TO THE FRONTIER OF CIRCASSIA. 
47 
all offer of food ; and, as she pined daily, they 
feared she would die. It may be supposed we 
spared no entreaty with the Commander-in-chief 
for the release of these prisoners. Before the 
treaty of peace they had been offered to the 
highest bidder, the women selling generally from 
twenty-five to thirty roubles apiece; somewhat 
less than the price of a horse. But we were 
told it was now too late, as they were included 
in the list for exchange, and must therefore 
remain until the Cossacks, who were prisoners in 
Circassia, were delivered up. The poor woman 
in all probability did not live to see her husband 
or her country again. 
Another Circassian female, fourteen years of 
age, who was also in confinement, hearing of the 
intended exchange of prisoners, expressed her 
wishes to remain where she was. Conscious of 
her great beauty, she feared her parents would 
sell her, according to the custom of the country, 
and that she might fall to the lot of masters less 
humane than the Cossacks. The Circassians fre- 
quently sell their children to strangers, parti- 
cularly to Persians and Turks. Their princes 
supply the Turkish seraglios with the most 
beautiful of the prisoners of both sexes captured 
in war. 
CHAP. 
i. 
