The inhabitants were smart-looking fellows, and all of them dressed in their national attire—in tight-fitting sheepskin coats, with the wool worn inside, and buckled round their waists by a narrow leathern strap, studded with buttons; broad leather trousers, stuffed into high boots covered their legs, and small Astrachan caps their heads.
For arms, the men carried long daggers in their waist-belts—many of the hilts being beautifully worked in silver.
There were several women and girls in the village. They did not conceal themselves, as is the custom of the Armenian or Turkish women. We had the opportunity of looking at their faces. I was under the impression that the Circassian girls were very fair. This is not the case; they more resemble the Spanish belles, and have a clear olive complexion, through which you can discern the blue veins. One girl was very good-looking. She could not have been more than sixteen, and sat the horse on which she was mounted with more grace and ease than any of her male companions.
The chief features in all these women are their eyes and teeth. The former are very large, and the latter small, well-shaped and white as pearls. Tooth powder is unknown in this district. How they preserve their teeth so perfectly is to a European an enigma.
You see men of from sixty to seventy years of age who have never lost a tooth, each one is as white as the purest ivory. The Circassians have another advantage, from a European point of view, over the Kurds. They do not sleep in their cow hovels. The stables are separated from the apartments reserved for the family.
We rode by several more Circassian villages, and after passing Gedjerharman, which is a nine hours' march from Bash, came to a district inhabited by Turks and Armenians. The latter complained of their warlike neighbours the Circassians, and declared that a Turk had been killed the previous evening, in a quarrel with one of the mountaineers. All this part of the track was in good order. Seven hours after leaving Gedjerharman we entered the plain around Kars. In rear of the town, which is built in the form of a sickle or half-moon, are some high mountains. A series of detached forts occupying commanding positions defends the approaches to the citadel. This last stands in the north-west angle of the town.
Seven battalions of infantry were drilling in the plain. They presented a more martial appearance than any of the troops which I had previously seen in Asia Minor.
The streets of Kars were in a filthy state. Every house was crammed with soldiers. The whole sewerage of the population had been thrown in front of the buildings. Fortunately the weather was cold. A very disagreeable smell could be perceived, as our horses stirred up the refuse beneath their hoofs.
We halted at the house of the civil governor. He had been kind enough to place a room at my disposal. The following morning I rode out to visit the fortifications. The river Kars Tchai runs through the town, and is crossed by three stone bridges, each about forty yards wide. The Persians in a war with the Turks had tried to turn this river, so as to cut off the water from the garrison, but failed in the attempt. I first went to Mount Kara Dagh, which is about 1400 yards from the town, and commands the road to the Russian fortress at Alexandropol or Gumri. A small barracks had been erected for half a battalion of infantry; some earthworks had been thrown up around the position, which was defended by twelve Krupp guns. The site for the powder magazine had not been judiciously selected; but, as it is possible that the war may not be over ere this work is published, the reader will pardon me if I do not mention its exact situation.
On the plain below, 1600 yards from the Kara Dagh, and 2000 from the town, was a small redoubt called the Hafeez Pacha Tabia; here there were nine guns, the battery facing the south. Fifteen hundred-yards south-west of this point and 3000 from the town, stood the Kanli Tabia, an important redoubt, in very good repair, and with sixteen guns in position. The only other defensive works in the plain consisted of a small redoubt called the Sowaree Tabia, in which were two guns. No connecting lines had been made to join the different redoubts; the ground between them was entirely unprotected. On my mentioning this to an engineer officer who accompanied me, he remarked that it was winter, and the ground was hard, when the weather became milder, the troops would commence digging trenches and forming breast-works.