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Title: The Kingdom of Georgia - Notes of travel in a land of women, wine, and song
Author: Wardrop, Oliver
Language: English
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Libraries.)
THE KINGDOM OF GEORGIA
NOTES OF TRAVEL IN A LAND OF
WOMEN, WINE, AND SONG
TO WHICH ARE APPENDED HISTORICAL, LITERARY,
AND POLITICAL SKETCHES, SPECIMENS OF THE
NATIONAL MUSIC, AND A COMPENDIOUS BIBLIOGRAPHY
By OLIVER WARDROP
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON
Limited
St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C.
1888
TO
PROFESSOR JAMES BRYCE, M.P.,
These Notes are Dedicated
(By permission),
WITH HEARTFELT GRATITUDE AND PROFOUND RESPECT.
PREFACE.
There were four of us--two Frenchmen, an Italian, and an Englishman. We
had ridden from Damascus to Baalbek, and had seen the ruins;
after dinner, we were lying on heaps of cushions on the floor, in
a hostelry little known to Europeans. For some minutes the bubbling
of our narghilés was the only sound that broke the stillness of the
night. Then the ex-cuirassier spoke out in a strong voice--the voice
of a man accustomed to command--"Gentlemen! I propose that we solemnly
pass a vote of censure on the late M. de Lamartine." "Bravo!" was
our unanimous cry; and the vote was carried, nemine contradicente. A
rider was added, to the effect that poets should be discouraged from
writing books of travel.
"Surely a strange proceeding!" says the reader. Let me explain. We had
been shut up in Damascus for a long time by heavy snow-storms which
blocked the roads; the most interesting book we had was Lamartine's
"Voyage en Orient," and we had read the long description of Baalbek
over and over again, until we almost knew it by heart. Need I say that
the reality disappointed us? If we had never read Lamartine's book,
we should have been delighted with the place; but having read it,
we wanted the poet's eyes in order to see the temples as he saw them.
But what has all this to do with Georgia? Simply this: the following
pages are not written by a poet, and, gentle sir, if you ever pass a
vote of censure on the writer of them, it will not be for the reason
that he has painted things and places in a rose-coloured atmosphere.
In publishing these notes I have had but one object--to excite the
curiosity of my fellow-countrymen; the means of gratifying this
curiosity are indicated in the bibliographical section. Georgia is
practically unknown to the British public; well-educated people know
that the country is famous for its beautiful women, but they are
not very sure whether those charming creatures live under Persian,
Turkish, or Russian rule, while not one person in a thousand knows
that the Georgians and Circassians are distinct peoples.
If you suggest that Transcaucasia is a good place for a holiday, you
meet with a look of blank astonishment--it is just as if you had said
the Sooloo Islands, or Vladivostok. When you explain that Georgia is
now a part of the Russian Empire, you hear stereotyped remarks about
police and passports. The intending visitor need have no anxiety on
this score; even in Moscow a foreigner is seldom or never put to any
inconvenience, in the Caucasus he almost forgets that he has such a
thing as a passport.
There is no reason why Georgia should not become as popular a resort
as Norway or Switzerland. It is not so far away as people imagine--you
can go from London to Tiflis, overland, in a week; it is at least
as beautiful as either of the countries just named; it has the great
advantage of being almost unknown to tourists; there is none of the
impudent extortion which ruffles our tempers nearer home, and it is,
after all, a cheaper place to travel in than Scotland. All these
circumstances ought to have an influence on the holiday-maker in
search of health and recreation.
The botanist, the geologist, the archæologist, the philologist
will all find there mines of rich materials yet unknown to their
respective sciences. The mountaineer knows the country already,
through Mr. Freshfield's excellent book; the sportsman knows it too,
thanks to Mr. Wolley. Artists will get there a new field for the brush,
the pencil, and the camera. But, after all, Georgia's chief attraction
lies in its people; the Georgians are not only fair to look upon, but
they are essentially a lovable people; it is a true proverb that says,
"The Armenian's soul is in his head, the Georgian's in his eyes;"
to live among such gay, open-hearted, open-handed, honest, innocent
folk is the best cure for melancholy and misanthropy that could well
be imagined.
The language will occur to most people as a difficulty. Either
Russian or Georgian carries the traveller from the Black Sea to the
Caspian, even Turkish is pretty well known; in the larger towns one
can always find hotels where French or German is understood, and
where interpreters can be hired. Those who have travelled know that
a very slight knowledge of a language is sufficient for all practical
purposes, and such a knowledge of Georgian could be picked up in a week
or so; Russian is more difficult, both in grammar and pronunciation. It
may be a consolation to some, to know that a lady, Mme. Carla Serena,
who travelled alone, and spent a long time in the wildest part of
the Caucasus, could not speak a dozen words of Russian or Georgian.
Let me clearly repeat what I said in the first paragraphs of this
preface: in the following plain, matter-of-fact record of travel my
aim has not been to give immediate pleasure, but rather to show how
and where pleasure may be obtained. Autumn is the best season for a
visit, and spring is the next best time.
My hearty thanks are due to Mr. W. R. Morfill, for his kindness in
reading through the chapters on the history and literature of Georgia.
O. W.
Oxford, September, 1888.
NOTE.
In transcribing proper names I have tried to preserve the original
orthography as far as possible.
a should be pronounced as in father.
e should be pronounced like a in made.
i should be pronounced as in machine.
u should be pronounced as in rude.
ch should be pronounced as in church.
kh should be pronounced like ch in Scottish and German.
s should be pronounced as in sun.
z should be pronounced as in amaze.
g should be pronounced as in gun.
y should be pronounced as in yellow
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Batum to Tiflis 1
Tiflis 8
The Georgian Military Road between Tiflis and Vladikavkaz 34
The Kakhetian Road--Tiflis to Signakh 69
Signakh 78
A Trip across the Alazana 83
Signakh to Telav, and thence to Tiflis 100
The History of Georgia 113
The Language and Literature of Georgia 136
The Political Condition of the Kingdom of Georgia 155
APPENDIX.
Bibliography 171
Statistics 197
Specimens of Georgian Vocal Music 201
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
A few illustrations and the map at the end of the volume are not
available in the scan-set used to prepare this ebook. Several other
illustrations still contain the perforated library markings.
Tiflis Frontispiece
Maps of Transcaucasian Railway
and Military Road To face page 1
A Georgian Wrestler 30
Saint Nina 40
Ananur 46
Dariel Fort and Ruins of Tamara's Castle 62
Dariel 64
Vladikavkaz 66
An Arba 73
A Street in Signakh 80
Georgian National Costume 84
The City Wall, Telav 108
Queen Tamara 114
Irakli II 124
Rustaveli 139
Prince Ilia Chavchavadze 150
Prince Ivané Machabeli 153
Bishop Gabriel of Kutaïs 154
Map of Georgia At the end.
THE KINGDOM OF GEORGIA.
BATUM TO TIFLIS.
One morning in April, 1887, after a five days' passage from Odessa,
we entered the harbour at Batum.
Batum (Hôtel Imperial, Hôtel de France, Hôtel d'Europe) is a town
of 10,000 inhabitants, mostly Georgians; it consists of an ancient
Asiatic quarter, dirty and tumble-down looking, and a European one
only seven years old. Its situation at the foot of the mountains is
lovely beyond all description. The place has a decidedly "Far West"
look about it, everything seems half-finished; the streets are broad
and, with a few exceptions, unpaved, the depth of the mud varies from
three or four inches to half a yard, heaps of rotting filth furnish
food for numerous pigs, and in the best thoroughfares ducks find
convenient lakes on which to disport themselves.
I took an early opportunity of presenting myself at the British
Vice-Consulate, a small, two-storey cottage, the lower half of which
is of brick, the upper of corrugated iron sheets. Mr. Demetrius
R. Peacock, the only representative of British interests in the
Caucasus, is a man whose services deserve fuller recognition. It would
be hard to find a post where more diplomatic tact is required, yet he
contrives to make himself respected and admired by all the many races
with which he is in daily contact. Mr. Peacock was born in Russia,
and has spent most of his life in that empire, but he is nevertheless
a thorough Englishman. In Tiflis I heard a good story about him. On
one occasion the French Consul-General jokingly said to him, "Why,
Peacock, you are no Englishman, you were born in Russia." To which
our representative replied, "Our Saviour was born in a stable, but
for all that He did not turn out a horse."
Although Batum is not very attractive as a town, it is at any rate
far preferable to Poti or Sukhum, and it has undoubtedly a splendid
future before it. Even at the present time the exports amount to
nearly 400,000 tons, chiefly petroleum, manganese ores, wool, cotton,
maize, tobacco, wine, fancy woods, &c. It is essentially a city of
the future; and its inhabitants firmly believe that it will yet be a
powerful rival of Odessa in trade, and of the Crimean coast-towns as a
watering-place. At present we should hardly recommend it to invalids;
the marshes round about are gradually being drained; but they still
produce enough malaria to make the place dangerous to Europeans;
the drinking-water, too, is bad.
The harbour is fairly well sheltered, but rather small; yet, to the
unprofessional eye, there seems no reason why it might not easily be
enlarged if necessary. The entrance is protected by a fortification
in the form of an irregular rectangle, lying on the S.W. corner of
the bay, behind the lighthouse. The earthworks, about seventy or
eighty feet high, and lined with masonry, cover a piece of ground
apparently about 300 paces long by 180 paces broad; a broad-gauge
railway surrounds the fortress. When I was there the work was being
pushed forward very rapidly, and preparations were being made to fix
a heavy gun close to the lighthouse--at that time there were only
about a dozen guns of small calibre in position.
In the town there is absolutely nothing to attract the stranger's
attention; a few mosques and churches, petroleum refineries, half a
dozen European shops, some half-finished public buildings, and the
embryo of a public garden on the shore serve as an excuse for a walk;
but if the traveller happens to hit upon a spell of wet weather,
he will soon have seen all he wants to see of Batum, and will get
out of its atmosphere of marsh gas and petroleum as soon as possible.
The only daily train leaves at eight o'clock in the morning; the
station, although it is a terminus of so much importance, is a wretched
wooden building, a striking contrast to the one at Baku, which would
not disgrace our own metropolis. The railway skirts the sea for about
thirty miles, and on the right lies a range of hills covered with a
luxuriant growth of fine forest-trees and thick undergrowth gay with
blossoms; in the neighbourhood of the town there are already many
pretty villas. The rain of the previous few weeks had made the woods
wonderfully beautiful, and the moist air was heavy with fragrance;
I never saw such a wealth of plant life before. At Samtredi, where
the lines from Batum and Poti meet, we leave Guri and Mingreli
behind us and enter Imereti. On the left we now have a fine broad
plain, and near us flows the Rion, the ancient Phasis. The country
is far more thickly populated than Guri or Mingreli, or any other
part of Trans-Caucasia, but it could easily support a much larger
number if the ground were properly worked. I was amazed when I saw,
for the first time, five pairs of oxen dragging one wooden plough,
but the sight of this became familiar to me before I had lived long
in Georgia. At the roadside stations (I need hardly say that our
train stopped at all of them) I saw some fine faces--one poor fellow
in a ragged sheepskin cloak quite startled me by his resemblance to
Dante Alighieri. From the station of Rion, on the river of that name,
a branch line runs northward to Kutaïs, none other than the Cyta in
Colchis whence Jason carried off Medea and the Golden Fleece.
