Edward Alsworth Ross, Russia in Upheaval (1919) - Part 1

In the fall of 1917, just as the Russian Empire was in the throes of World War I and the Bolsheviks seized power in a coup, American sociologist and criminologist Edward Alsworth Ross (1866 – 1951) decided to visit the realm, travelling across Siberia, Central Asia and Caucasus. By then, he was already a prominent academic, having worked as professor at Indiana University (1891–1892), Cornell University (1892–1893) and Stanford University (1893–1900). He left Stanford amidst a public scandal about his overt racism and support of eugenics but was quickly hired by the University of Nebraska (until 1905) and University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he taught sociology until 1937. He remained an active proponent of eugenics and immigration restrictions until late 1940s when he gradually moved away from these views. In 1940-1950 he served as a chair of the national committee of the American Civil Liberties Union. 

In 1917-1918, Ross visited Russia, where he met many prominent public figures and officials (including Leon Trotsky whom he interviewed) and spent several days in Georgia. In 1919, Ross published his impressions in the book "Russia in Upheaval" that contains a chapter on his experiences in Georgia. His high praise of Georgians is noteworthy considering his racial prejudice.

TIFLIS, city of more than a third of a million, where Georgians, Russians, German colonists, Armenians, Persians, and Tatars peacefully commingle, is less hit by the war and shows more vitality and recuperative power than any other city I visited. The presence of sixty thousand Armenians explains, perhaps, why one sees no Jews. Besides Arabs, I came upon a band of Khivans, as wild looking as Touaregs, and one Chinaman. In the streets the eye is gladdened by the sight of long-haired, bearded, Russian priests in dingy, purple cassocks, Tatar mollahs in flowing gowns, wearing a white or green turban, Tatar traders in blue tunics and white skull-caps, mountain shepherds as tall and raw-boned as Scotch Highlanders, high carts (arbas) drawn by Indian buffaloes with massive back-sweeping horns, tethered goats, fat-tailed sheep, leashed goshawks, and Lilliputian donkeys lost under their load. The bazaars, with their color, their stir, their intimacy, and their revelation of the cunning of armorer and silversmith, saddler and furrier, are a perpetual well-spring of delight.

Tiflis is at the cross-roads where meet all the chief peoples and products of the Levant. In the shops the various weaves of carpets from the Caucasus— Kuba, Karabagh, and Daghestan—vie with Pendeh, Beloochi, Tekke, Kermanshah, and Shiraz rugs. When a man has a rug he particularly wants to sell, he throws it over his shoulder and strolls through the bazaar, not crying his ware, but sauntering up to any casual knot of men with a dégagé [unconcerned] air, letting them inspect it if they like after shaking it open on the cobblestones.

The Georgians are the handsomest branch of the white race, and so, from our view point, are the finest-looking people in the world. The nose is thin and straight, with high-cut nostrils, upper lip short, chin well moulded, and head shapely. The mouth, however, does not form a Cupid's bow, and the eyes are set rather too close together to suit the taste of some. In old people the long nose, with much septum showing between the nostrils, suggests the hawk. The hair is fine and often wavy, while the complexion is good. The sight of so many handsome people brightens one's spirits and renews one's faith in the future of humanity.

Nowadays the Georgians rarely wear a full beard, but when they do it is soft and flowing, never bushy as with a race of coarser hair. It was in Tiflis that the whiskers question, which since my arrival in Russia had been gathering insistence in my subconsciousness, came abruptly to a head. Following, perhaps, some traditional clerical prejudice against shaving, the Russians run extravagantly to beard. "Boots-and-whiskers" is the foreigner's nickname for them. "What's the restaurant car giving for breakfast this morning?" I asked an American who occupied a coupe with a Russian officer. "Don't know," he replied. "Wait till my companion gets back. He'll have the menu on his whiskers!"

A flowing beard may be ornamental, but never the "billy-goat beard" that hangs. This is why many of the hirsute appendages one sees in Russia are as depressing as the Spanish moss that dangles from dead branches in dank woods. Were its superfluous whiskers tucked away in half a million hair mattresses, there would be less "unrest" in Russia. The mown chin, to be sure, is artificial, but why should a reasonable being retreat behind a tangle of sorrel undergrowth because half a million years ago nature hit upon facial hair as an advertisement of maleness? When the chin is so expressive of character, why should a man who has nothing to conceal hide himself in a thicket of coarse, tawny hair? So, after having conscientiously suspended judgment for a quarter of a year, in Tiflis my subconsciousness suddenly erupted the sentiment, "Down with whiskers!"

Every Georgian who can afford it wears the tcherkeska, a costume which grew up among the Tcherkesses or Circassians on the other side of the Caucasus, who half a century ago migrated to their fellow-Mohammedans in Turkey rather than endure Christian [Russian] domination. Besides a close fitting coat of snuff- or cream-colored woolen cloth with long very full skirts, decorated across the bosom with rows of cartridge pouches, he wears at his waist a dagger in a damascened silver sheath, and at his side carries a crooked saber. Add soft, yellow boots and a tall cap of lamb's wool, and you have the most gallant and dashing of all male costumes. While gold or silver ornaments have replaced cartridges in the stalls, the edged weapons of the national full-dress are by no means an innocuous survival. They are kept sharp, and rarely does a Georgian avenge a personal injury by a law-suit. Formal duels are not fought, and differences are settled rather casually, but it is the height of bad form to draw a weapon in the presence of women or girls.

[...]

Again and again the famous Georgian military road we travel is blocked for a furlong or more by sheep—as many as three thousand in a single drove—being brought down from the high pastures lest the early snows catch them. The shepherds in their sheepskin coats, feet bound in rags and shod in bast moccasins, head in home-made wool hat, might have stepped from the idylls of Theocritus [the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry]. No doubt they would feel quite at home in classical antiquity. Noting the bold eyes, free stride, and proud bearing of these hill-men, I recall a remark by a Russian railway official who had double-tracked the Trans-Siberian through the series of tunnels about the southern end of Lake Baikal and previously, while managing the railways of the Caucasus, had dreamed of tunneling Krestovaya Pass and, with the locomotive whistle, waking the echoes in these wild glens. He described the Caucasian railway laborers as "independent and liberty-loving men who could be handled only by sympathy and tact." After these, he found it child's play to manage Russian laborers.

At every posting-station we get fresh horses and a new yamshchik, or driver. Some of the drivers who whirl us over the ten miles between stations look every inch the stage brigand. Beside these scowling redoubtable fellows the Corsican brigand looks as tame as a ribbon-clerk. During September seven posting-horses have been shot from ambush between Lars and Balta on account of a feud, so our driver on this stage carries gun and revolver, in addition to the dagger and saber that are a part of the regular dress of a man in the Caucasus, as much a matter of course as the revolver in our cow-boy West. These people, moreover, have devised a deadly weapon, peculiarly their own, in the shape of a powerful, savage, and plucky race of dogs. These are white or parti-colored, with short hair and wide heads. They are not the least of the dangers met by the traveler in the Caucasus. 

Far up the heights, on slopes as steep as a barn-roof, are great clusters of tiny stacks of grain or hay. Later these will be hauled on sledges down to the farmstead or village. In many yards threshing is going on. The grain is spread on a little hand-beaten threshing-floor, and a woman or girl drives round and round four heifers or colts tethered together, while a man with a fork turns the grain in from the sides and shakes it up. Finally the straw is lifted and thrown aside, the grain and chaff are swept together in a heap, and the light stuff is winnowed out of the mixture by tossing it into the air against the wind.

The houses are of rough stone, flat-topped, and are roofed with flat stones covered with cement. The back of the house is the hill-side. The front is often a kind of porch, with one or two windowless rooms behind. Square, stone towers, to which one might retreat and stand a siege, are a feature of most of the villages. In certain Caucasian valleys where the tradition of law is utterly lost every farm has its tower of refuge, just as in some parts of our West every family has its cyclone-cellar.

No doubt there are more handsome men among these peasants and shepherds than can be found in any other rural population. The bronzed, eagle faced highlander, with a firm chin and a nose like a cathedral buttress, is the normal type. Hair and beard are black or dark-brown, and are very fine. In rich robes the erect, keen-eyed, old men with their silky, grizzling beards would pass for Venetian councilors of state. The women have strong features and fine eyes, but they have poor complexions and fade early. Either their skin is not fine or it coarsens quickly from exposure. Moreover, the strongly moulded features which so befit the men do not suit our ideas of softness and delicacy, so the women excite less admiration than the men.

Since Peter the Great, the tsar has been head of the Russian Orthodox Church, so when by the Treaty of 1783, Georgia relinquished her independence, the tsar would no more tolerate a Katholikos in Georgia than he would tolerate a Patriarch in Russia. Moreover, there has been a consistent policy of favoring the [Russian] Orthodox Church at the expense of the Georgian Church. From the time that Russia gained control very little has been done to keep in repair Georgian churches and cathedrals, and in consequence they have fallen into a bad state. For the restoration of the [Svetitskhoveli] cathedral at Mtzchet [Mtskheta], where lived St. Nina, who in 347 A. D. introduced Christianity to Georgia, only 300 rubles a year have been set aside. A quarter of a century ago the Russian Synod appropriated the income of the monastery of Bodby [the village of Bodbe] - the resting-place of the body of St. Nina - filled the house with nuns of Russian orders, and conducted the religious services only in Russian. For years several million rubles belonging to the Georgian Church have been in the strongbox of the Holy Synod in Moscow. Nevertheless, the Georgian priest has been getting a paltry two or three hundred rubles a year, while from the budget of the Georgian Church the priest of a Russian parish has been paid ten times as much. All this discrimination passed away with the old regime, and the Georgian Church promptly signalized its new freedom by reviving the office of Katholikos. By chance we arrived at Mtzchet on our return journey to Tiflis on the very Sunday [September 30, 1917] set aside for the solemn induction of the new head of the church pCatholicos Patriarch Kyrion II], and there witnessed an outburst of national feeling that will be a landmark in the spiritual history of this people.

