The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1905-10-31
THE GIANT CAUCASUS
A REGION OF GLOOM AND TERROR
AND DESoLATIoN.

A REGION OF GLOOM AND TERROR
AND DESOLATIoN.
The Strange Mixture of Races Dating
Back From InlmemoriaI Antiquity
That Peoples the Slopes of These
Snow Capped Mountains.
The traveller who should seek to cross
from the southern plains of Russia
over into Persia or Arabia by the land
between the Caspian and the Black
beas would find himself confronted by
sight which for gloom and terror has
hardly any equal In the world, writes
W. B. Hodgson in the London News.
Rising sheer from the vast arid plain,
like great foam crested billow about
to break on desolate beach, billow
10000 feet high and 800 miles long, the
snow capped Caucasus stretches across
from sea to sea with dreadful, threat
ening, savage majesty Of mien.
Its peaks are not so high as many of
the Alps, 1t has not the projecting
spurs and isolated, craggy heights
whose groupings give new and beauti-
full views at every step. 1t is just an
Immense mountain chain, an unbroken
fold or crease on the earth's surface.
Though the Alps have higher peaks the
lowest pass across the Caucasus is
nearly double the height of the Alpine
crossing places. The Caucasus has no
lakes, only turbid muddy rivers flow
ing from the Ice fields of its central
ridge Even these are missing in the
east, where the ridge lowers toward
the Caspian.
But the terror and desolation of the
Causasus forever kept apart the peo-
pies to the north and south. On the
one hand civilizations rose and fell
the Babylonian, the Assyrian, the
Greek, the Egyptian, the Roman, the
republics of the middle ages-but to
the north the great plains were ever in
habited by the wild, lawless nomads.
And SO from the very beginnings of
time the Causasus has stayed the hui
man tide, and, as conquering races
swept all before them below, the weak,
the peaceable, the unfit, have been
driven higher and higher into inaccessi-
BILE gorges and wild, bog covered val
legs.
A strange mixture of races, dating
back from immemorable antiquity, has
been washed up like surf on to the
slopes Of these giant mountains. The
I'd, the Kurin, the Avar, the Tush, be-
long to races that persisted before Eu-
rope was discovered. Seven languages
are spoken in the Caucasus, each unin-
telligible to the tribes using the rest.
Some of them are related to the early
tongues of Europe; others have no
known afinities and seem to be among
the languages of Babel that did not
'catch on
Here amid these mountains we have
the ghosts of ancient peoples who have
gone under in the world struggle.
There may well be tribesmen- here
whose ancestor was driven high by the
food and settled within sight of Ara
rat and his cousin, Noah. There are
still tribes who array themselves in
helmets and chain armor and carry
spears like those of 1900 years ago.
Others have strange ritual practices
that have come down from the dawn
of the world, mingling their pagan rites
with worship of the Christ God" and
the angels of the river, the forest and |
the mountain They have blood feuds |
of Corsica in the past.
1t is mistake to suppose that Rus
STA took the Caucasus by a general |
warlike movement. There was no
need. Divided by religion into Chris
tians. Mohammedans and pagans, di-
vided by languages which made them
mutually unintelligible, the tribes Of
this strange museum of bygone races
could take no united action
Throughout the first three-quarters of
the nineteenth century Russia was en-
ployed In absorbing the Caucasus piece
by piece. Only two of the Caucasian
races made anything like strong re-
sistance. In the east a Mohammedan
prophet, Shamyl of the Avar stock,
which oveTran great part of Europe
in the seventh century and was only
finally conquered by Charlemagne, led
the Lesghians of Daghestan In a reIi-
gious war against Russia Crafty, daring
and fertile In resource, occupying
mountain slopes cut by impossible
gorges, Shamyl was believed by his
followers to have charmed life Only
when the Russians built forts and MILL
tary roads and gradually inclosed him
at enormous expense did Shamyl sur
render at his castle Of Gunib in 1859.
He passed some years of honorable
captivity near Moscow and was then
allowed, as a devout Mohammedan. to
end his days in peace at Mecca.
Very different was the story of the
or Circassians, who op-
posed Russia In the western section of
the Caucasus. The Circassians We're
hardly the peaceable race of whose
golden haired captive pVncesses in the
harems of the east our 1boyish dreams :
were full. Warlike, splendid horsenen
and marksmen. they lived almost en-
Lirely by pillage. In 1864 they submit
ted, and Russia, knowing them to be
in the mountains, gave Il
them the choice of coming down into
the plains or emigrating into Turkish III
territory. They chose the latter course H
and were welcomed by the sultan, but III
Is his ships arrived at the Black sea III
ports to meet them long after the prop III
n time large numbers persisted of hard HI
ship and disease. Some were settled
n Armenia, others in Bulgaria, others
n various parts of Asia Minor, and
wherever they went there has been
rouble since.