Prices of course vary at Constantinople according to the vigilance of Russian cruisers, and the incorruptibility of Russian agents at Trebizond, Samsoon, and Sinope. The following is the average price in Circassia:—
| A man of | 30 years | of | age, | £10 |
| " | 20 | " | 10 to £30 | |
| " | 15 | " | 30 " 70 | |
| " | 10 | " | 20 " 50 | |
| " | 5 | " | 10 " 30 | |
| A woman of | 50 years | of | age, | £10 to £30 |
| " | 40 | " | 30 " 40 | |
| " | 30 | " | 40 " 70 | |
| " | 20 to 25 | " | 50 " 100 | |
| " | 14 " 18 | " | 50 " 150 | |
| " | 8 " 12 | " | 30 " 80 | |
| " | 5 | " | 20 " 40 |
TATTOOED ABYSSINIAN LADY.
The annexed cut is a sketch of an Abyssinian lady, tattooed in the height of the fashion. The following extract from that interesting work "Parkyns's Abyssinia" gives a good account of the custom as it prevails in the larger cities there, and of the manner in which the operation is performed. "The men seldom tattoo more than one ornament on the upper part of the arm, near the shoulder, while the women cover nearly the whole of their bodies with stars, lines, and crosses, often rather tastefully arranged. I may well say nearly the whole of their persons, for they mark the neck, shoulders, breasts, and arms, down to the fingers, which are enriched with lines to imitate rings, nearly to the nails. The feet, ankles, and calves of the legs, are similarly adorned, and even the gums are by some pricked entirely blue, while others have them striped alternately blue and the natural pink. To see some of their designs, one would give them credit for some skill in the handling of their pencil; but, in fact, their system of drawing the pattern is purely mechanical. I had one arm adorned; a rather blind old woman was the artist; her implements consisted of a little pot of some sort of blacking, made, she told me, of charred herbs; a large home-made iron pin, about one-fourth of an inch at the end of which was ground fine; a bit or two of hollow cane, and a piece of straw; the two last-named items were her substitutes for pencils. Her circles were made by dipping the end of a piece of a cane of the required size into the blacking, and making its impression on the skin; while an end of the straw, bent to the proper length, and likewise blackened, marked all the lines, squares, diamonds, &c., which were to be of equal length. Her design being thus completed, she worked away on it with her pin, which she dug in as far as the thin part would enter, keeping the supply of blacking sufficient, and going over the same ground repeatedly to ensure regularity and unity in the lines. With some persons, the first effect of this tattooing is to produce a considerable amount of fever, from the irritation caused by the punctures; especially so with the ladies, from the extent of surface thus rendered sore. To allay this irritation, they are generally obliged to remain for a few days in a case of vegetable matter, which is plastered all over them in the form of a sort of green poultice. A scab forms over the tattooing, which should not be picked off, but allowed to fall off of itself. When this disappears, the operation is complete, and the marks are indelible; nay more, the Abyssinians declare that they may be traced on the person's bones even after death has bared them of their fleshy covering."
BULGARIAN FISHERMEN.
The following interesting account of the Bulgarian fishermen on the shores of the Black Sea is taken from the translation of a narrative of a boat excursion made in 1846 by M. Xavier Hommaire, along part of the northern coast of the Black Sea:—
