The Russian language possessing many characters and some few sounds for which there is no exact equivalent in English, we beg to say a word upon the method adopted on the present occasion so to represent the Russian orthography, as to avoid the shocking barbarisms of such combinations as _zh_, &c. &c., and to secure, at the same time, an approach to the correct pronunciation. Throughout these pages the vowels _a, e, i, o, y_, are supposed to be pronounced as in French, the diphthong _ou_ as in the word _you_, the _j_ always with the French sound.
With respect to the combinations of consonants employed, _kh_ has the gutteral sound of the _ch_ in the Scottish word _loch_, and _gh_ is like a rather rough or coarse aspirate.
The simple _g_ is invariably to be uttered hard, as in _gun_ or _gall_.
To avoid the possibility of errors, the combination _tch_, though not a very soft one to the eye, represents a Russian sound for which there is no character in English. It is, of course, uttered as in the word _watch_.
As a great deal of the apparent discord of Russian words, as pronounced by foreigners, arises from ignorance of the place of the accent, we have added a sign over every polysyllable word, indicating the part on which the stress is to be laid.
The few preceding rules will, the translator hopes, enable his countrymen to _attack_ the pronunciation of the Russian names without the ancient dread inspired by terrific and complicated clusters of consonants; and will perhaps prove to them that the language is both an easy and a melodious one.
"Be slow to offend--swift to revenge!" _Inscription on a dagger of Daghestán._
It was Djoumá.[11] Not far from Bouináki, a considerable village of Northern Daghestán, the young Tartars were assembled for their national exercise called "djigítering;" that is, the horse-race accompanied by various trials of boldness and strength. Bouináki is situated upon two ledges of the precipitous rocks of the mountain: on the left of the road leading from Derbend to Tarki, rises, soaring above the town, the crest of Caucasus, feathered with wood; on the right, the shore, sinking imperceptibly, spreads itself out into meadows, on which the Caspian Sea pours its eternal murmur, like the voice of human multitudes.