number of warriors to expel the Russians out of their country, where they had erected a fort, and were making preparations to settle; or, if this were not possible, to give them authority to become subjects of the Russian Government, as their means for further resistance were utterly exhausted.

For a long while no amateurs were found to undertake such a ticklish task, for it was risking life to appear in Schamyl's presence with a proposition of this nature. The Tchetchenzes were consequently forced to choose the deputation by lot, and this fell on four inhabitants of the village of Gunoi. They commenced their journey boldly, but the nearer they drew to the village of Dargo the higher grew the feeling of self-preservation. They took counsel of each other several times without hitting on any plan which afforded a hope of success. At last the eldest of the deputies said to his companions, "There is only one person, I have heard, who has a decided influence over the Imâm, and dares to utter words before him which would entail death upon any other. This is his mother: my Kunak, Hassim Mullah, in Dargo, will gladly assent to introduce us to her, especially if we give him a portion of the present we have brought." The other deputies were delighted with the proposition, and gave their companion entire liberty of action. On their arrival in Dargo they were hospitably received by their Kunak, who was at first horrified by their proposition, but was mollified by the sight of the hundred pieces of gold they offered him, and eventually consented to speak on the subject with the khanum.

Hassim Mullah went to the khanum, an aged woman, revered universally for her generosity, but who liked money, and she expressed her willingness to speak to her son on the subject, though fully aware of the danger to which she exposed herself. On the same evening she entered her son's apartment, who, with the Koran in his hand, was despatching his Murides with inflammatory messages to some of the tribes. In spite of this pressing business, which he did not like to defer, he gave his mother the audience for which she so earnestly entreated, and retired with her to an apartment, where their conversation lasted till midnight. What actually took place between them was never known, and when Hassim Mullah went the next morning to the khanum to hear what she had effected, he found her pale and with tears in her eyes.

"My son," she said, in a trembling voice, "does not dare to decide himself how he should reply to this question of subjugation to the Giaurs. He has, therefore, gone to the mosque, in order to await with prayers and fasting the moment when the mighty prophet will reveal his pleasure to him by his own lips."

Schamyl had really shut himself up in the mosque, after issuing an order that all the inhabitants of Dargo should assemble round the building, and await there in prayer his reappearance. At this summons the whole village flocked up and surrounded the mosque, praying and weeping. But thrice four-and-twenty hours passed, many of the worshippers sank from hunger and watching, until at length the gates opened, and Schamyl appeared, pale and with careworn features. whispering a few words to one of the bystanding Murides, he mounted the flat roof of the mosque, whither several Murides accompanied him. Here he remained standing silently for a few minutes, while all the people

After

looked up to him with timid expectation, and the deputies from the Tchetchna scarcely dared to breathe.

Suddenly, the Muride sent off by Schamyl returned, in the company of the khanum, and led her also on to the roof of the mosque. The Imâm bade her stand opposite to him, and then said, as he raised his swollen eyes to Heaven:

"Mighty Prophet! thrice holy are Thy commands! Thy will be done!" He then turned to the people, and spoke in a loud and distinct voice: "Inhabitants of Dargo! Terrible is the decree, what I now have to announce to you. The Tchetchenzes have formed the horrible plan of subjecting themselves to the dominion of the Giaurs, and in their boldness sent deputies hither to demand my consent. These messengers were well aware how villanous their proposition was; hence they did not dare to appear before me, but applied to my unfortunate mother, who, a weak woman, yielded to their entreaties, and informed me of their criminal desire. My tender affection for a beloved mother, and her earnest entreaties, rendered me so bold that I undertook to ask Muhammad himself, the favourite (of God, for his decision. I have implored the judgment of the Prophet, fasting and praying for three days and nights. He has vouchsafed me an answer, but what a thunderstroke for me! By Allah's will, the first who announced to me the criminal request of the Tchetchenzes must be punished by one hundred blows of the scourge -and this first person was-alas! that I must say it!-my mother!"

When the poor old woman heard her name mentioned, she uttered a terrible cry; but Schamyl was inexorable. The Muride tore off the khanum's long veil, bound her to a pillar, and Schamyl himself raised the whip to inflict the terrible punishment. At the fifth blow the khanum fell down dead, and Schamyl hurled himself with a heartrending cry at her feet.