While driving down from the highlands on the previous day we had noticed a great drift of people in gala attire journeying in the direction we were going. Our caleche [2-wheeled carriage] overhauled many a crowded wagon and oxcart and passed numerous pedestrian groups and families camping by the highway. The posting-stations were full of people trying to catch a ride, and we had great difficulty in reserving our spare seats for persons we chose to ask to ride with us. On coming out after a change of horses we would find the box loaded down with self-invited guests. The morning trains from Tiflis came in packed, with the roofs loaded with eager sightseers. At the station a procession was formed to escort the Katholikos-elect and the bishops to the church half a mile distant. A circle of girls with joined hands enclosed the automobile of the prelates, who with patriarchal beards and in stately robes looked the dignitaries that they were. They were preceded by a choir of comely young men in red velvet doublets trimmed with gold braid, loose blue trousers, and soft, buff boots. A battalion of Georgians in dress uniform, with rich profusion of gold braid and gold cord, headed the procession. Great numbers of horsemen, wearing the tcherkeska and carrying rifles, followed the prelates' conveyance. 

Most picturesque of all in this colorful pageant was a squad of mountain Khevsurs in chain-mail. This little mountain-tribe call themselves "Children of the Cross" and wear the cross embroidered on all their garments. Prince Orbeliani, cousin to the present heir of the Georgian kings, assured me that thirteen crusaders,—eight French, one English, two Italian, and two Spanish, —endeavoring to escape from the Holy Land after the break-up of the Frankish power there, settled in one of the high valleys of the Caucasus, took daughters of the land as mates, and became ancestors of the Khevsurs, some of which perfectly reproduce the Frankish type. Among them are two old French family names that have died out in France. They have kept alive the art of making chain-mail and shields, and cherish as heirlooms certain heavy, two-handed swords that were wielded in Palestine by the forefathers of the tribe. A jewel of a story that! How it fires the imagination! But candor obliges me to record that the scholarly director of the Georgian Museum at Tiflis thinks that the Khevsurs are not descendants of Crusaders, but simply isolated warriors who preserve medieval customs and manners. Their wearing of the cross on their garments gave a French writer the idea of their Crusader origin. Nor was he gentle with the surmise that the Ossets are Ostrogoths in origin, because their language contains various pure Germanic words.

Amid constant cheering from bystanders and much skirling of bagpipes the procession makes its way to the church [Svetitskhoveli Cathedral], now about four centuries old, and proceeds with the ceremonies of installation. Outside is a large space enclosed by a high crenellated wall, really a fortified enclosure. Here are four or five thousand people, unable to crowd into the sacred edifice, who are preparing to feast. Hundreds of bullock-carts have been backed against the wall, and over numerous fires teakettles are singing or soup is bubbling in big copper vessels. Fowls are dressed and spitted. One man cuts the throat of a sheep and dresses it, and soon morsels of it are toasting before his fire. Gay home-made draperies are thrown over a pole, making a canopy under which family parties sit cross-legged on rich, hand-woven rugs. Long tables are spread, laden with brown bread, cheese, caviar, pickles, fish, fowl, and great decanters of the harsh red wine of Kakhetia, besides pears, apples, and grapes. Here are strewn the choir singers in velvet, and amid jests and laughter fair damsels pass youths in crimson doublets portions of cold fowl or lamb on the point of a dagger. Earthenware flagons of wine are handed about. Each group calls to passing friends to come and join them. A party of soldiers invites us to eat with them, and there is much drinking of healths to America and Georgia.

As appetite loses its edge, the festal spirit gains full sway. Here and there they strike up music with fife and hand-drum, or with bagpipes. Khevsurs in helmet and chain-mail engage in fencing bouts with swords and round shields. Whenever dancing begins a crowd gathers, which claps hands in time with the music. After some preliminary pirouetting a handsome, slim-waisted, black-eyed young fellow in a black tcherkeska and white lambskin cap stops and bows to the girl he wishes as his partner. There is no clasping of hands, still less "hugging to music," as the old Empress Dowager of China used to term our round dances. Without touching they dance, facing each other or revolving each about the other. Nothing more modest or graceful can be imagined, and I recall with shame the intimate dances, idiotic or obscene, in which our young people, with the approval of wren-brained parents, have been indulging during recent years.

In this fete the social extremes of the Georgian people meet. Here is a rough, sunburned shepherd in sheepskin coat and goatskin cap, carrying wallet and crook, with the steady, slow-moving eyes of dwellers in wide spaces who have never scanned lines of print. By him stands the head of a clan, a "prince," no doubt, for the tsar has been very free in bestowing that title upon the chiefs and lairds of these people, with blue velvet sleeves emerging from a fancy cape, a full-skirted broadcloth coat, and very full trousers falling over the top of russet-purple boots turned up at the toe. Like that of France, the Georgian nobility has a social rather than a political significance. The people are democratic in spirit; there is not the least chance of a revival of monarchy in Georgia, and the nobles will hardly have more political weight than their individual merit entitles them to.

In face and pose the young [Georgian] men recall the finest American Indian type—the Mohawk warrior. Maidens are there who might assume the title role of Iphigenia at Tauris. The matrons would pass for mothers of heroes. Not one old woman is obese or shapeless. All are straight and slender, with a look of determination on their strongly moulded features as of mothers who would exhort their sons, "Bring back your shields or be brought back on them." With the face framed by a veil tied over the red or purple velvet brim of the little tiara they wear, the women resemble the portraits of early English queens.

A visit to Kakhetia confirms the feeling that the Caucasus harbors the blood-kin of the Greeks of the classic period. Dominated by a snowy chain that thrusts peaks up to 16,000 feet and separates it from

Daghestan, the valley of the Alasan is surely one of the loveliest of the abodes of men. The valley-floor, from six to twenty miles wide, is given up to wheat-field and meadow, while the foot-hills are covered with vineyards. Charming villages, so embowered that only red roofs and white church are visible, dot the valley and slopes. Plows, drawn by half a dozen yoke of oxen or buffalo, turn the soil. Each vineyard has its funnel-shaped mortar ten or twelve feet high to bombard the skies when hail threatens. Every village has its elementary, four-year public school. Families are moderate in size. There is no population pressure, and no one migrates from this happy vale. The peasants are proud, and no Georgian girl can be induced to be a servant, save in certain old families. In the inns the servants are Russian. The position of women is high. In late years the development of cooperation has been marvelous. Education is appreciated, and the folk are willing to accept the leadership of their intellectuals. For this brave, handsome, and picturesque little people one may hope a bright future.

Ebenezer Henderson, Biblical researches and travels in Russia (1826)

In 1822 Ebenezer Henderson, a Scottish divine (theologian) who had spent much of his youth travelling (and preaching) in Scandinavia and Germany, was invited by Prince Alexander Golitsyn to assist the Russian Bible Society in translating the Scriptures into non-Russian languages of the Russian Empire. Henderson spent several years in Russia and, among other places, he also visited Georgia. His book, Biblical researches and travels in Russia, was published in 1826. Considering author's preoccupation with the Biblical studies, the book, unsurprisingly, contains little on ordinary people and customs/traditions that Henderson encountered in Georgia. But it does feature two illustrations drawn by Henderson as he crossed the Caucasus mountains.

James Baillie Fraser - Travels in Koordistan, Mesopotamia, Etc (1840)

James Baillie Fraser (1783 – 1856) was a Scottish travel writer and artist who had travelled widely across India, Iran and Ottoman Empire, drawing picaresque watercolours. Born in Scotland, he began to travel after turning sixteen years old. After Guiana and West Indies, Fraser visited India in 1813 and stayed for five years. In 1821 he decided to return to Britain travelling across Iran and Ottoman Empire.  During this journey he sketched and kept a diary that was published as "Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan in the Years 1821 and 1822" (London, 1825) in which described a small Georgian village in the Khurasan region of Iran. ten years later, with Russia intervening in the Ottoman Empire (during the Egyptian Ottoman Wars), Fraser was sent to investigate situation in the Middle East. He spent several years traveling across the region, visiting Iraq and Iran before returning back home. While in Baghdad, Fraser came across the Georgians once more. He published his impressions in "Travels in Koordistan, Mesopotamia, Etc" (London, 1840).

Among the women of Baghdad, the Georgians and Circassians are decidedly the handsomest by nature, and the least disfigured by art. The highborn natives of the place are of less fresh and clear complexion, while the middling and inferior orders, having brown skins and nothing agreeable in their countenances excepta dark and expressive eye, are sometimes so barbarously tattooed as to have the most forbidding appearance. With all ranks and classes the hair is stained with henna, and the palms of the hands are so deeply dyed with it as to resemble those of a sailor covered with tar. Those only, who by blood or habits of long intercourse are allied to the Arab race, use the blue stains so common among the Bedooeens [Bedouins] of the desert. The passion for this method of adorning the body is carried in some instances as far as among the ancient Britons; for, besides the staining of the lips with that deadly hue, anklets are marked round the legs, with lines extending upwards from the ankle, at equal distances, to the calf of the legs; a wreath of blue flowers is made to encircle each breast, with a chain of the same pattern hanging perpendicularly between them ; and among some of the most determined belles, a zone, or girdle of the same composition, is made to encircle the smallest part of the waist, imprinted indelibly upon the skin. There are artists in Baghdad whose profession it is to decorate the ladies with wreaths, etc. of the newest fashions.

