endship and alliance,
their women being mutually carried off into captivity; but in the
field they are inflexible enemies. As it is not forbidden to make
incursions on the mountain side of the Terek, the brigands
frequently betake themselves thither by swimming the river, for the
chase of various kinds of game. The mountain brigands, in their turn,
frequently swim over the Terek at night, or cross it on bourdouchs,
(skins blown up,) hide themselves in the reeds, or under a
projection of the bank, thence gliding through the thickets to the
road, to carry off an unsuspecting traveller, or to seize a woman,
as she is raking the hay. It sometimes happens that they will pass a
day or two in the vineyards by the village, awaiting a favourable
opportunity to fall upon it unexpectedly; and hence the Kazak of the
Line never stirs over his threshold without his dagger, nor goes
into the field without his gun at his back: he ploughs and sows
completely armed.

[Footnote 21: Villages of Kazaks.]

For some time past, the mountaineers had fallen in considerable
numbers only on Christian villages, for in the stanitzas the
resistance had cost them very dear. For the plundering of houses;
they approached boldly yet cunningly the Russian frontier, and on
such occasions they frequently escaped a battle. The bravest Ouzdens
desire to meet with these affairs that they may acquire fame, which
they value even more than plunder.

In the autumn of the year 1819, the Kabardinetzes and Tchetchenetzes,
encouraged by the absence of the commander-in-chief, assembled to the
number of 1500 men to make an attack upon one of the villages beyond
the Terek, to seize it, carry off prisoners, and take the droves of
horses. The leader of the Kabardinetzes was the Prince (Kniazek)
Djenboulat. Ammalat Bek, who had arrived with a letter from Sultan
Akhmet Khan, was received with delight. They did not, indeed, assign
him the command of any division; but this arose from the
circumstance that with them there is no order of battle or gradation
of command; an active horse and individual courage secures the most
distinguished place in action. At first they deliberate how best to
begin the attack--how to repel the enemy; but afterwards they pay no
attention to plan or order, and chance decides the affair. Having
sent messengers to summon the neighbouring Ouzdens, Djemboulat fixed
on a place of assembling; and immediately, on a signal agreed on,
from every height