or ARBASSIA, the northern district of the western division of Georgia in Asia, situated on the coast of the Black Sea, and tributary to the Turks. The inhabitants are poor, thieves, and treacherous, so that there is no trading with them without the utmost caution. They trade in furs, buck and tyger skins, linen yarn, boxwood, and bees wax; but their principal traffic consists in the sale of their own children to the Turks, and to one another. They are destitute of many necessaries of life, and have nothing among them that can be called a town; though we find Anacopia, Dandar, and Czekorni, mentioned in the maps. They have the name of Christians; but have nothing left but the name, any more than the Mingrelians their northern neighbours. The men are robust and active, and the women are fair and beautiful; on which account the Turks have a great value for the female slaves which they purchase from among them. Their customs are much the same as those of the Mingrelians; which see. E. Long. from 39° to 43° N. Lat. from 43° to 45°.