The part of this nation which concerns Russia is that which is settled on and near the Caucasian line. Since this line was formed, it has sometimes been on terms of amity, and at others has had bloody contentions with Russia: but now, according to the last treaty with the Porte, it is reckoned subject to the Imperial crown. This portion of the Circassians is known under the title of the larger and smaller Kabarda. The Kabardinians hold themselves to be of Arab origin :perhaps they are the remains of the armies, formerly sent by the Chalifs against Caucasus. Others deduce them from the Mamelukes. General tradition, confirmed by still subsisting names, shews that they formerly inhabited the Crimea. The nobles are divided into antient noble knights (Ritterade!) and nobles of nobles.-The Circassians in general, and particularly the Kabardinians, live in villages, which they quit from time to time on account of the accumulation of filth, their insecurity, or other inconveniencies. They carry with them only their best wood for spars and wheelwright's work, and burn the rest. They then seek some other commodious spot. When they build at any distance from water, they conduct a canal by embankments from the nearest brook, in which business they are as expert as the Crim Tartars. They build their habitations near together, in one or more circles or parallelograms: so that the area within constitutes the common spacious yard for cattle; this has only a single gate, and is surrounded, and in some sort defended, by the houses.The men usually dwell in a separate apartment, and do not willingly appear with their wives in the presence of strangers. The Circassians are, generally speaking, a handsome people. The men, particularly the chiefs, are commonly tall, slim, very slender above the hips, small in their feet, and stout in their arms. They have for the most part a Roman and martial air, but in some a mixture of Nogai blood is visible. The women are not all Circassian beauties, but they are generally well made, fair-complexioned, dark-haired, regular in their features, and among them are to be observed more beauties than frequently occur among an uncivilized people. They are very cleanly in their villages and houses, as also in their clothes and diet. It is a known fact that a corset, or broad belt of undressed leather, is sewed (among more distinguished persons, it is fixed with silver clasps,) from below the breasts to the hips. This girdle must not be laid aside till the wedding night, when the bridegroom himself removes it with a sharp sword, often at considerable hazard to the bride.-For the sake of their shape also, the girls are kept low, being supported only with a little milk and cake. According to the Circassian Circassian and also to the Turkish ideas of beauty, a woman should be drawn very small over the hips, and have the belly projecting downwards. The men also endeavour to render the waist excessively slender, by the belt to which the sabre is appended. They have all very small feet, from inclosing them as tight as possible in socks of morocco leather, which give them the air of dancers, and with which they sit on horseback. The chiefs and knights have no business but war, pillage, and the chase. They live like gentlemen, ramble about, frequent carousals, or concert freebooting schemes. The knights keep the people in order, and are in nothing bound to the chiefs or princes, except in military service. The peasants or subjects, who yield blind obedience to the princes and knights, and hold life and property at the will of the former, are transmitted by inheritance: but no instance has occurred of their being sold. These people, and the slaves taken in war, who afterward fall into the class of the commonalty, plough the land with large ploughs, feed the herds, carry wood, build the habitations, reap, and make hay, which in winter is commonly eaten on the spot. In harvest, they are assisted by the women and grown-up girls, who are not kept so close as among the Crim Tartars. Among the peasants, every man must mow and carry hay for three days, for the nobleman or prince,-cut and carry wood three days,- and deliver seven sacks of millet for every ox that he possesses. A bridegroom of this class must also give two cows and two oxen to his lord. The inhabitants of the mountains, whom the Circassian princes have rendered tributary, give for each family a sheep, or its value. Every one who has a flock, be it great or small, must give a sheep in summer, at the time of encampment, to the prince; for which the latter keeps open table. In general, the prince, although he is bound by no laws, must endeavour to deserve the love of his subjects, and their attachment in war by liberality, hospitality, and kindness. He may ennoble a deserving subject. On occasion of great undertakings, he assembles the nobles, and by them the decisions of the assembly are notified to the people. The number of Circassians it is difficult to determine. Reckoning the tribes beyond the Cuban, they amount to a considerable power; which, considering their bravery and military spirit, would be dangerous, were it not divided among so many disagreeing princes. The two opposite customs of hospitality and the lex taljonis are held sacred among the Circassian knighthood, and most other L14 people people of Caucasus. The former is reduced to fixed prin ciples; and every one who finds himself under their protection is perfectly secure against all molestation. The host guards him with his own and his people's life, furnishes him with an escort, is answerable for him to his kinsmen, and the murder of or insult towards the guest is punished as severely as in the case of a relative. A stranger who puts himself under the protection of a woman, or can touch the breast of a woman with his mouth, were he an enemy, or even the murderer of a kinsman, is spared, and protected as if he were a member of the family. The lex talionis is just as conscientiously practised among the Circassians. The next heir or nearest in blood, even though at the time he be a child, must take vengeance either openly or by guile, for the murder of a kinsman, if he will not be expelled from society.