[...]

It is certain that the women of Georgia and Circassia are the best looking and most esteemed here, but they are much more rare than formerly. Turkey can no longer encourage the slave trade of these oppressed and miserable lands: they are now writhing under the grasp of a still more ruthless tyrant, namely, the Autocrat of all the Russias; and depopulation proceeds with quite sufficient rapidity—not, however, rapidly enough to satisfy the usurper; for, when I was at Tabreez [Tabriz], it was understood that an expedition was about to be sent from Teflis [Tiflis] against the Abbassians with the professed intention of extermination.

Nor is the Georgian race likely to be perpetuated here; for it is a singular fact that few of the females of that country can rear a child here. They generally die before they are three years old, and some attribute much of this mortality to the injudicious indulgence of the mothers themselves, who stuff the little creatures with sweetmeats and other improper sorts of food.

[...]

Mr. Buckingham describes the costume of Baghdad as being far less splendid at that time than that of Egypt or Constantinople. Of that I cannot judge; but certainly the show of dress and accoutrements at present is far from brilliant. In the time of Daood Pashah, I have been assured it was otherwise. That chief retained a splendid court and establishment, and his military array was extremely glittering and imposing. His eight hundred Georgians, gorgeously dressed and armed, and mounted on fine Arab steeds, splendidly caparisoned, must of themselves have made a very gallant show; and his officers, taking the tone from their master, vied with each other in the magnificence of the equipment and number of their followers. At present, nothing of all this exists. The wretched handful of military now here is confined to a few Haitahs, or Albanian horsemen, mingled with others of the country, most shabbily dressed and equipped, and a detachment of the Nizam, or new regular troops, as exquisitely irregular a corps as imagination can figure, whose semi-Europeanised dress has robbed them of the portly look of Turks without bestowing on them the smartness or business-like appearance of the European soldier....

Pieter van der Aa - La Galerie Agreable du Monde (1729)

At the start of the 18th century Pieter van der Aa (1659 - 1733) was the leading printer in Leiden. Perhaps the most ambitious European publisher of his day, he conceived a remarkable project - to publish an illustrated atlas of the world. Utilizing available sources and prints, he produced "La Galerie Agreable du Monde," a vast set in 66 parts that contained some 3,000 plates covering customs, religion and history of the peoples of Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Upon its completion "La Galerie..." presented for the 18th century reader's pleasure and edification a stunning array of images - maps of various regions, city-views, port perspectives, landscapes, architectural plans of famous sites, landmarks, as well as numerous pictures pertaining to world history and ethnography, depictions of religious practices, social ceremonies and sumptuary clothing from around the globe. This was a veritable pinnacle of the field of "exotic geography" that flourished in Europe between 1660s and 1730s. Interestingly, van der Aa included a few plates on Georgia. The volume on "China and Grand Tartary" features two sketches on Mingrelia while the volume on Persia contains a plate with partial Georgian alphabet. 

Caption: "The clothing and feasts of the Mingrelians"

Caption: "How Mingrelians determine truth"

Caption: "The Georgian ABC"

James Baillie Fraser - Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan (1821)

James Baillie Fraser (1783 – 1856) was a Scottish travel writer and artist who had travelled widely across India, Iran and Ottoman Empire, drawing picaresque watercolours. Born in Scotland, he began to travel after turning sixteen years old. After Guiana and West Indies, Fraser visited India in 1813 and stayed for five years. In 1821 he decided to return to Britain travelling across Iran and Ottoman Empire.  During this journey he sketched and kept a diary that was published as "Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan in the Years 1821 and 1822" in London in 1825. During his trip across the Khurasan region of Iran, he came across a small village of Abbasabad (coordinates - 36.360796, 56.387723) was populated by the descendants of the Georgians resettled by Shah Abbas of Iran in the 1610s.

The village of Abbassabad presents an interesting object to the traveller ; its origin was singular, and the destinies of its inhabitants are as singularly deplorable. Upon the high road connecting two capitals of great resort, there existed a great space, barren and desert by nature, always endangered, and often rendered impassable to travelers by the incursions of the fierce Toorkomans [Turkmen] of the north so that communication between them was at times totally interrupted. 

Khurasan in North eastern Iran.
Icon shows the location of Abbasabad
(courtesy of Google Maps) 

In this dangerous and desolate track no one would voluntarily settle; yet a connecting point was obviously required, and the want was felt by every sovereign of the country, whether powerful or weak. It was Shah Abbas the first who provided for this inconvenience in a way highly characteristic of that sovereign's policy : he transplanted one hundred Georgian families from their rich native soil, to wither on the barren salt marshes of Khorasan, with as little remorse or consideration as he would have changed the horse he rode, or the clothes he wore. He, however, provided for their safety, and even for their maintenance; and, on the whole, made their situation as comfortable as the nature of it would admit. He built them a fort, as well as a large and fine caravanserai, in a spot where, while they remain upon their guard, no attempt of their enemies can harm them; he assigned them fixed wages, and supplied the wants they could not provide for by agriculture; an employment from which they must be debarred, as well from the barren nature of their soil, as from the exposure to attack which it would involve. The fort is situated on a little earthy hillock, not far from, but not commanded by, the

The environs of Abbasabad
(courtesy of Google Maps)

neighboring hills; and it overlooks the caravan serai, which is built on the slope just below it, forming a sort of outer court connected with it; a fine rill of fresh water runs from below the fort, through the court of the caravanserai, supplying that necessary of life in a way that no enemy can interrupt. The caravanserai itself is a substantial and spacious building, having about fifty good chambers in the interior area, with stabling and cover for many hundreds of cattle, and niches in the thick walls for their keepers and other travelers: it had solid gates, to bar the entrance of a foe, but they have been three times burned, and had not been replaced since the last time; the fort, however, so completely commands the area, that except by surprise no considerable harm could be effected. At the distance of one third of a mile there are the ruins of an old fort, and village, destroyed long ago in some of the troubles of the land, which now serve but as a lurking place for the robbers who come hither to plunder. 

Ruins of Shah Abbas' caravanserai at Abbasabad
(courtesy of Google Maps)

The sufferings of this Georgian colony since their transportation hither have been very severe; the greater part have lost either their lives or liberties, at one time or other by the incursions of the Toorkomans, and at present there are not in the little mud fort more than two hundred souls great and small, of which thirty or forty are men; and of those who are grown up, there is not one who has not been taken prisoner two, three, or more times, and either made their escape, or been ransomed back. I saw several who had thus escaped, and others who had at this time relatives in the hands of their enemies ; one youth had seen both his brothers killed two years before ; the father of another had gone only three days before to Muzeenoon, for corn and straw, and had not been since heard of The Toorkomans, they said, were continually about their village, and the fountains of fresh water near it, in more or less force. The wages and supplies granted to them in former reigns [17th century] have been stopped in this [19th century]; they occasionally receive thirty khurwars of grain, which is all they have to live upon, except what they earn at the risk of their lives and liberties, by the supply of caravans ; all the articles they furnish, as corn, straw, flour, etc. being brought from Muzeenoon: fire-wood alone they gather in the neighbourhood. 

They complain bitterly of their lot, and would fain leave the place, but this is extremely difficult ; for none are permitted to depart, and if any one be caught attempting to run away, he is brought back and severely beaten for it. It is still more difficult for a family to leave such a place, particularly as an officer of government continually resides there. One of the people with whom I conversed described the misery of their situation very feelingly, and even strikingly. "Set down as we are," said he, " in the midst of a wilderness, with a boundless salt desert on one side, on the others hills of brown rock or grey earth perfectly unprolific, the change of seasons passes almost unknown to us." "I know not winter," continued he, " from spring or summer, but by the complaints of my children, and the cold it brings ; the wretched patch of corn you see beneath the walls seldom comes to maturity ; if enemies do not destroy it, friends do. We have a single fig-tree near yonder hill, which in kindly seasons yields much fruit, but the Toorkomans gather it oftener than we do, and there is not another tree of any sort near us; we have attempted to rear shoots in that garden, but to no end; they have always been violently destroyed. We dare not keep any sheep ; each of us may possess one or two goats, and perhaps an ass : horses and camels no one dreams of; it would only be rearing them for the Toorkomans. We are always on the alert against these cruel enemies, yet are we constantly suffering in our families, having fathers, wives, sons, or daughters, carried off, and never heard of more. As for me, I have been three times in their power, twice I escaped, and was ransomed the third time at a ruinous price : most of my kindred have gone the same way ; but what are we to do? We cannot run away, for should we be caught our punishment is dreadful, and if we escape, our fault is visited upon our families, and fear of the consequences to them makes us submit to every thing." 

The range of this poor creature's ideas, with regard to the rest of the world, was circumscribed like his personal liberty : he believed that there existed few places so magnificent as the caravanserai of his native village. " Have you," said he, " any thing like this in the "desert places of your country ?" When I told him that with us no such things were required ; that there were no Toorkomans, no robbers of men ; that each man there reaped that which he sowed, in peace and security, that there was no need of arms, nor did any body walk with guns, swords, or daggers ; that no such things as wars or rebellion had for a long time been known among us ; "Is that indeed the case ?" exclaimed the poor fellow with earnestness, " Oh the take me with you to that land." 

