are a brave people speaking the Abáza and Circassian language. The Bozdúk of Abáza and Circassia are separated by Mount Obúr; the distance between them is three stations. They mutually steal each others children and sell them. Two journies further along the seacoast is the old ruined castle of Osowísh, where we passed a night as guests. The inhabitants make bows and arrows; the Beg has three thousand men in his service, who carry muskets; the landing-place of the castle is called Gírmen Sowísh. Bears, swine, foxes, jackals, and woodcocks are found in great numbers in the mountains. These Abáza people have a strange mode of burying their Begs; they put the body into a wooden coffin, which they nail on to the branches of some high tree and make a hole in the coffin near the head, that the Beg, as they say, may look up to Heaven: bees enter the coffin and make honey, entirely wrapping the body up in it; when the season comes they open the coffin, take the honey and sell it, much caution, therefore, is required to be used in purchasing the honey of the Abázas. We here bought some more slave boys, and went two journies towards the west to the tribe of Ashagalí, whose Begs can bring two thousand brave men into the field, but they are all thieves, and dreaded by the Abázas themselves. There is also a ruined castle here, the landing-place of which is called Ashagalí, much frequented by the ships of Kaffa and Tamán, but they cannot remain here in the winter. One journey further to the west, is the village of A’atima belonging to the Ashaghlís; there are amongst them many Mussulmáns of the Abáza of Top-khánah. From hence Circassia is distant but a day’s journey. Two journies further is the tribe of Súksú, their Begs command three thousand armed men; they have horses of high breeding. The landing-place is Hárdena. The river called Súk has no ferry, it issues from the mountains of Circassia and flows into the Black Sea; there are some wealthy persons amongst them. Two journies further on is the tribe of Kútassí, whose Begs command seven thousand armed men. They have magazines covered with mats. In the port a great number of ships from Kaffa and Tamán are found. We met some acquaintances here from the Crimea, the horsemen of which country are in continual intercourse with Circassia. On account of the facility of communication the people are wealthy; they also sow corn, the rest of the Abáza sow millet, which multiplies a hundred fold. The houses of the Kútassí are covered with reed; a cluster of ten houses is called a Kabák, the four sides are circumvallated like a castle, and their dogs watch like lions around it, they are obliged to do so, as all their dwellings are in the woods, and each village is afraid of the other. The Kútassí are bounded by the Shána Circassians; they are only separated by a mountain, which is a day’s journey across; they speak the Circassian language. Thus the country of the Abázas extends from the Phasus along the seacoast forty