In the Caucasus, it must be confessed, there are no waters in which the mountains can worthily reflect themselves—­those giants of creation.  There are no gentle rivers, no vast lakes; but Terek receives in his stream the tribute of a thousand streamlets.  Beneath the further Caucasus, where the mountains melt into the plain, he seems to flow calmly and gently, he wanders on in huge curves, depositing the pebbles he has brought down from the hills.  Further on, bending to the north-west, the stream is still strong, but less noisy, as though wearied with its fierce strugglings.  At length, embraced by the narrow gorge of Cape M. aloi (Little Kabardi,) the river, like a good Moslem, bending religiously to the east, and peacefully spreading over the hated shore, gliding sometimes over beds of stone, sometimes over banks of clay, falls, by Kizlar, into the basin of the Caspian.  There alone does it deign to bear boats upon its waters, and, like a labourer, turn the huge wheels of floating mills.  On its right bank, among hillocks and thickets, are scattered the villages (aoule) of the Kabardinetzes, a tribe which we confound under one name with the Tcherkess, (Circassians,) who dwell beyond the Kouban, and with the Tchetchenetzes much lower by the sea.  These villages on the bank are peaceful only in name, for in reality they are the haunts of brigands, who acknowledge the Russian government only as far as it suits their interest, capturing, as Russian subjects, from the mountaineers, the plunder they seize in the Russian frontier.  Enjoying free passage on all sides, they inform those of the same religion and the same way of thinking, of the movement of our troops, and the condition of our fortresses; conceal them among themselves when they are assembling for an incursion, buy their plunder at their return, furnish them with Russian salt and powder, and not rarely take themselves a part, secret or open, in their forays.  It is exceedingly irritating to see, even in full view of these mountaineers, nations hostile to us boldly swim over the Terek, two, three, or five men at a time, and in broad day set to work to rob; it being useless to pursue them, as their dress has nothing to distinguish them from the friendly tribes.  On the opposite bank, though apparently quite peaceable, and employing this as their excuse, they fall, when in force, upon travellers, carry off cattle and men when off their guard, slaughter them without mercy, or sell them into slavery at a distance.  To say the truth, their natural position, between two powerful neighbours, of necessity compels them to have recourse to these stratagems.  Knowing that the Russians will not pass to the other side of the river to protect them from the revenge of the mountaineers, who melt away like snow at the approach of a strong force, they easily and habitually, as well as from inevitable circumstances, ally themselves to people of their own blood, while they affect to pay deference to the Russians, whom they fear.