It is said that the Toorkomans do not now a days come often into the caravanserai, though formerly that was frequently done ; not long ago, four hundred men made an attempt to surprise the fort ; they alighted at nightfall in the ruined village, where two hundred remained ; and the rest got undiscovered into the caravanserai, and hid themselves in its huge recesses, intending to wait there till morning, when the villagers for the most part all come out ; then to seize them, and rushing into the fort, to take possession of it also ; the noise attending which bustle should be a signal for the rest to come to their assistance. The plot was, however, discovered and the village saved by accident ; one of the villagers chancing to go down to the caravanserai, saw the keen eyes and wild features of a Toorkoman, with his drawn sword gleaming on him from a recess ; he challenged, and receiving no answer fired his matchlock, and alarmed the fort : the garrison turned out with the arms they possessed, and fired from the walls upon the Toorkomans, who now began to appear, and who finding their scheme frustrated, retreated precipitately, leaving three killed in the place. 

The next morning as we viewed the country around, from the eminence of the fort, we could not wonder at the despair of the miserable inhabitants who are bound to it for life: A kubbeer, or salt desert, like the bed of an evaporated sea, glittering with saline efflorescence, stretched in boundless desolation to the south and southeast, islanded by a few rugged rocks ; and all to the north and west ridges of earthy hillocks or bare rocky cliffs bounded the view without one point of verdure to rest the weary eye. We quitted this wretched place, with sincere commiseration for its inhabitants, at half past one on the 13th, keeping up the same precaution as on our last march, there being several very dangerous spots just on our road, particularly two springs of sweet water much frequented by these formidable marauders, and Mahomed Allee with myself and two or three other horsemen rode in advance, among the earthy hillocks... 

Clive Phillipps-Wolley - Savage Svanetia (1882) - Part 1

Clive Phillipps-Wolley was a Canadian/British writer, traveller and avid hunter. Born in 1853 in England, he started his career in the diplomatic service before pursuing a career as a lawyer. In later years he moved to British Columbia (Canada) where he was involved in mining industry. A strong champion of the Royal Navy, he founded and led the Victoria Navy League that championed British naval supremacy. Phillipps-Wolley was also a prolific writer, who at the height of his popularity was considered "among the first half-dozen Canadian writers" while his writings were said to rival those of Rudyard Kipling "in energy of thought, freshness of comparison and vigour of expression." 

A keen big-game hunter, Phillips-Wolley  travelled around the world in search of hunting experiences. He wrote many books of travel, hunting and adventure, including "Savage Svanetia," a two-volume travelogue, published in 1883, of his voyage to hunt in the mountains of Svanetia. 

As he mentions in his preface, Phillipps-Wolley had long heard about Svanetia, which had "always been spoke of to me as a hungry land inhabited by an angry people." But he also knew that it was "among the least known corners of the Caucasus" and was eager to explore it, especially because of it offered prospects of unique hunting experiences. 

In the summer of 1882, Phillipps-Wolley travelled across Europe to Odessa where he got on a steamer to cross the Black Sea. By August he was already in Kutaisi, where bad news awaited him: Prince Nicholas (Niko) Dadiani, who extended him an invitation for a hunting trip, cancelled the hunt due the illness of his mother Princess Ekaterine Dadiani. Forced to stay in Kutaisi, Phillipps-Wolley was unexpectedly contacted by "Princess A." who had overheard him speaking English in a street and invited him to join her husband's shooting party. But before they could go the Canadian and his friend were invited to a Georgian dinner party...

The dinner was, I believe, Georgian in style, but was sufficiently like a Russian dinner to need no description here. The drinking, not the eating, is the salient feature in a Caucasian feast. A toast-giver toolambatch [from Turkish toplum başı, "head of the party"; Georgian, tamada] having been appointed, we took our places at table, eighteen guests in all, and every guest, except an English young lady, the governess of the family, and ourselves, of princely rank.

Having swallowed our modicum of neat spirit which, with some trifling relish, such as a large white radish or piece of salt cheese, forms the necessary prelude of every dinner, we were allowed about five minutes for honest, straightforward feeding. Then the toolambatch arose, and our glasses (small tumblers) having been filled with the red wine of Kakhetia, the toast-giver proposed the health of the Princess. At this all rose, bowed, and clinked glasses with our hostess, emptied the tumblers, struck them loudly on the table; and then the nimble-fingered amongst the men sent their glasses whirling head over heels in the air, to show they were innocent of heel taps, caught them as they descended in their left hands, and replaced them on the table with a force that made the plates rattle. Then all sang in chorus a kind of thanksgiving to the giver of the feast, to a tune which sounded rather like a Gregorian chant. In about another minute the glasses were recharged, some one else's health proposed, and the same ceremony performed in its honour. This kind of thing continued until every one's health had been drunk, by which time seventeen honest tumblers had been emptied by each member of the dinner party, no small feat for men not used to large libations.

There was only one trifling distraction during this first part of dinner, which was owing to the bodily peril of a member of the party. One of the princes, it seems, had left the table unobserved, and sought solitude in the yard below the dining-room, whether to escape his fair share of wine or devote his time to hatching an extempore joke still remains a mystery. However, we were roused to a sense of his absence by piercing screams; and on a party being detailed to inquire into the cause, we found the unhappy absentee had been "baled up" in his bedroom by an irate turkey-cock who, resenting his intrusion in the yard, had violently assaulted and expelled him.

Having released the prisoner, and finding that no one remained to whose health tumblers had not been emptied, the toolambatch rose to the occasion, and showed himself worthy of the public confidence reposed in him. Toast followed toast in rapid succession, until sobriety trembled on its last legs, and instant flight or an ignominious descent below the salt seemed imminent. 

"To the health of Madame W.," said the toolambatch. Clink, clink went the glasses, up they flew, and again the rattling plates recorded another glassful to be atoned for with headaches and soda-water the day after. "Has Mr. F. got a wife?" whispers the Princess in my ear. "No," I return thankfully. The reply is telegraphed to the other end of the table, and the toolambatch, rising gravely in his place, proposes the health of the future Mrs. F., which is hailed with immense applause. Mr. W.'s family, Mr. F.'s future family, our united grandmothers and aunts, and a host of other toasts follow with amazing rapidity, and then to our intense relief the Princess gives the signal, "cease firing." "Just one last glass before we part," she suggests, and fills for each of us a large port wine glass full of strong liqueur, having done justice to which, with a courage born of despair, Frank and I make our adieux as best we can, and next minute find ourselves congratulating each other on our happy release, and the extraordinarily unnatural phenomenon that we are still able to walk straight.

We thought we had escaped our friends when we reached the shelter of our hotel, but little did we know when we ventured to indulge in such illusive dreams the hospitality of the Caucasian heart, or its rooted aversion to sobriety in a guest. I state a mere fact when I say that not to make a man drunk when he is your guest is looked upon in the Caucasus as a breach of hospitality—a distinct failure in that cordial entertainment for which the country is famed. A Georgian of Racha, whom I knew well, once said to me in talking of the matter, "What are we to do? We have no games except cards, no entertainments of any kind; when a man comes to us, we want to make him merry, and nothing does that so well as wine. The process of getting drunk is the pleasantest thing in life, and when he is too far gone to drink any more, we just let him sleep until he is ready to begin again." 

This being the spirit of the country, it was small wonder that at the hotel doors we met our host of the morrow's hunt with two other jovial princes, and an array of champagne bottles awful to behold. To refuse was to offend our friends, ruin our reputations as hard-headed Englishmen, and get no shooting at Kutais or help beyond. So with a sigh we submitted to the inevitable, and sat down.

A more perfect linguist than Prince A. I never met, and his knowledge of English sporting terms was as wonderful as his capacity for champagne. But at last it was over, and the last assault of the enemy having failed to carry the Englishmen off their legs, the princes beat an orderly retreat, and the besieged were allowed to retire with all the honours of war, i.e., the waiter lighted them up to their rooms still sober enough to get their boots off.

So ended the night; but the dawn had hardly commenced when the sound of wheels in the street below and trampling of feet by our bedsides roused us unceremoniously from our slumbers. There they were again, like nightmares before our sleepy vision, the Prince and his companions, looking as fresh as paint, in full sporting costume, with rifles in hand—men, carriages, and dogs all below in the street—begging us to tumble as speedily as possible into our clothes and come down to the street, where their people were waiting to drive us to covert. Already, they urged, we were almost too late. The dawn would be visible in the sky in a few more minutes, the wolves would be back in covert from their midnight maraudings, and if our places were not taken before that, not a wolf would be found to reward our vigil when the beaters came through. 

So, with scarcely the keenness that the promise of a wolf hunt should rouse in a sportsman's breast, we shook ourselves together, and casting rueful glances at the warm couches from which we had been torn, lit our pipes and prepared for the raw morning air....

Georgians in Afghanistan, 1709-1711

Georgian involvement in Afghanistan began in the 16th–17th centuries when they became integrated en masse in the Persian army and participated in the Safavid campaigns in Afghanistan. At the start of the 18th century Shah Sultan Husayn gradually lost his grip on the political situation in Afghanistan, where he faced both local insurgency and growing interests from the Moghul India. To address this situation, Sultan Husayn turned to his Georgian allies: King of Kartli Giorgi XI (Gurjin-Khan/Gorgin Khan), who served as the governor (beglarbegi) of Kirman, his brother Levan (Šāhqoli Khan) , the chief justice (divan-begi) of Persia, and his nephew Kaikhosro (Kay-Ḵosrow Khan / Khusrau-Khan) as the prefect of police (darugha) of Isfahan. 

