The Cordova daily times., 1922-08-12
4 Teklle Turkomsn.

Prepared by the National Geographic
 Society, Washington. D. O
 With the problems of western Flu rope looming large and news of the old Russian empire confined chiefly to more or less official communica- tions from Moscow, an important port of the world, where for half cen tury international intrigue found a fertile field, has dropped almost com pletely from sight. This is the region of the peoples who have been aptly called "Russias orphan races"-the in land Near East, embracing the Trans caucasus and the sections east of the Caspian, which marked the edge of the glacier-like encrOachment of the huge Slav empire sOutheastward to- ward India.
 Of all the varied peoples who in- habit that rabbit warren of humanity, the Caucasus, the Georgians are most interesting. With the Armenians, they form an important outpost against Turanian dangers. The great noun tains that sheltered Shamyl and many another patriot have shut off the vari- Ous tribes and races in secluded val leys, where they have retained their peculiar customs. Thus the mountains of Daghestan have kept that recluse among nations "an island in a sea of history"
 A few miles south of the snow ridge of the Caucasus, there is a wretched little village whose fame should be worldwide. Mtzkhet has claims to antiquity that make most towns ap- pear as embryos, for it's citizens as sert that it was founded by one of NOah's sons, who Strolled over from Mount Ararat one day after the waters had subsided and chose this site be- cause of it's excellent drainage.
 Below it's terraCed homes two rivers unite: the clear, cold Aragwa, has tening from it's birthplace in the eternal snOws of the Caucasus to the hot depression of the Caspian, and the Kura, sullied and dirty, swinging in from the west to make it's way down the Tifts depression and across the barren Transcaucasian steppe, be- tween the mountains of Daghestan and the highlands of Armenia.
 Original Home of the Gcorsians.
 On rock cliff opposite this quiet city with the cat-tfght name the kings of Georgia erected their first castle, but it was in Mtzkhet itself that Georgia was born. The GeOrgians ad- init their descent from the Accadans and Sumerians, but there is nothing In their appearance or personality to indicate their descent from anything. They seem to have ascended from the plane of other men.
 Militant of appearance, handsome of countenance, Chivalrous and unfamil- far with hard toll, these lovers of wine, women, and song are as prince ly in bearing as the unWashed Bed ouin before his desert tent. Part of them are mountaineers-the most pie turesque brigands that ever carried an arsenal at their belts. The rest are agricultural people, whose contact with the soil does not prevent them rom HoiullS thei eieSlS up Ilhe ooi- diers in uniform.
 The Georgian women conquered the Turkish rulers by the palace route, but the Georgian men are handsomer than their wives, and in Georgia the male wears the fine plumage But he treats his wife and daughters well and never allows them to act as servants.
 Turkestan begins in the west by being a land of desert, dust, and dreariness and ends in the east in lovely and fertile Ferghana. Its in- habitants insist that in spring there are green spots here and there, but In few places Is there enough rain to give an annual house cleaning to the dusty trees and shrubs.
 Turkestan. hscludinx the khanate 0k