Circassian nations which are looked on as the most ignoble, furnish us with fresh evidence that, uncultivated as head and heart must be amongst this untutored race, the moral superiority of these mountaineers over the Muscovites is as great as that which physically they exhibit.

CIRCASSIAN ARCHER.

The Cherkesses are not tall in stature, but exquisitely proportioned, and possessed of a muscularity and activity which constant exercise has developed

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to a wonderful extent. None of the human family so strikingly convey the idea of high breeding, such as we see it in the full blood of the Arab horse, even to the dilating nostril and the gazelle-eye of the highpriced Mijid race, the favourite breed descending from the prophet's steeds.

The costume of these mountaineers is such as to set off the nervous, though delicate symmetry of their make; a close-fitting frock-coat, with rows of cartridge-pockets sewed upon the breast, and tight trousers. These vestments, which are common to all the Caucasian nations, are generally of some subdued and sober hue: for instance, the colour of the falling leaf. All the magnificence displayed is in the arms and trappings of the steed.

Most of the other Caucasian nations, as well as the Cherkess, in their peaceful equipment, wear a round cap, surrounded by a thick border of sheepskin fur, which gives it a turban-like appearance. This is both black and white; but the fleece of a snowy whiteness usually distinguishes the head-gear of the young and fastidious. The war-dress of the Cherkess, however, in which he is most frequently seen, is remarkable by the addition of his iron helm, surmounted by a spike; the shirt of exquisitely finished mail, falling from the helmet over his shoulders, like the lace of a lady's veil; and the steel armlets, which seem to form part of the forgotten gauntlet—all contribute to give a knightly aspect to the warrior, which his gallantry does not belie.

The Caucasians, besides the excellent blades which they themselves manufacture, have had for centuries the opportunity of gleaning the best all over the East; and, transmitted as heirlooms in families, with the care which they take of them, there appears to be no limit to their duration. A sword or a dagger blade may be worth as much as £100 sterling. This value is not a mere matter of fancy, like that which the Dutchman sets upon his tulip, or the Russian merchant on his fat horse, but it is estimated according to the toughness and the sharpness which the sabre or the dagger can be made to combine, and, if we could manufacture similar arms at Birmingham or at Sheffield, that sum might be immediately obtained for them.

The eastern blade is required to be pliable, and at the same time to bear so keen an edge as to divide a single hair. Now, an English razor, owing its sharpness to the hardness of its temper, will divide. the hair; but then it flies like a piece of glass.

The fire-arms of the Caucasians, which consist of rifles and pistols, are as much valued as their edged weapons. The barrels are usually of admirable material, but often indifferently bored, and the locks are always indifferent. They are heavy in the barrel, and often mounted with the matchlock, both of which circumstances contribute to the accuracy with which the mountaineers discharge their contents-the former by preventing the vibration of the piece, the

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matchlock by ensuring its steadiness from the absence of all jerk, in producing ignition.

All the Caucasian tribes are dextrous in the use of their weapons, which they practise from their earliest childhood, and the Cherkesses are said to surpass them all. Opposed to a people who are individually (except the Cossacs) utterly unacquainted with their use, their skill has been looked on by them as perfectly marvellous, and accounts the most exaggerated are popular amongst the Russians of the dexterity of their Caucasian foes.

All the luxury which the Circassian displays is in his arms and horses; the hall of a powerful chief is only ornamented by the helmets, weapons, and suits of mail; and on the border lands the steed always stands saddled in the stall. His mode of living is very simple—his food a kind of millet paste called pasta, a word borrowed from the Genoese, maize cakes, and the roasted flesh of the sheep, which is made into a pilaf with the above-named grains or rice.

The Circassian women enjoy a considerable share of liberty; but it is customary that the daughter of a pcheh, or prince, should only intermarry with the family of a prince; the daughter of an ouzden with an ouzden; and if she could not find a suitable match, and her charms were sufficiently attractive to content the slave-dealer, it was formerly her greatest ambition to go and seek her fortune in the harems of

the West, which held out dazzling visions of luxury and splendour, and of amorous sultans and viziers, of whose serai every fair adventuress hoped to become the mistress. It was considered much as the voyage to India on matrimonial speculation on which so many of our British women annually depart, only that the Circassian belles set forth without either Bible, sermons, or Mrs. Somebody's advice to young women proceeding on the oriental husband-chase.

It is also well known that the sale of Circassian women was always managed by the patriarchal head of the family, father or brother, and that the young slave soon learned to be the most anxious to display her attractions to the best advantage to a purchaser; thus differing from England, where there is no gobetween in the purchase of women-where, in the ballroom, the mothers instead of the fathers manage the sale, and where the more docile daughters are taught, even before they have left the parental home, to aid their chaperons in all their arts to secure the hideous, the imbecile, the deformed, or the profligate, so that they only be the rich. What moral difference is there in the conduct of those who have the avowed resolution of giving up their children, or of the children who are eager to yield up themselves to the first comer, whatever he may be, whose rent-roll will enable him to pay a seducing price-and that of the Cherkess, who sends his daughters to Stamboul, where equally they are to become the property of the first whose wealth will allow him to purchase?