Grand Rapids Morning Telegram

CIRCASSIAN WOMEN.

Beautiful Creatures Whose Virtues Are Not Exaggerated

Those Exhibited in Museums Are Imposters

—The Picturesque Costumes They Wear

—How the Girls Preserve the Elegant Forms and Good Complexions.

[Interview in Philadelphia Times.]

I asked Mr. Nicholais the other day about the Circassian women: "Are they as beautiful as we are led to suppose?"

Said he:

"Yes, sir; nearly all are.

They have creamy complexions, with delicate red tints on their cheeks: rounded shoulders and beautiful necks; very small waists, beautiful busts and faultless forms. You should see their arms, which are bare in house costume. You never saw such arms in a picture. Their hair is worn long, and is always black or very dark, and blue eyes. Just think of that picture!"

"Then the Circassian beauties we see in the dime museums are all impostors."

"Sure; Albinoes, most of them. Fancy a Circassian girl with pink eyes and crinkled hair! There are no women in this country like them. They have the fresh beauty of childhood, with a woman's form. You know they develop quickly. Mothers twelve years old are in my country. A girl is as old there at fourteen as she is here at twenty. Most women are grandmothers at thirty. Then they decay as quickly; they live long lives, but they lose their round forms. Still they are sometimes attractive in old age."

"When a girl is born a soft leather corset is sewed around her waist, and that stays there til she is married. Then it is cut off and her waist remains small and a beautiful shape. They have small, pretty feet and beautiful hands, too. That is looked after as they grow up. They do no hard work, and their feet are only shod in loose sandals, with soft covers and flexible soles."

"How do they dress?"

"Their costume is very picturesque.

They wear loose silk pantaloons which reach the knee, and finely wrought stockings. Their only upper garment is a close-fitting, sleeveless vest, with skirts behind, like a long coat, and cut away in front, leaving a small triangular space above the corsage without clothing. Underclothing is unknown there and in all the Eastern countries. Nearly all the clothing of both sexes is silk or skins of wild beasts. Men and women alike wear little clothing, and that loose, though in the mountains, at some seasons, it is intensely cold. Some of the mountain tribes wear fur cloaks.

The women, when in the presence of any men but their husbands, are closely veiled.

That is true, you know, in all Mohammedan countries. The reason is, the Koran teaches we can sin with the eyes."

"Then the Circassians are Mohammedans?"

"Oh yes; all of them. Yet they show many traces of a former idolatrous worship, and their monogamic marriages and respect for women are among these. These are not taught by Mohammed. Yet their Islamism was so firm that when Russia, after fifty years of fighting, conquered the tribes, the entire population moved into Turkey rather than submit to a Christian ruler. To-day there is no Circassia. Indeed, there never was. The name was applied to many kindred tribes, just as you call your aborigines 'Indians,' and the fate of my people is much like that of the red men. To-day strangers till the farm in our valleys, and our people are wanderers in a land unsuited to their mode of life. You will live to see the day when Circassians are known only in history, and that history written by their triumphant enemies."

"It is strange that some showman had not brought real Circassian women to this country," I suggested.

"That could never be. No Mohammedan could be induced to do it. He would die first; and it would be death to a Christian to try. A Mohammedan woman—at least, a Circassian woman—would welcome death as an alternative to life among Christians; and to be exhibited with bare face to Christians—you have no women who live half as degraded a life as that would be regarded."

It was once so." Mr. Nicholais continued, "that many Circassian girls were kept in harems in Constantinople and other cities. They were sold, virtually, by their parents to rich Turks. Koran allows that. Even in Circassian marriages the bride was, in a manner, sold by her parents. That was an old custom, but did not preclude tender love for the girl by her parents, nor prevent marriages of choice. Now there are few Circassian girls. Most of the white beauties in the harems are Georgians, who are much like the Circassians, and Armenians. An Armenian would sell his soul for gold.

Circassians needed no gold.

They took horses, or cattle, or goats, or fire-arms.

Fire-arms were cheap, though, for the English always kept the warriors in condition to fight Russia. You are surprised, but that is the exact truth.

Our soldiers always had excellent rifles and abundance of ammunition, all of the English manufacture, and it cost nothing.

"As I said, there are few Circassian girls now, and they are deteriorating, from their life among the Turks. Some of the Georgians are beautiful. But they are not Circassians. A Georgian girl could be brought here, I think. They are Greek Catholics, and do not feel the Mohammedan hatred of Christians. It would not cost much to get a ship-load of Armenian girls. Some of them you would think beautiful. They have a slight Jewish cast of countenance, but good forms and delicate complexions."

The very education that girls receive who are intended for the harem would send a man to State's Prison in this country for the teaching, and ought to send him to eternal punishment. They are taught to regard the vilest things as virtues.