Kutaïs (Hôtel de France, Hôtel Colchide, Hôtel d'Italie) is a
beautiful town of 25,000 inhabitants, almost all Georgians. The
ruins of an old castle on the other side of the river show where
the town stood a century ago, and from this point the best view of
Kutaïs is obtained. Abundance of good building-stone, a rich soil,
and plenty of trees, render the capital of Imereti a charming sight;
its elevation of about 500 feet makes its atmosphere cool and bracing
compared with that of the coast-towns. The traveller who wishes to
become acquainted with Georgian town-life cannot do better than stay
in Kutaïs a month or two. About five miles off is the monastery of
Gelati, built in the tenth century, and renowned as the burial-place
of the glorious Queen Tamara. From Kutaïs a journey may be made to
Svaneti, the last Caucasian state conquered by Russia, and even now
only nominally a part of the Tsar's dominions; Mr. Wolley's book,
"Savage Svanetia," will give the intending visitor some idea of the
sport that may be had in that wild region. The road across the Caucasus
from Kutaïs to Vladikavkaz is much higher and wilder than the famous
Dariel road, and I much regret that I had not time to travel by it.
Pursuing our journey from Rion to the eastward we soon reach Kvirili,
which is about to be connected by a branch line of railway with
Chiaturi, the centre of the manganese district; at present all the ore
is carried down to the main line, a distance of twenty-five miles,
in the wooden carts called arbas. Passing through glens of wondrous
beauty, adorned with picturesque ruins of ancient strongholds, we
at length arrive at the mountain of Suram, 3027 feet above Black Sea
level, the watershed which separates the valley of the Kura, with its
hot summers and cold winters, from the more temperate region drained
by the Rion. The railway climbs very rapidly to the summit of the pass,
but it comes down still more rapidly; there is a slope of one in twenty
for a distance of a thousand feet; at the bottom is the town of Suram
with its fine old castle. We now follow the course of the Kura all
the way to Tiflis, passing Mikhailovo (whence a road runs to Borzhom,
the most fashionable summer-resort in Trans-Caucasia) and Gori, a
good-sized town, near which is the rock city of Uphlis Tsikhe. It is
half past nine at night before Mtzkhet, the ancient capital of Georgia,
is reached, and at a quarter past ten we enter Tiflis, ten hours from
Kutaïs, and fourteen hours from Batum. Our journey is not yet ended,
however, for it takes half an hour to drive from the station to the
fashionable quarter of the town where the hotels are situated.
TIFLIS.
The best hotels are Kavkaz, Rossiya, London; all pretty good. If
the traveller intends to make a prolonged stay, he can easily find
furnished apartments and dine at a restaurant (e.g. the French
Restaurant d'Europe, opposite the Palace). The best plan of all is
to board with a Georgian family; but without good introductions it
is somewhat difficult to do this. Although beef only costs 1-1/2d. a
pound and chickens 2d. each, living is dear in Tiflis; the necessaries
of life, except house-rent and clothing, are cheap, and one need not,
like Alexandre Dumas, pay three roubles for having his hair cut, but
the "extras" are heavy, and if the visitor is not disposed to spend
his roubles with a free hand and a light heart, he will meet with a
poor reception, for the Georgian hates nothing more than meanness,
a vice from which he firmly believes Englishmen to be free.
Tiflis takes its name from the hot medicinal springs, for which
it has been famous for fourteen centuries at least; in Georgian it
is called Tphilisi, which philologists assert to be derived from a
root akin to or identical with the Indo-European tep; the meaning
of Toeplitz and Tiflis is thus the same. In the fifth century king
Vakhtang Gurgaslan founded Tiflis, and began to build the Cathedral
of Sion, which still stands in the midst of the city. The castle,
situated on a high, steep rock, near the Kura, is older than the city
itself, and its construction is attributed to the Persians. Tiflis
has shared in all the triumphs and misfortunes which have befallen
Georgia, and the history of the capital would only be a repetition
of the history of the nation.
The city is built on both sides of the Kura, at an elevation of 1200
feet, between two ranges of steep, bare hills, which rise to a height
of 2500 feet, and hem it in on all sides, thus it lies at the bottom
of a deep rock basin, and this accounts for the terrible heat which
renders it such an unpleasant dwelling-place in July and August. The
river Kura is crossed by several fine bridges, the best of which is
named after Prince Vorontsov, who during his governorship did great
things for Trans-Caucasia, and gained for himself the lasting gratitude
of all the peoples committed to his care. The population of 105,000
consists not only of Georgians, but of Russians (civil servants and
soldiers), Armenians (traders and money-lenders), Persians, Tatars,
and a few Europeans, viz. Germans (colonists from Suabia), Frenchmen
(milliners, hotel-keepers), &c. Although the English residents might be
counted on one's fingers, it seems a pity that her Majesty's Consulate
should have been closed in 1881; surely Great Britain has in Georgia
interests at least equal to those of France, Germany, Belgium, and
the other nations which have representatives in Tiflis.
The effect which Tiflis produces on the mind of the stranger is
perfectly unique; its position, its surroundings, the varied nature
of its street-life, the gaiety and simplicity of its social life, all
combine to form a most powerful and most pleasurable impression. If
the reader will mentally accompany me, I shall take him through some
of the more interesting quarters, and endeavour to give him some idea
of the place. First of all, starting from the fashionable district
called Salalaki, let us climb the rocky road which leads to the ruins
of the castle, whence we obtain the finest view of the city. The best
time to enjoy the panorama is evening, and in summer no one would
ever think of making the toilsome ascent much before sunset. From
these crumbling walls one looks over a vast expanse of house-tops and
church spires, through the midst of which winds the muddy Kura. At
our feet lies the old town, a labyrinth of narrow, crooked streets,
stretching from the square of Erivan down to the waterside, where
stands the Cathedral of Sion. Quite near at hand the river becomes
very narrow, and advantage of this circumstance has been taken by
building a bridge, which leads to the citadel of Metekh (now used as
a prison) and the large Asiatic quarter called Avlabar. On this side
of the river, forming a continuation of the range of hills on which
we are standing, rises the Holy Mount (Mtatsminda), and perched
high up near its summit is the pretty white church of St. David,
behind which rises a wall of bare, black rock; half-way between it
and the river is the Governor's palace, with its extensive gardens,
just at the beginning of the Golovinskii Prospekt, a long boulevard
with fine shops and public buildings; between the boulevard and the
river lies the Municipal Garden, named after Alexander I. Turning
our eyes towards the other side of the Kura, beyond Avlabar, we see,
on the hill facing St. David's, a large block of buildings used
as a military depôt, arsenal, and barracks, and still farther on,
on the river bank, is a thick green belt which we recognize as the
gardens of Mikhailovskaya Street, ending in the splendid park called
Mushtaïd. Crossing the ridge, we now turn our back on the city and
descend into the Botanical Garden, situated in a sheltered ravine,
a delightful place for an evening stroll; on the opposite side of
the ravine is a Tatar village with a lonely graveyard.
The Erivan Square is the great centre of activity; in its midst is the
Caravanserai, a vast rectangular building full of shops, not unlike
the Gostinoï Dvor, in Petersburg, but poorer. From that corner of
the square in which is the Hôtel du Caucase, runs Palace Street,
all one side of which is occupied by the Caravanserai of the late
Mr. Artsruni, a wealthy Armenian, and behind, in a fine garden,
is the Georgian theatre; both the garden and the theatre belong
to the Land Bank of the Nobles, an institution which deserves the
attention of all who are interested in the Iverian nation. The bank
was founded in 1874 in order to aid farmers to work their lands by
advancing them money at the lowest possible rate of interest; all
the profits are spent in the furtherance of philanthropic schemes
and in the encouragement of national education. It is a significant
fact that the more intelligent members of Georgian society should
have chosen this mode of activity in preference to any other, but
the reason of their choice is apparent; from the bitter experience of
the last hundred years they have learnt that although munificence is
one of the noblest of the virtues, extravagance and ostentation are
hurtful, and they have, therefore, wisely determined to do all they
can to improve the economic condition of the country. The public
meetings of the shareholders give an opportunity for discussion
and speech-making, and it is in this "Gruzinskii Parlament" (as the
Russians have nicknamed it) that Prince Chavchavadze has gained for
himself the not unmerited title of the "Georgian Gambetta." I was
an occupant of the Ladies' Gallery at one of these assemblies, and
I shall never forget the impression produced upon me by the sight of
these handsome, warlike Asians in their picturesque garb, conducting
their proceedings exactly in the same order as British investors
do every day in the City of London. Try and imagine the heroes of
the Elizabethan Age at Cannon Street Hotel discussing the current
dividend of the S.E.R., and you will have some idea of my feelings.
Only those who have lived the life of the people in Trans-Caucasia know
what a terrible curse the money-lending community are. A local proverb
says, "A Greek will cheat three Jews, but an Armenian will cheat three
Greeks," and the Georgian, straightforward, honest fellow, is but too
often cruelly swindled by the artful children of Haïk. When the fraud
is very apparent the Armenian often pays for his greed with all the
blood that can be extracted from his jugular vein. During my stay in
Tiflis, a certain wild young prince, Avalov, had made himself popular
by slaughtering a few Armenians; his latest exploit made so much stir
that a prosecution was talked of; but Avalov was no dweller in towns,
he spent his time merrily out in the greenwood, and it would have
needed a company of Kazaks to arrest him. While the authorities were
deliberating, the prince sent a polite message to say that if they
tried to make matters unpleasant for him, he would, with God's help,
devote the remainder of his natural life to running amuck of every
"salted" Armenian (a reference to their habit of salting children as
soon as they are born) that crossed his path. Another young nobleman
got three years' imprisonment for "perforating" an insulting usurer,
and the cruelty of the sentence was much spoken of; a lady said to me,
"Just fancy, that fine young fellow imprisoned among common criminals
for killing a rascal of an Armenian," as who should say for killing
a dog.
Let it be clearly understood that I say nothing against the Armenian
nation; I have the strongest admiration for their undoubted literary
and administrative talent, and for the energy with which they resist
all attempts to destroy their national spirit. The Armenian not being
a money-lender or trader, is a citizen of which any country might
be proud; but the usurer, whether he be Jew, Armenian, or Briton,
is a most despicable character, and, unfortunately, the peculiar
conditions under which the Armenians have lived for many centuries
have necessarily made Shylocks of a large percentage of them.
