prepare the food of the household. The Circassian still retaining much
of the patriarchal simplicity of living, eats when he is hungry, without
regard to set hours; nor is there any gathering of the family around the
social board, every member generally taking his meals by himself, and
the males under no circumstances eating with the females. The flesh of
sheep and goats is the kind of meat in most common use. This is prepared
in savory ragouts well seasoned with salt, pepper, coriander seeds, and
capsicums; or, being cut in pieces, is roasted on small iron spits, the
morsels taken from the saddle, and the fat of sheep-tails being
considered the most dainty. Meats also are preserved by salting,
smoking, and drying. Still oftener, however, they are boiled, and their
juices eaten in a kind of pottage with millet in it, being the same as
the Sclavonian and Polish _cachat_, the use of which extends as far west
as the Adriatic, while on the southern side of the Caucasus, even to
Central Asia, the pilaff is made with rice. Throughout the Caucasus
millet is the favorite grain, of which cakes are made by being baked on
hot flat stones or iron plates. The wheaten loaf likewise is common in
many localities, and so the cake of Turkey corn. All these different
kinds of bread are eaten with honey, great quantities of which are taken
from the hives of wicker-work or bark of trees, and of an exceedingly
delicious quality, owing to the wild thyme and other aromatic herbs fed
on by the bees. The Circassians have a good many vegetables, though they
are not particularly fond of this kind of diet. Cucumbers which are
apparently indigenous in these regions are, however, in much favor; and
more or less use is made of melons, gourds, pumpkins, beets, onions,
carrots, cabbages, asparagus, artichokes, and beans. Fish are still less
liked, though the rivers abound in salmon-trout, and numerous other
varieties. On the other hand, the consumption of fruit is very
considerable, particularly of apples, pears, cherries, peaches, grapes,
olives, figs, pomegranates, almonds, walnuts, and chestnuts, many of
which kinds grow wild in the woods.
All Circassians are very fond of a kind of sour milk peculiar to the
East, called by them _skhou_, and by the Turks and Tartars _yaourte_.
This is taken sometimes pure, sometimes flavored with a little sugar and
rose-water, or is boiled with millet or maize. Said to be remarkably
refreshing, its origin is traced back to Abraham, who obtained it
directly from the Almighty; or as another tradition says, it was
bestowed originally by an angel on Hagar when driven out from the house
of her lord she was fainting with heat and thirst in the desert. It
takes the place very much of spirituous and fermented liquors, in the
use of which the mountaineers are exceedingly temperate. A kind of mead,
not very potent, however, is made by them of millet, honey, and water,
and is decidedly a superior beverage to
The one called _kuas_, whereby the Russie lives,
Small ware, water-like, but somewhat tart in taste.
This mead is the liquor principally drunk at feasts, and of this
formerly were oblations poured out to the gods. More or less wine also
is drunk in the Caucasus, always of a light quality, and more resembling
champagne than the other wines of Europe. Its use being prohibited by
the Koran, is discountenanced by the Sufis and Schamyl's party.
Nevertheless there are here and there those among the faithful who
continue to say,
Ma sopra tutto nel buon via ho fede;
E credo che sia salvo che gli crede.
And since latterly the Russians have introduced their brandy, the number
of believers is not small, who, on mounting their steeds, will take a
stirrup cup of schnapps when offered.
On the whole, the Circassians are remarkably temperate in both meats and
drinks; in this simplicity of living, as in so many other respects,
still preserving a striking resemblance to the manners and customs of
the Greeks of the earliest ages. At their feasts and entertainments
given to strangers, however, there is always a great profusion of
dishes, which are served in succession on small, three-legged trays; and
a generous hosts is known as a man of "forty tables." On journeys and
warlike expeditions, on the contrary, the mountaineer is contented with
barely, a little millet, sour milk, and honey, all of which are easily
transported in leathern bottles at his saddle-bow. Nor at home on all
ordinary occasions does he want more, a morsel of meat perhaps being
added. But though simple the fare, its cookery is pronounced not bad
even by Europeans; and the traveller has much less reason here than in
some other oriental countries to demand of his host the _dish parasi_,
or indemnification for the wear of his teeth.
