The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

232 SHEEP BREEDING AND
are among the most beautiful of the inhabitants of Caucasus,
and more like the Georgians than the wandering Tartars of
the Steppe. They are well formed, and have fine features,
which are set off hy large black eyes and a ichite skin.
Their language resembles that of the Nogay-Tartars. They
Uve in very neat houses, built of pine. Their children are
strictly and well educated ; and in general it may be said of
them, that they are the most cultivated nation in Caucasus,
surpassing all their neighbors in refinement of manners. They
are very industrious, and subsist chiefly by agriculture. Their
soil is productive, and, besides various kinds of grain, yields
abundance of giass for pasture. The country around them is
covered with woods, which abound with wild animals, such as
bears, wolves, wild goats, hares, and wild cats, whose skins are
much prized, and martins. Their dress is cliiefly made of
woolleii cloth, lohich they weave themselves from the inoduce
of their flocks, and which is admired throughout the whole
of Caucasus. They sell their cloth, called by them Shal*,
their felt for carpeting, and their furs, partly to the Nogay-
Tartars and Circassians, from whom they purchase articles of
metal; and partly at Souchom-Kale, a Turkish fort on the
Black Sea, which contains shops and ware-houses, and carries
on a considerable trade with the Western Caucasus. They re-
ceive here in return goods of cotton and silk, tobacco and tobacco-pipes,
needles, thimbles, and otter-skins. ^Vhile the men
are employed out of doors, the Avomen stay at home, make
gold and silver thread, and sew the clothes of their fathers and
brothers.
Such is the account given by a recent and most competent
witness of the actual condition of^this interesting nation, who,
though now perhaps reduced in number, occupy probably after
the lapse of 2500 years their original seat at the distance of
from forty to eighty miles to the north-cast of the same coast,
to which they have alwa)'s resorted for commercial purposest.
* Tlie orig-in of the English shawl.
+ Souchom-Kal6 is only twelve miles from Iscuria, a single promontory inter-
vening between the bay and river of the fonner harbor and those of the latter.
See Spencers Travels, vol. i. p. 295-297, and his :\Iap at p. 209.