60 
THE TCHETCHINZI. 
the power and territory of his government, and covered himself 
with honour. 
These Tchetchinzi, whose temporary yoke was only schooling 
their prisoner how at some future day, a more lasting one might 
be laid upon themselves, are considered the most formidable of 
all the tribes which inhabit the innumerable rocky valleys of the 
eastern line of Caucasus. Their predatory excursions, whether 
in large or small bodies, are not only a dread to their own im¬ 
mediate neighbours, tribes like themselves though of less ex¬ 
tent and power; but their sudden descents, ambuscades, and 
continued warfare, keep the disciplined Russians constantly on 
the alert. These lords of the mountains seem never to rest, day 
nor night. Unwearied in their watch for prey ; like lightning 
in attack, for they strike, or are lost to sight as quickly ; un¬ 
sparing in plunder ; and murderous to them they rob, none ever 
escape their merciless steel, except it may be Christians ; whom 
they save, because they hope farther plunder in their ransoms. 
Surely, in effect, there is hardly more difference between man 
and a beast, than between savage men and men civilised; men, 
taught the humanities with the great capacities of their nature. 
The Tchetchinzi bring out their youth at a very early age to take 
part in marauding expeditions; and the more bold and san¬ 
guinary they show themselves, the higher they stand in the 
estimation of the tribe. Indeed, he who most frequently sur¬ 
passes the rest in the execution of desperate and cruel enter¬ 
prises, if they prove successful, commonly becomes the leader 
of his brethren, and consequently the chief of many families. 
He does not aim at this pre-eminence from ambition to govern 
his countrymen, or to hold a greater power amongst them than 
any other man, but solely to stand forth an object of peculiar 