The Georgian commanders successfully campaigned in 1700, driving the Afghani tribesmen out of the eastern Persian provinces. In 1703, Gurjin-Khan, now commander-in-chief (sipah-salar) of the Persian army was given the task of delivering Qandahar and subduing the Afghans. He led his corps of some 4,000 Georgians and 20,000 Persians in May 1704 and quickly subjugated the country. However, his soldiers proved to be unforgiving toward the local population, sequestered goods, and raised taxes. Georgian heavy handed treatment of the Afghan population prompted Mir Vays (Mir Weis/Mir Ways), a leader of the Hotaki Ghilzay tribe, to lead a rebellion, but he was quickly arrested by the Georgians. Gurjin-Khan then committed the crucial mistake of sending Mir Vays to Isfahan, although he urged the shah to get rid of him or at least never to allow him to return to Qandahar. A Persian faction hostile to the Georgians existed in the Persian capital, and it took advantage of Mir Vays’ accounts to paint the Georgian actions in the worst possible light. According to a contemporary Ottoman report (preserved at the Glasgow University's Hunter Collection), prepared by Joseph the Georgian who accompanied a French embassy to the Safavid court, the chief vizier and the chief eunuch, both hearty enemies of the Georgians, helped Mir Vays to lull the suspicions of the shah, who ordered Gurjin-Khan to show moderation and cooperate with the Afghans. The Ghilzay leader was set free, and sent to Kandahar to watch Gurghin Khan 

Gurjin-Khan clearly underestimated the danger he was facing since he failed to notice Mir Vays’ schemes. According to Joseph's account, In 1709, one of the Afghan tribes refused to pay taxes. Mir Vays urged the Khan to subdue them at once and thus got the Georgian soldiers out of the way. He then invites Gurjin-Khan to his estate outside Kandahar in order to receive the submission and gifts of two recalcitrant but now penitent beys. Gurjin-Khan fell into the trap, and in the banquet that followed he was slain with all his retinue. Mir Vays then put on Gurjin-Khan' uniform and had his men do the same. Thus disguised, and moving in, what Joseph describes as, "Georgian formation" they appeared at sunset before the citadel of Kandahar. The Georgian garrison, thinking their compatriots were returning, opened the gates to let them in. They were cut to pieces and the place taken. The inhabitants were warned to stay within doors until morning.  

Upon their return the Georgians troops, who had been sent to subdue a rebellious tribe, found Kandahar in the Afghan hands. They commenced a fighting retreat that was later described by Jonas Hanway, an English merchant who traveled to Persia in 1740s, stayed at the court of Nadir Shah and published an interesting travelogue that recounted his experiences as well as stories he had heard during his voyage. Among these stories was the account of the Georgian retreat from Kandahar:

"Three days had elapsed since the governor's [Gurjin-Khan] death, when the sentinels descried from the ramparts a considerable body of cavalry; this was the detachment of Georgians, who, ignorant of what had passed, were coming to the city, loaded with the spoils of the rebels. As their return was expected, proper orders were given for their reception; they were suffered [allowed] to advance within musket-shot, when the cannon of the town was discharged at them so that they immediately conjectured that the place had changed masters. Mir Vays thought this a good opportunity for establishing the reputation of his arms; he accordingly marched out at the head of five or six thousand horse, intending to cut off the retreat of the Georgians; but he soon perceived, that he had to do with troops better disciplined, and more inured to war, than his Afghans.

The Georgians, quitting their booty, forced their way sword in hand, and passed the defile of Zebil. After fighting their way through the country for the space of eight days, with an amazing intrepidity, they marched out of the province. What the Georgians suffered in this retreat, as well through want of provisions and forage, as the frequent attacks of their enemies, is hardly credible; but their courage was invincible. The Afghans made five different attacks upon them in one day, and notwithstanding the great superiority of their numbers, they were always repulsed; insomuch that they lost above two thousand men in these different engagements. 

As an instance of the resolution of the Georgians, it is related, that they swam their horses over a considerable river, within three leagues of the defile of Zebil, on the side of Kandahar: one of them [Georgians], who was dismounted seeing an Afghan riding towards him in full speed, turned back to meet him, and holding out to him, with one hand, his sabre, as if he intended to surrender, with the other, he shot him through the head, with a pistol, then leaping upon the dead man's horse, he plunged into the river, which he crossed under the incessant fire of the enemy, who were amazed at his resolution. 

All the advantage that Mir Vays reaped from this expedition was the making himself master of the defile of Zebil. This [pass] is on the side of Persia, as that of Kabul is towards India, and these are the only passes through the mountains with which the province of Kandahar is surrounded. The Afghan chief, who had now so lately experienced that valour alone is not sufficient in carrying on a war, left troops to guard these narrow passes, and applied himself to discipline his men, and also to gain the other towns of the province; in hopes, that by their means, together with the alliances which he intended to conclude With his neighbours, he should be able to withstand the forces that might be sent against him.

After learning about this disaster, Shah Sultan Husayn dispatched Kaikhosro, who succeeded Gurjin Khan as the king of Kartli, with 30,000 Persians and 1,200 Georgians to suppress the uprising in November 1709. However, this expedition was suffered from food shortages and low morale among the Persian (qezelbāš/qizilbash) troops, as well as from intrigues of the Persian grand vizier who sought to weaken the Georgian faction. Kaikhosro initially defeated the Afghan detachments and besieged Kandahar, which resisted for five months. This gave Mir Vays sufficient time to rally tribes, gather reinforcements and counterattack. The excerpt below is from Judasz Tadeusz Krusinski, missionary and Procurator of the Jesuits at Ispahan, who lived in Persia from 1704 to 1729. An acute observer and a good judge of contemporary events, he published History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, an important source on the history of the early 18th century Iran.  

[As the Georgian/Persian siege of Kandahar failed] Mir Weis [Mir Vays] who had only waited for this Moment, immediately took the Field at the Head of a great Body of Troops, all fresh Men, who having an Enemy [Georgians and Persians] to oppose that was already fatigued by Heat, and weakened by Poverty [lack of supplies], went to the Battle as to a certain Victory, of which they could not fail. 

Being mounted upon fresh Horses, and having no other Incumbrance but their Arms, they were soon up with the Rear-Guard of the Enemy's [Persian] Army. At first they only harassed it by a few Skirmishes, to give Time for the Arrival of a Reinforcement that Mir-Weis expected, which could not march so fast as the Horse, viz. a Body of eight hundred Camels, which carried two Soldiers each, Back to Back, armed with great Carbines. This Reinforcement was no sooner arrived, but they fell on all Sides upon the [Georgian] Rear Guard, which was all cut in Pieces, with the General [Georgian prince Kaikhosro who was killed]. Mir-Weis immediately after this first Expedition, went and fell upon the Persian troops that were retiring with the less Apprehension or Precaution, because they thought themselves secured by the Rear-Guard, of whose Defeat they were not informed. He made a bloody Slaughter of them, and carried away all their Baggage. One would have imagined, that Mir-Weis would have thought two Victories enough for the Work of one Day; however, he did not stop there, but resolved to attack the Body of the Georgian Army, which was marching homewards the other Way. But he was checked in his Progress, by a Troop of five hundred Georgians, who, though surrounded on all Sides, defended themselves with so much Resolution and Courage, that they cut their Way through the Enemy Sword in Hand, and went and joined the Body of their Army, which perhaps would have been surprised in their March, and defeated as well as their Rear-Guard, had it not been for this timely Intelligence. 

The Resistance which Mir-Weis met with from those five hundred Georgians made him give over the Thoughts of pursuing the main Body of an Army consisting of such good Troops, and he returned with his Afghans laden with Booty, to Kandahar being followed into the Town with all the Baggage of the Enemy's Army; and though they had been twice victorious, they could not help doing Justice, even at their own Expense, to the Bravery of the Georgians, saying that the Persians were but women compared to the Afghans and the Afghans but women compared with the Georgians.

The defeat of the Georgian/Persian expeditionary force allowed Mir Vays to free all of southern Afghanistan from Safavid control, thus establishing the basis of a state which would extend westwards into the heart of Persia in 1722.

Jean Chardin, Journal du voyage du chevalier Chardin en Perse & aux Indes (1673) - Part 2

Born in Paris in a Hugenot (Protestant) family, Jean Chardin (1643-1713) spent much of his life traveling to the East because of his father's position as a jeweler and shareholder in the French East India Company. In 1664, the twenty year old Chardin set out on a long journey to Persia, traveling through the Ottoman Empire, Georgia and Armenia before arriving to Persia, where he served at the courts of Shah Abbas II and Shah Safi. After a trip to India, Chardin returned to France in 1670. In 1671, he published an account of the coronation of Shah Safi and in the same year set off for Persia, traveling through Georgia once more before arriving in Isfahan in 1673. He remained in Persia for several years before visiting India and returning home in 1677. 

With the start of the persecution of the Hugenots in France, Chardin moved to England in 1680. The first edition of his Travels appeared in London in 1686 - entitled "Journal du voyage du chevalier Chardin en Perse & aux Indes Orientales, par la Mer Noire & la Colchide..." - and was followed over the next decades by several expanded editions. Chardin's travelogue provides precious insights into the regions and societies that he had encountered on his journeys. He remains one of the best-informed European observers of Georgia and Safavid Persia.

The text below is based on the French edition (volume I, pp. 46-47) published in Amsterdam in 1711.

The noblemen of the country have full power over the lives and estates of their tenants, with whom they do what they please. They seize upon them, whether wife or children; they sell them, or dispose of them otherwise as they think fit. Every man furnishes his Lord with so much corn, cattle, wine, and other provisions, as he is able. So that their [noblemen's] wealth consists in the number of their vassals. Besides, every one is obliged to entertain his Lord two or three days in a year at their own expenses, which is the reason that the nobility, so long as the year lasts, go from one place to another devouring their tenants, and sometimes the tenants of other men.