Suddenly, however, he sprang up again, and his eyes sparkled with an expression of joy. He then said in a solemn voice:

"God is God and Muhammad is his Prophet! He has heard my fervent prayers, and permits me to take on myself the remainder of the severe punishment to which my poor mother was condemned. I do it joyfully, and recognise in it, oh holy Prophet! an invaluable sign of Thy grace

And quickly, and with a smile, he threw off his upper garments, and ordered two of his Murides to give him the remainder of the stripes. They did so, and covered the naked back of their lord with ninety-five bleeding weals without his moving a feature. After the last blow he reassumed his clothing, quickly walked down from the top of the mosque, joined the crowd which was trembling from speechless astonishment and horror, and asked in a calm, measured voice:

"Where are the culprits for whose sake my mother underwent this terrible punishment? Where are the deputies from the Tchetchna?" "Here, here!" a hundred voices shouted; and the next instant the unhappy victims were dragged to the feet of their fanatic lord.

No one doubted but that a terrible death impended over the four Tchetchenzes, and several Murides had already drawn their heavy sabres, in order to be prepared at the first word of the Imâm to execute the sentence. The Tchetchenzes lay with their faces on the ground: they whispered in the sure expectation of death their dying prayers, and did

not dare to lift their heads and entreat a pardon, which they considered impossible. Schamyl, however, raised them with his own hand, bade them be of good cheer, and said:

"Return to your people, and in reply to their criminal and unconsidered demand, tell them all you have seen and heard here."

It need scarcely be stated, that no embassy ever again appeared in Dargo with a similar object, for it was now known what might be expected from a man who did not hesitate to sacrifice the life of a beloved mother, or even his own, to his policy.

The present outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Turkey has again enkindled the war in the Caucasus. Sheikh Schamyl has announced to Omar Pacha that he is ready, at the head of 20,000 warriors, to act in union with him. Simultaneously, Sifar Bey, a celebrated Circassian chief, who was imprisoned for twenty years in Adrianople, has found his way to the coast of the Black Sea, in order to organise an insurrection among his countrymen.

Abd-ul-Medjid, perceiving the error of his predecessors, who, by yielding the coast of the Black Sea to the Russians, decided the fate of the Circassians, has now concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with Schamyl. Guyon has lately captured Fort St. Nicholas, though not without a considerable loss, which was in some measure compensated by the immense amount of stores found in the fortress. If the Turks carry on the war in Georgia strenuously, the Tchetchenzes will undoubtedly play an important part, and affairs in the Caucasus will undergo a change, which will either realise or annihilate for ever the hopes of Schamyl's friends. That the wild Sons of the Mountains have been long prepared for the latter eventuality, is seen from the remarks made to Mr. Bell by Hamsad Bey, Schamyl's predecessor :

"If Turkey and England desert us-when all our powers of resistance are exhausted, then we will burn our houses and our property, strangle our wives and children, and retire to our precipices, to die there fighting to the very last man!"

TRAVELS IN RUSSIA AND SIBERIA.*

MR. HILL being at that celebrated fair at Nishni Novgorod, the description of which and of the Tartar city of Kazan constitute the staple of one half the books of travel in Russia; and being on such good terms with the governor of the city-a prince banished from court-as to devour soup of salmon, beer, sorrel, and cucumber together, he bethought himself of asking permission to travel in those vast Russian possessions which lie beyond the Ural, and between that frontier chain of Europe and the Pacific Ocean.

The banished prince expressed the usual amount of well-feigned astonishment at so strange a request. How could an Englishman wish to wander so far from the country which he politely termed the very seat of comfort and intelligence?-what possible objects could he have in

* Travels in Siberia. By S. S. Hill, Esq. 2 vols. Longman, Erown, and Co. May-VOL. CI. NO. CCCCI.

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view? he did not say to spy the weakness of the land, make notes of the workings of despotism, sifted from official to official to the last degree of tenuity, to give social pictures of a nation of 65,000,000 of souls, of whom 40,000,000 are in bondage! But he thought of all this, discountenanced the undertaking, and failing in detaching the traveller from his objects, adopted the usual Russian plan of bribing him to a kind and considerate view of the country and its institutions by a succession of civilities and hospitalities. Obstacles to the project also arose in other quarters where such were less to be expected. Nobody could be found daring enough to travel with a native of the foggy isle. Dangers from robbers, bears, wolves, even the chances of imprisonment under suspicion of having covert designs, were not held in so much dread as the effect of ennui under which Englishmen labour so grievously, according to all foreigners, that they inevitably perish by blowing out their brains.

At length, however, a companion was found; a tarantass, that is a vehicle in which the traveller, to suffer less from jolting, lies on straw and mattresses, was duly purchased; and after many embraces and much rubbing of mustachoes, a start was fairly effected.

