LITTLE KABARDA. 
51 
an animated and cheering change from the dull earthy flats he 
had so lately been passing over. 
On our gaining the opposite bank of the Terek, the colonel 
brought me to a tract of ground covered with wretched huts, 
serving as shelters for those who come from the suspected 
countries of Asia in this direction, and who must here undergo 
several days’ quarantine before they are allowed to proceed to 
Europe. We found whole companies under this purification, as 
well as many groups of mountaineers, with droves of horses, 
which they usually bring down for sale previous to the departure 
of every convoy for Georgia. These animals are not very large 
in size, but they are strongly made, active, and hardy, and ex¬ 
ceedingly sure-footed, from experience of the difficult and dan¬ 
gerous country they have been accustomed to pass over. I 
purchased one of the best, a fine, well-managed young horse, 
for two hundred roubles ; equal in beauty and points to an 
English horse for the road of six times the price. Having com¬ 
pleted my bargain, I took leave of the friendly Commandant, 
and, accompanied by my own little party, resumed my way to 
join the convoy which comprised our future fellow-travellers. 
We came up with them about three wersts onward from the 
place of quarantine. 
The country, at the foot of the Caucasus, for a considerable 
distance to the eastward, is called Little Kabarda; the stretch 
to the westward, being of larger extent, has the name of Great 
Kabarda, running along the line of the mountains till it meets 
the country of the Circassians. The people who inhabit these 
two districts, are known to the Russians under the general ap¬ 
pellation Tcherkess. They are the descendants of a mixed 
people, whose various origins, characters, and customs, are now 
H 2 