For temperance of living Schamyl has always been remarkable even among
his countrymen. His house accordingly has not been one of feasting,
though a moderate number of guests are constantly entertained by him.
Nor is it to be supposed that either of his three legitimate wives serve
tables, however probable it may be that this office is performed by the
handmaidens of whom, according to the fashion of the East, he keeps a
certain number in his house, captured Russian females being especially
preferred.
Of his wives one is an Armenian, and if the half that is told of her in
the mountains be true, of a beauty not unlike that attributed by the
noble English bard to Theresa.
She had the Asiatic eye,
Such as our Turkish neighborhood
Hath mingled with the Polish blood,
Dark as above us is the sky
But through it stole a tender light,
Like the first moonrise of midnight;
Large, dark, and swimming in the stream,
Which seemed to melt to its own beam;
_All_ love, half languor, and half fire,
Like saints that at the stake expire.
In severe dignity of features and stateliness of carriage the Armenian
females are not unlike the Circassian and the Georgian. In these
mountains, however, the former do not wear the brown mantle in which
they wrap themselves at Constantinople, but long black veils which fall
in graceful folds to the feet, and display the shape like the drapery of
the old Greek statues. Beneath is a silken wrapper confined by a girdle
richly ornamented with gold and silver. The trousers are full, and
commonly of bright colored Indian cotton. Their headdress is generally a
shawl gracefully twisted into the form of the turban; while their hands,
fingers, and ears are always decorated with ornaments of gold and
silver. In this attractive costume these fair ones from the south side
of the mountains are highly esteemed by the Circassian chieftains,
though few can afford to pay the high prices often demanded by their
sires. For the Armenian merchant is the Jew of the Caucasus, and having
sold every thing else, will even sell his country's daughters. Destitute
of all patriotic feeling, his whole soul bound up in his gains, he
brings into these mountains all the spirit of trade there is in them,
ever calculating, figuring, discounting, and bargaining with a patience
which ends only with life itself. So different is the spirit of man
among the woods and snows of the Caucasus and in the sunny vales which
lie around the foot of Ararat.
Captives, male as well as female, are common in the households of the
Circassian chiefs, and formed doubtless a part of Schamyl's domestic
establishment. Generally they are put to hard labor in the fields; but
the reports of barbarous treatment brought back by the few Russians who
have escaped from slavery in the Caucasus are for the most part greatly
exaggerated. Often, on the contrary, they become favorites with their
masters, to whom they are serviceable in introducing European
improvements. They invariably receive kind treatment at the hands of the
females, and are frequently allowed to take wives and have households of
their own. Still, as the Circassian carried away into captivity always
regrets his native mountains and will return to them, if possible, so
the lowlander often pines for the plains from which he has been torn.
Treated ever so kindly the Cossack will sigh when he remembers the
freedom with which he once roved the steppes, lance in hand, on his
shaggy little steed; and the Kalmuck also when he thinks of his hut half
buried in the sands on the shore of the Caspian, whence he was wont to
sally forth with his falcon on his fist, and letting it fly at the
heron, followed himself almost as swiftly on the gallop.
XXXVII.
PRINCE WORONZOFF AT DARGO.
Governor-General Golowin was succeeded by General Neidhart, an officer
who had served with distinction in the war against Napoleon, and
afterward in the bloody strife in Poland, and who had won the reputation
of being not only an able commander, but a skilful administrator, and a
man of sterling worth of character. He was sent into the Caucasus to
carry out the system of defence and gradual conquest which had been
approved of at St. Petersburg in opposition to that of aggressive
invasion, the results of which had been so disastrous under his
predecessor.
But it was by no mere change of men or plans that such a master-spirit
as Schamyl was to be conquered. Nothing daunted by the arrival on the
scene of action of a new opponent, he broke through the Russian line,
captured the fortress of Unzala, and devastated Avaria. While making
Dargo his headquarters where he had collected considerable stores of
ammunition and provisions, he with unabating zeal went the rounds of all
the neighboring tribes, keeping alive the ardor of those who were
friendly to him, and visiting with condign punishment those who took
sides with the enemy. Neidhart standing mainly on the defensive was
unable to make any progress in either conciliating or subjugating the
highlanders, and at the end of two years had rather lost ground than
gained it. He therefore in his turn was recalled in disgrace to give
place to a commander the most distinguished who had been sent to the
Caucasus since Jermoloff.