Continuing our walk, we emerge from Palace Street into the
wide Golovinskii Prospekt, which takes its name from Golovin,
a former governor of the Caucasus. On the left lies the palace,
a fine modern building in the European style, and on the right is
the Caucasian Museum, in which the student will find geological,
zoological, ethnographical, entomological, botanical, archeological,
and numismatic collections of the highest interest. On the walls of
the staircase are several large pictures, the most interesting of
which are, a portrait of Queen Tamara, copied from the painting at
Gelati, and "The Arrival of the Argonauts in Colchis," the figures
in which are all portraits, the Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich
being represented as Jason. There is also a very large collection
of photographs, comprising all that is worth seeing in the Caucasus
and in Persia. In the same block of buildings is the Public Library,
in which will be found most of the literature relating to the country,
and a fair number of books on general subjects.
The library is at the corner of the Prospekt and Baronovskaya Street,
and turning down the latter, the first turning on the right brings
us to the Post Office, facing which is a girls' grammar school. The
traveller who happens to pass that way when the lessons for the day are
over (and he might do worse if he likes to see pretty young faces),
will be surprised, unless he has been in Russia, to see that all
the children are dressed alike, regardless of age, complexion, and
taste; he will be still more surprised when he hears that if one of
these uniforms is seen out after 5 p.m., the fair wearer is severely
punished, it being the opinion of the Tsar's Minister of Education
that school-girls, and school-boys too, should after that hour be at
home preparing their tasks for next day. The school accommodation is
lamentably inadequate; in the government of Tiflis there are only
about 280 children at school for every 10,000 of the population,
in the government of Kutaïs only 250.
Returning to Golovinskii Prospekt, we pass on the right the Staff
Headquarters of the army of the Caucasus, the best restaurant in the
city, some good shops, and then arrive at the Aleksandrovskii Garden,
which slopes down to the river bank; its shady walks are thronged every
evening when a military band performs. Near its extreme corner, and
almost on the waterside, is the Russian theatre; although the house
is a small one and only used as a makeshift until the new theatre
is finished, it is a very pleasant place to spend an evening; good
companies from Petersburg and Moscow play during the season, and I
saw some of the stars of the profession there. Unfortunately, there is
a preference for translations of French and German pieces with which
the European is already familiar, but Russian plays are not totally
ignored. I once saw a version of "Le Monde où l'on s'ennuie" which
was in the smallest details of gesture and property a photographic
reproduction of the comedy as I have seen it on the classic boards
of the Théâtre Français--but there was one startling innovation,
Bellac was described on the programme as an abbé (sic!). The great
charm of the Tifliskii Theatre is, however, its open air crush-room,
a fine large garden where a band plays between the acts, and where
refreshments may be partaken of and smoking indulged in.
The new theatre on Golovinskii Prospekt is a handsome edifice which
was still unfinished at the time of my visit. The farther you get from
the Erivan Square the less aristocratic does the Boulevard become,
the only other building of note in that part of it being the Cadets'
College; the opening of the new theatre will, however, make a great
difference, and in a few years the dirty little beershops on the left
will doubtless disappear, and Golovinskii Prospekt will be one of the
finest streets in the world. Its situation is a splendid one, and is
not unworthy of comparison with that of Princes' Street, Edinburgh;
the Holy Mount, rising black and steep to a considerable height, and
adorned with the pretty white church of St. David, might not inaptly be
said to be to Tiflis what the Castle Hill is to the modern Athens. At
the end of the Boulevard is the posting-station, whence we can return
to our starting-place by tram-car. All the main thoroughfares of the
city are now laid with tram-lines, the construction of which is due
to a Belgian company which is paying very good dividends.
Thursday afternoon is the best time for visiting the Church of
St. David, for a service is then held and large numbers of women
attend. Proceeding from Salalaki along Laboratornaya, which is
parallel to the Boulevard and is the most select street in Tiflis,
we reach the street of the Holy Mount (Mtatsmindskaya), a steep,
roughly-paved thoroughfare which leads up to St. David's Place, and
a winding mountain path takes us thence to the church. St. David
was a Syrian monk who came to Georgia in the sixth century, and
lived a hermit's life among the woods which at that time covered the
hill. Tradition says that the daughter of a wealthy man who lived near
there, finding herself in an interesting condition, thought the best
way of getting out of the difficulty would be to accuse the saint of
being the cause of this state of affairs. The holy man, naturally,
objected, and having made his accuser appear in an assembly of the
people, he proved his innocence by making the unborn child say audibly
who was its father. Whereupon, in answer to the prayers of the saint,
the child was converted into a stone, which the damsel brought forth
immediately. This stone was made the foundation of a church. David then
asked that a spring of living water of fructifying virtue might be made
to flow; this fountain is still visible, and its water is largely used
by married ladies; the climb of twenty minutes from St. David's Place
is so toilsome that even the most bitter Malthusian would hasten to
quench his thirst there; as far as I know, it is the only water in
Tiflis fit for human consumption. Every pious lady who visits the
shrine carries a stone or brick up the hill with her, and it is from
these that the church was built and is still kept in repair. There
is another interesting custom in which maidens and matrons alike take
part; after adoring the picture of the Virgin, the suppliant silently
walks round the building three times, unwinding as she goes a reel of
thread, fit symbol of the boundlessness of her love and veneration for
the Immaculate Mother of God. Then picking up one of the pebbles with
which the ground is covered, she rubs it against the plastered wall,
and with beating heart waits to see if it will stick--if it does,
then her prayer has been heard, the lass will have a sweetheart,
the wife will have a son. The church is of modern construction, but
its design differs in no respect from the ancient Byzantine style,
specimens of which may be seen all over Georgia. The interior is
like that of any other Greek church, and on the walls there are some
quaint but rather crude pictures. The mass is, of course, in Georgian,
and the choral service strikes rather strangely on Western ears,
although not wanting in melody.
Just below the church is a monument bearing the inscription in Russian:
"Aleksandr Sergeyevich Griboyedov, born January 4th, 1795, killed in
Teheran, January 30th, 1829. Thy mind and thy deeds will never die in
the memory of Russia, but why did my love outlive thee?" The story of
Griboyedov's life is a sad but interesting one. By birth, education,
and talents he was fitted to become one of the most brilliant members
of Russian society, but he was early infected with the restless
critical spirit of the century, and at the age of seventeen he had
already thought out the plot of his great comedy Goré ot uma, which
is a bitter satire on the fashionable life of his day. In 1812 his
patriotism led him to join in the national defence, but he never saw
active service; like his brother officers he enlivened the monotony
of barrack life with the wildest dissipation and folly; for instance,
we read that he galloped up two flights of stairs and into a ball-room,
that he took advantage of his position as organist in a Polish church,
to strike up a well-known comical tune in the midst of high mass. But
he soon abandoned this unsatisfactory life, went to Petersburg in
1815, turned his attention to dramatic literature, and produced some
successful pieces. In 1818 we find him in Persia as secretary to
the embassy at Tavriz; there he led a solitary life and studied the
Persian language, he read all the poetical literature of the country,
and himself wrote Persian lyrics. In 1823 he took a year's leave of
absence, and employed much of the time in revising his great work; it
was his aim to make his verse "as smooth as glass," and he sometimes
re-wrote a phrase a dozen times before it pleased him. When it was
at length finished, the severe censure prevented its representation,
and it was many years after the poet's death before the full text of
the play was heard in Russia. After taking part in a war against the
Caucasian Mountaineers, the Persian war gave him an opportunity of
exhibiting a bravery bordering on recklessness, and when Erivan had
been stormed it was through his skilful diplomacy that Russia obtained
such favourable terms of peace, although the British Minister aided
Persia with his counsels. In 1828 he left Petersburg with the rank
of ambassador at the Persian Court. Before leaving he expressed to
his friends the most gloomy forebodings, he was sure that he would
not return to Russia alive. At Tiflis, however, he found temporary
relief from his mournful feelings in the society of Nina Chavchavadze,
daughter of Prince Alexander Chavchavadze, the poet, a lady whom he
described as a "very Madonna of Murillo;" he married her, and she
went with him as far as Tavriz, he promising to come back to her as
soon as possible. He had no sooner reached Teheran, than his enemies
at the court of the Shah began to excite popular feeling against
him, and an incident soon occurred which gave some excuse for an
attack on the embassy. An Armenian prisoner who had risen to the
dignity of chief eunuch in the Shah's household, and two women, an
Armenian and a German, from the harem of a powerful personage, fled
to the Russian ambassador and asked him to assist them to return to
Russian territory. Griboyedov insisted that, according to the treaty
of peace, all prisoners had a right to freedom, and he refused to give
up the refugees. On the 30th of January, 1829, a mad, yelling crowd of
100,000 men made an attack on the embassy. Griboyedov, sword in hand,
led out his handful of horsemen and was immediately killed; only one
member of the embassy escaped death. It was Griboyedov's wish that he
should be buried in Georgia, and they chose this romantic spot which
the poet had loved so much during his stay in Tiflis. The beautiful
Nina remained faithful to her husband's memory, and mourned for him
eight-and-twenty years, until she was carried up the winding path to
share his grave.
The view from the churchyard is a splendid one; the whole city, with
its wonderful diversity of form and colour, lies at your feet; on
the right you can see far along the Kakhetian road, and on the left
the great highway to Vladikavkaz follows the winding course of the
Kura. In the evening we often climbed to the top of a bare crag not
far from the church, carrying with us a large earthenware flagon of
wine, a roast leg of mutton, fruit, cucumbers, and other delicacies,
and spreading out our cloaks on the ground lay there making merry,
singing and telling tales until long after midnight; the lights of the
town below us seemed like a reflection of the bright stars above us,
and the music and laughter of many a jovial group came up the hillside
to mingle with our own.
After descending the hill, we cross the Boulevard at the publishing
office of Kavkaz, the official organ, and skirting the Alexandrovskii
Garden, soon reach the finest bridge in the town, Vorontsovskii Most,
from which we get an interesting view of the waterside part of the
Asiatic quarter; most of the houses have balconies overhanging the
river, and one is involuntarily reminded of the Tiber banks at Rome. On
the other side of the bridge, in a small square, is a statue of Prince
Vorontsov, Governor of the Caucasus, from 1844 to 1854. During my
stay the good people of that district were astonished one morning to
see the Prince's head surmounted by a tall, well-worn sheepskin hat,
such as the Lesghians wear; the effect was exceedingly ridiculous,
and the youthful revellers who, at considerable risk of breaking
their necks, were the authors of the joke, were well rewarded for
their pains by the laughter of all who passed that way, for your
Georgian is a merry fellow.
