om mouth to mouth and descended from
father to son.

The education of the young Circassian was confined to riding, fencing,
shooting, hunting, and such exercises as were calculated to strengthen
his frame and prepare him for a life of active warfare. The only
intellectual duty of the _atalik_ or instructor, with whom the young men
lived until they had completed their education, was that of teaching
them to express their thoughts shortly, quickly and appropriately. One
of their marriage ceremonies was very strange. The young man who had
been approved by the parents, and had paid the stipulated price in
money, horses, oxen, or sheep for his bride, was expected to come with
his friends fully armed, and to carry her off by force from her father's
house. Every free Circassian had unlimited right over the lives of his
wife and children. Although polygamy was allowed by the laws of the
Koran, the custom of the country forbade it, and the Circassians were
generally faithful to the marriage bond. The respect for superior age
was carried to such an extent that the young brother used to rise from
his seat when the elder entered an apartment, and was silent when he
spoke. Like all the other inhabitants of the Caucasus, the Circassians
were distinguished for two very opposite qualities--the most generous
hospitality and implacable vindictiveness. Hospitality to the stranger
was considered one of the most sacred duties. Whatever were his rank in
life, all the members of the family rose to receive him on his entrance,
and conduct him to the principal seat in the apartment. The host was
considered responsible with his own life for the security of his guest,
upon whom, even although his deadliest enemy, he would inflict no injury
while under the protection of his roof. The chief who had received a
stranger was also bound to grant him an escort of horse to conduct him
in safety on his journey, and confide him to the protection of those
nobles with whom he might be on friendly terms. The law of vengeance was
no less binding on the Circassian. The individual who had slain any
member of a family was pursued with implacable vengeance by the
relatives, until his crime was expiated by death. The murderer might,
indeed, secure his safety by the payment of a certain sum of money, or
by carrying off from the house of his enemy a newly-born child, bringing
it up as his own, and restoring it when its education was finished. In
either case, the fami