-The price of blood is called Thlil-Uesa. Princes, however, and nobles, accept no price, but require blood for blood. The education of the children of the princes is calculated, from the earliest infancy, to stifle every feeling of affection. Sons and daughters are delivered on their birth to some noble man, often not one of the richest. The parents, particularly the father, never see the boy till he is capable of bearing arms, nor the girl till after she is married. The Circassians practise agriculture, and particularly pastur age. They principally sow millet, of which they not only make various preparations for food, but also a liquor which they call Hanthups. They likewise cultivate maize, which, on journeys and expeditions, serves for aliment in case of need. They plant several garden vegetables. The women make a very stout yarn out of the wild hemp, but they have not the art of weaving linen cloth. The care of horses constitutes, as one may expect among roaming horsemen, the most important department of their rural economy. To this they attend with as much care and zeal as the Arabs. They aim not merely at beauty, but also at strength, ability to endure hunger and fatigue, and speed; since the success of their expeditions depends on the quality of their horses. Almost every princely and knightly family boasts of a particular breed of horses, and burns their mark upon the hips of the true bred foals. In this respect they are so conscientious, that he who should fix the mark of a noble race on an ordinary feal must pay for the fraud with his life. The Nogai, or Cuban, Tartars, the remains of the formidable race of Monguls, a mere pastoral tribe, wander near and among the Circassians. They are so reduced as scarcely to deserve deserve the name of a nation. All the Nogais still bear more or less in their countenance the marks of their Mongul descent. Some look exactly like the offspring of the first mixture of Mongul, or Kalmuck, with Tartar or Russian blood. In consequence of their unsettled mode of life, the Nogais have continued to be addicted to plunder, although they have greatly suffered from severe but well deserved chastisements. It was formerly the custom to lop a hand and a foot from the party caught in the fact. Their tribesmen, as the late Dr. Lerch asserted from his own observation, used to staunch the blood with hot milk or fat, and carry off their mutilated fellows. A peculiar race, who have been obliged to retire into the high mountains, are the Ossetes or the Irones. Of these the Dugenous are the most powerful. They have lived a long time. separated from the others, partly subject to the Badiletters, a race of horsemen resident in the mountains, and partly independent. Near to their glaciers, where the Chamois feeds, there is said to be found a large bird of the Pheasant genus, very beautiful in its plumage, and accustomed to warn the Chamois when he sees men on the solitary mountains. Another tribe, totally different in language, stature, and physiognomy, from the rest of the inhabitants of Caucasus, are the Galgai, or the Gamur; or Inhabitants of the Mountains, as they entitle themselves. Their pronunciation is performed as if they had stones in their mouth. They are said to be an upright and brave people, who have been able to maintain their independence; being subject only to their own elders, who at the same time are their priests. They are almost the only Caucasians who have retained the shield among their weapons. The Suani are described as another mountain tribe; and a few words are said respecting some others. The volume concludes with a journey from Georgiofsk to Tcherkask and Taganrog, and from Taganrog to Tauria. Of the illustrative and decorative engravings, we shall speak in our account of the second, yet unpublished, volume.-In the mean time, we may remark of the present, that by far the greater part has no universal interest. We have not met with any work more susceptible of judicious abridgment; and among the students of German literature, it would be rendering a public -service if some one would undertake this task, both with the present and the former travels of this intelligent and authentic observer.Of both, there are French editions. ART. Bed...s. ART. II. Verfuche über die Chemische Zerlegung des Luftkreises, &c. i. e. Experiments on the Chemical Decomposition of the Atmosphere, and on some other objects in Natural Philosophy. By ALEX. VON HUMBOLDT. With two Copper-plates. 8vo. pp. 260. Brunswick. 1799. THE HIS small volume contains a number of ingenious and well conducted experiments, which display all the precision, elegance, and resources of modern chemistry. Many of the results are curious; some of them, are striking and important. The researches were made in various parts of Germany, on the borders of Italy, and especially in France, where the Parisian schools afforded peculiar advantages: but every where the youthful author seems to carry along with him the same ardent passion for science, and the same assiduous and indefatigable perseverance; which must in the end achieve valuable discoveries. Disappointed in the plan of accompanying the Gallic expedition to Egypt, he has directed his adventurous curiosity to the western world, and is at present, we understand, employed in exploring the unfrequented regions of Peru. Chemical theory has in its progress attained the period at which a pause naturally ensues. It connects together an extensive and splendid range of facts, with an ease and apparent consistency that gratify the imagination;-and so did the vortices of Des Cartes, with this additional advantage, of transferring for the first time the laws of force observed on our globe to regulate the motions in the coelestial spaces. It was not enough, however, to explain the general features; it was indispensable that the effects deduced should be exactly commensurate with the phænomena. The Cartesian hypothesis melted away under the touch of geometry. Whether the received opinions in chemistry be destined to undergo a similar fate, time will decide. The simplicity of the superstructure, however engaging, is certainly premature; the basis requires to be extended; and many adaptations are wanted to maintain coherence among the different parts. Recent experimenters, in detailing their operations, affect a degree of precision which is warranted neither by the state of the science, nor by the nature of the instruments employed. Yet how discordant are the results of different analyses! To impeach the skill or attention of the experimenter, would be uncandid: but are the principles themselves of chemical combination rightly understood or fully established? When the term affinity was rejected as occult, as metaphorical, and as savouring of alchemy, was any real advantage gained by substituting the expression elective attraction? |