Norwich bulletin., 1919-11-07

of shallow, fertile valleys, blossoming with flowers with vine tagled forests, sunny and as war as the south of France.
 Sheltered by a rampant of noun tains from the cold northern winds,
 vegetation here assumes an almost tropical luxurianee. Prunes. figs. olives, oranges and pomegranates grow almost without cultivation in the open air; the magnificent forests of elm, oak, maple, Colchian. poplar and walnut are festooned with blossoming vines. and in autumn the sunny hilisides of Geor-
 gia, Kakhetia and Mingrelia are fairly
 purple with vineyards of ripening grapes.
 Climate here is only a question of altitude. Out of these semi tropical valleys you may climb in a few hours to the highest limit of vegetable life and eat your supper. if you feel so dis posed, on the slow moving ice of glacier.
 l "The Caucasian range may be re- garded for all ethnological purposes as ! a great mountainous island in the sea of human history. and on that island now lives together the surviving Rob inson Crusoes of a score of shipwreck- I ed states and nationalities-the fugi- tive mutineers of hundred tribal bopnties
 fin Daghestan there are four Or five thousand Jews who, although they
 have lost their language and their ma 1 tional character. still cling to their religion: and among the high peaks of Tooshetia in the same province, is settled community of Christians, said 1 to be the descendants of a band of medieval Crusaders. But these are ex- captions; nine-tenths of the noun taineers are Mohammedans of the fiercest. most intolerant type.
 ''The languages and dialects spoken by the different tribes of this hetero- | geneous population are more than 30 in number, and two-thirds of them are to be found in the province of Daghes- tan, tthe eastern end of the range where the pathological diversity of the
 population is most marked.
 Languages spoken by only 12 or 1;
 settlements are comparatively com mon; and on the headwaters of the Andiski Koisu, in southwestern Daghestan, there is an isolated village of 50 or 50 houses-the aouI of In
 nookh-which has language Of its own, not spoken or understood by any !. other part of the whole Cauca siar population.
 [ "Of course, the life. customs and so. !, cial organizations of a people whe originated in the way I have described : and who lived for perhaps 1000 years
 in almost complete isolation from al
 the rest of the world presented wher 1 they first became known many strange
 and archaic features. In tho secluded , valleys and canyons of the easterf . Caucasus it was possible to study , state of society that existed in England
 before the Norman conquest. and SC, in full operation customs and lega processes that had been obsolete ev anywhere else in Europe for at least
 millennium.
 : Many of the aouls of central an, : southern Daghestan bear a striking re . esmblance to the pueblos and cliff I dwellings of New Mexico. The stone walled houses are built together in
 compact mass on the steep slope Of q high terrace, and the fiat roofs rise f tiers or steps. one above another jus . as they do in~the settlements of or C pueblo Indians, The roof of one hous = forms small square front yard fo . the occupants of the house next abov g 1t. and ladders serve as means of inter $ communication between the roofs {
 the ascending tiers.''
 Y GA second bulletin will tell of tf k ancient customs of the people in tt ,- Caucasus region. where world ihistor $ now is being enacted.) d