The Prince himself leads the same life, so that it is a hard matter every day to know where to find him. When the vassals of several lords are at difference, their masters decide the dispute: but when the lords are at variance among themselves, force and brute strength determine the quarrel, and the strongest side gets the better. There is not a gentleman in Mingrelia but has some quarrel or other. And therefore it is, that they always go armed, and as numerously attended as they can. When they ride, they are armed at all points, and their followers are as well; nor do they ever sleep without their swords by their sides; and when they go to Bed, they sleep upon their stomachs, with their swords underneath them.

Their Arms are a lance, bow and arrows, a straight sword, a mace and a buckler; but there are very few that carry firearms. They are very good soldiers, ride horses very well, and handle their lances with an extraordinary dexterity. They train children in the use of a bow starting at the age of four and they become so adroit that can shoot even the most smallest birds in flight. 

Their Habit is peculiar; and unless they be the Ecclesiastical Persons, they wear but very little beard. They shave the top of their heads in a circle but allow the rest of their hair to grow down to their eyes, and then clip it round at an even length. They cover their Heads with a light cap of felt, very thin pared and cut into several half-moons around edges. In the winter they wear a fur bonnet: They are moreover so beggarly [gueux] and so wretched [miserables], that for fear of spoiling their caps or their bonnets in the rain, they will put them in their pouches, and go bare-headed. Over their bodies they wear little shirts [chemises] that fall down to their knees, and tuck into a straight pantaloon. Nor

indeed is there any habit in the world more deformed then theirs. They carry a [long] rope at their girdles, to tie together such people or cattle which they rob from their neighbors or take in war. The nobles wear leather girdles four fingers broad, full of silver studs, at which they hang a knife, a whetstone, and a steel to strike fire: together with three leather purses, the one full of salt, the other of pepper, and the other with pack-needles, lesser-needles, and thread. The poor people go almost naked; such is their misery not to be paralleled anywhere else; not having any thing to cover their nakedness but a pitiful felt resembling the chlamys of the Ancients; into which they thrust their heads, and turn which way they please as the Wind sits; for it covers but one side of their bodies, and falls down no lower than their Knees. There are some, that are pared very thin to keep out the Water, which are not so heavy as the common sort; that are ready to weigh a man down, especially when thorough wet. He that has a shirt and a pair of pitiful drawers, thinks himself rich; for almost all of them go bare-Foot; and such of the Colchians as pretend to shoes, have nothing but a piece of a buffalo's hide, and that untanned too; this piece of raw hide is attached to their feet with a thong of the same: so that for all these sort of sandals, their feet are as dirty as if they went bare-foot.

Almost all the Mingrelians, both men and women, even the most noble and wealthy, rarely have but one shirt [chemise] and one pair of breeches [calleçon] at a time; which last them at least a year: in all which time they never wash them more than three times: only once or twice a week they shake them over the fire for the vermin to drop off, with which they are mightily haunted; and indeed, I cannot say I ever saw anything so nasty and loathsome, which is the reason that the Mingrelian ladies do not smell well. I always taken with their beauty but could not endure a moment longer in their company because of rank odor from their skins stifled all my amorous thoughts.

The Grandees eat, sitting upon carpets, after the manner of the Eastern people. Their napkin is only a piece of painted cloth, or leather, and sometimes they only wipe upon the boards. The common people sit upon a bench [banc], with another bench before them of the same height, which serves for a table. All their dishes are made of wood, as are all their drinking cups: only among the people of quality [nobility] you shall see a little silver plate.

Moreover it is the custom in this savage country [pais sauvage] that the whole family, without distinction for males and females, eat all together. The king [eats] with his entire suite down to his very grooms. The Queen [shares her meal] with her [waiting] ladies, maids, servants and all, down the very lackeys that attend her. When it does not rain, they dine in the open courts, where they rank themselves, either in a circle, or side by side, one below another, according to their quality [status]. If it be cold weather they make great bonfires in the court where they eat; for wood-firing costs nothing in that country, as I have said already. When they sit down, four men, if the family be great, bring upon their shoulders a large kettle full of gom, or boiled grain as I have already described; of which, most usually a half-naked wretch [un gueux, a demi nud] serves, upon a wooden plate, to every one his proportion, which weighs full three pounds. Afterwards two other servants, somewhat but not much better equipped, bring in another kettle full of grain more white than the other; which is only for the better sort. Upon work-days they never give but only gom to the servants, the masters being served with vegetables, or roasted fish or meat. On holidays, or when they make entertainments, they kill either a hog, or an ox, or a cow, especially if they have no venison. As soon as they have cut the throat of the beast, they dress it, and set it upon the fire, without salt, or sauce, in the great kettle where they boil it. When it has boiled a while, they take it from the fire, pour away the broth, and serve meat half-raw without any seasoning. The Master of the House has always standing before him a large portion of this food: they set before him likewise all the vegetables, all the bread, and all the poultry and wildfowl. He presently carves for his guests and his friends their share. They feed themselves with their fingers, and that so nastily that nothing but extremity of hunger could provoke the meanest of our Europeans to eat at the tables of these barbarians. 

When they have begun to eat, there are two persons who serve the drink round the table. Among the common people, this function is performed by women or maids. It is the same incivility among them to call for wine as to refuse it. For they must wait until it is presented, and take it when it is given to them. They never give less then a pint at a drought, which at their ordinary meals is thrice done; but at feasts and banquets, the guests, and the gentry drink on till they are drunk. The Mingrelians and their neighbors are very great drinkers, far exceeding the Germans, and all the Northern People They never mix their wine, but drink it pure, both men and women. But once they are drunk, they think their pints too little and therefore drink out of their dishes, and out of the pitcher itself. While I stayed near Cotatis [Kutaisi], I lodged at a gentleman's house, who was one of the stoutest drinkers in all the country: and while I stayed at his house, he made a feast for three of his friends; at what time they were all four so set upon carousing that from ten in the morning till five in the evening, they drank out a whole charge of wine; a charge of wine weighs three hundred pounds. 

It is also a custom among these people, practiced by all the world, to rise from the table, and [to relieve themselves] as often as they have occasion, and when they return, they sit down without ever washing their hands. They provoke their guests and their friends, as much as they can, to drink; it being chiefly at the table that they observe civility, and are free of their arms [complimens]. Conversations between men are about their robberies [contes de vols], wars, fights, murders [assassinats] and selling of slaves. Neither is discourse any better among the women, for they are pleased with all sorts of love-tales, no matter how obscene or lascivious, and they are unashamed of using the dirtiest words; and their children learn these filthy words and phrases as soon as they can speak; so that by that time they are ten years of age, their discourse with the women is as obscene as one dares to say. In Mingrelia, education of children, without exaggeration, is lewdest in the world. Their fathers raise them for thievery [larcin], and their mothers for depravity [turpitude].

Elisée Reclus, Nouvelle géographie universelle (1881)

In the early 1870s, the French publishing house Hachette decided to published a multi-volume reference work on cultural geography of the world, a pioneering idea of the famous French geographer Elisée Reclus. Entitled Nouvelle géographie universelle: La Terre et les Hommes, it took Reclus eighteen longs years (1876-1894) to complete his magna opus of nineteen volumes, each devoted to a particular region of the world and containing detailed essays on land and peoples of that part of the world. The book was widely acclaimed and was translated in several languages, including English. In 1892 Reclus was awarded the prestigious Gold Medal of the Paris Geographical Society for this work.

Volume six of Nouvelle géographie universelle, which was published in 1881, dealt with "L'Asie Russe" (Russian Asia) where Reclus included a vast area from the Caucasus to Central Asia and Siberia. In the chapter on the Caucasus, the author provided geographic overview of North and South Caucasia and described peoples residing there. While working on this chapter, Reclus solicited a wide range of materials on Georgia some of which was provided by Georgian writer Iona Meunargia.

The chapter included many illustrations that were drawn from life or based on photographs taken in the region. Below are the excerpts and illustrations pertaining to Georgia:

The Svans and Rachians

The natives themselves are far from being a pure race. Amidst a great variety of types the contrast presented by the fair and brown Mingrelians is very striking. The former are distinguished by a lofty brow and oval face, the latter by broad features and low forehead, though both are alike handsome and of graceful carriage. From the remotest times the eastern shores of the Euxine have been visited by friends and foes of every race, many of whom must have introduced fresh ethnical elements. Arabs, and even negroes, flying from their Turkish masters, have contributed to increase the confusion. Yet, however numerous were the crossings, all have become blended together, jointly tending to develop the beauty of the original type. 

In the Mingrelian lowlands, and especially on the advanced spurs up to an altitude of about 3,700 feet, nearly all the men are handsome. But in the heart of the highlands, where the struggle for existence becomes more intensified, the features, especially of the women, are often even ugly. Goitre [a swelling of the neck or larynx resulting from enlargement of the thyroid gland] and cretinism [a condition of severely stunted physical and mental growth due to untreated congenital deficiency of thyroid hormones] are frequent amongst the Svans, and as we ascend the Ingur from the region of maize to the snowy pastures, the change in the appearance of the inhabitants is analogous to that which is observed by the traveller passing from the Italian lakes to the Alpine gorges of the Valais.

