BODENSTEDT'S MORNING LAND, SECOND SERIES. * IN point of absolute merit,

this sequel to the author's sketches in what may be called the Caucasian regions, and on the shores of the Black Sea, does not greatly differ from its precursor. It is deficient in the freshness of a first work, and has more of a made- up air, though the professional litterateur was visible enough in the first Morning Land. The interest which attaches to Russian rule especially over conquered provinces, and any information about the countries which are the seat of war in Asia, give a tem- porary attraction to the book, which its intrinsic merits might not command ; that is, as a whole. There is matter of curious in- formation enough for one volume.

The subjects are—a description of the country which forms the Russian and Turkish boundaries along the shores of the Black Sea ; a visit to the neutral Circassians, or tribes in nominal alliance with the Russians ; an account of Circassian customs and man- ners, together with sketches of Tiflis during the author's residence there ; reminiscences of personal acquaintance, the introduction of his old master Mirza-Shaffy, with prose about as " dead lively " as before, but the songs of the poet seem to us better ; and trans- lations of Circassian national poems. A Russian opera, popular it is said, but poor enough as dramatic literature, winds up the book. Except in the poetical parts, the Russian system is a frequent feature ; for Bodenstedt can hardly mention a friend without having some story to tell of ill treatment, by the mode of rule, or by some man in superior office. The pictures of death-breeding swamps along the coast of the Black Sea, and of the reckless man- ner in which the lives of troops are sacrificed to the climate, resemble those in the former series,. In this sequel the author tells ' a tale, which means, if it means anything, that officers of rank who even innocently give personal offenee.are slowly murdered by being sent to these pestiferous places. Count Oppermann, having been charged to revise the case of a Polish-noble who had been banished to Siberia, found him innocent, as had been supposed when them- vision was granted ; he also found a wife ip the daughter of the Pole, who had accompanied her father intotanishraen

eithre "In the capital of the Russian empire beautiful wo . rare. 'So

lovely and graceful a phenomenonas the young Countess rmann had not

been seen for a long time in the saloons of St. Petersburg. It was there- fore only natural that she should draw on herself, in a high degree, the at- tention of the elegant world, and find admirers and adorers even to the steps of the throne. It was just as natural that, notwithstanding her unassuming modesty, she should excite the envy and jealousy of other ladies, who were less beautiful but more coquettish than she.

" Nay, there soon began to be whispered about here and there shrewd con- jectures as to the peculiar motives which might have influenced Count (V- I permann in bringing the investigation to so favourable an issue.

I " ' When the daughter is so beautiful, it is easy to find the father, Me- • The Morning Land ; or a Thousand 'and One Days in the East. Byrriedrieh Bodenstedt. From the German, by Richard Waddington. -Second Snit*. -491Mv_e volumes. Published by Bentley. cot!' Such and similar remarks were not wanting ; though no one ven- tured to declare them openly so long as the Emperor deemed the Polish beauty worthy of his especial regard. e will not here inquire into the reasons which occasioned the Emperor's favour towards the fair Pole to be not of long duration. '"The Countess belonged to those nobler female natures who know how to sacrifice to their own dignity, and to the happiness of their families, all other considerations, and whose ambition does not extend beyond the narrow domestic circle. But the less she troubled herself about others, the more others troubled themselves about her • and scarcely was it observed that her star was paling, when they already began to say with loud voice what they had hitherto only ventured to whisper in secret. Nobody knew precisely the real muse of the sudden change in the Emperor's sentiments, but everybody found that the Emperor was right in suddenly changing his admiration of the fair Pole into disfavour. Only a very few know the exact circumstances of the-retuna of Count R. and his daughter from banishment, but everybody WO convinced that 'Count Oppermann had effected the freedom of the old Pole for the purpose of leading home his beautiful daughter ; and that there- foredt:was only just and reasonable to submit the matter once again to a closer examination.

"As under such circumstances may easily be foreseen, the investigation turned out this time to the disadvantage of the accused

"We leave the sick old man to his unfortunate destiny, to which he soon fella victim, and pursue the story of Count Oppermanu, over whom the Emperor now poured out the full measure of his wrath. He was degraded, and sent to the Caucasus into banishment. The Countess, as faithful a wife as she had been a daughter, could not be persuaded to remain at Petersburg on the splendid conditions offered her. She preferred to follow her consort into exile, there to go through a new school of suffering and bitter experi-

ences. *

"Ito would have been the happiest of men could he have remained in this situation, where a charming home and a paradisaical land afforded him compensation for the privations of exile. But fate had otherwise deter- mined. On a circuit undertaken by the Emperor through his Caucasian pro- vinces, his former adjutant again met his view, and he saw fit to remove -him from Gori to Gelendshik, one of the unhealthiest nests of which the earth can boast.

