Opposite to our encampment, on the other side of the Alazann, and at a
distance of eighteen or twenty wersts, is the city of Belohakan,
situated at the foot of the Caucasus, and inhabited by the Eingalos, a
people whom the Lesghis keep in the most horrible state of slavery, and
who formerly belonged to Georgia; but who being too industrious, and
attached to their native soil, would never abandon it, during the
different revolutions which that country has undergone, and became
subject to their present masters. That city carries on a great trade
with Teflis, principally in bourkas, which are manufactured there; and
as the traders pass through Karakhach, our colonel, who was the
commandant of this district, and from whom they must obtain a passport
for Georgia, was obliged to have near him an Eingalo, who understood the
Russian language, and served as interpreter. This man had become so
familiarized with the officers, that the colonel allowed him to sit at
our table. One day we remarked that the interpreter was absent, a
circumstance which seldom occurred; but, as we were finishing our
dessert, he entered the dining-room in high spirits, bringing under his
arm a bundle, carefully tied, which, he said, contained a fine water
melon for our dessert. This fruit, in the middle of December, is
considered a great delicacy, and we all expressed a wish that he should
produce it, when he immediately untied the bundle, and, to our great
Horror, we beheld the head of a Lesghi, whom he had killed in fight on
the other side of the Alazann during a sporting expedition, roll on the
table. Disgusted at this action, which among these barbarous
mountaineers would pass as an excellent joke, we all rose from table,
and retired to another apartment, whilst the Eingalo sat down to dinner,
and, at every mouthful he took, amused himself with turning the head,
which he kept close to his plate, first one way and then
another.--_Ibid_.
* * * * *