For temperance of living Schamyl has always been remarkable even among his countrymen. His house accordingly has not been one of feasting, though a moderate number of guests are constantly entertained by him. Nor is it to be supposed that either of his three legitimate wives serve tables, however probable it may be that this office is performed by the handmaidens of whom, according to the fashion of the East, he keeps a certain number in his house, captured Russian females being especially preferred. Of his wives one is an Armenian, and if the half that is told of her in the mountains be true, of a beauty not unlike that attributed by the noble English bard to Theresa. She had the Asiatic eye, Such as our Turkish neighborhood Hath mingled with the Polish blood, Dark as above us is the sky But through it stole a tender light, Like the first moonrise of midnight; Large, dark, and swimming in the stream, Which seemed to melt to its own beam; _All_ love, half languor, and half fire, Like saints that at the stake expire. In severe dignity of features and stateliness of carriage the Armenian females are not unlike the Circassian and the Georgian. In these mountains, however, the former do not wear the brown mantle in which they wrap themselves at Constantinople, but long black veils which fall in graceful folds to the feet, and display the shape like the drapery of the old Greek statues. Beneath is a silken wrapper confined by a girdle richly ornamented with gold and silver. The trousers are full, and commonly of bright colored Indian cotton. Their headdress is generally a shawl gracefully twisted into the form of the turban; while their hands, fingers, and ears are always decorated with ornaments of gold and silver. In this attractive costume these fair ones from the south side of the mountains are highly esteemed by the Circassian chieftains, though few can afford to pay the high prices often demanded by their sires. For the Armenian merchant is the Jew of the Caucasus, and having sold every thing else, will even sell his country's daughters. Destitute of all patriotic feeling, his whole soul bound up in his gains, he brings into these mountains all the spirit of trade there is in them, ever calculating, figuring, discounting, and bargaining with a patience which ends only with life itself. So different is the spirit of man among the woods and snows of the Caucasus and in the sunny vales which lie around the foot of Ararat.