Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1906-02-23

THE CLAM GA ]C,ASUS
a RE eloN OF GLOOM AND TERROR ]
&. sAND DESoLATlo
The Strange Mixture of Races Dating I
I Back From Inrrs,eInorinI 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 on Arabia by the land
between the Caspian and the Black
seas would find himself con- ronted by
q sight which for gloom aud terror has
hardly any equal in the. world, writes
w. B. Hodgson In the London News.
Rising sheer from the vast arid plain,
like a great foam crested biIlow a bout
to break on desolate beach, d biilow
10000 feet high and 800 miles long, the
snow capped Caucasus stretches across
from sea to sea with dreadful, threat
ening, savage majesty of smien.
i Its peaks are not SO high as many Of !
the Alps, it has not the projecting
spurs and isolated, craggy heights
whose groupings give new and beauti-
full views at every step. It is just IN
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. 5.55s
But the terror and dissolution 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 I'M
habited by the wild, lawless nomads.s
And so from the very beginnings Of
time the Causasus has stayed the hu-.
man tide, and, as conquering races
swept all before them below, the weak,
the peacea Bile, the unfit, have been
driven higher and higher into inaccessi-5l
BILE gorges and wild, bog covered VAL
leys. ...ss$ $!
"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. . d i 58
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
Of Corsica In the past. y,5.5 s B
It Is a mistake to suppose that Rus
Ella took the Caucasus by a general
Warlike movement There was no
need Divided by religion into Chris
tians. Mohammed dams and pagans. di,
Yidad BY languages which made them
mutually unintellig fble, the tribes oi
this strange museum Of bygone races
could take no united action.
Throughout the first three-q quarters Of
the nineteenth century Russia was EN-.
Iployed ID absorbing the Caucasus piece
by piece. Only two OF the Caucasian
races made amy thing like strong re
sistance. In the east a Mohammedar
prophet, Shamyl Of the Ayar stock
/ which overran great part OF Europe
i III the seventh century and was OIL,
finally conquered by Chariemag ne. sed
the Lesghians Of Daghestan IN q reii
gious war against Russia. Crafty, daring
and fertile in resource, occupying
4 mountain slopes cut by impassablt
i gorges, shamyl was believed by his
4 followers to have q charmed life. Only
Il when the Russians built forts and mill
4 tary roads and gradually inclosed hin
at enormous expense did Shamyl sur
1 render at his castle OF Gunib IN 1859
He passed some years OF honorable
captivity near Moscow and was thel
allowed, as devout Mohamnedan, I,
i end HIS days In peace at Mecca.
Very different was the story Of th,
Il Tcherke or Circassians. who op
4 posed Russia Ia the western section D
the Caucasus. The Circassians wer,
hardly the peaceable race Of who's,
i golden haired captive princesses fin thi
harems Of the east our boyish dream
4 were full, Narlike, splendid horsemel
and marksmen, they lived almost en-