South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1920-02-17

I WIKI various duN-D OihNtFlSL gov
ernments seeking a resting place
and capital at one end Of the range
and fabulous oil boards OF Baku at
the other. inspiring cOvetous i'm
perialistic interest. the long line Of
mountains which separates Europe
from Asia gives promise OF once
more attaining the headline position
il so often has held throughout the
ages" says a bulletin from the Ma
tional Geographic society.
Made up Of 400 miles OF majes-
tic peaks. in three ridges, the eau
casus stretches from northwest to
southeast like a petrified wave whose
northeastern face mounts 20 the
snow crest. but whose southwestern
front facing toward Turkey seems
dashed into countless precipices by
the titanic forces OF nature.
"Once the Caucasus was a tabled
land Of rivers Of gold and rich vine
yards. OF orchards bent low with
the weight Of luscious fruit and Of
stored hills rich in all the known
minerals Of the age.
Interesting Rabbit Warren.
The Caucasus is the most inter
esting rabbit warren Of humanity on
the globe For uncounted ages. va
rious people sifted through the Sc
Guided valleys leaving a fraction of
their number in some remote spot so
that at one time FL Azizi said that
there were 800 tribes and dialects in
the region $50 miles long and 100
miles broad, which he called the
Mountain of Languages.
'Strabo spoke of 20 races OF men,
some Of them armed with poisoned
arrows and wearing skin shoes with
spiked soles. Troglodytes there
were and are. The Caucasus is a
sort OF three ring group Of natural
marvels compressed between Eu-
rope and Asia, between the Black sea
and the Caspian.
con the European slope. the eau
casus is hanked by the Cossaks Of
the Don. the Kuban and the Terek
along whose banks the famous Toll
stoy served as young soldier.
ION the Asiatic side. there are the
new republics Of Georgia. AZerbaijan
and Armenia. partly carved from
Russian. partly from Turkish lands
Many Strange Tribes.
within the Caucasus itself there
are still many strange tribes. Most
handsome of all are the Mingrelians
and their neighbOrs the Imeretians
) The Gurians and Swans. the Khev-
surs. Tushes and Abkhasians. the
Kabards. the Ossetians, Lesghians
Tchechens and Tartars.-all are
huddled I'm region 50 lacking in
roads or modern communications
that each tribe is as isolated as
though il possessed a continent Of
its own.
The people who have left the
deepest impress on the Caucasus. al
though most of them emigrated t.
Turkey in 1864. are the Tcherless
or Circassians. The loveliness Of
their women forms the lure of count
less harem tales and the daring of
the men furnishes the contrast to
the houri-like charm of the Circas-
; sian maidens who made harems
popular. not only along the beauti-
full Bosphorous. but in romantic lit
erature as we'll
The Tcherkess gave to the eau
casus and the fancy dress ball the
Tcherkeska, the familiar skirted
costume of the warlike Cossak and
the 1.-the Georgian grandee. 1t is
the original opera bOuffe uniform
with a narrow waist and haring
skirts above soft boots without
heels. This costume is also distin-
guished by IS cartridge cases rang
ed across the chest. which is made
, imposing not only by this perambu
liant ammunition dump. but also by
the fact that the upper portion of
the outer garment is left unfasten-
ed so that the dark shirt below
, shows wider and wider toward the
, top.
Formerly. real cartridges gave a
{ truly martial aspect to the dress in
j which a straight sword worn dag
= onally across the front and another
just as sharp suspended from the
side were almost the only visible
weapons until the automatic revol-
d yer came into fashion.
Could Vary Color Scheme.
But comparative wealth and
p peace overlook the Georgians and
1 the other town jewellers who wore
the striking dress and gradually
4 these cartridges were changed for
decorative limitations. Some OF
them were made Of ebony at one
end and ivory at the other.
Thus the Caucasian Beau Brum-
mel could vary the color scheme by
reversing the decorations so that a
% white costume would be trimmed in
black from cartridge case TO dag
ger and a dark tcherkeska could be
r enlivened by ivory cartridges and
c ivory handled daggers hanging from
= a shining silver belt.
4 "Modernity has gone even far
Their one OF these cartridge cases is