[10] The translator recently met in society a Russian officer, who had served with distinction in the country which forms the scene of "Ammalát Bek." This gentleman had intimately known Marlínski, and bore witness to the perfect accuracy of his delineations, as well of the external features of nature as of the characters of his _dramatis personæ_. The officer alluded to had served some time in the very regiment commanded by the unfortunate Verkhóffsky. Our fair readers may be interested to learn, that Seltanetta still lives, and yet bears traces of her former beauty. She married the Shamkhál, and now resides in feudal magnificence at Tarki, where she exercises great sway, which she employs in favour of the Russian interest, to which she is devoted. The picturesqueness as well as the fidelity of his description will, it is hoped, secure for the tale a favourable reception with a public always "_novitatis avida_," and whose appetite, now somewhat palled with the "Bismillahs" and "Mashallahs" of the ordinary oriental novels, may find some piquancy in a new variety of Mahomedan life--that of the Caucasian Tartars. The Russian language possessing many characters and some few sounds for which there is no exact equivalent in English, we beg to say a word upon the method adopted on the present occasion so to represent the Russian orthography, as to avoid the shocking barbarisms of such combinations as _zh_, &c. &c., and to secure, at the same time, an approach to the correct pronunciation. Throughout these pages the vowels _a, e, i, o, y_, are supposed to be pronounced as in French, the diphthong _ou_ as in the word _you_, the _j_ always with the French sound. With respect to the combinations of consonants employed, _kh_ has the gutteral sound of the _ch_ in the Scottish word _loch_, and _gh_ is like a rather rough or coarse aspirate. The simple _g_ is invariably to be uttered hard, as in _gun_ or _gall_. To avoid the possibility of errors, the combination _tch_, though not a very soft one to the eye, represents a Russian sound for which there is no character in English. It is, of course, uttered as in the word _watch_. As a great deal of the apparent discord of Russian words, as pronounced by foreigners, arises from ignorance of the place of the accent, we have added a sign over every polysyllable word, indicating the part on which the stress is to be laid. The few preceding rules will, the translator hopes, enable his countrymen to _attack_ the pronunciation of the Russian names without the ancient dread inspired by terrific and complicated clusters of consonants; and will perhaps prove to them that the language is both an easy and a melodious one. _St Petersburg, November_ 10, 1842. CHAPTER I. "Be slow to offend--swift to revenge!" _Inscription on a dagger of Daghestán._