This was Prince, then Count Woronzoff. Having served like General
Neidhart in the French and Polish wars, he had afterward, as governor of
the Crimea, acquired such a degree of popularity as had not been enjoyed
before since the days of Potemkin, the favorite of Catherine. The owner
of forty thousand serfs, and said to be the handsomest Russian living
after Nicholas himself, he possessed also the highest order of
administrative talent, a complete knowledge of the art of war, and the
most heroic qualities of character. Fully appreciating his worth the
emperor in calling him to the command of the army of the Caucasus,
invested him with such extraordinary powers as procured for him among
the Circassians the title of "the Russian half-king." The power of life
and death over the natives was given him; he was authorized to put
officers in the army of every grade on trial for offences; could remove
and appoint all civil functionaries up to the sixth grade; and could
bestow various military honors and rewards without the confirmation of
the emperor. This was indeed a generous gift of power,--and that simply
for the sake of putting down the chieftain of a few rude tribes in the
mountains.
But after having made it, the emperor became desirous once more of
striking a blow such as should justify this change of administration,
avenge the disaster of the expedition against Dargo, and even put an
immediate end to the war. Nothing short of the capture of this same
Dargo would answer his purposes. Such an undertaking was indeed contrary
to the best judgment and wishes of the new commander; but expressly to
gratify his sovereign, as he said, Woronzoff finally consented to lead
another Russian column into the forests of Itchkeria.
It was in the summer of 1845, and only a few months after Woronzoff's
arrival in the mountains. With a force of ten thousand infantry and a
few hundred Cossacks, he set out for Dargo, taking instead of the
northern track previously followed by General Grabbe, the route by the
river Koissu and through the district of Andi. On their march to its
principal aoul, called also Andi, the Russians were not attacked by the
mountaineers, though closely watched by them. Here and there small
parties would appear in the distance, but they seemed to be disposed, as
usual, to spare their powder, and contented themselves with occasionally
rolling down stones upon the heads of their adversaries as they passed
through the narrower defiles. The column therefore advanced with good
spirits, having full rations, confiding in their new leader, and rather
underrating than dreading an enemy who attacked them with stones instead
of bullets.
At Gogatel, a small fort situated south of the Andian range, which runs
parallel with the Andian branch of the Koissu, Woronzoff established a
depot of such provisions and munitions of war as could not conveniently
be transported further. This was but a single day's journey from Dargo;
and on the seventeeth of July, all preparations having been fully made,
and summer being in mid-reign, the order of march was given out for the
morrow.
The soldiers, lightly laden, set off cheerfully by the light of the
resplendent dawn; and before the freshness of the morning was gone they
had crossed by the pass of Retschel into the beech-woods of Itchkeria.
Then began the fight. The hostile tribes of all the region round were up
in arms, and waiting in the depths of the woods for the enemy. As his
vanguard reached the first narrow and precipitous defile they were
received by a murderous fire from behind numerous trunks of trees which,
felled across the way, served as breast-works for the one party and
obstacles to the progress of the other. Besides these barricades, the
barriers no less difficult of removal, which were woven by nature, of
thousands of vines and flower-bearing creepers, the narrowness and
steepness of the paths, added to the opposition of the enemy, rendered
the march so difficult that on an average it did not exceed one and a
half wersts the hour. Still Woronzoff fought his way through; and as the
shades of night began to gather under the woods he was in sight of
Dargo. But it was the aoul in flames which, joined to the reappearing
stars, now lit up the way; for Schamyl, having gathered together
whatever of wood, straw, and grain could not be taken away, had set it
all on fire, thereby leaving to the enemy the conquest of merely the
blackened stone walls of the houses. Indeed the burning ruins of his own
residence supplied the bivouac fires by which the weary soldiers cooked
their evening meal, and then lay down to sleep.
The next day the fight was renewed. Schamyl had retired with a force of
about six thousand warriors to a height which commanded the aoul, and
thence opened a fire upon the Russians with their own cannon, the
trophies of former victories. The "emperor's pistols" consumed indeed
too much powder to be fired with any great rapidity, nor did the
mountaineers know how to take aim over a six-pounder as well as they did
along the barrels of their rifles; still one ball came bounding into the
very tent of the staff of officers, and it became necessary, therefore,
in order to prevent accidents, to scale the height. After not a little
hard fighting this was finally done at the point of the bayonet; but the
Circassians retired, dividing the honors of the field with the enemy,
for they carried off the guns.