Turning to the right, we traverse Peski, a quarter very different
from Salalaki. Here we see small open-fronted Oriental shops in which
dark Persians ply their trades, making arms, saddlery, jewellery,
selling carpets, and doing a hundred other things all before the eyes
of men and in the open air. There is a strange confusion of tongues
and dresses; a smart little grammar-school girl rubs shoulders with
a veiled Mussulman woman, and occasionally you see the uniform of
a Russian officer elbowing his way through a crowd of Lesghians,
Armenians, Georgians, Persians; through the midst of all this
confusion runs the tram-car. We are not beyond all the influences
of civilization, for, besides the tram-way, we see on a sign-board
the legend "Deiches Bir" (? Deutsches Bier), over the picture of a
flowing tankard.
We cross the narrow bridge and pay a visit to the baths. Perhaps
the reader knows something of the so-called Turkish bath, and
imagines that the baths of Tiflis are of the same sort? There is
certainly some similarity between the two, but there are profound
differences; the treatment to which the visitor is subjected at a
Turkish bath in Constantinople is not to be compared with what the
Persian shampooer puts you through in Tiflis. He goes through a whole
course of gymnastics with you, during which he jumps on your chest,
on the small of your back, doubles you up as if you were a fowl ready
for cooking, and, besides removing every particle of your epidermis,
performs sundry other experiments at which the novice stares aghast. At
the end of it all you make up your mind that it is not so terrible
as it looks, and as you feel wonderfully refreshed you resolve to
return again before long. The water is of a heat of about 100° Fahr.,
and is impregnated with sulphur and other substances which give it a
healing virtue; it is to these springs that Tiflis owes its existence,
and they have always been of much importance in the daily life of
the people. Formerly it used to be the fashion for ladies of rank to
hire baths and dressing-rooms for a whole day, spending the time in
perfuming themselves, staining their finger tips, dressing the hair,
and performing a dozen other ceremonies of the toilette, concluding
with dinner, but the growth of European habits has rendered this
custom less common.
The Cathedral of Sion is, as we said before, as old as the city
itself, but, of course, it has suffered considerably at the hands of
destroyers and restorers. Its style is the same as that of all the
other churches in Georgia, and it doubtless served as a pattern for
most of them. The inside has been tastefully decorated in modern times,
and produces a pleasing effect, although it seems small to anybody
who is familiar with the cathedrals of Europe. In front of the altar
is the Cross of St. Nina, formed of two vine branches bound together
with the saint's hair; this cross has always been the most sacred
relic in Georgia. There is also a modest tomb, which contains the
body of Prince Tsitsishvili, a Georgian who was appointed Governor
of the Caucasus by Alexander I., and who, after a glorious career,
was foully murdered outside the walls of Baku by the treacherous khan
of that city.
From the cathedral the way to the European quarter leads through
the so-called Armenian Bazar, one of the most interesting parts of
the city. Old arms, coats of mail, helmets and shields, such as are
still used by the Khevsurs up in the mountains, silver ornaments and
many other interesting trifles, may be purchased here, but nothing of
great value is offered for sale, and the jewellery, with the exception
of filigree work from Akhaltsikhe (which is hard to get and very
expensive) is not very good. On the birthday of the Tsarevich, I was
walking down to the cathedral in order to be present at High Mass,
when I saw an incident thoroughly characteristic of the arbitrary
proceedings of the Russian police. A burly gorodovoi, clad in white
uniform and fully armed, was forcing the Asiatic shopkeepers in the
bazar to close their premises in order to do honour to the son of
the autocrat. I remembered how I had seen the Turkish soldiery in
Jerusalem perform a similar task a few months before, when the young
Prince of Naples entered the Holy City; it is true that the Turks
went a step further than the Muscovites, for they drove the people
out into the main street, and refused to let them go home until the
evening, but the idea was the same in both cases. The best native
tailor of Tiflis lives in this neighbourhood, and I had the honour
of having a Circassian suit made for me by him; it fitted like a
glove. I may say that, although a great many people in Tiflis wear
European dress, in the country it is almost unknown. I found that
for travelling there is nothing better than the Circassian garb;
it stands a great deal of rough usage, and always looks respectable.
Mushtaid is the finest promenade in the city. It is situated at the
west end, and is approached by the Mikhailovskaya, a long, straight
street, with fine gardens on either side of it. Some of the best
restaurants in the city are in these vine-shaded gardens, and one
of them is devoted to wrestling matches. It was my good fortune to
be present at a famous contest in which the Kakhetian champion,
Grdaneli, fought a certain bold Imeretian professor of the fancy
art. The performance was highly interesting, and it was gratifying to
learn from the bills that the proceeds were to be for the benefit of a
young man who wanted to study at Petersburg, but had not the necessary
means. The inner ring was formed of country gentlemen and officers,
all sitting cross-legged on the ground; behind them, tier above tier,
were at least a thousand spectators, breathless with expectation. A
primitive band, consisting of a drum and a zurna (an instrument which
sounds like the bagpipes), played a warlike air, to the sound of which
the heroes danced round the arena amid the frantic applause of the
crowd. Both men were fine fellows, but Grdaneli was a very Hercules,
and withal amiable-looking; he was the favourite, and justified his
reputation of being invincible by utterly demolishing the Western man
in a very short space of time. Every incident of the battle called
forth from the bystanders loud yells of praise and encouragement
which might have been heard miles off.
The two best clubs have summer quarters in Mikhailovskaya Street, by
the waterside--the Kruzhok (near the Vera Bridge) and the Georgian
Club (nearer Vorontsovskii Bridge); both have concert-rooms and
gardens attached to them, and the famous dance called Lesginka may
be seen there with its accompaniment of hand-clapping. The costumes
worn by both sexes are picturesque and rich, and one meets people of
all nationalities including political exiles from Poland, Russian
officers and officials, German professors and representatives of
many other races besides Georgians. All arms must be left at the
entrance. Georgian music is very unlike our own, and at first it
strikes the European as loud, wild, discordant, positively unpleasant,
but when one is accustomed to it, it is very agreeable. Before I
had heard many of the national melodies, I was very much astonished
when an accomplished lady told me that her reason for preferring the
Georgian Club to the Kruzhok was, that at the former Asiatic music
was performed; but I can now understand her liking for the music of
her country. In the Appendix I have written down a few melodies which
will not, I think, grate harshly on English ears.
The beauty of the Georgian women has been called in question by some
travellers, but these are nearly all men whose acquaintance with the
people has been extremely limited. The favourite observation of these
critics is a stereotyped phrase about "undeniably good features, but
want of animation." Surely Alexandre Dumas the elder knew a beautiful
face when he saw it; he says: "La Grèce, c'est Galatée encore marbre;
la Géorgie, c'est Galatée devenue femme."
Mushtaid, the town garden, owes nearly all its charms to nature,
the walks and open spaces are neatly kept, but nearly the whole
area is a forest in the recesses of which we may lie undisturbed
for hours, looking down on the turbid waters of Kura and listening
to the rustling of the leaves above and around. Every evening its
avenues are crowded with carriages and horsemen; beautiful faces,
tasteful toilettes, gay uniforms all combine to form a charming
picture. Fancy fairs are occasionally held, at which the visitor may
mingle with all the social celebrities, lose his money in raffles,
buy things he doesn't want--in short enjoy himself just as if he were
at home. But I doubt whether many frequenters of bazaars in England
have seen such an acrobatic feat as was performed in Mushtaid last
summer; an individual in tights hung himself by the neck on the upper
end of an inclined wire, stretched over the heads of the spectators,
and slid down it at lightning speed, firing half a dozen pistol-shots
as he went. No week passes without a popular fête of some kind,
for the Georgians are as fond of gaiety as any nation in the world.
From the above brief sketch the reader will see that Tiflis is
a city where one can live for a long time without suffering from
ennui. Although the immediate neighbourhood looks bare and uninviting,
there are, within a few miles, many beautiful spots well worth a
visit. The climate has been much abused by some writers, and it must
be admitted that during the months of July and August the heat is very
trying, but in my opinion Tiflis is a healthy place; since the great
plague of ninety years ago it has been pretty free from epidemics,
and although fever and dysentery kill a good many people every year,
the victims are nearly all residents of low-lying parts of the city,
where no European would live if he could help it. During the warm
weather there are often storms, characterized by all the grandeur that
might be expected in a region of great mountains so near the tropics;
after one of these the steep streets become foaming torrents. The
sheltered position of the city protects it from the terrible gusts of
wind which make the plain to the eastward almost uninhabitable, and
the storms seldom cause any more serious damage than broken windows
and flooded houses. Hitherto all the town water was obtained from
the Kura, and delivered to the consumer from bullock-skins, but a
well has now been dug a little below St. David's, whence the dwellers
on the right bank will get a supply of a liquid which is not tepid,
not opaque, not evil-smelling, and not semi-solid.
THE GEORGIAN MILITARY ROAD BETWEEN TIFLIS AND VLADIKAVKAZ.
The part which rivers have played in the history of civilization is
well illustrated by this road. The Aragva, flowing southward from
Gudaur, and the Terek, running northward from it, have formed the
highway along which countless crowds of Asiatics have penetrated into
Europe. Between the two streams there is a distance of some ten miles,
forming a huge but not insurmountable barrier, the virtual removal of
which did not take place until our own times. It was General Yermolov
who, in 1824, succeeded in making the road practicable for troops of
all kinds; but from the poet Puskhin's "Journey to Erzerum" (1829),
we learn that there was still room for improvement. The traveller had
to go with a convoy of 500 soldiers and a cannon, he dare not lag
behind for fear of the mountaineers, provisions and lodgings were
scarce and bad, the roads were impassable for carriages, the rate
of speed was sometimes only ten miles a day. When we read Pushkin's
account, and the one given by Lermontov, in "A Hero of Our Times,"
we can only ask ourselves, "What was the road like before Yermolov?"
During the wars with Kasi-mullah and Shamil, it became indispensable
to effect great improvements, and, at length, about five-and-twenty
years ago, under the governorship of Prince Bariatinskii, the road was
finished, and is now one of the finest in the world, besides being
one of the highest--the Simplon is only 6147 feet above sea-level,
while the Dariel road is nearly 2000 feet higher. The total distance
from Tiflis to Vladikavkaz is 126 miles, and the distance can be done
comfortably in less than twenty hours. During the summer 1150 horses
are kept in readiness at the stations, in the winter the number is
reduced by about 300. Two stage coaches start from each end every
day, but as they run during the night also, much of the beauty of
the scenery is lost by those who avail themselves of this mode of
conveyance; besides, it is difficult to get an outside seat unless you
book it a long time in advance. It is far better to travel by troïka,
as you are then free to stop when you like and as long as you like, and
you get an uninterrupted view of the country through which you pass.
