The Boston lawyer George Leighton Ditson (1812-1895) was one of the first Americans to visited the Caucasus. In 1848, he crossed the Black Sea to reach Georgia, where he spent several weeks before venturing into north Caucasus. His travelogue "Circassia, or a Tour of the Caucasus" was published in New York in 1850. Ditson was unreservedly sympathetic to the Russian colonial authorities (especially Prince Mikhail Vorontsov) and shared the Russian colonial views on the Caucasus. During his stay in western Georgia, Ditson was surprised by both the extreme poverty and physical beauty of the people he had encountered.
In the afternoon we arrived at the house of another of our boatmen. Here we were immediately presented to the family, which consisted of two women, a little girl, and numberless little children. Each of the former had their foreheads partly concealed, but they did not cover any other portion of the face. The beauty of the mistress of this dwelling, which was in all respects like the last described, again struck me with astonishment, and on remarking it to my Georgian colonel, he said: "You will find all the women here,—even the very poorest,—extremely handsome." Her form and features were exactly those which I conceive must have been the models of those ancient Grecian statues, which have through so many ages fascinated the world by their harmony and justness of proportions—that undefinable union of perfections which can be felt but never analyzed.
From what people, I asked myself a hundred times, can these poor, barefooted creatures have descended to have inherited such beauty. Their origin, indeed, is mere conjecture. Some for various good reasons suppose them to be of Egyptian, while others are confident they are of Grecian progenitors. From their classic features I should incline to the latter opinion, but from their early history, manners, and habits, I should believe in the former. There are some arguments, too, in favor of their Persian origin, which, if I deemed it in keeping with a work of this kind, I should be glad to bring forward; but I have already, in several places, gone, I fear, too far into historic detail to make those portions of the book interesting to the general reader.
The family received us without embarrassment, and I may say with grace and seeming satisfaction, and made immediate preparations, in their rude way, to give us something to eat. The master of the house was about forty years of age, extremely homely, and severe-looking; while the most docile and interesting expression, in perfect accordance with her small, delicate form and classic face characterized this Imeretian Venus, his youthful wife. The latter was holding little child in her arms as we entered. She gazed intently on us for an instant, then bowed very low, slowly and solemnly, as salutation. She then stood gracefully erect; and with that natural delicacy which prompts all women, on whom nature has stamped her unmistakable seal of refinement, to conceal certain portions of their person, she hastened to draw together her dress over the right breast, where a large hole had been worn, evidently by the infant being carried on that side. Her frock was long, made high in the neck, but open thence in front to the waist. When she so gathered it up in one place as to satisfy her modesty concerning that portion of her bosom, it opened widely in the centre. She then hastily drew it back again and after trying the experiment several times, and finding it impossible to cover both Love’s lurking places at once, she abandoned affairs to their ordinary course. Her head was tied around with handkerchief, from under which her dark hair fell in long braids down to her girdle. The head dress, pantaloons, and blue cotton frock, appeared to be all the articles of dress she had on.
When told by the Colonel that she was pretty, she hid her face in her hands and laughed immoderately. Her husband and sister-in-law, the other moment present, appeared of another race, but I could not learn of what: none of them could read or write. The little boys and girls patting about the earth floor had plenty of rags on their shoulders, but their legs were naked. A cradle attracted my attention. It consisted of a short board swung to a horizontal pole, supported at each end by upright sticks. On this cradle was lashed another contented baby. I must not forget the sweet, active little creature, about twelve years of age, who mixed the millet dough for the cake, and then attended the baking. She was beautiful, like her own eldest sister, and was offered to us a present if I would take her with me—her brother-in-law, our boatman, seeing the admiration with which I regarded her. He said that as there was a large and growing family of them, and as they were very poor, they would willingly part with her, believing that she would be infinitely better off if I would condescend to be her protector than she could be if she remained there ; for, continued he, "what can she expect—what is there to look forward to, but to become the wife of some poor rude boatman like myself, and always live in poverty? He would not sell her, he said, for he was not like most of the Circassians; but he would give her to mo if I would be kind to her.’
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