The Powers of Europe and Fall of Sebastopol

by A British officer

Caucasus—Character of the Tribes—Circassian Slave Trade—Birth of Schamyl—Personal Appearance—Form of Government—His Army and Body-Guard—Financial Rule—Struggles with Russia—Personal Habits—Legend—Circassian Women in Battle—Escape from the Russians.

The valleys of the Caucasus afford abundance of detached rocks and overhanging cliffs, bathed by the foaming mountain torrents. On these or other almost inaccessible spots, are perched, like eagles’ nests, the aouls or villages of the natives. Each consists of a number of saklias—houses built of loose fragments of rocks without mortar, and arranged in an amphitheatrical form. Those of the chiefs are larger, and are distinguished by the addition of high towers; the last refuge of the inhabitants in case of attack.

The hardy and frugal mountaineers support themselves by pasturage, and by the cultivation of barley, wheat, and maize, making the best of the scanty soil by carefully terracing and irrigating it. In the more favored districts, the vine is grown with success; and cherry, apple, and pear orchards form no inconsiderable part of the wealth of the inhabitants. Some villages are celebrated for the manufacture of weapons and mail-shirts; and throughout the mountains the greatest attention is paid to the breed of the horses, hardy, sure-footed animals, as much valued by their active enemies, the Cossacks, as by the Caucasians themselves.

The Caucasian character has all the good and all the evil features common among semi-savage mountaineers. Possessed of the most daring courage, and capable of self-devotion to their chiefs altogether without parallel; chivalrous in open warfare, and true to the last to any engagement by which they consider themselves fairly pledged; frugal and temperate in their ordinary habits; honorable and affectionate in their domestic relations; they are, nevertheless, to an enemy, or, indeed, to an outsider of any kind, both ruthless and bloodthirsty, seeming to be actuated by but two motives—love of bloodshed and love of gain. A story of Wagner’s well illustrates this. A Tcherkess made his appearance before the commandant of one of the forts on the Black Sea, and stated that, for a consideration, he was willing to give some important information. This turned out to be, that an attack on the fort had been arranged by a large body of his countrymen to take place on an appointed day; and as it was totally unexpected by the Russians, it would probably have resulted in their destruction. The commandant agreed to pay the reward, but detained the Tcherkess until his statements were verified. Sure enough, on the very day a large body of mountaineers attacked the fort, but found their enemies on the alert, and were repulsed with loss. The Tcherkess received his reward the day after, and was dismissed with thanks. Not many yards from the fort, a Russian soldier, unarmed, was busied in some occupation. The Tcherkess could not resist the opportunity, but shot him, and bounded away into the hills!

In mind as in feature, there are considerable differences between the Eastern and Western Caucasians. The Western is distinguished by the beauty of his form and features, the fairness of his complexion, the open, dashing, careless, European cast of his character. The Asiatic element, on the other hand, predominates in the Eastern tribes. Darker in skin, the eagle eye is deeper set, and its uncertain glitter suggests the suspicion that the passions of a fierce fanatic lie beneath the imagination of a mystic.

The well-known Circassian slave-traffic is carried on by the western tribes only; but it is very different from the slave dealing with which England and America have been polluted. Among the Circassians themselves, matrimony is an affair of traffic, and the lover buys his wife of her respectable parents. With the Circassian girls, therefore, it is a question whether they are bought to work hard and live miserably at home, or whether they are bought to have an “establishment” at the expense of some Turkish Pasha. They are not sold to slave or to be ill-treated; and it is said that they almost invariably look forward to their Turkish prospects with great delight, and for that end brave the miseries of the Black Sea passage with pleasure.

Schamyl, the devoted Murid, became Imam and Sultan of the Eastern Caucasus, “the second prophet of Allah,” in the year 1834, and, from that time till the present, has baffled the whole forces of Russia. Born in 1797, Schamyl grew up amidst all those influences which would best fit him to be the future leader of his people. From his earliest childhood, his silent earnest ways, intense determination and love of knowledge, distinguished him among his fellows, and Spartan habits and a strong will compensated the natural defects of a delicate physical organization. He is of middle stature, has fair hair, gray eyes overshadowed by thick, well-marked eyebrows, a regular, well-formed nose, and a small mouth. A peculiar fairness and delicacy of skin distinguishes his countenance from that of his fellow-countrymen, and his feet and hands are singularly well shaped. The apparent immovability of his arms in walking indicates the determination of his character. His manner is noble and dignified. Perfectly master of himself, he exercises a silent influence over all who come into contact with him. A stem impassivity, which is undisturbed even in moments of the greatest danger, is his characteristic expression. A condemnation to death falls from his lips with the same calmness as he shows in conferring on a brave Murid the sabre of honor won in some sanguinary fight. With traitors or other offenders, whose death he has once determined upon, he converses without manifesting a shade of angry or vengeful feeling. He regards himself as simply the instrument in the hands of a higher power, and holds that all his thoughts and decisions are the immediate inspiration of God. His eloquence is as fiery and persuasive as his ordinary manner is calm and commanding.

Of a mob of scattered tribes, divided by innumerable feuds, he has made a nation capable of the most complete unity of action, and animated by one faith; and his genius as a lawgiver is as preëminent as his religious enthusiasm. With a strong hand he has swept away all the old boundaries of race and tribe, however consecrated by tradition, and has completely reörganized the country over which he rules. It is divided into twenty districts, each of which is governed by an officer termed a Naib, whose business it is to preserve order; to superintend the proper raising of taxes and recruits; to limit and control disputes and blood-feuds; and to see that the Scharyat is strictly fulfilled. Every five of these districts, again, are under the superintendence of a Governor, uniting within himself the spiritual and temporal power, and answerable to Schamyl alone, who allows to certain of his favorites only, absolute power over life and death; while the others must refer to himself in such cases. Each Naib has a deputy or coädjutor. In every village there is a Cadi or Elder, whose duty it is to make regular reports to his Naib of all important occurrences, and to carry out the orders which he may receive from him, while the local Mollah has the spiritual care of the village. Every man capable of bearing arms has right of access to his Cadi or Naib at a fixed time of the day, when audiences are held and business transacted. Rapid communication through all parts of the country is insured by a sort of flying post. In each village several swift horses are kept saddled and bridled, and when a state messenger arrives, hearing a passport sealed by the Naib of the district, it is the business of the Cadi to furnish him instantly with a fresh horse and a guide to the next post. In this way Schamyl’s messages and orders are transmitted with incredible swiftness.

The standing army of five or six thousand men is thus kept up; every ten houses of a village must maintain a warrior, one house providing the man, and the other nine his horse, accoutrements, and support. The family to which he belongs is, so long as he is alive, free of all taxes, but he must never be without his arms, and must be ready, day and night, to march at a moment’s notice. Furthermore, every male from fifteen to fifty is liable to be called out for the defence of his village, or, in extraordinary cases, to the general army; and in the latter case, each horseman of ten houses commands the men of those houses.