The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-09 00:00:00

BV BEING IMPALED ALIVE

TIFLIS (GEORGIA), DEC. 4.
Amongst the warlike tribes that inhabit tae mountains of
Caucasus, one of the most numerous and firmidable, per-
haps, is that of the Avariane. The Avarials, like the
Tchetchenets, the Lesghis, the Abases and other Circassian
mountaineers, wage a continual war against the Russians,
and consider the booty they may plunder, and the prisoners
they make, a= their source of riches, and they usually sell
the latter t) the Kurcie;, the Armenian-, or the Persians.
A particular custom amongst the Av.irians, who, as well as
other warlike tribes, share the prisoners betAeca them after
every contest or fortum,te exp dition, is the following :
The prisoners, beiag brought together on the same spot, re-
maine:i exposed f,r seven suns, in order that all the mern-
i era of ;11.1 tribe may examine and question them as they
think proper. On the eigth day a tribunal, composed of
six old men, srlecied from the most eclat-a:el and vme-
rated if the t ibe—t ) which is ad led the Khan, who pre-
sides—is convened, is crier to hear all the charges that
may be made against any of the prisoners. The verdicts
pronounced by this dreadful tribunal are immediwely put
in force.
One of those savage assize?, the details of which we
gather from a Russian journal, i ecently took place in the
forest Boujnaki, not far from Tiflis, a central point of the
Gover.iment of Georgia.
On the 10th June otl ast year a murderous engagement,
almost a battle, took pLce between the Russian troops
commanded by Generals Test, Grabbe, and S3zojef, and
the Circassian tribes united under the command of Schaal-
mil, Khan of the Tchetehenets, who is now looked upon
as the supreme chief of the federation cf all the trihea of
the mountaineers.

The batCe, which took place in the plain of Daghes-
tan, at the foot of the Soula hills, listed from daybreak
until after sunset. The mountaineers then, after baying
obtained a brilliant advantage over the Czar's disciplined
troops, regained their icaccessible retreats, loaded with
booty, and bringing with them many prisoners. The AVB-,
rians returned to their tents with 138 prisoners, which
they had male in the Russian ranks.
In the centre of the forest of Boujnaki, in a glade, is a
sort of hut covered with rends, which is called the Khan's
Ca.tle. The outside is far from rt-sembling the sumptuous
palaces of the Tartar Khans of the Crimea ; but in the inside
there is to be found the same Oriental splendour, the same
richness, and that abundance arising from sulasLies and
tithes collected by the yntagan in hood.
It was on this spot 'hit the Russia.; prisoners were ex-
posed, against whose flight the following precautions were
taker. Each prisoner, having his hands strorgly bound
behind his back, had beshies round his neck one of those
ropes with a slip knot which the Tartars use to catch ,Aild
horses, and which they call arcan. The end of the role
was fixed to a wooden Make driven in the ground.

About fifty Avarians, carrying muskets and yataywis, were
continually set over the prisoners, wailst at eery minty e of
the day the members of the trite used to walk about that
species of green, eyeing pith intensi curiosity the wretches
who wire thus exp7sed, and endeavourirgto recagni,,e their
physiognomy, but qu.stianing both in the Tamar (laleet and
the Russian language. Id the Khan's residence. the six old
men held their sittings, to w Linn :he former farmed part, for
there west be seven judges, as well as the summits cr white
crests of Cie Elbroouz, which the tribe of Avarians consi-
der as the teat of the dis inities that try men after their
death. After seven days had been devoted to the preli-
minary formalities of the trial, at the moment when day-
light began to appear, an Avarian struck three times t'-.e
silver cymbals, which are icvaria'olv hung before the Khan's
residence. On that signal Mendis-Khan and the six old
men came out.

