ABSTRACT
Two kinds of culture - both new to the Cossacks - were probably borrowed from the Kumyks: those, namely, of the vine and of the silkworm, which flourish on the banks of the Terek to this day, having doubtless been supported through times of trouble and danger by the Cossack's passion for drink and his wife's delight in finery. Certainly until the Revolution, the Grebentsy women were noted for their good looks and free manners, and both in colouring and features, as well as in their semi-oriental costumes, they showed very strongly the strain of native blood in them and the continuing influence ofKabarda. I
At different times this name was applied to no less than three settlements along the Terek. The foundation of the first town
dated back to 1563 when, after his marriage to Maria Temryukova, daughter of the Kabardan prince Temryuk Aydarovich (C. Kemirgoko), I van IV sent a mission and troops to build a town on Temryuk's territory. 'We do not know its situation nor its fate' but it was probably on the border dividing the lands of Temryuk from the vassals who had revolted against him. 1 Little more is known of the second town founded in 1567. It was on the left bank of the Sunzha, on the peninsula formed by the junction of the Sunzha and the Terek.2 In 1571 the Russian ambassador at the Ottoman Porte was explaining that it had been built to protect Temryuk against his enemies. Its existence became a major issue between the Tsar, the Sultan and the Crimean Khan. There was an agreement to abolish the town in 1574, but Smirnov doubts whether the undertaking was ever carried out.3 At any rate, between 1578 and 1585 a new or restored town was established at the junction of the Terek and Sunzha. It is probable that it was from the older or newer of these two settlements that the ambush was organized against the column of Ozdemiroghlu Osman marching from Derbent to Kerch in October 1583 - of which Asafi gives a first-hand account illustrated by miniatures.4 In different documents there are references to Sun{henski ostrog:J Ust Suyunchi:J Terki:J Sun{hi, etc. Staro-Sun{henskoye still appears on modern maps (Caucasia: 1 in 210,000, She G5).
