Circassia
or TCHERKESSIA, a mountainous region in the S. E. of European Russia, lying chiefly on the N. slope of the Caucasus, partly also on the S., and bounded on the W. by the Black Sea.
Since the Russian revolution this territory forms part of the republics of Kuban and Georgia. The mountains, of which the culminating heights are those of Mount Elbruz, are intersected everywhere with steep ravines and clothed with thick forests, and the territory is principally drained by the Kuban and its tributaries. Its climate is temperate, its inhabitants healthy and long-lived. The people call themselves Adighé, the name Tcherkess (robbers) being being of Tartar origin. They are divided into several tribes speaking widely-different dialects.
While they retained their independence their government was of a patriarchal character, but every free Circassian had the right of expressing his opinion in the assemblies. They possessed none but traditional annals and laws. Polygamy was permissible in theory, but not common. The duties of hospitality and vengeance were alike binding, and a Spartan morality existed in the matter of theft. Their religion, which is nominally Moslem, is in many cases a jumble of Christian, Jewish, and heathen traditions and ceremonies. As a race the Circassians are comely, the men being prized by the Russians as warriors, and the women by the Turks as mistresses, a position generally desired by the women themselves.
The early history of Circassia is obscure. Between the 10th and 13th centuries it formed a portion of the empire of Georgia, but in 1424 the Circassians were an independent people, and at war with the Tartars of the Crimea, to whose khans, however, some were occasionally tributary. In 1705 the Tartars were defeated in a decisive battle, but shortly after the territorial encroachments of the Russians on the Caucasian regions began, and in 1829 the country was formally annexed by them. A heroic resistance was made by the Circassians under their leader Schamyl, and on being reduced to submission numbers of the inhabitants emigrated to the Turkish provinces. In the N. and E., however, tribes of the Cir- CIRCULATION cassian stock remain. The Circassians, by some ancient people, which is the site properly so called, have been estimated of the present city. It has strawboard variously to number from 150,000 to 500,000. and Perse, celebrated for her skill in magic and poisonous herbs. She marmagic and poisonous herbs. She married a Sarmatian prince of Colchis, whom she murdered to obtain the kingdom, but was expelled by her subjects, and carried, by her father, to an island on his return from the Trojan war, visited her coast; and all his companions, who ran headlong into pleasure ple and voluptuousness, were changed by Circe's potions into swine. Ulysses, fortified against all enchantments by an herb called moly, which he had received from Mercury, demanded from Circe the restoration of his companions to their former state. She complied, loading the hero with honors; and, for one whole year, he forgot his glory in his devotion to pleasure.