About the middle of June, having previously obtained a
formidable-looking document by which Alexander Alexandrovich,
Autocrat of all the Russias, commanded all postmasters to supply me
with horses immediately on demand, I set out on my journey over the
frosty Caucasus, accompanied by a young Russian friend. The troïka had
been ordered for four a.m., but, of course, it did not turn up till
half-past five. For the information of those who have never been in
Russia, I may say that a troïka is a team of three horses harnessed
abreast in a vehicle of unique construction called a teliezhka. The
form of the cart is like a longitudinal section of a beer barrel; it is
large enough to contain an ordinary travelling trunk; it is of wood,
has neither sides nor springs, and there are four wheels; the seat is
made by slipping a piece of rope through a couple of rings on either
side, and laying your cloak and a pillow on the rope; the driver sits
on the front edge of the cart; the whole affair is invariably in the
last stage of decay. The shafts are so long that the horses cannot
kick the bottom out of the thing, and the horse in the centre has his
head swung up in a wooden frame. The driver is always asleep or drunk,
or both, but he never lets the reins fall, and at regular intervals
mechanically applies the whip to his steeds; he only wakes up when
there is a shaky bridge to cross, and, regardless of the notice
"Walking pace!", first crosses himself and commends his soul to the
saints, then gallops over the creaking structure at racing speed.
As we clattered down the steep rocky streets which lead to the
Boulevard, I had not much time to look round; all my attention
was necessary to preserve myself from falling out of the cart,
the jolting was terrible. However, by the time we had got to the
outskirts of the town the road became much smoother; the driver got
down and released the clappers of the bells above the middle horse's
head, and we rattled along merrily to the tune of eight miles an
hour. Just outside the city an imposing cruciform monument marks the
spot where the late Tsar's carriage was overturned without injuring
his Majesty. Passing the Sakartvelo Gardens, where the good people of
Tiflis often dine in vine-covered bowers by the river-side, we cross
the Vera, an important tributary of the Kura, and then enter a broad
plain which continues for many miles to the westward.
On the other side of the Kura we see Mushtaid; a little farther
on is the pretty German colony of Alexandersdorf, with its poplar
avenues, neat houses, and modest little white church. All the German
colonies in the Caucasus seem to be exactly alike, and they do
not in any respect differ from German villages in the fatherland;
the colonists altogether ignore the people of the country in which
they have settled, and, although they make a comfortable livelihood,
their isolated condition and the absence of all European influence
must make their lives very narrow and joyless. Some of these colonies
were founded in order to set before the native peasantry examples
of good agriculture and farm management, but this worthy object has
not been attained, and the Teutons are looked upon with feelings
generally of indifference, sometimes of positive ill-will. High on
the hills behind the colony stands the white monastery of St. Antony,
a favourite place for picnics. In the cliffs on the left of our road
are numerous holes, variously conjectured to be troglodyte dwellings
(like those at Uphlis Tsikhe), rock tombs, places of refuge in time
of war, provision stores, &c. Before us we see the road winding up
between the hills in a northerly direction, and after crossing the
Transcaucasian railway and then the Kura we arrive at the post-house
of Mtzkhet, not far from the village of that name.
Mtzkhet, if we are to believe local traditions, is one of the
oldest cities on earth, for the story goes that it was founded by a
great-grandson of the patriarch Noah. Be that as it may, there are
unmistakable signs that a Greek or Roman town existed here at a remote
date, and antiquaries generally agree in identifying Mtzkhet with the
Acrostopolis of the Romans, the headquarters of Pompey after he had
defeated Mithridates and subdued Iberia and Albania. No better spot
could have been chosen, for its position at the junction of the Aragva
and the Kura commands the two great roads of the country and makes it
the key of Transcaucasia. Mtzkhet, the ancient capital of Georgia,
was always a place of much importance in the annals of the kingdom;
now it is a wretched village of some hundreds of inhabitants. It was
here that St. Nina began her work of converting the nation, and we
propose to give a brief account of the legends relating to this event.
Tradition says that at the beginning of our era there lived in Mtzkhet
a wealthy Jew named Eleazar, who frequently made journeys to Jerusalem
on business. On the occasion of one of these visits he became possessed
of the tunic of our Lord, which he brought home with him as a present
to his daughter. She, expecting a valuable gift, ran out to meet him,
and with an angry expression snatched from his hands the precious
relic, of which she little knew the worth; she fell dead on the spot,
but no force could take the garment from her hands, so it was buried
with her, and from her grave there soon grew up a tall cedar, from
the bark of which oozed a fragrant myrrh, which healed the sick. Now
about three centuries later, that is in the third century of our
era, St. Nina was born in Cappadocia. When she was twelve years of
age her parents proceeded to Jerusalem, and gave themselves up to
religious work, leaving the maiden under the care of a devout old
woman, who taught her to read the Scriptures. Nina was very anxious
to learn what had become of Christ's tunic, and said to her teacher,
"Tell me, I pray thee, where is that earthly purple of the Son of God
now kept?" To which the venerable matron replied that it had been
taken to a heathen land called Iveria, far away to the northward,
and that it lay buried there in the city of Mtzkhet. One night the
Blessed Virgin appeared to the damsel in a dream, and said to her, "Go
to the Iverian land, preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, and He will
reward thee. I will be thy guard and guide," and with these words she
handed to her a cross made of vine branches. When Nina awoke and saw
in her hands the wondrous cross she wept for joy, and after reverently
kissing the holy gift she bound the two loose sticks together with her
own long hair. This cross has always been the palladium of Georgia,
and is still preserved in the Sion Cathedral at Tiflis. Now it so
happened that at this time seven-and-thirty maidens, fleeing from
the persecutions of Diocletian, left Jerusalem to spread the good
tidings in Armenia; St. Nina went with them as far as Vashgarabada,
and then pursued her journey alone. As she was entering the city of
Mtzkhet, the king of Georgia, Marian, with all his people, went out
to a hill in the neighbourhood to offer human sacrifices to idols,
but in answer to her prayer a mighty storm arose and destroyed
the images. She took up her abode in a cell in the king's garden,
and soon became well-known as a healer of the sick. At length the
queen fell ill, and St. Nina, having made her whole in the name
of Jesus, converted the Georgian court to Christianity, and in 314
A.D. baptized all the people of the city. Over the spot in the royal
garden where her cell had been, the king built the Samtavr church,
which still exists, and lies to the left of the post-road. It was
then revealed to St. Nina that the tunic, the object of her search,
lay buried under a cedar in the middle of the town; the tree was cut
down and the robe was found in the hands of the dead girl. On the
spot where the cedar stood King Marian built, in 328, the Cathedral
of the Twelve Apostles; the cedar was replaced by a column, and this
column is said to drip myrrh occasionally, even in these degenerate
days of ours. The sacred garment was preserved in the cathedral until
the seventeenth century, when Shah Abbas sent it as a present to the
Tsar of Russia, Mikhail Fedorovich. It was solemnly deposited in the
Cathedral of the Assumption at Moscow, where I saw it last autumn.
Having evangelized Kartli, St. Nina proceeded to Kakheti, where she
met with the same success, and died at Bodbé, near Signakh; her tomb is
in a monastery overlooking one of the finest landscapes in all Kakheti.
The Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles is the chief place of interest in
Mtzkhet. The original church was of wood, but in 378 it was replaced
by a stone edifice, which stood until the invasion of Tamerlane. The
existing church was built in the fifteenth century. A stone wall, with
ruined towers, encloses a rectangular piece of ground, in which stands
the cathedral, a fine building about seventy paces long by twenty-five
paces broad. It is in the Byzantine style, and the interior is divided
into three parts by two rows of columns. Here lie buried the last
kings of Georgia and their families, the patriarchs of the church,
and other illustrious persons.
The post-house at Mtzkhet was a pleasant surprise to me, but I found
nearly all the stations on this road equally comfortable; in many
of them there are bed-rooms, a dining-room, a ladies' room, and one
can get white bread and European food. Those who have travelled on
post-roads in Russia will readily understand my surprise.
Leaving Mtzkhet, our road follows the Aragva along a smooth valley
between forest-clad hills; the scenery reminded me very much of
some of the dales of Thelemarken in Norway. The soil is rich and
well cultivated, and here, as elsewhere, we saw a whole herd of
oxen dragging one wooden plough. This valley is one of the most
feverish places on the whole road, and the people attribute this to a
yellow weed (Carlina arcaulis), of which there is a great abundance;
strange to say, other places where the plant flourishes have the same
unpleasant reputation for unhealthiness, the explanation is doubtless
to be found in the fact that this weed grows best in a damp soil.
Tsilkani is the next station, but there is no village there. While
waiting for horses we saw in the yard a camel; there are plenty of
these amiable animals in Tiflis, but I did not think they went so
far north as the Aragva.
The scenery continues to be of the same character as far as the
station of Dushet, some distance from the garrison-town of that name,
which lies in rectangular regularity on the hillside, like a relief
map; it is a place of some military importance on account of its
position at the entrance of the narrow part of the valley, but it is
as uninteresting as any Russian provincial town. Near it is a lake,
said to cover a Caucasian Sodom; the traveller looks at the lake with
more attention than he would bestow upon it if it were in Switzerland,
for lakes, like waterfalls, are very rare in the Caucasus. Soon
after leaving Dushet we climb a rather steep hill--the wilder part
of the road is about to begin. On our left is a huge, antique-looking
edifice with towers and battlements, which we feel sure has a romantic
history, but we are disappointed to learn that the place is only a
modern imitation. At a pretty spot on the river-bank near here I met
on my return a party of about fifty prisoners on their way to Siberia;
they were, as a rule, honest enough looking fellows, and I could not
help feeling pity for them when I remembered how many cases I knew of
in which innocent men had been ruined in mind and body, by exile for
crimes with which they had no connection. The road crosses a range of
green hills, and passing through scenery very like that of Kakheti,
descends to the Aragva again at Ananur, the most picturesque village
on the whole road, although the surrounding landscape is tame compared
with that to the northward.
Ananur lies in a pretty little valley, amid well-wooded hills. At
the southern end of the village, perched on a rising ground, is a
partly ruined wall with towers and battlements, within which are
two churches, one of them still used for divine service, the other
a mouldering heap of moss-grown stones. The post-house is at the
farther end of the village, and while the horses are being changed
we have time to return to the ruins, about a quarter of an hour's
walk; by the roadside are several little shops in which furs of all
the wild animals of the country may be bought for a trifle; there
is also a small barrack. We now climb up to the citadel, and as we
enter we cannot help thinking of some of the scenes of blood which
have taken place here, even as late as a century and a half ago,
when Giorgi, the Eristav (or headman) of Aragva, defended the castle
against the Eristav of Ksan. When the place had been taken and all
the garrison slain, Giorgi and his family fled to the old church,
thinking that no Christian would violate the right of sanctuary,
but the conqueror heaped up brushwood round the building and burnt
it down; only one of the ill-fated family escaped alive.
