Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1906-02-02
TIE GIANT CAUCASUS
A REGION. OF GLOOM AND TERROR
AND DESOLATION.
The Strange Mixture Of Races Dating
Back From Immemorial Antiquity
That Peoples the Slopes of These
Snow Capped Mountains.


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
seas would find himself confronted by
a 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 q 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
lcys.
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 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 armOr and carry
spears like those Of 5000 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
which 60 on for generations, like those
CT Corsica in the past.
1t is a mistake to suppose that Rus
STA took the Caucasus by genera
warlike movement. There was nc
need. Divided by religion into Chris
tians. Mohammedans and pagans, al
vided by languages which made then
mutually unintelligble, the tribes OF
this strange museum of bygone races
could take no united action.
Throughout the first three-Quarters Oh
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 MohammedaI
prophet. Shamyl of the Avar stock
which overran great part OF Europe
in the seventh century and was only
finally conquered by Charlemagne, lee
the Lesghians of Daghestan in reli
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 hin
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 theI
allowed, as a devout Mohammedan, Il
end his days in peace at Mecca.
Very different was the story OF tht
Tcherkesses, or Circassians, who op
posed Russia in the western section o.
the Caucasus. The Circassians were
hardly the peaceable race of whose
golden haired captive princesses In thf
harems Of the east our bOyish dreams
were full. Warlike, splendid horsemeI
and marksmen, they lived almost en-
tirely by pillage. In 1864 they submit
ted. and Russia, knowing them to D'
unmanageable in the mountains, gave
them the choice of coming down int
the plains or emigrating into Turkish
territory. They chose the latter course
and were welcomed by the sultan, bu
as his ships arrived at the Black SCI
ports to meet them long after the prop
er time large numbers persisted of hard
ship and disease. Some were settief
in Armenia, others in Bulgaria, other'
in various parts Of Asia Minor, an(
wherever they went there has Deel
trouble since.
Size of the Sun.
We sometimes see a huge ring Of
halo round the moon, occupying