The Avariens are neither Mahomedans nor Christians;
their religion, if such a name can be given to their singular
doctrines of Paganism, consists in attributing an ephemeral
but supernatural power to the first object of nature which
strikes them on the commencement of each day. The
divinity which they thus create, and which lasts but four.
and-twenty hours, is replaced the following day with as
little ceremony.
On leaving the tent, the Khan and the old men cast
their eyes to heaven, and Mendly-Khan, perceiving a crow,
exclaimed, " The crow is God I' when immediately all
those around him uttered exclamations of joy and adors:-
tine. A carpet was then laid on the ground in the !live
of a horse-shoe : the judges took their places after the
Turkish fashion, the Khan squatting down in the middle;
the cymbals were then struck loudly, and when the noise
ceased, on a signal from the chief, three accusers came
forward.
" I have identified five of the prisoners to be truly
Cabardians (Ciresssiens of the Plain)," said Ali Raman,
one of the most valorous Avarian cavaliers, advancing in
the midst of the circle ; " these miserable deserters served
in the Russian ranks ; they are still dressed in the uniform
of the slavish soldiers. I accuse them of treason, for they
have borne arms against their fathers ; I demand that they
may be punished by a sentence of death."
The second accuser, Mohammed Bey, afterwards
appeared. " Amongst the prisoners," he said, "is a Rus-
sian officer, whose punishment I require. This officer,
whose name is Font-Mayer, came last year in our moun-
tains dressed as a plain soldier, and presented himself to
us as a deserter. We received him with compassion, be-
cause we thought he was unfortunate. He slept in our
tents. He ate our rice and our hunzys, and subsequently
he returned to his people to disclose what he had dis-
covered of our strength and projects. The officer, Font-
Mayer, is a Russian spy. I demand his life as a repara-
tion of his cowardly and odious crime."
Azral-Long, the third accuser, reprcached another
officer, Nicolas Bachanof, for having cheated hint at the
fair of Vladicaucase, by giving him geld containing alloy for
the price of two horses which he had sold.
" We have heard the accusations of Ali- Raztan, of Mo-
hammed Bey, and Azral-Leng, ims artially," told Mendly-
Khan, rising from his seat. " Let ,he accused be brought
hither, and, by the Holy Crow, the God of this day, ne
swear never to sit down nor to take repose till justice his
been done either on the prisoners or thc;r eceusers."
The five Cabardians made prisoners from the Russian
ranks first appeared. They adrisi•t,cl their Circasian
origin, but they successively urged as an exeme that they
had been forced against their will by ti.e Muse ,vite autho-
rities to enter and to remain in the Emperor's service.
" The imprisoned bird, when emancipated from its cage,
flies away and regains it; naeive woods," replied the Khan.
Silence reigned in the assembly. The Judges appeared
to be consulting, and the crowd di ew off, not to interrupt
their deliberations. Three crashes of the cymbals recalled
the people, and Khan Mendly pronounced the following
decree:—
" Praise be to the Holy-Crow, who has infused his light
upon justice l Wolves do not fight with wolves. C reas-
sians ought riot, therefole, to make war upon Circassians.
He is a traitor who, to sustain slavery, takes arms
against his free brethren. Let our yategans fall on- the
heads of the Muscovites like hailstone cf the storm on a
field destined to desiractim. Let them disappear like the
smoke of our hearths, but at the same time let our justice
punish traitors like the thunder. Death f r the traitors.
Let them be impaled, to punish their treason."
The offie.:r Fent- Mayer was brought in, but he refused to
answer any questions of theJudge'. The Khan then passed
sentence upon hint as follows :—" To have his e) ea torn out,
because it was by their means he had found Isis way to the
tribe ; to have his 1- gs amputate i afterwards because they
Were those which ca'iiei him into the country ; to have his
eat-s stopped up with melte 1 lead, because those ears had
listened to the secrets of the Avarians ; to have his tongue
cut out, beeaute I e Lad used it to relate what he hal seen
and heard; and, after these acts, to be finally put to death
by being impaled."
When this barbarous sentence was passed, the unfor-
tunate officer lost the self-possession he had hitherto mani-
fested, and his resolution abandoned hire. „He began to
indulge in threats and impi ecasieus, and, in 'his frenzied
desieur, menaesd, in the Cabardian language, a speedy
vengeance for the insult to the Emperor corntreted in his
person.
" Our verdict is just," said the Khan ; then embracing
affectionately Mohammed Bey, " Blessed be your dis-
covery," said he ; " that Russian was really a spy ; let
him howl, his impaled tongue will soon be turned to ice."
Bachanof, the other officer whom Azral-Leng accused
of having given in payment altered nioee was tut last to
apt e r before the. terrible Judges. " The gold which I
gave for the horses is the sAne with which the paymaster
of our corps d'arinec paid me some days before. If it be
not good, as my accuser states, the fault dots not rest nil'
me, and you may corevn CJ yourself that that is cineent
'hroughout all the States of my august master the Em-

perar."
"Arc you speakirg truth ?" said the Khan, casting
q suspicious look on the cdll,:,er, who retained a noble and
immovable countenance.
" I am telling tle truth, I call the Holy Virgin and St.
Nicholas to witnel:F," replied Buelialtf. " Wit( n a man :s
worthy to beAr a sword, he teaks not to save h:s Lie by

a lie."
I u-pend the jadgmert to be aw,rded agi i st you,"
said the KhAt, " ut,ti the time. may it be near at hand l
when your Ein; eror shall fall into our banes IF whit
"ou state be true, you shall be fri e, and your Empe,or
shall be punished ; if you aTe guilty of an untruth, you
shall be punished, and we shall seAl-, affairs with your Em-
peror, not I,ke enemies, tut like judger."
Four days after that horrible executicn, the Russian sen-
tinels at the advanced ports of the lire of Terecrt perceived
with hot rot., on the firsi. break of day, ,ix trees stripped of
the-bark and cov,lT‘d %sloth blood, vci.b the impaled bodes
of tire; victims, disfigured by the convuli ions of that horri-
ble punishment, suspended thereto.