The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1923-04-04

prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety. Washington. D. c.
Daghestan, which 1t cannot be
claimed was even a name to mosi
readers, has emerged from Its obscur
ity with the recent announcement that
1t Is the latest region In stricken Eu
rope to which American relief Is to be
extended. The country barely man
ages to be in Europe. Despite politi'
cal boundaries Of the past and mud
died racial lines of today, the eau
are generally accepted as marking the
lines to the southeast where Europe
ends and Asia begins. Wedged be
tween the two, extending from the
mow-capped crest Of the mountains on
the south to the below-ocean-level
strand Of the Caspian on the northeast,
lies Daghestan, country slightly
larger than Maryland, and officially a
republic" within the Russian soviet
federation.
The Caucasian range may be re-
garded for all chronological purposes as
a great mountainous island in the sea
Of human history, and on that island
now live together the surviving Rob-
inson Crusoes Of a score Of ship
wrecked states and nationalities.
Army after army has gone to pieces
In the course Of the last 1000 years
upon that titanic reef; people after
people has been driven up into its wild
ravines by successive waves of migra-
ton from the south and east; band
after band of deserters, fugitives and
mutineers has sought shelter there
from the storms, perils and hardships
Of war. Almost every nation in Eu-
rope, in whole or in part, and at one
time or another, has crossed. passed
by or dwelt near this great Caucasian
range, and each in turn has contribut-
ed Its quota to the heterogeneous
population of the mountain valleys.
The Aryan tribes, as they migrated
westward from central Asia, left few
great range; their number was In
creased by deserters from the Greek
and Roman armies Of Alexander the
Great and Pompey; the Mongols under
Tamerlane, as they marched through
Daghestan, added a few more. So,
too, the Arabs. who overran the coun-
try in the Eighth century, established
military colonies In the mountains,
which gradually blended with the pre-
existing population. European Cru
saders, wandering back from the Holy
Land, stopped there to rest and never
resumed their homeward journey.
the oppressed and prosecuted
of all neighboring lands-Jews, Geor-
gians, Persians, Armenians and Tatars
fled to these rugged, almost inacces-
sible mountains as to city of refuge
where they might live and worship
their gods in peace.
Welded Into Single People.
In course of time these innumerable
fragments of perhaps hundred differ
ent communities or tribes, united only
by the bonds of common interest, |
were nodded by typographical environ
ment into a single conglomerate ma
tionality, and became known to their |
Iowland neighbors as gortse, or noun
taineers. From a mere aSsemblage of |
stragglers. fugitives and colonists they |
developed In the course of thousand |
years into a brave, hardy, self-reliant
people, and as early as the Eighth CEN
Jury they had established in the noun
ain Businesses Of Daghestan, at the
eastern end Of the range, large num-
YER of so-called free societies." which
we're governed by elective franchise
Without distinction of birth or rank.
after that time, for another thousand
ears, they were never conquered.
In 1901 these hitherto unconquered
came into conflict with
he titanic power of Russia, and after
long and desperate struggle of near
Y sixty years they were finally sub
ued and the Caucasus became a part
f the Russian empire.
At the present time the mountain
ers as a class, from the Circassians
{ the Black sea coast to the Lesghians
{ the Caspian, may be roughly de-
cribed as brave, hardy, liberty-lov- I
lg people, who have descended from :
ncestors of widely different ethnolog- 5
al types and who are separable in %
.ibes. or clans, of very different OUT {
ard appearance but who, neverthe- '
SIS, are surprisingly alike In all 6