The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1919-10-09
HighlanderS of the Caucasus Who
Have Kept Free From Gentle
Adnixture.
SCORN THE PLAINS PEOPLE
Their Language and Many of Their
Customs Are PecuIiar-Date and
circumstances of Settlement in
That Region Unknown.

London.-Of all the scattered tribes
and remnants of the Jewish people,
none is less known to the world at
large, and certainly none presents a
more striking contrast to the common
conception of the modern children of
Israel than the Jewish H~ighlanders of
the eastern Caucasus. Yet there are
probably none in all the world who
have kept the Jewish blood more pure
and free from gentle admixture, nor
any who have more faithfully pre-
served the traditions, beliefs and Gus
toms of the times before the exile.
Indeed, they hold themselves quite
aloof from the other Jews of the eau
region, refusing to intermarry
with them, to worship with them, or
ever to have social or commercial in
tercourse with them beyond the limits
OF the barest necessity. No Scottish
Highlander ever scorned the Lowlander
0ne-half SO much as these Highland
er Jews Sc0rn their kinSmen Of the
plains and of the urban ghetto.
Traditions Fail to Explain.
The date and the circumstances of
their settlement in the Caucasus high
lands are unknown, even in their own
traditions, but it is certain that they
have been there for nearly a thousand
years. In that time their physical
characteristics have been materially
modified by their environment and
mode of life. With characteristic Jew
ish faces and complexion, they have
tall, stalwart, muscular bodies, re-
sembling the best of the Hill men of
India, or some of the giant Highland
ers Of Scotland. Their life is of course
purely rural, since they have no con-
siderable towns, and they devote them
selves to agriculture. and the growing
of grapes and tobacco. From the
grapes they make both wine and
brandy, and of these beverages they
are heavy drinkers. Indeed they have
the u~nenviuble reputation of being the
hardest drinkers in all that part of the
world-which might easily be, since
the Mohammedan tribes around them
are almost entirely total abstainers.
However, drunkenness is little known
among them, if at all.
They are also great fighters. That
is generally a characteristic of noun
taineers, and in these highland Jews
it is highly developed. They always
go armed, as do the Montenegrins, and
are never backward in using their
weapons for Defense They do not,
however, share in any of the blood
feuds of the Circassian tribesmen, nor
do they join in their raids n quar-
rels.
Their language is neither Hebrew
nor that of the country in which they
live, but rather what philologists term
ParSi-Tartar, or a mingling of old Per
sian and Tartar. From this circum-
stance it is inferred that their ances-
tors went to the Caucasus from Persia
in the days of Cyrus the Great, or
Darius. Perhaps they were fugitives
from Persian captivity; or else they
preferred going 10 the Caucasus
rather than back to Palestine. There is
indeed ancient legend which tells
lAzdI tllCJ No1NlClC GU llOi lllNG IQ III QuGSl
OF Mount Ararat and the remains of
Noah's ark.
The ~patriarchal mode OF life pre-
walls among them. When a son mar
ries he does not establish a home of
his own. He simply builds a wing on
his fathers house and lives in it. In
this fashion there are often three or
four generations living in a single
house, which consists of a single story
spread over a large area of ground.
Each house has its own allotment of
land. comprising grain field, tobacco
field, vegetable garden and vineyard,
and all are kept in a high state of cul-
tivation, though with primitive meth
DDS. Each garden is inclosed within
a wall of rubble and clay about six
feet high.
These highland Jews have no rabbits
end no religious head. They have no