The Svans

The Svans, who occupy the Upper Ingur and Tskhenis valleys, are evidently a mixed race, although fundamentally akin to the Georgians, to whom they are also allied in speech. They were formerly a powerful nation mentioned by Strabo, and in the fifteenth century they still held the Upper Rion valley. The present survivors seem to descend mainly from fugitives driven from the Mingrelian plains by oppression and the calamities of war. In the secluded valleys bordering on the glaciers they found a secure retreat, almost severed by physical barriers from the rest of the world. More accessible are those of the Upper Tskhenis basin, who have consequently had to endure the hardest feudal rule under princes binding them to the glebe. This branch take the name of Dadian Svans, from the ancient Georgian princely title of "Dadian" assumed by the governing family. They are scarcely to be distinguished from their Imeritian neighbors, and their speech is a pure Georgian dialect. The Dadishkalian Svans, in the western division of the Upper Ingur basin, are also under a feudal lord of Kumik Tatar stock; but being regarded as serfs, they were emancipated at the expense of the Russian Government when serfdom was everywhere officially abolished. The eastern communities of the Upper Ingur have long maintained their independence, and are still often distinguished by the epithet of "Free," although they took the oath of obedience to Russia in 1853. And in many respects they are still really free, recognizing neither lord nor master, and rejecting even the control of the clergy. In the communal gatherings all have an equal voice, and important decisions require to be adopted unanimously, the opposition of a single member causing the whole question to be postponed until unanimity can be secured. Nor does the commune interfere in personal quarrels, which are regulated by the lex talionis [law of retaliation]. Nowhere else in the Caucasus are the laws of vendetta more rigorously adhered to, so that few are met who have not killed their man. All the houses along the Upper Ingur are real fortresses, perched on rocky eminences, and commanded by square watch-towers 60 to 80 feet high. The doors of these keeps are on the second or third story, and can be approached only by rude ladders formed of the stems of trees.

Hereditary animosities greatly contribute to the reduction of the population pent up in the bleak valley of Free Svania, or Jabe-Shevi; yet it is still so dense that the people are obliged to emigrate to the neighboring tribes. In the days of their military power their young men left their homes as conquerors, often undertaking plundering expeditions to the plains, and even in the fourteenth century they were strong enough to burn the city of Kutais. Till recently the excessive population was also checked by the practice of infanticide, in which most of the girls perished, while in hard times grown-up children were sold at prices varying from 700 to 1200 francs. The small amount of trade carried on by the tribes lower down is monopolized by the Jews, who are grouped in the village of Lakhamuli. These Jews are distinguished from their brethren elsewhere by their warlike habits. But although practicing Christian rites and calling themselves Svans, the hillmen of the Upper Ingur contract no alliances with them, and even refuse to eat at their table.

All the Svans, estimated at over 12,000, are classed amongst the Christian tribes of Caucasia, and even claim a sort of pre-eminence amongst their co-religionists, pretending that their ancestry were baptized by Christ himself. But their Christianity has been developed in a somewhat original manner under the influence of older rites. Thus their little chapels, large enough to accommodate about a dozen, have crypts filled with the horns of the chamois and wild goat, which are objects of great veneration. The priests, or "papas," form a distinct hereditary caste, though their only privilege is exemption from the laws of vendetta. Although not obliged to keep the lower part of the face covered, the women pass a bandage over their mouths when singing national or religious songs, possibly to prevent the devil from entering. All the Svans are also bound to silence when on the march, or chanting sacred hymns, for the least word might draw down the tempest. Analogous superstitions occur amongst the Norwegian fishermen, the Buriats, and the American hunting tribes.

The district of Racha, comprising the Upper Rion valley, is larger and more populous than the western basins of the Tskhenis and Ingur, and has always offered a route to graziers, traders, and even warlike bands crossing the Caucasus obliquely from the Georgian to the Terek lowlands. Hence the Rachians, who, like most of the people in the government of Kutais, are of Georgian race and speech, are more civilized than their Svanian neighbors. But they also are too numerous for their largely unproductive territory, so that thousands are forced to emigrate to the lowlands, seldom returning without having amassed a small fortune. Most of the carpenters and sawyers met with in Imeria and Mingrelia are Rachians.

The Imeritians, Mingrelians, and Lazes

The Georgians of the Upper Rion basin bear the general name of Imeritians, or more properly Imerians; that is, "People of the other side," in reference to the Suram Mountains separating them from the bulk of the nation. The term Imereth, or Imeria, has been applied, with the shifting of the border peoples, at times to all Western Transcaucasia, at times only to its upper section, Mingrelia being usually reserved for the low-lying region comprising the alluvial lands and coast district. 

Thanks to their damp, miasmatic, and enervating climate, the Mingrelians are mostly of an indolent temperament, while their brethren who have migrated to the dry district of Tiflis are noted for their active habits. A repugnance to labour was also naturally fostered by former devastating inroads, incessant intestine warfare, and the complete thralldom of the peasantry to their nobles. Here was represented every variety of serfdom, and until 1841 the priests themselves were classed as serfs. Even in recent times the Mingrelian princes were accustomed to apply personally for their tribute. Followed by courtiers, retainers, falconers, dogs, and horses, they would swoop down on some unfortunate vassal, living at his expense as long as the provisions lasted, then betaking themselves elsewhere, and thus making a round of revelry as self-invited guests, and leaving ruin in their wake. No women, especially if well favoured, were safe from these despots, who carried them off and sold their children into slavery.

Although generally too weak to resist, the Mingrelians were nevertheless occasionally driven by this oppression into revolt, as in 1857 and 1858, when they appealed to arms for the recovery of their captured women, and to get rid of the yoke riveted by their masters round their necks. But all such efforts were quenched in blood, nor was serfdom finally abolished till three years after its suppression in the rest of the empire. But many of its effects still remain, and in a teeming land the Imerians and Mingrelians continue, like the wretched Lombard peasantry, to live almost exclusively on a mess of maize or millet resembling the polenta of Italy. The usual dress is a tattered smock fastened by a cord or strap to the waist, and instead of a hat a bit of cloth retained on the head by a string passed under the chin. The Mingrelian farmstead consists of a wretched hovel of wood or branches, surrounded by badly cultivated maize-fields, with a few lean pigs or goats, and one or two buffaloes wallowing in the muddy pools. 

The Mingrelians

Although till recently dwelling beyond the political limits of Russian Transcaucasia, the Lazes of the Ajara and Chorukh basins are none the less akin in speech and race to the Mingrelians and Georgians. Those still subject to Turkey, and reaching westwards beyond Trebizond, are also of the same stock, though more or less mixed with other elements, while beyond these limits many geographical names show that in remote times the interior of Asia Minor was largely peopled by Georgians. Rosen has established the near relationship of the Laz and Georgian tongues. The language current on the banks of the Chorukh differs little from Mingrelian, though that of the west coast is largely affected by Turkish and Greek elements. In their customs also the Lazes resemble the Imerians. Both respect old age, are extremely hospitable, and, while full of curiosity, still maintain a dignified reserve. Like most Caucasians, they are fond of display and rich attire, nor do they deserve the charge of indolence brought against them by careless observers, for their fields are well tilled and their houses kept in good order. The Laz women combine with beauty and symmetry of form a rare reputation for courage. The Moslem Lazes have emigrated in large numbers to Turkish territory since the annexation to Russia in 1878, while the Christians will now probably find their way to Tiflis and the Russian ports on the Euxine.

The Imeretians dancing

The national character could scarcely fail to be modified under the Turkish regime. Three centuries ago all the Lazes of the Upper Ajara valleys were Christians, and many villages still boast of well-preserved churches in the best Byzantine style of architecture. Certain communes did not conform- to the Moslem creed till about the close of the eighteenth century, and several, though nominally followers of the Prophet, are still practically Christian, the two faiths often overlapping to such an extent that it becomes difficult to say where the one ceases and the other begins. With their religion the Turks also introduced their language into all the towns and large villages, so that the Laz dialect ceased to be current except in the remote rural districts. The Armenian colonies scattered over the land had also forgotten their mother tongue in favour of Turkish, which must now in its turn slowly yield to Russian, just as the Mohammedan must give way to the Christian faith.

The Georgians

In Central as in Western Caucasia the most numerous race are the Georgians, or Karthvelians, descendants of the Iberians spoken of by Strabo. The statuettes found in the graves represent exactly the same type and the same style of head-dress as those of the present inhabitants, so that no change has taken place in this respect during the last two thousand years. Masters of the land from the remotest historic times, the Georgians have succeeded, if not in maintaining their independence, at least in preserving their ethnical cohesion and various national idioms. They formerly occupied a wider domain, and although encroached upon at various times by Persians, Medes, Armenians, Mongols, Turks, and now by the Slavs, their territory still stretches from the plains of the Kura to Trebizond, and from Mount Elbruz to Mount Arsiani. Of all the Caucasian peoples the Georgians, who are estimated at upwards of a million, form the most compact and homogeneous nationality. In Georgia is situated Tiflis, capital of all Transcaucasia.

[...]

The Georgians of the Kura basin, like their Imerian, Mingrelian, and Laz kindred, fully deserve the reputation for physical beauty which they enjoy. They have the same abundant black hair, large eyes, white teeth, delicate complexion, lithe figures, small hands, that distinguish their western neighbours. Yet the appearance especially of their women, who mostly paint, can scarcely be described as prepossessing. They are cold and unattractive, their features lacking the animated expression and bright smile which intellectual development might be expected to have produced. 

Most of the Georgians have a high, almost flushed complexion, due doubtless to excessive indulgence in wine, of which they are ever ready to take copious draughts in honour of their friends, generally with the Tatar words, Allah Verdi, "the gift of God!" The Kakhetians especially, proud of their excellent vintages, consume large quantities, and before the ravages of the oidium [fungus], the usual allowance of the field labourers was here about half a gallon daily. This fiery wine, some of which might compare favourably with the best produced in Europe, is mostly consumed in the country, and one of the most familiar sights in Kakhetia is the well-filled ox or pig skins hanging at the doors of the shops, or crossing the country in waggon-loads. In order to preserve the pliancy of the skins the natives have the horrible practice of flaying the beasts alive, and then smearing the hides with naphtha. This imparts a disagreeable flavour to the liquor, to which, however, even strangers soon get accustomed.

