4r,G KETUKX TO TIFLIS. 



vous qualities, with some addition. There is no wickedness 

 to which their inclinations will not naturally carry them, 

 — but all are addicted to thieving. That they make their 

 study — that they make their whole employment, theu' 

 pastime, and their glory. Assassination, murder, and lying 

 are among them esteemed to be noble and brave actions, 

 and for all other vices, they are virtues in Mingrelia.' ^ 



Haxthausen, whose work was published in 1854, writes : 

 ' The Russian officers, civil and military, all agreed in des- 

 cribing the people of this country, especially the Imeritians, 

 as thoroughly depraved, immoral, thievish, mendacious, and 

 quarrelsome.' 



Malte-Brun, in his ' Geographical Encyclopsedia,' which 

 contains much correct information on the Caucasus, thus 

 describes the Imeritians: ' The indolence of the inhabitants 

 allows the rich gifts of nature and the climate to perish in 

 a most useless manner.' He says of the Mingrelians : 

 ' They live surrounded by women, who lead a life of 

 debauchery, often eat with their fingers, and bring up their 

 children to lying, pillage, and marauding.' 



The Tartars of the Kabarda are in most qualities the re- 

 verse of their southern neighbours. Rich in flocks and 

 herds, and cultivating cornland sufficient to sujiply them 

 with daily bread, they pass a peaceable and patriarchal 

 existence, and are ever ready to extend towards travellers 

 that hospitality which they regard in the light of a reli- 

 gious duty. One unamiable trait they share with all the 

 Caucasian races we came in contact with — a desire to drive 

 a hard bargain in matters of business. 



The distinction here drawn between the character of the 

 so-called Christian and the Mahommedan tribes is so 

 marked, that no honest traveller can pass it over in silence. 

 The explanation of the fact must be sought in the degraded 



* I am indebted for this quotation to Mr. Usher's ' London to Persepolis.' 



