ly of the slain individual might discontinue the
pursuit of vengeance without any stain upon its honour. The man closely
followed by his enemy, who, on reaching the dwelling of a woman, had
merely touched her hand, was safe from all other pursuit so long as he
remained under the protection of her roof. The opinions of the
Circassians regarding theft resembled those of the ancient Spartans. The
commission of the crime was not considered so disgraceful as its
discovery; and the punishment of being compelled publicly to restore the
stolen property to its original possessor, amid the derision of his
tribe, was much dreaded by the Circassian who would glory in a
successful theft. The greatest stain upon the Circassian character was
the custom of selling their children, the Circassian father being always
willing to part with his daughters, many of whom were bought by Turkish
merchants for the harems of Eastern monarchs. But no degradation was
implied in this transaction, and the young women themselves were
generally willing partners in it. Herds of cattle and sheep constituted
the chief riches of the inhabitants. The princes and nobles, from whom
the members of the various tribes held the land which they cultivated,
were the proprietors of the soil. The Circassians carried on little or
no commerce, and the state of perpetual warfare in which they lived
prevented them from cultivating any of the arts of peace.

CIRCE (Gr. [Greek: Kirke]), in Greek legend, a famous sorceress, the
daughter of Helios and the ocean nymph Perse. Having murdered her
husband, the prince of Colchis, she was expelled by her subjects and
placed by her father on the solitary island of Aeaea on the coast of
Italy. She was able by means of drugs and incantations to change human
beings into the forms of wolves or lions, and with these beings her
palace was surrounded. Here she was found by Odysseus and his
companions; the latter she changed into swine, but the hero, protected
by the herb _moly_ (q.v.), which he had received from Hermes, not only
forced her to restore them to their original shape, but also gained her
love. For a year he relinquished himself to her endearments, and when he
determined to leave, she instructed him how to sail to the land of
shades which lay on the verge of the ocean stream, in order to learn his
fate from the prophet Teiresias. Upon his return she also gave him
directions for avoiding the dangers of the journey home (Homer