Dargo was taken, but not Schamyl. What then was to be done? Woronzoff
finally decided that he would send the half of his force back to Gogatel
to get a supply of provisions, and on their return push through the
woods and regain the Russian line by the route northward. But this
movement on Gogatel gave the mountaineers another chance at their
enemies. With Schamyl at their head and strengthened by reinforcements,
they attacked the escort party both going and returning. The Circassians
give themselves no rest until they have had blood for blood; and the two
preceding days their own had flowed pretty freely. Not satisfied with
the slow though certain work of the rifle they now rushed in upon the
battalions, and with shaska and poniard fought hand to hand. Generals
Wiktoroff and Passek fell defending themselves with their swords. Rain
and tempest made the battle still more terrific. The brave General
Klucke did his best; but when he arrived at Dargo he had left thirteen
hundred of his men, together with the two generals, behind in the woods.
Three hundred mules also with their packs, and a considerable number of
wagons loaded with grain, besides one cannon, fell into the hands of the
enemy.
But with what of the convoy was saved Count Woronzoff set out from Dargo
on his return. The soldiers were put on half rations, and the horses had
nothing to eat but grass. Through the valley of the Aksai, to the
Russians a valley of death, inasmuch as General Grabbe had before strewn
it with his slain, led the way. Nor was it now scarcely less wet with
blood. For Schamyl's men fought the retiring battalions step by step.
Wherever the mountains projecting up to the very bank of the Aksai left
only a narrow passage for the troops, the way was stopped by barricades.
The Circassians taking aim from behind the rocks and the beech trees,
brought down so many victims that the few horses of the Cossacks
sufficed not to transport the wounded, so that whoever was disabled was
necessarily abandoned to his fate.
When then the commander saw that so many of his brave soldiers were left
behind to fall into the hands of a foe whose hate left no room in his
breast for mercy, he resolved to make a halt, and send for
reinforcements. Fortunately for him some natives who, bribed by large
sums of gold, had undertaken under cover of night to carry despatches to
the fortress of Girsel-aoul, succeeded in getting through, and conveying
to the garrison intelligence of the hazardous situation of their
countrymen. Thereupon three thousand infantry and three hundred Cossacks
under General Freitag hastened to their relief. And great indeed was the
joy of the famished battalions when their comrades arriving shared with
them the contents of their knapsacks, took the wounded upon their
horses, and helped to beat off the enemy. The march then proceeded
without further difficulty, and on the first of August the conquerors of
Dargo, less three thousand of their dead, arrived in safety at
Girsel-aoul.
For this sad service of his master, heralded at St. Petersburg and
through Europe as a great victory--and such are Russian victories in the
Caucasus--Count Woronzoff was made a Prince! But when a few months
afterward he met the emperor at Sebastopol for the purpose of exchanging
views respecting the future conduct of the war, it is understood that
the latter became at last fully convinced that the Caucasus could not be
subjected by the method of direct invasion, but only by adhering to the
policy of gradually drawing closer and closer around the mountains the
line of the fortresses, in connection with the use of light, movable
columns as a means of supporting them. Accordingly no more hostile
expeditions into the interior have since been undertaken, and no more
such triumphs as that at Dargo have been gazetted. Woronzoff, convinced
himself that the successful termination of the war was to be hoped for
only from long-continued perseverance in maintaining the armed blockade
and active siege of the mountains, contented himself during the half a
dozen years of his command in the Caucasus with attempting to carry
these views into execution, and also in endeavoring to accomplish the
Augean task of cleansing the administration of both government and army
of the corrupt practices which had long prevailed in both. In the latter
undertaking he met with a good degree of success; but in the former,
though aided by all army in both Cis and Trans-Caucasia of from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand men, he made on the whole no
progress. Nor have his successors, Generals Read and Mouravieff been
able to do more. The genius of Schamyl and the Circassian love of
liberty, combined with the natural resistance of Caucasian rocks and
forests, have proved to be more than a match for them.