The door by which we are admitted lies on the side farthest removed
from the road; it leads us through a square tower into the citadel
proper, which occupied a piece of ground about one hundred paces
long and forty paces broad; formerly it used to stretch down to the
very bank of the river, where a ruined tower may still be seen. On
entering we see immediately on the left the ruined house of the
Eristav Giorgi; straight in front of us is a well-preserved tower,
on the left of which may be seen the ruins of the old church, on
the right is the modern church. The old church is, of course, quite
ruined; it is only about five-and-twenty paces in length by fifteen
paces broad. There still exist fragments of painting and carving which
would doubtless prove highly interesting to those who are acquainted
with the history of Byzantine art. The building is said to date from
the fourth century. There is also a small underground chapel which
is fairly well preserved.
The larger church was built by the Eristav Giorgi in 1704; it is
thirty paces long by twenty paces broad, and is an enlarged copy of
the older sanctuary; the stone of which it is built is yellowish. It
is a very fine specimen of Georgian architecture. Beautifully carved
in the stone, on each side of the building, is a gigantic cross of
vine branches (the cross of St. Nina). The decorative work is excellent
throughout, both in design and workmanship; but the figures of animals,
&c., are very poor indeed.
Ananur is connected with the darkest page in the mournful latter-day
history of Georgia. The Persians had taken Tiflis in 1795, and reduced
it to a smouldering heap of ruins. King Irakli, with a few servants,
had escaped almost by a miracle, and had taken refuge in the mountain
fastness of Ananur; abandoned by his cowardly, faithless children,
betrayed by his most trusted dependents and allies, sick in body and
weary in mind, the old man of seventy-seven was a sight sad enough to
make angels weep. "In the old, half ruined monastery of Ananur, in an
ancient cell which used to stand in the corner of the monks' orchard,
one might have seen a man dressed in a rough sheepskin cloak, sitting
with his face turned to the wall. That man, once the thunderbolt of
all Transcaucasia, was the king of Georgia, Irakli II. Near him stood
an old Armenian servant. 'Who is that sitting in the corner?' asked
those who passed by. 'He whom thou seest,' replied the Armenian, with
a sigh, 'was once a man of might, and his name was honoured throughout
Asia. His people never had a better ruler. He strove for their welfare
like a father, and for forty years kept his empire together; but old
age has weakened him, and has brought everything to ruin. In order to
prevent quarrels after his death, he determined to divide his kingdom
among his children while he still lived, but his hopes in them were
deceived. He who was chief eunuch of Tamas Khuli Khan when Irakli was
a leader of the Persian army, now marched against him in his feeble
old age. His own children refused to help him and their native land,
for there were many of them, and each thought he would be striving,
not for himself, but for his brother's good. The King of Georgia had
to ask the help of the King of Imereti, but if thou hadst been in
Tiflis thou hadst seen how shamefully the Imeretians behaved. Irakli,
with but a handful of men, fought gallantly against a hundred thousand,
and lost his throne only because his children pitilessly forsook him,
leaving him to be defeated by a wretched gelding. His ancient glory is
darkened, his capital in ruins, the weal of his folk is fled. Under
yon crumbling wall thou seest the mighty King of Georgia hiding from
the gaze of all men, helpless and clothed in a ragged sheepskin! His
courtiers, all those who have eaten his bread and been pressed to
his bosom, have left him; not one of them has followed his master,
excepting only me--a poor, despised Armenian.'"
From Ananur the road rises along the Aragva valley, which is well
cultivated, thanks to a fine system of artificial irrigation. On our
left, about a couple of versts from the station, we see high up on
a hill the ruined castle and church of Sheupoval, where a grandson
of the Eristav Giorgi shared the fate of the rest of his family;
the place was burnt down with all its inhabitants. As we pass along
the road we meet several pleasant-looking wayfarers, all armed with
long, wide dagger, and many carrying in addition sword and rifle; this
highway is, however, perfectly safe as far as brigands are concerned,
the carrying of weapons is merely a custom which means little more than
the use of a walking-stick in our country. Several handsome Ossets,
as they pass, courteously salute us with the phrase, "May your path
be smooth!" a peculiarly appropriate wish in such a region. When we
go through a little village, pretty children run out to look at us,
but they never beg, indeed I never saw or heard of a Georgian beggar,
although there is much poverty among the people.
All along the road, wherever there is a coign of vantage one sees it
topped by the ruins of a four-sided tapering tower, standing in the
corner of a square enclosure; every foot of ground has its history
of bloodshed and bravery, a history now long forgotten, save for the
dim traditions of the peasantry.
The stage between Ananur and Pasanaur (21 versts), is the longest on
the whole road, and, although it presents no engineering difficulties
such as those which were met with farther to the northward, it is,
nevertheless, a toilsome journey for the horses, as it rises about
1300 feet. I shall never forget the pleasant emotions I felt on
making the night journey from Pasanaur to Ananur; although there
was no moon, the stars shone with a brightness that is unknown in
northern latitudes, and lighted up the strange, beautiful landscape;
the glittering snow-peaks behind, the silvery stream at our side, the
green forests and the lonely ruins made up a picture of surpassing
loveliness and weirdness. Fort Gudomakarsk is soon visible, and we
know that the station is not far off. I may as well say that almost all
the so-called forts between Tiflis and Vladikavkaz are insignificant,
neglected-looking places, merely small barracks; they formerly served
to keep the mountaineers in order, but now there is really very little
necessity for maintaining a garrison in them.
Pasanaur (which in old Persian means "Holy Hill") is situated in a very
narrow part of the valley, amid thick woods. The station is a pretty
one, and, like that at Ananur, so comfortable that the traveller who
has to spend a night there need not be pitied. The only building of
interest in the village is a modern church in the Russian style of
architecture, which looks as if it had been painted with laundry blue;
for ugliness it can compare with any church in Muscovy.
To the eastward of Pasanaur live the Khevsurs, Pshavs and Tushes,
peoples probably having a common origin, and speaking a language akin
to Georgian. Their number is variously estimated, from twenty to thirty
thousand. They live in a very primitive way, and the Khevsurs still
clothe themselves in chain armour and helmets; this circumstance, added
to the fact that they have long been Christians, has given rise to
the supposition that they are descended from a party of Crusaders who
lost their way in trying to return to Europe overland, and settled in
these valleys. Their country is among the wildest in the whole range,
and their villages are perched high up among the rocks, like eagles'
nests. The Khevsurs live chiefly on the scanty products of agriculture;
the Pshavs and Tushes are pastoral peoples, in winter they drive
their flocks down into Kakheti, and when the snow among the mountains
begins to melt they return to their native valleys. All these tribes
are wild and brave to the highest degree; from the earliest times
they have formed part of the Georgian kingdom, and have distinguished
themselves in many a battle against the infidel. The Christianity of
this region is not so elaborate as that of Rome or Byzantium, but I
suppose it is quite as reasonable as that of the Russian muzhik or
the English farm-labourer; they have made a saint of Queen Tamara,
and they worship the god of war and several other deities in addition
to the God Christ. Irakli II. tried to reform their theology, but they
replied, "If we, with our present worship, are firm in our obedience
and loyalty to the king, what more does he ask of us?" There are now
many Orthodox Greek Churches in the villages, but the people totally
ignore their existence.
After leaving Pasanaur the road bends to the westward, leaving on
the right a high table-shaped mountain of granite which has for a
long time seemed to bar our progress; we still keep close to the
Aragva, and the scenery becomes bolder, and the soil more barren;
here and there we see high up on the face of the rock a cluster of
Osset houses; from the valley they look like small dark holes in
the cliffs. Pushkin has described them as "swallows' nests," and no
happier name could have been chosen.
The Ossets call themselves Ir or Iran, the Tatars and Georgians call
them Oss or Ossi. According to official accounts they number over
100,000, about half of them being on each side of the Caucasus. The
majority of them profess the Christian religion, but 15,000 are
Mahometans, and a considerable number are idolaters. Their traditions
say that they came from Asia across the Ural, and used at one time to
dwell in the plain to the north of the Caucasus, but were gradually
driven into the mountains by stronger peoples. In the reign of Queen
Tamara most of them embraced Christianity, and Tamara's second husband
was an Osset; they remained tributary to Georgia until the beginning
of the present century, and a traveller who visited Tiflis about a
hundred years ago says that Irakli's bodyguard was composed of Ossets
"who never washed." The Ossets were the first Caucasian people to
settle down quietly to Russian rule, and they have never given any
serious trouble, if we except their share in the Imeretian rising
of 1810. The stories about the Ossets being a Teutonic people are
as absurd as the assertion that there are in the Crimea Northmen who
speak Dutch. They live in a wretched manner, in houses built of loose
stones, without mortar; but their physique is good, and their faces
are handsome and engaging.
After another long climb of 1300 feet we reach Mleti. Here, indeed,
we have come to the end of the valley--we are at the bottom of a deep
well with sides as bare and steep as walls, on the top glitters the
everlasting snow. The engineering difficulties which we have hitherto
encountered are as nothing compared with those before us. To our
right rises a precipice over three thousand feet high, up which the
road climbs in a series of zigzags.
Soon after leaving Mleti we saw the sun set behind the silvery peaks
to the west, and within half an hour it was dark; our driver was
drunk and fast asleep, and we had occasionally to seize the reins in
order to keep the horses from going too near the fenceless edge of
the abyss. The distance to Gudaur is only fourteen and a half versts,
but nearly the whole ascent has to be done at walking pace; slowly we
rose up the hillside, gazing silently now up at the glistening chain
above us, now down into the gloomy valley behind us, where a fleecy
waterfall shone in the starlight; we saw no wayfarers all the time,
and no sound came to break the stillness of the summer night.
At last we reached the tableland at the top, and were soon in the
station-house of Gudaur, almost 8000 feet above sea-level. Although
there were only patches of snow here and there on the ground near us,
the air was very cool; only a few days ago we had been simmering in
Tiflis in a heat of over 100° Fahr., and now we saw the thermometer
down at freezing-point. I knew that as far as comfort went Mleti was a
much better place than Gudaur to spend the night at, but I was eager
to enjoy the delightful intoxication of the mountain air as soon and
as long as possible, and I did enjoy it thoroughly.
After a very rough and hasty supper and a short walk on the edge of
the plateau, we entered the common room, and wrapping ourselves up in
our burkas, sought out the softest plank on the floor, and were soon
sleeping the sleep of innocence. Several travellers arrived during
the night, for when we rose at dawn we found the room full. Leaving
our companions to snore in peace, we ordered the horses, and were
soon on our way to the pass.
On the grassy plain were feeding large flocks of goats and sheep,
the latter with strange, large, fatty protuberances on either side
of the tail. To the right is a remarkable-looking green hill of
pyramidal shape, and beyond it an old castle looks down from an
inaccessible crag. The scenery of the pass itself is imposing,
but it is seen to better advantage when one comes in the opposite
direction, i.e. from Vladikavkaz to Tiflis; in that case one leaves
a scene of the wildest desolation for the luxuriant beauty of the
Aragva valley and Kartli; on the northward journey it is, of course,
the reverse. The road sinks very rapidly to a depth of almost 2000
feet; the long snow-sheds remind us that even at the present day
a winter journey over the Cross Mountain is a serious undertaking;
traffic is often stopped for several days at a time by avalanches,
and in spring the rivers sometimes wash away the bridges and large
pieces of the road. At the foot of the mountain we meet the foaming
Terek, a river almost as muddy as the Kura, and following its course
reach a vast plain, on the east side of which stands Kobi.
