markable for
their warlike and intrepid character, their independence, their
hospitality to strangers, and that love of country which they manifested
in their determined resistance to an almost overwhelming power during
the period of a long and desolating war. The government under which they
lived was a peculiar form of the feudal system. The free Circassians
were divided into three distinct ranks, the princes or _pshi_, the
nobles or _uork_ (Tatar _usden_), and the peasants or _hokotl_. Like the
inhabitants of the other regions of the Caucasus, they were also divided
into numerous families, tribes or clans, some of which were very
powerful, and carried on war against each other with great animosity.
The slaves, of whom a large proportion were prisoners of war, were
generally employed in the cultivation of the soil, or in the domestic
service of some of the principal chiefs.

The will of the people was acknowledged as the supreme source of
authority; and every free Circassian had a right to express his opinion
in those assemblies of his tribe in which the questions of peace and
war, almost the only subjects which engaged their attention, were
brought under deliberation. The princes and nobles, the leaders of the
people in war and their rulers in peace, were only the administrators of
a power which was delegated to them. As they had no written laws, the
administration of justice was regulated solely by custom and tradition,
and in those tribes professing Mahommedanism by the precepts of the
Koran. The most aged and respected inhabitants of the various _auls_ or
villages frequently sat in judgment, and their decisions were received
without a murmur by the contending parties. The Circassian princes and
nobles were professedly Mahommedans; but in their religious services
many of the ceremonies of their former heathen and Christian worship
were still preserved. A great part of the people had remained faithful
to the worship of their ancient gods--Shible, the god of thunder, of war
and of justice; Tleps, the god of fire; and Seosseres, the god of water
and of winds. Although the Circassians are said to have possessed minds
capable of the highest cultivation, the arts and sciences, with the
exception of poetry and music, were completely neglected. They possessed
no written language. The wisdom of their sages, the knowledge they had
acquired, and the memory of their warlike deeds were preserved in
verses, which were repeated fr