The Pulaskian., 1919-09-26
a;afIanders Of the Caucasus Who
Have Kept Free From Gentle
Admixture.
sC0RN THE PLAINS PEOPLE
rseir Language and Many of Their
customs Are Peculiar-Date and
circumstances of Settlement in
That Region Unknown.

yondon.-Of all the scattered tribes
s,d remnants of the Jewish people,
anne 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
1srael than the Jewish Highlanders of
tbo eastern Caucasus. Yet there are
/, nrobably 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
tou1s of the times before the exile.
indeed, they hold themselves quite
aloof from the other Jews of the eau
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
onehalf so much as these Highland
or 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 it is certain that they
have been there for nearly thousand
years. In that time their physical
characteristics have been materially
modified by their environment and
mode of life With characteristic jew
ssh 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
sre heavy drinkers. Indeed they have
the unenviable reputation of being the
hardest drinkers in all that part of the
worid-which might easily be, since
the Mohammedan tribes around them
are almost entirely total abstainer&
However, drunkenness is little known
among them, if at all.
They are also great fighters. That
is generally characteristic of noun
eatneers. and i'll these highland Jews
It Is highly developed. They always
60 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
% they join in their raids and quar-
yels.
Their language is neither Hebrew
nor that Of the country in which they
i've, but rather what philologists term
faTsi-Tartar, or a miHgling of old Per-
san and Tartar. From this circum-
stance it is inferred that their ances-
sofs went TO the Caucasus from Persia
IN the days of Cyrus the Great, or
Darius. Perhaps they were fugitives
nom Persian captivity or else they
preferred going to the Caucasus
tdsller than back to Palestine. There is
mueed one ancient legend which tells
mat they wandered northward in quest
o. Mount Ararat and the remains of
Noah's ark.
Inc patriarchal mode of life pre-
vahs among them. When son mar
mes ne does not establish a home of
sis ewn. He simply builds wing on
ass father's house and lives In it. In
sais fashion there are often three or
aouf generations living in single
nOuse, which consists of single story
spread over large area of ground.
Iaeh house has It's own allotment of
"no' comprising grain field, tobacco
1e'u' vegetable garden and vineyard,
anu all are kept in a high state of cul-
usallon, though with primitive meth
Oos' Each garden is inclosed within
wall of rubble and clay about six
feet high.
ihese highland Jews have no rabbits
~uu no rel piol1c hood Thov have M