Near Kobi station there are two villages; the larger of the two
lies under the shadow of a perpendicular rock on the one side, on
the other side it is flanked by a rugged crag, on the top of which
may be seen the ruins of a church and a castle. By the roadside are
curious monumental tablets, painted with hieroglyphs of various kinds,
among which the rising sun generally occupies the chief place. All
round Kobi there are numerous medicinal springs of all kinds, and
the station-house is intended to accommodate a few patients. There
may come a day when Kobi will be as fashionable as Kissingen, but in
the meantime it is not the sort of place that one would recommend to
an invalid.
On the score of originality nothing can be said against the environs
of Kobi; when we looked round we could not help thinking of the phrase
"riddlings of creation," which we have heard applied to the Scottish
Highlands; it does, indeed, look as if some of the materials left
over after the creation of our earth, had been left here in disordered
heaps, to give us some idea of chaos. The road now follows the course
of the Terek, and the scenery is indescribably grand; straight before
us lies snowy Kazbek in all its rugged wildness, here and there are
ruined towers, and about the middle of the stage a turn in the road
brings us to an aul, or village, of mediæval appearance, by the side
of which is a little copse, a rarity in this bleak district. The
basaltic rocks present many fantastic shapes and colours to the
eye; in several places I saw what looked like huge bundles of rods,
reminding me of the Giant's Causeway. Before reaching the station
we were met by children who offered for sale all sorts of crystals,
pieces of quartz and other pretty geological specimens.
Kazbek station is a very comfortable inn, where one can dine well,
and is to be recommended as a place for a prolonged stay. The mountain,
generally called Kazbek, rises from the valley in one almost unbroken
mass, reaching a height of 16,550 feet above sea-level; the Georgians
call it Mkhinvari (ice mountain), and the Ossets, Christ's Peak; Kazbek
is really the name of the family who own this part of the country,
and is wrongly applied to the mountain. This peak, like Ararat, enjoys
the reputation of being inaccessible, and our countrymen, Freshfield,
Moore, and Tucker, who climbed to the top, without much difficulty,
in June, 1868, were not believed when they told the story of their
ascent. On the mountain the sportsman can occasionally get a shot at
a tur (aurochs, Ægoceros Pallasii); but if he is unwilling to expose
himself to the necessary danger and fatigue, he can for a few roubles
buy a pair of horns at the station.
Those who invade the realm of the mountain spirit should not fail to
visit Devdorak glacier, the easiest way of making the ascent; there
they will see a place where the native hunters make sacrifices of tur
horns to propitiate the spirit, who might otherwise throw blocks of
ice down on their heads.
There is a popular legend to the effect that on the summit of Mkhinvari
is the tent of the Patriarch Abraham, within which, in a cradle held up
by an unseen hand, lies the child Jesus asleep; outside there grows
some wheat of wonderful size, beside the tree of life; round the
cradle are heaps of treasures. Under the reign of King Irakli II.,
a priest and his son started for the summit in order to see these
wonders; the boy returned alone, bearing samples of the material of
the tent, some big grains of wheat, &c., the soles of his boots were
covered with silver coins which had stuck to them--unfortunately it
was found that the coins were quite modern!
As is well known, Mkhinvari is generally identified with the story
of Prometheus, although the mountain does not correspond with the
description given by Æschylus. Early travellers even went so far as
to assert that they had seen the very chains with which the hero was
bound, and there is a local legend to the effect that a giant still
lies there in fetters. When I approached the mountain from Kobi I could
not help being reminded of Prometheus. I saw a gigantic black space
of irregular form with snow all round it; an imaginative mind found
in this irregular tract a considerable resemblance to the human shape.
No traveller should leave Kazbek without making a pilgrimage to the
monastery of St. Stephen, which stands on the top of an isolated
hill about 2000 feet above the station. At sunset the view is
wonderfully beautiful. Tradition says that the monastery was built
by three kings, but does not give their names; in any case the
building is of considerable antiquity. Service is held in the church
three times a year. The interior has been spoiled by that fiend the
"restorer." From the church you look over a wide, uninhabited valley
to the giant mountain, and on turning round you see the river Terek,
on the banks of which are the station and village; on either hand
stretch dark cavernous-looking valleys. Beyond the Terek is the home
of the Ingushes, a people who frequently carry off the cattle of their
more settled neighbours, and give the small garrison of Kazbek some
amusement in hunting them down.
After leaving Kazbek, we see on our right the manor-house of the
princely family from which the place takes its name, a family which
has produced, and doubtless will yet produce, sons which will be an
honour to Georgia; the house is a fine two-storey edifice, and there
is a pretty chapel attached to it. In a few minutes we reach the Mad
Ravine, so called from a torrent of terrible impetuosity, which has
formed one of the most serious obstacles to the construction of the
road. We now enter Dariel, the pass from which the road takes its name,
one of the grandest spots on earth.
According to philologists, Dariel is derived from an old Persian
word meaning gate (cf. Der-bend, Thuer, door, Slav Dver, &c.), and in
fact it was here that the ancient geographers placed the site of the
famous Caucasian Gates; but surely there is something to be said in
favour of the local tradition which connects the place with Darius
I. of Persia. As for the gates, it is, of course, impossible to say
definitely whether they ever existed or not, at all events there
are several points where it would not have been very difficult to
construct them.
At the entrance of the ravine, on the left bank of the Terek,
stands a high rock, on which may be seen the ruins of a castle,
said to have been founded in 150 B.C., but doubtless having a still
longer history. This castle is always associated with the name of
a certain wicked Queen Tamara, a mythical creation of the popular
fancy, and Lermontov has written a very pretty poem based on the
legend. It is said that this Tamara (not to be confounded with the
good Tamara), was very beautiful, and that she used to invite all the
handsome young men who passed that way to come up and live with her,
promising them all the delights that heart could wish for; after one
night of bliss the unfortunate gentleman was deprived of his head, and
was then thrown down into the Terek, which bore away his body. If the
legend is not wrong in saying that the river carried away the corpses,
the frolicsome monarch must have been comparatively constant during
the summer months, or else the pile of wantons would soon have become
large enough to frighten all the passion out of intending visitors, for
in the month of June, Terek would not float a respectably-sized cat.
By the road-side is Dariel Fort, a romantic-looking place with
old-fashioned battlemented towers; a few Kazaks are quartered here,
and must find the time hang very heavily on their hands. When you
reach this fort it looks as if it were impossible to go beyond it,
a mighty wall stretches right across the path; but the road follows
the course of the river, indeed it is built in the river-bed, and
winds along between awful cliffs whose summits are lost in the clouds,
and whose flanks are seldom or never touched by a ray of sunlight. We
sometimes hear of places where a handful of men could keep back an
army, this is one of them; a touch would send down upon the road some
of the heavy, overhanging masses of rock, and effectually close the
pass. About fifty years ago an avalanche fell here, from the glacier
of Devdorak, and it was two years before the rubbish was all cleared
away. When the new road is blocked by snow or carried away by floods,
the old road, high up near the snow-line, has to be used.
The scenery of this pass has been described by Pushkin, Lermontov, and
many others, but it is one of the few places that do not disappoint the
traveller, however much he may have expected. It must not be forgotten
that the road through this narrow gorge is the only passable one that
crosses the Caucasian range; there are, it is true, one or two other
tracks, but they are not practicable for wheeled carriages.
In the most gloomy part of the defile the road crosses by a bridge
to the left bank of the Terek, and a few versts farther on we emerge
into comparatively open ground at Lars. I had, as usual, given my
podorozhnaia (road-pass) to a stable-boy, with a request to get the
horses ready without delay, and was sitting drinking tea, when I was
astonished to hear behind me the long unfamiliar tones of my native
language; I was still more surprised when I saw that the speaker
was the starosta, or superintendent of the station (the Government
inspector, or smatritel, is the real chief). He told me that he had
seen from my pass that I was English, and had taken the liberty to come
and have a chat with me. He spoke English fluently, and has spent five
years in London, has travelled in the United States, and is altogether
a very pleasant fellow; he had only been at Lars a year and a half,
and during all that time had not seen an Englishman. We parted very
good friends, expecting to meet again when I returned from Vladikavkaz.
The village of Lars, north of the post-house, is inhabited, among
others, by some of the Tagaur Ossets, descended from Tagaur, an
individual who at a remote period was heir to the Armenian throne,
and fled to the mountains for fear of his younger brothers. Their
royal descent leads them to think themselves superior to the poor
folk among whom they dwell, and they are cordially disliked by the
latter. Just outside the village is one of the towers which are so
common all along the road; it doubtless yielded a handsome revenue
to its owner in the good old days when every traveller had to pay a
heavy toll for the privilege of passing one of these fortresses.
We still keep close to the Terek, which comes rushing down from Dariel
with a fall of one foot in every thirty. Pushkin, comparing the Terek
with Imatra, in Finland, unhesitatingly declares the superiority of the
former in grandeur. Of course the surrounding scenery in the two cases
is quite different, but as far as the rivers themselves are concerned,
I must dissent from the poet, for I know no part of the Terek worthy
of comparison with the fall of the Wuokses at Imatra, which is the
very materialization of the idea of irresistible, pitiless power.
Although the valley is now a little wider than it was a few miles
to the south, the scenery still has the same grandeur and sternness
until we pass between the rocks that come down close to either
bank of the river, and come out into the plain in which stands
Fort Djerakhovsk, a rectangular edifice, about 120 feet long,
which is fully garrisoned. We are not quite clear of the mountains,
however, until we have passed Balta, and have got within five versts
of Vladikavkaz. Before us stretches a smooth, green plain as far as
the eye can reach; the contrast is most striking; it is as if we had
been suddenly transported from Switzerland to Holland.
Vladikavkaz, 200 versts from Tiflis, lies at the foot of the Caucasus,
at a height of 2368 feet. The best hotel is the Pochtovaya, at
the post-station; the Frantsiya is also good. Vladikavkaz means,
in Russian, "master of the Caucasus" (cf. Vladivostok, Vladimir,
&c.--root vlad is akin to German walt-en, Gewalt); the Cherkesses
(Circassians) call it Kapkai, "gate of the mountains." It has
a population of over 30,000 souls, chiefly Russians, Cherkesses,
Georgians, Armenians, Persians, besides a strong garrison. A fortress
was built here in 1784, but the town never became a trading centre of
much importance until the war with Shamil; even now one is astonished
to see how little activity them is in a place through which nearly all
the overland traffic between Europe and Western Asia passes. Several
chimney stalks bear witness to the existence of industry, but the
only manufactory of any size is a spirit distillery. The silver work
of Vladikavkaz is renowned throughout the whole Caucasus, and is much
used for dagger hilts and sheaths, belts, &c.
