Mehmet, evidently much disconcerted, left us without saying a word.

In a few minutes we were informed that a deputation of the chiefs and elders desired to confer with us in the courtyard. We accordingly repaired thither, purposely parading our sidearms. On taking our seats, the deepest concern was visible on every countenance, but before they could offer any explanation, we gave vent to our indignation in the strongest terms we could think of. Nor did these lose much in the translation of Nadir Hadji, to whose fertile genius, under the provocation we had received, we allowed free scope. He began by taunting them with the recent reformation they had talked of, and asked them if they intended the outrage they had perpetrated that day as a sample of it; and he finished by telling them, that unless there really was some amendment in their conduct towards us, the Beyzadis would withdraw from the country altogether;" and then," said he, shaking his head with great solemnity, "I should like to know what will become of you all?" In reply, the Cadi from Abbassak, who spoke for the rest, humbly, though not without dignity, deprecated our displeasure. The things that had been plundered would be immediately restored to us, and

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he entreated us to believe that they had not been taken for plunder's sake, but from mistaken motives; in consideration of which, he hoped we would pardon the misguided men who had been guilty of this act of violence. With this handsome apology, and the restitution of Omar's effects, terminated this unpleasant and rather alarming affair.

The congress having been broken up, and the multitude withdrawn to their several homes, I felt anxious to rejoin Mr. Bell, but we were detained a few days longer by the affairs of Mehmet Zazi Oglou at Ouwya. He was one out of the many who, in pursuance of the oath they had taken, were then occupied in the adjustment of their feuds. Some of these were very ancient and inveterate. That which Mehmet had to settle was at least of twenty years' standing, and presented an accumulation of mutual wrong that greatly complicated its arrangement. Nobody, however, could beat him at a bargain, and the number of oxen he drove away as the price of reconciliation was certainly not less than he was entitled to.

Before Nadir took his departure from Ouwya, the old Ouzden, with whom he had been quartered since his arrival, was desirous that he should become a beslémé, or foster-son of his family,

The ceremony, au rigueur, required that the matron should present the breast to the adopted as to one of her own children, but this part of it was dispensed with in the adoption of Nadir, who was merely introduced into the harem, and invited to salute the women as one of the family.

He thus acquired (not to reckon the whole tribe of Kutsuk, of which he likewise became a member) a great number of blood relations; and the brothers and sisters, to whom it was incumbent on him, as the richest among them, to make presents, proved to be much more numerous than he had previously any conception of. His eldest brother was a tall, handsome youth, whom I had seen in the north, where he had eloped some months before with the daughter of Hadjioli. Elopement, as the reader is probably aware, forms the principal feature in the Circassian marriage ceremony, but is not necessarily a pretence or fiction-it often occurs in reality. In either case, the purchase-money must, at the risk of a feud, be paid to the parents or his bride by the groom or his tribe, and thus a reconciliation, as it proved to be in the present instance, is almost the invariable consequence; and thus, notwithstanding the apparent degradation of the sex as objects of traffic, love-matches are perhaps more common here than in any other part of the world. Even

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when the fugitives have not the means of liquidating the claims of the parents, these escapades are not uncommon; but in that case they abscond into Russia, where, like all other outlaws and runaways, they are always well received, being styled the guests of the Emperor, and otherwise hospitably treated and provided for. Considerations of morality seldom interfere with Russian policy.

CHAPTER X.

Nadir Bey's warlike projects-Arrangements-Circassian commerce Silver Mines-Pagan rites existing among the Circassians.

WE left Ouwya towards the end of September. My feelings, in turning once more to the north, and brooding over the annihilation of all our hopes, were widely different from those with which I had come-different, too, to those which now animated my companion Nadir, who was occupied almost exclusively with projects of storming castles. These he lost no opportunity of pressing upon the Circassians, who, on their side, seemed to entertain them with ardour, and fully to enter into his views. He proposed, on some dark and stormy night, to advance on one of these forts, scale the walls, overpower the senti