XXXVIII.
SCHAMYL'S PROCLAMATION TO THE KABARDIANS.
Nor only did the double wall of rocks and human breasts throbbing with
the love of independence prove impenetrable to the Russian columns led
on by a chief of transcendent abilities, but that wall was gradually
strengthened and enlarged. Schamyl could not be kept within bounds. The
year after the fall of Dargo he broke through the cordon of fortresses,
and pouncing upon the neutral provinces of Kabarda, performed the most
brilliant exploit in his whole career.
The Kabardas, the great and the little, are twin provinces lying on the
northern side of the Caucasian range midway between the two seas, and in
a north-westerly direction from the Lesghian and Tchetchenian highlands.
It is a land of green valleys and sunny hill-sides, more broken on the
side where it joins on to the mountains; softly undulating in the
central portions; and to the north, where it falls down to the banks of
the Terek and to the level of the steppes, a plain almost as smooth as a
sheet of water. Here, until the coming of the Russians, a people mainly
pastoral had kept their flocks and herds for centuries. Simple in their
modes of life, yet trained to arms, they were of the blood of the
gallant race of the Adighés or Circassians of the western Caucasus.
Scarcely less lovers of freedom than the tribes who dwelt higher up in
the mountains, nor less ready to lay down their lives in defence of it,
they contended for a quarter of a century or more with the invaders who
came into their land, pretending to a right to rule over them. But in
this long period of resistance the chivalry of the Kabardas was
gradually wasted, whereas army after army came out of the north as from
a womb of men which was inexhaustible. These semi-barbarous knights had
also to contend with a more advanced civilization; and nature besides
had not come to their aid with those bulwarks of rock and forest with
which she so fondly encircled the free homes of the highlanders. A half
century ago, accordingly, they were finally obliged to succumb to
superior numbers, though not to superior valor. But they came out of the
contest with the honors of war, it being stipulated in their
capitulation that they should retain their arms, and be still governed
by their chiefs, on condition of acknowledging the supremacy of the
czar. Gradually, however, as the foreign civilization got a foothold
with its advantages of trade and its superior modes of tillage, the
influence of the conquerors grew stronger. Their colonists, consisting
mostly of Germans, pushed forward into the fertile and pleasant valleys.
Many of the chiefs, long courted by gifts and pensions, were seduced
into favoring the Russian ascendency; a species of militia was drafted
among the warriors to assist in the subjugation of the other tribes; and
the hot young bloods, captivated by the sight of the epaulettes and
plumes of the imperial cavalry, allowed themselves to be enrolled in its
ranks, and formed that splendid body of horse having the guard of the
person of the empress in St. Petersburg.
Previously to his invasion of the territory of these Russianized
Kabardians, Schamyl had made various attempts to incite them to throw
off their yoke. He had sent emissaries to scatter among them his
proclamations, urging them in glowing words to strike a blow for
independence and for Allah; he had caused these to be followed by many
of his most eloquent murids who preached in their valleys that new faith
of the union of all believers in a holy war against the infidels which
had taken such strong root among the rocks of the mountains; and finally
he had despatched his zealous partisan Achwerdu-Mahomet at the head of
an armed force to compel them to take sides with him. But the Kabardians
who, formerly converted from paganism to Muscovite Christianity and
afterward to Mahometanism, were not zealots in religion, turned a deaf
ear to both proclamations and preaching, and even put Achwerdu-Mahomet
to death. For alike despising the threats of Schamyl, and fearing the
artillery of the Russians, they determined to remain neutral. The
following is one of the proclamations referred to, and may be taken as a
specimen of Schamyl's State papers.
"In the name of Allah, the all-merciful, whose gracious Word flows like
the spring before the eyes of the thirsty wanderer in the desert, who
has made us the chief pillars in the temple of his faith, and the
bearers of the torch of freedom! Ye warriors of great and little
Kabarda, for the last time I send to remind you of your oath, and to
incite you to war against the unbelieving Muscovites. Many are the
messages I have already sent, and the words I have spoken to you; but ye
have scorned my messengers and have not regarded my admonitions.
Therefore hath Allah given you over into the hands of your enemies, and
your aouls to the sword of the spoiler; for the Prophet hath said,