"Here meanwhile the Count has again been advanced to the rank of major- general; but.the pernicious effects of the climate have already so ruined his health, that he will not hold out much longer. His residence here is a con- tinual struggle against the evil fevers and liver-complaints which infest the coast, and which jiave frequently converted his house into a perfect lazaretto. Had he not this year sent the whole of his family to Kertsh before the com- mencement of the hot season, the poor woman, with her sick children, would have hardly lingered through the summer in Gelendshik, where men die away like flies. " I subsequently became acquainted with the Countess at the house of the Governor of Kertsh, and found all that had been told me of her in high ac- cord with the reality.

" One saw in her countenance that she had suffered much, but at the same time that misfortune had only exerted on her an ennobling influence. Her beautiful soulful eye, and the fresh susceptible spirit which revealed itself on every occasion, caused her still to make the impression of a youthful ap- pearance. I found, of course, that she carefully avoided speaking of her past life; but it struck me then as very remarkable, that on several occasions she spoke of the Emperor with an awe which, connected with the story related above, went somewhat against my feelings.

"Since then, however, I have had more frequent experience of the fact, that even men, whose happiness in life had been broken by similar fates, have come at last to grow confused in their own convictions.

" The extent of the Russian Autocrat's power, although resting on im- moral and unnatural foundations, has about it something so prodigious and superhuman, that the most obstinate resistance of the individual sooner or later breaks down before it, and defiance changes into mute submission—in gentler natures into awe."

The personal pictures of the Circassians and the story of their exploits do not greatly differ from those of other writers. The following account of some of the Circassian customs is curious, from the resemblance to those of the Anglo-Saxons. The similitude is so great that we might admit these mountain ranges to be the cradle of the " lords of human kind," even if Mr. Disraeli had not enlightened the world on the superiority of the "Caucasian race."

" The family ties are scarcely so strong among us as those which entwine around the population of a whole Circassian tribe. Such a tribe, (tokum,) notwithstanding the internal connexion of its members and the solidarity of its interests, does not, however, of necessity form a locally-united whole. The single constituents of a tribe may dwell scattered about all over the land ; they are held together by the oath taken on their entrance into the union, and by the great advantages arising to them from this union. If, for example, a member of the tribe Tshikapu is robbed, injured, or murdered by a member of the tribe Pshu, the tribe Pshu is answerable as a body for the crime committed ; and both tribes remain at feud until the misdeed is atoned for according to established usage, L e. until a penalty corresponding to the offence is paid. This penalty commonly consists in the surrender of a certain number of oxen, determined by the greatness of the crime. For slaying a man, the tribe to whom the murderer belongs has to deliver up two hundred oxen ; for slaying a woman, one hundred oxen • for carrying off a maiden, twenty-five oxen. In a similar way, a penalty is 'firm for every offence. In doubtful cases, the question is decided by an oath-court, composed of twelve persons, the six eldest of whom are men of blameless lives, chosen from each tribe. Great respect is associated with the dignity of a sworn man, which likewise includes in itself the office of judge ; and no one to whom the slightest stain attaches is admissible to this dignity. The decision of the sworn men is held sacred by the people, and they have power of life and death over the accused when their verdict is unanimous. Wilful murder is common) punished, apart from the penalty to be paid by the tribe, with death. The execution consists in fastening a heavy stone round the murderer's neck, and hurling him into the sea. Owing to the very obli- gation of a tribe to answer for each of its members, a keen mutual oversight prevails among them, which is more effective than the best system of police, and the carrying out of which is rendered all the easier as the Circassians never dwell together in large communities. Their largest souls are scarcely equal in population to our smallest villages. It happens, therefore, that the inhabitants of an soul are always intimately acquainted with the circum- stances of each other property and possessions ; and the increase of a house- hold's cattle, sheep, and horses, (the common objects of robbery,) can never remain a secret long. " If, however, it happens that the clan is unable to find out the criminal, or makes objections to paying the required penalty, every member of the clan is considered an accomplice, and remains exposed during the pending of the cause to insult and ill-treatment of all kinds. Not only, then, must he carefully beware of setting foot in a hostile soul, but in every third place where he meets with a warrior of the injured clan a bloody scene is almost sure to follow." The poetical specimens with which the volumes abound have undergone two or more translations. Bodenstedt turns Mirza- Shaffy's stanzas into German, Mr. Waddington into English. The Circassian transmission is even more circuitous. The traveller does not understand the language; his friends translated the poems into Turkish, he rendered them into German, and Mr. Waddington into English. They are, notwithstanding, more curious and racy than the anacreontics of Mirza-Shalt)'. These last are Oriental in thought and imagery, and sometimes shrewd in their observation on life. But their style and prettiness are very like what we are continually meeting with—probably in consequence of the translation. The. Circassian songs are far more curious than those of the Persian scholar. They carry us back to a rude anti primitive age, when any event that ruffled the monotony of life had enough of stirring incident to serve as a theme for song; while poetry itself was less an art than a serious business form- ing a part of life. The style of these pieces is simple and prolix, from attention to specific details in a matter-of-fact sort of way; but everything is earnest, real, and natural. There is, too, a kind of Homeric character about them—the Homeric poetry being abstracted.