CIRCASSIAN FLIRTATION.

217

remember what he who thinks not of wedlock seldom forgets, that the virtue of the lady is guarded by a fine of twenty-five head of cattle; as things go, a pretty efficacious one.

All this flirtation, affording so great a contrast to the reserve established between the sexes in Turkey, is, to the merchants who come from thence, particularly to the Dely Canns (or wild bloods), equally novel and attractive. One of them, our friend Hafiz, compared it to the simplicity of our first parents before the fall; but I am afraid his own experience was but slight, his paradise not altogether so innocent as he flattered himself, nor its roses without their usual accompaniment of thorns. Assuredly, it proves a fool's paradise to many, where they neglect the business that brought them there,

"To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,
Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair."

From these, with anything to bestow in the shape of presents, they find it not very easy to extricate themselves. When their stock is exhausted, they are at liberty to go as soon as they please.

I met with an instance of this sort of treatment in the person of a poor half-witted swain from Lazistan, of the name of Husseim, who had a long

and melancholy story to tell," sighing like furnace" all the while about his merchandize and his mistress. Of the former he had brought a large cargo the year before to Semez, and deposited in the house of an old ouzden, who, like our present Konag Bey, had a very pretty daughter on hand. By her fascinations the heart of the young slave merchant was speedily enslaved-she fairly took captivity captive. Had he been a wise man, he would, under such circumstances, have cut his courtship short, paid down her price, and married her; but a long courtship was more to the taste of the damsel, who contrived to spin it out till his stock of tchivits, aladjas, &c., was so far attenuated in propitiating her, that nothing remained to satisfy (what was still more important) the demands of her sire. Thus was the disconsolate Husseim left without mistress or merchandize, and the account he could render of either was anything but satisfactory; since, however sweet and precious he might have esteemed its items per contra, he was conscious they would make but an indifferent figure in a catalogue; such, at least, as was likely to prove intelligible to his partners in trade at Trebizond. He had not even enough to pay his expenses back to Turkey. I gave him, therefore, a free passage in my vessel, and his bitter invectives against the fair sex in general, and the nymphs

of Circassia in particular, afforded me amusement all the way in return.

There lived in a nook of the valley where we now resided a personage who was styled the sultan, but though his rank, the highest in Circassia, entitled him to certain marks of respect, he was, both from the meanness of his character, as well as a suspicion of disloyalty attached to him, since he had spent two years in Russia, very generally despised—a mere cypher in the council and the field. Being our neighbour, however, we had, during our stay at Aboon Bashi, a good deal of his company. He talked much of his family, which, he informed us, was of the same stock as that of Sultan Mahmoud himself; and having little to say on his own account, he expatiated largely on the exploits of his father, the sultan before him, who, to believe all he related of him, must have been a wonderful man indeed-one who thought nothing of putting whole armies single-handed to the rout, or of taking a flying leap on horseback over the Kuban. On his third visit, he brought with him a sort of hammer, mounted on a long stick-the identical one, he assured us, with which his father, the sultan before him, used to slay his enemies with, and which he now generously offered to Mr. Bell as a keepsake. The sacrifice of this heir-loom, though not very great in a material point of view, being

Our

In

merely a piece of old iron, adorned with two bits of coral, entitled the royal donor to a suitable acknowledgment; and Mr. Bell, having no relic of similar pretensions to present him with, was fain to give him something of a more vulgar value in return for it, which his highness appeared, however, well satisfied with; nay, as others maliciously insinuated, had all along been fishing for. own opinion of him was far from favourable. stead of emulating the deeds of his ancestors, which he was constantly bragging about, here he was skulking in a corner, while his countrymen were engaged with the Russians, whose cannon could be heard in his immediate neighbourhood. We were, therefore, somewhat agreeably surprised on receiving information one morning that, without saying a word to anybody, he had set out with his squire to the theatre of the war; but our pleasure and surprise were of short duration, and I began to be seriously alarmed on my own account, when I learnt, what was generally reported and believed, that the salt and the merchandize I had brought with me were about to be distributed to all who bravely took the field against the Russians. It was in consequence of this report that the sultan, taking with him, in addition to his usual accoutrements, two large empty sacks, was now in full march to Pchat.

ROGUERY OF IMAM OLI HADJI.

221

The suspense in which I was placed by these accounts was at length relieved by the arrival of my Greek servant, Demetry, from whom we received positive intelligence on this and other matters not less interesting to us. It was now more than three weeks since, at Adhencum, I put him jointly in charge of my property at Pchat with Imam Oli Hadji, whose honesty, however useful his experience might prove in the sale of these goods, seemed already more than problematical. My suspicions were well justified by the sequel; and but for the check I had placed on him, the merchandize would have been entirely lost. Contrary to my instructions, he had been purchasing slaves—a blooming damsel for me, and, though I knew the rogue to have no funds, and must have been appropriating mine, two children for himself. Besides objecting, on principle, to these sort of returns, I was aware they were such as a Frank could not legally dispose of at Constantinople, and of which my crafty agent knew he would himself have the absolute command on his arrival there. My Greek had done what he could to oppose this chicanery; but the Hadji, to defeat him and obtain the entire command of the property, had intimated to his countrymen, that not only he had no right over it, but that the Bey himself (meaning me) was not its real owner.