The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1905-11-24
THE GIANT CAUCASUS
A REGION OF GLOOM AND TERROR
AND DESGLkTlON.

A REGION OF GLOOM AND TERROR
AND DESGLETlON.
The Strange NlixtE-e of Races Dating
Back From IEIuirnorial Antiquity
That Peoples tie Slopes of These
Snow Capped Mosntnins.
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
seas would find himself confronted by
Il sight which for gln"m and terror has
hardly any equal in the world, writes
w. L. HodSson in fiIe London News.
Rising sheer from the vast arid plain,
like Il great foam crested billOw about
to break on Il desola>.. beach, a billow
10000 feet high and $50 miles long, the
snow capped CaucaSil, stretches across
from sea to sea with dreadful, threat
"uinG, savage majesty OF mien.
Its peaks are not so nigh as many Of
the Alps. it has nGI the projecting
spurs and isolated, "raggy heights
whose groupings give n:.w and beauti-
full views at every step. 1t is just an
immense mountain chain. ali unbroken
fold or crease on the eaTfn'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 ivTvers toward
the Caspian.
Eut the terror and dCSClation of the
Causasus forever kept apart the peo-
pies 10 the north and south. On the
one hand civilizations rose and fell
the Babylouian, the ASSyrian, the
Greek. the Egyptian. the Roman, the
republics of the middle ages-but to
the north the great plains '+rere ever in
habitcd by the wild, lawiIss nomads.
md so from the very beginnings Of
time the CausaSuS has ste Tcd the hui
man tide. and, as conqurring races
swept all before them below, the weak,
the pcaceablc. the unfit, have been
driven higher and higher into inaccessi-
bic gorgeS and wild, bog covered val
lrys.
y strange mixture of races, dating
back from immcmorable 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-
tclligible TO the tribes using the rest.
Some of them are related to the early
tongues of Europe; others have no
known affinities 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 arlnor an! carry
spears Ike those of 5000 years ago.
Others have strange ritual practices
that have come down from the dawn
OF the world. minglirg their pagan rites
with worship of the "ChriSt God" and
the angels OF the river, the forest and
the mountain. They have blood feuds
which 50 Oh for generations, like those
of Corsica i'll 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 em-
ployed in absorbing the Caucasus piece
by piece. Only two of the Caucasian
races made anything like strong re-
sistarce. In the east u Mohammedan
prophet, Shamyl of the Avar stock,
which overran great part of Europe
in the seventh century and was Only
finally conquered by Charlemagne, led
the Lcsghians of Daghestan i'll reG-
gious war against Russia. Crafty, daring
and fertile in resource, occupying
mountain slopes cut by impassabte
gorges, Shamyl was believed by h~j
followers to have charmed life. ONLY
when the Russians built forts and mill
tary roads and gradually inclosed hire
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 Wa the story OF the
Tcherkcsses, or C.rcaSSianS, who OPP
posed Russia in tie western section OF
the Caucasus. The Circassians were
hardly the pcaccahlc race of whose
golden haired captive princesses In the
harems of the east our boyish dreams
were full. Warlike, splendid horsemen
and marksmen, they lived almost en-
tirely by pillage. In 1864 they submit
ted. and Russia, knowing them to be
unmanageable in the mountains, gave
them the choice of coming down into
the plains or emigrating into Turkish
territory. They chose the latter course
and were welcomed by the sultan, but
as his ships arrived at the Black sea
ports to meet them long after the prop
err time large numbers persisted of hard
ship and disease. Some were settled
in Armenia, others in Bulgaria, others
in various parts of Asia Minor, and
wherever they went there has beeA
trouble since.
a Responsive Audience.
A well known player, whose forte Is