THE PRINCES OF URUSPIEII. 355 



been dispossessed of their ancient supremacy when the 

 hordes of Tcherkesses from the Crimea inundated the 

 country. Their language is Tartar, and their religion, as 

 far as they have any, is Mahommedan ; the princes seemed, 

 however, to he very broad and tolerant in their views. The 

 imperial sway of Russia does not press hardly on these 

 mountaineers, who pay only a light house-tax, are exempt 

 from conscription, and are too remote to be exposed to 

 those j)etty restraints which a once-free people often find 

 the hardest to bear. Their local government has been 

 generally described as feudal; it seemed to us that patri- 

 archal would be the more fitting word. The princes are 

 the recognised heads of the community ; they live in a 

 house four times the size of any other m the village, they 

 are richest in flocks and herds, and on them falls the duty 

 of entertaining strangers ; but their word is not law, and 

 they can only persuade, not compel, their poorer neigh- 

 bours to cany out their wishes. 



We acquired some geographical information as to the 

 neio'hbourinor mountains. There are two routes into Sua- 

 netia — the one by which we had come, through the Nakra 

 valley ; and another leading up the glen, due south of 

 Uruspieh, and crossing, as far as we could understand, to 

 the Betscho district. This last, though higher than that 

 which we had crossed, was said to be practicable for 

 horses. The traveller desirous of reaching Utschkulan,^ 

 the principal village in the Karatchai district, has the 

 choice of skirting the northern or southern flanks of 

 Elbruz. If prepared to undertake on foot a glacier- 

 pass, he will go up to the sources of the Baksan, and 

 traverse the range connecting Elbruz with the watershed, 

 to the Upper Kuban. If he j^refers a less toilsome 



* Quite xmconnected with Usclikul, the collective name of the highest group 

 of hamlets in Suanetia, of which .Tihiiini is one. 



A \ 3 



