Polk County news. [volume] (Benton, Tenn.) 191?-1983, 1919-09-25
HighlanderS Of the Caucasus Who
Have Kept Free From Gentle
Admixture.
SCOUN THE PLAINS PEOPLE
Their Language and Many Of Their
Customs Are Peculiar-Date and
Circumstances of Settlement in
That Region Unknown.

LOndon.-0f all the scattered tribes
and remnants of the Jewish people
none is less known to the world al
large. and certainly noae presents q
| more striking contrast to the common
| conception of the modern children OF
Israel than the Jewish Highlanders 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 admlyture, 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 Cau-
casus region, refusing to intermarry
with them, TO worship with them, or
even to have social or commercial in
terCOurse with them beyond the limits
of the barest necessity. No Scottish
Highlander ever scorned the Lowlander
One-half so much as these Highland
er Jews scorn 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 1t is certain that they
have been there for nearly thousand
years, In that time their physical
characteristics have been materially
TDnIifia1 NJ thntp AnXirnnrnnnt onh
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 unenviable reputation of being the
hardest drinkers in all that part of the
might easily be, sint \
the Mohammedan tribes around them
are almost entirely total abstainersss
However, drunkenness is little knowI
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 |
for defense They do not, |
however, share in any of the blood |
feuds of the Circassian tribeSmen, nor
10 they join in their raids and quar-
rels.
Their language is neither Hebrew
nor that of the country in which they
i've, but rather what philologists term
or mingling of old Per
sian and Tartar. From this clrcum-
stance it is inferred that their ances-
orS went to the Caucasus from Persia
n the days of Cyrus the Great or
Darius. Perhaps they were fugitiveS
rom Persian captivity; or else they
preferred going TO the Caucasus
'ather than back to Palestine There is
indeed one ancient legend which tells
hat they wandered nOrthward in quest
If Mount Ararat and the remains of
NGqh'S ark.
The patriarchal mode of life pre-
'ails among them. When son mar
les he does not establish home of
lis own. He simply builds wing on
lis fathers house and lives in It, In
his fashion there are often three or
our generations living in single
iouse, which consists of a Single story
pread over Il large area Of ground.
,arh house has its own allotment of
ard. comprising grain field, tobacco
eld, vegetable garden and vineyard,
nd all are kept in high state Of cul-
ivatiOn, though with primitive meth
ds. Each garden is inclosed within
wall of rubble and clay aboht six
Get high.