Notwithstanding the fertility of the land and relatively sparse population, the peasantry of the Kura basin are generally poor, owning little beyond a few mangy cattle and sheep, whose wool looks almost like hair. Like the Mingrelians and Imerians, though to a less extent, the Georgians have suffered from the feudal system. However, since 1864 and 1866 they have at least ceased to be attached to the glebe, and serfdom has been abolished in Transcaucasia, as elsewhere throughout the empire. But the nobles, who have remained large proprietors, have not all of them yet lost the habit of treating the peasantry as beasts of burden, while practices begotten of slavery in the people themselves have not yet disappeared. 

They are for the most part uncleanly and listless, though their naturally cheerful, social, and upright disposition is gradually asserting itself. They are said to be rather less intelligent than the Caucasian races, and in the schools show less quickness than their Tatar and Armenian neighbours in mastering foreign languages and the sciences, though this may be partly due to the fact that the latter are mainly townsfolk, while the former are a rural population. 

Theft is a crime almost unknown in the Georgian and Armenian communities, the few cases of larceny that come before the Tiflis courts being mostly committed by strangers. At the same time many are addicted to contraband habits. Nor does their national legislator, King Vakhtang, seem to have entertained any high opinion of their general uprightness. "I have drawn up this code," he writes, "but in Georgia no just sentence has ever yet been, nor ever will be, pronounced." Yet, however barbarous may have been the former Government, it remained for the Russians to introduce corporal punishment of the most degrading form.

Georgians

One of the most remarkable traits of the Georgian race is their love of song and the dance. They have no great musical talent, and their language, with its numerous gutturals and sibilants, is scarcely adapted to melody. Yet none the less do they keep up an incessant chant all day long, accompanying themselves with the daira, or tambourine, and the balalaika, a sort of three-stringed guitar. Some will, so to say, adapt every movement to musical rhythm, and while weeding their maize-fields or engaged in other field work, the men dispose themselves in groups, singing in various sets snatches of verse suitable to the work in hand. As they advance the chorus becomes more vigorous, and their measured movements more rapid. At the end of the furrow they stop short, shift their places, and in retracing their steps renew the interrupted burden of their song. Despotic masters from gloomy Russia attempted in vain to impose silence on their Transcaucasian labourers. Unaccompanied by the glad music of the voice, the daily task hung heavy on their hands.

On foot, on horseback, or in their ramshackle carts the whole population flocks to the scene, indicated from afar by some venerable church or cluster of oak-trees, and here the song, the dance, trade, revelry, and religious rites all follow in rapid succession. Worship is itself performed with a sort of blind rapture. Pilgrims present themselves before the priest to have the iron collar removed, with which they had symbolized their temporary thraldom to the patron saint; and when released they immolate to his honour the ram or the bull, which afterwards supplies the banquet. Frequently some fair white-robed "spouse of the white George" will cast herself at the feet of the faithful, who must either step on her prostrate body or leap over it to reach the hallowed shrine. The Armenians, and even the Moslem Tatars, come to trade, are at times carried away by the religious frenzy, and join in the chorus and Christian rites. To the sacred succeed the profane dances, which often assume the appearance of a free fight, the victors seizing the girdles of the vanquished, enveloping themselves in the ample folds of their burkas, or donning their imposing papaches. Formerly the sham fights held in the streets of Tiflis in commemoration of the expulsion of the Persians ended in regular battles, often accompanied by loss of life.

The Khevsurs, Pshavs, and Tushes

As in the west, so in East Georgia, the ethnical picture is completed by a group of highlanders, who had till recently maintained their independence in their inaccessible upland retreats. On the one hand are the already described Svans, on the other their Khevsur, Pshav, and Tush neighbours. The highest eastern valleys about Mount Borbalo have afforded a refuge to fugitives of diverse race and speech, who, amidst these secluded upland snows and pastures, have gradually acquired, if not an independent type, at least a distinct physiognomy. Chechenzes, Lezghians, Georgians, and, according to tradition, even Jews have entered into the composition of these tribes, although the chief ethnical element is no doubt the Georgian from the south, whose presence is also shown by the prevailing Christian practices. Nevertheless the predominant speech on the northern slopes is of Chechenz origin.

Mount Borbalo is no less remarkable as an ethnological than as a water parting. Eastward stretches the Tush district, watered by the two head-streams of the Koisu of Andi; on the south the Alazan of Kakhetia, apart from a few Tushes, is mainly occupied by Georgians; on the south-west the sources of the Yora and Eastern Aragva rise in the Pshav territory; while the Khevsurs, or "People of the Gorges," dwell in the west and north-west, on both slopes of the central range, though it is impossible to assign definite limits to all these peoples. They frequently shift their quarters, following their flocks to fresh pastures assigned to them by custom, or acquired by the fortunes of war.

The Pshavs, who reach farthest down, or about the altitude of 3,300 feet, thus abutting on the Southern Georgians, are the most civilised of these highlanders, and speak a Georgian dialect. They have greatly increased in numbers since the pacification of the land has enabled them to bring their produce to the Tiflis market. The Tushes, though less numerous and pent up in their rugged valleys everywhere enclosed by snowy mountains, are said to be the most industrious and intelligent of all the hillmen in this part of the Caucasus. Most of the men, being obliged, like the Savoyards, to emigrate for half the year, bring back from the lowland populations larger ideas and more enterprising habits. Many have even acquired a considerable amount of instruction, besides several foreign languages. Their own is an extremely rude dialect, poor in vowels, abounding in consonants, with no less than nine sibilants and eight gutturals, one of which combines so intimately with the preceding or following consonants that special signs had to be invented to represent the combined letters.

The Khevsurs, completely isolated from each other during the winter by the main range, are still in a very rude and almost barbarous state, although in some respects one of the most remarkable people in Asia. Generally of a lighter brown complexion than the Tushes, they are evidently a very mixed race, varying considerably in stature, features, colour of hair and eyes, and in the shape of the cranium. Most of them have a savage aspect; some are extremely thin, like walking skeletons with miraculously animated Death's heads on their shoulders, and with large hands and feet, out of all proportion with the rest of the body. From the surroundings they have acquired muscles of steel, enabling them, even when heavily burdened, to scale the steepest cliffs, and often returning across the snows and rocks from Vladikavkaz with a hundredweight of salt on their backs.

Some of the still surviving Khevsur and Pshav customs resemble those of many Red Indian and African wild tribes. Thus the wife is confined in an isolated hut, round which the husband prowls, encouraging her to support the pains of labour with volleys of musketry. After the delivery young girls steal to the place at dawn or dusk with bread, milk, cheese, and other comforts, the mother remaining for a month in her retreat, which is burnt after her departure. The father is congratulated on the birth of a son, and feasts are prepared at his expense, but of which he may not partake. The struggle for existence in this unproductive land has introduced many practices calculated to limit the number of children to three; but infanticide does not prevail as it formerly did amongst the Svans. The Khevsurs show great affection for their offspring, though forbidden by custom to caress them in public. The boys are generally named after some wild animal— Bear, Lion, Wolf, Panther, &c., emblems of their future valour, while the girls receive such tender names as Rose, Pearl, Bright-one, Daughter of the Sun, Little Sun, Sun of my Heart, &c.

Most of the marriages are arranged by the parents while the children are yet in "long clothes." Nevertheless a formal abduction is still practiced, and after the wedding and attendant rejoicings, the young couple avoid being seen together for weeks and months. Yet divorce is frequent, and the example of the Mohammedans has even introduced polygamy in several Khevsur families. The funeral rites are not practiced with the same rigour as formerly, when none were allowed to die under a roof, but compelled to close their eyes in face of sun or stars, and mingle their last breath with the winds. In presence of the body the relatives at first feigned to rejoice, but tears and wailings soon followed, accompanied by mournful songs for the departed.

Armed Khevsur

The Khevsurs are very proud of their Christianity, which is certainly of an original type. Their chief divinity is the God of War, and amongst their other gods and angels are the Mother of the Earth, the Angel of the Oak, and the Archangel of Property. They keep the Friday like the Mohammedans, abstain from pork, worship the sacred trees, offer sacrifices to the genii of earth and air. They have priests whose duties are to examine the sick, sprinkle the victim's blood over the people, proclaim the future, prepare the sacred beer, and these dignitaries end by becoming possessed of all the precious stones, old medals, and chased silver vases in the country. 

The Khevsurs are also, perhaps, the only people in the world who still use armour, coats of mail, arm-pieces, and helmets like those of mediaeval knights, and formerly general amongst all the Caucasian tribes. Down to the close of the last century the Chechen Ingushes still wore the shield and coats of mail. The traveller is often startled by the sight of these armed warriors, who look like lineal descendants of the Crusaders, but whom the law of vendetta alone compels to go about thus cased in iron. All who have to execute or fear an act of vengeance appear abroad with all their offensive and defensive arms, including the terrible spiked gauntlet, which has left its mark on the features of most of the natives.

[...]

View on the Mountain Kazbegi

The Darial Pass

The Caucasian Jews

The village of Passanauri

The port town of Poti

Mtskheta. View on the medieval Svetitskhoveli Cathedral

One of the streets in Tiflis

The Armenians

An Abkhaz