upon the male population — the 

 number of men falling annuady in battle against the 

 invaders far exceeding the number of male children 

 born. Such having been the case for nearly a cen- 

 tury, naturally enough there is a great disproportion 

 between the sexes, and, notwithstanding that poly- 

 gamy exists, it is a matter of difficulty for all the 

 "gentler sex" to obtain protectoi's ; and, as "anti- 

 quated sjyinstos " are of a genus unknown in the 

 Caucasus, it is not to be woniered at that the 

 inhabitants are willing to dispose of their extra 



