At the burial of a Christian Osset, the men of the aoul assemble at the hut to take leave of the corpse; they stand in the doorway, chaunt with their eyes closed and strike themselves on the head with a whip, advancing as they do so towards the body, which they touch with both hands, and they then pass the whip on to others at the entrance; the women follow after the men in the same manner, hitting themselves on the head with their hands. The corpse, being wrapped up in a piece of cloth or the hourka, is placed in an draba and carried to the grave, followed by the women, who beat their breasts and tear their faces, ciying all the while, {^da-dm! aila-dat! The more influential the position of the deceased the slower does the procession advance, and harder blows ■ are dealt; the body is laid in the grave with its feet to the east, the relatives only covering it over with the earth, the spades that have been used for the purpose never being ^ain employed, that they may not brii^ troubles on the family. A cross is placed over the tomb, which is visited for several days after burial, when those nearest of kin sit around it ciying, tearing their hair, and repeating ada-daX! bending themselves to the ground, and touching it with their foreheads, in token that the dead are kept in remembrance.
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The earliest efforts of the Government of Russia to convert the Osscts to Christianity were made in 1752, when an ecclesiastical commission resident at Mosdok, fifty-six miles from Vladykavkaz, sent missionaries about the country proselytising; but Iai|;e numbers of that pagan people, after having been once received into the Church, prssented themselves for baptism a second time, the temptation being that each neophyte received nine yards of stout canvas, two salted fish, and a cross, which was sometimes of silver. Such corruption in the Church, similar to that practised at Rome in the reign of Constantine, when pagan converts were promised a white garment and twenty pieces of silver by the Emperor, bore untimely fruit, for the knowledge of Christianity among the Ossets was limited to their being able to make the sign of the cross, and to say that they were krystom, ' Christians.' Other missionaries in 1820 met with similar failure, since which period Russia does not appear to have occupied herself much in the con%^rsion of any of the mountain tribes,'
An Osset who has learnt to make the sign of the cross, will also wear an amulet suspended round his neck. The.se amulets, usually of leather or lead, are treasured heir-looms handed from parent to child.
Previous to leaving Kasbeck, Prince Alexander showed us several objects, from graves that were disturbed during the construction of the new post-road near the village, and which consisted of beads of coloured and golden vitreous paste, trinkets, bronze ornaments and chains, and a signet-ring of potin having the device of a grifSn. I gather from the description given, that
' Sec Klaproth, Tab. hist., &c., and Roukavidituo JC paxninyyou Kavkaxa, Among; the authon who have vmtten on the history, manners and custonu, or language, &c., of the Ossets, may be cited Bodenstedt, Dubois de Montpereux, Engelhardl, Hoxthaosen, Goldenitedt, Klapnitb. Kocb, Pairot, Potockj, Rosen. SJc^tOi Stader, &c.
by Google the tombs at Kasbeck were of identical construction with those of M'zhetL