We will pass over the yemstchik, or postilion, so often depicted, the miserable post-house and its perpetual tea-urn- the samovar-which appears to be the only comfort a traveller knows when once he has crossed the Russian frontier-Kazan, with its Russian and Tartar quarters, its mosques and mausolea-peasants with the back part of the head shaven and fore part covered with long matted hair, which they are perpetually throwing off their eyes by a shake of the head, that reminds one of the trundling of a mop, and Perm, with its iron and copper furnaces, to arrive at Ikaterinburg, another of Catherine's foundations, and a seat of government, yet like Perm to the present day, according to Mr. Hill -Prince Urasoff's friend-only in "a vigorous minority designed for mighty development at its mature age."

Little things tell of the state of civilisation of a country. At the city of Ikaterinburg, Mr. Hill describes himself as entering one of the private gardens, of which there are many in the town. "The era," he says, "in the history of other towns, at which exotic fruit-trees are introduced, or at which goodly dames and young ladies water their flowers, has not yet arrived at Ikaterinburg. We found, however, carrots, cabbages, and potatoes, though none were very good, growing in a rich, black mould."

A visit to the gold mines of Neviansk is a scene of true Siberian gloom. First there came a low, marshy country, with wrecks of deserted huts, then a lake, as deserted as the villages, its shores surrounded by dark ground, spruce and stunted fir-trees, without a bird or a bark floating upon its Stygian expanse, and at last some miners' huts, in which three poor girls, as wild and as untutored as fawns of the steppe, seemed to have been the only tenants. Of the miners themselves, some information is given from a French source, slightly corrupted—thus, talquor for talcose, ferifere for ferrifére, agiles for argiles, and feldspathique for feldspathiques. Out of seven geological words quoted, four are misspelt.

From Ikaterinburg our traveller advanced upon the grand steppe of the Kirghiz. The Mongol features, high cheek-bones and deep-set small eyes, and the miserable dwellings of these Asiatic people, contrasted un

favourably with the aspect of the Cossacks or Caucasian Tartars, by whom they were kept in control. Their hospitality was, however, a redeeming feature in their character, if not in their Kalmuk physiognomy. The hoar-frost exhibited a magnificent spectacle at sunrise on the steppe; and flocks of geese, difficult roads, accidents to the carriage, rude villagers, and still more ferocious dogs, occasional forests, and rivers difficult of passage, diversified the route to Tomsk; but, arrived at that city, our traveller remarked the many perils which friends at Nishni Novgorod had depicted as in store were inexperienced when in the very heart of dreaded Siberia.

Mr. Hill stayed some time at Tomsk to recruit for further fatigues. The most remarkable character he seems to have met with was an English Albinos-a native of Holborn, but who had perforce become a Russian subject. The Russian nobles displayed, however, their usual magnificent hospitality. The rye-bread, beef, and cabbage, and quass, or beer, which are almost the only cheap articles in the way of food in Siberia, were banished from their houses, and their place supplied by wheaten bread of imported flour, and the most delicate dishes of the rarer wild birds of the country preserved, and even meats and vegetables, which come from Europe hermetically sealed, and champagne, and the wines of Bordeaux, Oporto, Xeres, and Madeira. Often, indeed, our traveller tells us, upon ordinary occasions, more than a case of sixty bottles of champagne was consumed during the evening, the price of which was twenty rubles assignat the bottle, or about seventeen shillings English. Such an extravagant way of living, Mr. Hill justly remarks, cannot be favourable either to the interests or the morals of the Russians.

The journey from Tomsk to Krasnoyarsk was performed in winter on sledges, and accompanied by no ends of upsets and other mishaps. So it was also in the progress to Irkutsk. The country was, however, now getting wilder, and occasional bears, wolves, and foxes diversified the scene. Nor was the reception met with on the road always of the most hospitable character. At one town the travellers were not only refused admission into the post-house, but after numerous applications and wanderings about on a peculiarly cold night, they were obliged to force their way into a house occupied by females only, and the locality of such an unprotected domicile was discovered by the strangers by inquiring after two imaginary maiden aunts.

The fact is, that hospitality in Russia is chiefly shown by the magnates of the land, and the origin of this questionable hospitality was very plainly announced by a guest at the table of the Governor of Western Siberia, and whom Mr. Hill is pleased to designate as a sort of court jester or cloten.

"Governor," said our cloten, who of course knew that I did not understand the tongue in which he spoke, nor probably that I had an interpreter near me, "I am persuaded that we have one of those English tourists among us that travel the world over and report all they see and hear. We must show ourselves in the best possible light, or we shall be thought in Europe no better than Tatars or Kirgeeze. But I will give him a proof that there is civilisation here, as well as in Europe. I will ask him to take wine with me after the fashion of his country. It will go down to posterity that I drank wine with the tourist, after the most civilised mode, at the table of the emperor's representative in Siberia."

A courier, seemingly not unacquainted with the art or the policy of flatter