The city is built on the banks of the Terek, which is here crossed by
several bridges; the best quarter is on the right bank, where there are
cool, shady gardens by the waterside, and a very respectable-looking
boulevard. A few of the streets are fairly well paved, and there are
one or two comfortable-looking houses with pleasant grounds; but on
the whole the place is not one that anybody would care to settle down
in. Were it not for the frequency with which one sees Asiatic costumes,
and hears Asiatic tongues, and the fact that the frosty Caucasus may
be seen, apparently perpendicular, rising to its loftiest points,
it would be easy to imagine oneself in some provincial town not 100
versts from Moscow, instead of being 2000 versts from it.
When you have lounged in the gardens, and on the boulevard, visited
the cathedral, which is still in course of construction, the market,
the military school, and the old fortress, you have obtained all the
diversion that is to be had in Vladikavkaz, unless you are fortunate
enough to find the little theatre open, and the best thing to be
done is to take the morning train to the Mineral Waters station (186
versts in nine hours) for the town called Five Mountains (Pyatigorsk),
about twenty versts from the railway, which for almost a hundred
years has enjoyed the reputation of being the most fashionable inland
watering-place in the Russian Empire.
THE KAKHETIAN ROAD--TIFLIS TO SIGNAKH.
A few days after my return from Vladikavkaz, I made preparations for
leaving Tiflis. It was near the end of June, and the unbearable heat
had driven away nearly all those who were free to go; all the highways
leading out of the city were crowded with carts and carriages of every
description, carrying household goods and passengers. My friends had
contracted with some Molokans (Russian heretics), belonging to the
colony of Azamburi, for the removal of their furniture to Signakh;
the carriers had promised to come to our house at four o'clock in the
morning, but it was nine o'clock before they put in an appearance,
and then their carts were half full of other people's goods, a direct
violation of the agreement. If any man ever needed the patience which
is proverbially ascribed to the patriarch Job, it is the man who has
business dealings with the Muscovite muzhik. You may assail him with
all the abuse which your knowledge of his language will permit, you
may strike him, you may calmly endeavour to persuade him with the most
lucid logic--it is all to no purpose; taking off his cap to scratch
his head, he looks at you with an assumption of childlike simplicity,
and replies with a proverb more remarkable for its laconism than for
its applicability to the matter under discussion. In this case we
wrangled for a long time, and then, being unwilling to risk a stroke
of apoplexy by getting into a rage, appealed to the majesty of the
law, represented by a stalwart policeman, at whose command the carts
were emptied forthwith, the contents being deposited on the roadside,
and our effects were soon put in their place, and the whole caravan
rattled down the hillside about two hours before noon. An hour later
a four-horse carriage with springs arrived, and the four of us,
my Georgian host, a Russian lady and gentleman, and myself, set out
for Kakheti.
After descending through the narrow streets which lie between the
Erivan square and the river, we crossed the busy bridge, and mounted
the steep bank on the other side, passing through the liveliest
part of the Persian quarter. By the time we had got clear of the
suburb called the Dogs' Village, with its camels and caravanserais,
we had overtaken the waggons; exchanging friendly salutations with
our volunteer baggage-guard, we were soon rolling along the smooth,
dusty road in the direction of Orkhevi. On our right, down by the side
of the Kura, lay Naftluk, with its beautiful vineyards and orchards,
and beyond it the road to Akstafa and Erivan; on the distant southern
horizon were the blue mountains of Armenia. On our left hand rose a
range of bare-looking hills of no great height.
The region through which the Kakhetian road passes is a flat,
waterless, almost uninhabited steppe; the winds which sometimes sweep
across it are so violent that it is the custom to seek shelter from
them by building the houses in the ground, with the roof on a level
with the road. Twenty years ago the "Society for the Re-establishment
of Orthodox Christianity in the Caucasus" obtained from the late Tsar
a large concession of land near Kara Yazi, and spent 370,000 roubles
on the construction of a canal for irrigation (Mariinskii Kanal);
the scheme was never completely carried out, and the results obtained
have not hitherto been such as to encourage the society, although a
few Nestorians, Assyrian Christians, have been induced to settle in
this unhealthy land. There are still unmistakable signs of the fact
that in ancient times all this steppe was watered from the Kura by
an elaborate system of irrigation, which must have made the country
very fertile; now the whole tract is an almost unbroken wilderness,
where the antelope wanders, unharmed by any hunter.
At Orkhevi there is nothing but the station-house, and those whose only
experience of posting has been derived from the military road between
Tiflis and Vladikavkaz, are likely to be unpleasantly surprised at the
primitive appearance of this traveller's rest. A bare, dirty room,
with two wooden benches and a table, the walls tastefully decorated
with official notices, among which the most prominent is one in four
languages warning farmers against the phylloxera, thereon portrayed
in all the various phases of its development. Such is my remembrance
of Orkhevi. The only refreshment obtainable is a samovar (tea-urn)
of boiling water, from which you can make your own tea if you have
the necessary ingredients with you. A former journey along this
road had already made me familiar with all the little discomforts
and privations which must be undergone by the visitor to Kakheti,
so I was not disappointed. None of the stations are any better all
the way to Signakh, and he who does not bring with him his own food
for the journey is likely to have a very good appetite by the time
he reaches his destination.
The sun had now reached the meridian, and beat down upon us with
terrible force, for our carriage was an open one; we were half-choked
with the dust, a thick white layer of which covered us from head to
foot; on either side lay bare, brown fields, baked hard as stone,
and deeply fissured; no water anywhere; the only thing which broke the
monotony of the scene was the occasional passage of a train of arbas,
laden with huge, bloated-looking ox-skins, full of wine. The arba is
the national vehicle of Georgia, and is said to have been used as a
chariot by the ancient kings; it is constructed entirely of wood;
there is not so much as a nail or pin of metal in it; the wheels
are generally made of one piece of timber, and for this reason the
arba is allowed to travel on the highways without paying the tolls
which are imposed on carts with tires; a pair of oxen draw the cart,
and the creaking of it may be heard afar off. Parched with thirst,
and almost stifled with dust, we were glad to reach Vaziani, where
we spread our cloaks under an oak-tree by the side of a spring,
and proceeded to make a good lunch, after which we slept for a while.
In the afternoon we left Vaziani, and soon passed through the
prosperous German colony of Marienfeld, with its neat, homely cottages,
shaded by fine poplar-trees. The vicinity of the river Iora makes
this a very fertile spot, cool and inviting even in the middle of
summer. A little before reaching Marienfeld we saw, on the left, the
road to Telav, and the Kakhetian hills now seem to slope down very
quickly to meet our road, but we know that we shall have to travel
many a weary verst before we reach them. In the evening, at about
six o'clock, we arrived at Azamburi, a Russian village not far from
the station of Sartachali. It had been agreed that we should spend
the night here, so we alighted at the postoyalii dvor, or inn.
Azamburi is exactly like any other Russian village, a long, dirty,
double row of wretched hovels. Each farmer has his house and buildings
arranged round a square courtyard, in the midst of which lie carts,
pigs, agricultural produce, and filth of all kinds. The inhabitants are
Molokans; some account of the religious opinions of these people will
be found in Mr. D. M. Wallace's well-known work on Russia; they have no
priests nor sacraments, neither smoke nor drink, do not swear, and pay
great reverence to the Bible, a copy of which may be seen on a shelf in
the living-room of every house. They are not at all attractive, either
in physiognomy or conversation; their awful stupidity and ugliness
are all the more powerfully felt from the contrast which the native
population presents to them. Their choice of a piece of ground for
colonization would be inexplicable did we not remember their peculiar
religious convictions; they have chosen the very worst place in the
whole plain; the only drinking water in the neighbourhood is very
bad, so bad that the tea made from it is almost undrinkable, even by
people accustomed to Kura water. Quite near the village are stinking,
stagnant marshes, which must make the place terribly unhealthy.
After dinner we went outside to smoke, for the Molokan will not suffer
the mildest cigarette in his house, and even in the depth of winter
the visitor who smokes must burn his weed in the open air. Returning
along the road for some little distance, followed by a crowd of
children, who, evidently, had never before seen a lady in European
dress, we mounted a little hill, whence we saw in the distance our
baggage-waggons slowly approaching. In re-entering the village we
overtook a farmer with an English reaping-machine; this man was less
taciturn than his neighbours, and of his own accord entered into
conversation with us; he was loud in his praises of the reaper, and
said that the man who invented a certain part of it (a patent screw,
I think) ought to be "kissed behind the ear." We tried to interest
him in a pet idea of our own, viz., that village communities should
buy machinery collectively, but we regret to say that we could not
make a convert of him.
It was nine o'clock before our young friend, Prince Giorgi, arrived
with the goods under his charge; and while we were at supper much
merriment was caused by his vain endeavours to check himself in
the use of the word chort (the devil!), a pet expression of his,
but strictly forbidden in the houses of all good Molokans. The night
being fine, although the air was cool, we made up our minds to sleep
outside rather than risk the onslaughts of the Molokan fleas, and we
chose for our bivouac a thrashing-floor about a hundred yards from
the house; here we lay down, wrapped in our burkas, and smoked and
chatted until we fell asleep. But we were not to have a quiet night;
we were roused by the attack of some ferocious dogs; we beat them off
several times, but the numbers ever increased, until all the canine
population of Azamburi was howling round us.
We were on foot at three o'clock, and, waking up the drivers,
got the horses harnessed and started for Kakabeti. In the early
morning air flitted beautiful birds with wings as brilliant as
those of butterflies, and butterflies as big as birds. It was not
so terribly hot as I had found it some weeks before, when I passed
through Kakabeti in the afternoon, but it was still close enough to
make us long for a breath of the mountain air. This region is swampy,
and the fevers make it uninhabitable.
Kakabeti offers nothing of interest. The same wearisome plain stretches
all the way to Kajereti, near which is the hospitable abode of one of
the Andronikov family. We spent four hours there, and did not leave
the station until an hour after noon. Passing the inviting-looking
post-road to Bakurtsikhe, on our left, we kept to the plain for
a while; then rapidly rising to the village of Nukriani, Signakh
came into view at the top of the hill, and the lovely woodlands
at our feet seemed all the more beautiful on account of the bare,
monotonous character of the parched plain where we had spent the
last two days. Descending by a zigzag road, we entered the town,
and, passing along the main street, through the market-place, soon
reached the very edge of the steep, high hill which rises from the
Alazana valley.
SIGNAKH.
Our new home turned out to be a very delightful place,--large, lofty
rooms, two balconies; at the back, vineyards and gardens stretching far
down the hillside. The view was more beautiful than any I had ever seen
or imagined. The house was built on the edge of a deep, narrow ravine,
the steep sides of which were covered with vines and mulberry-trees
all the way down to the Alazana valley, a smooth, fertile plain
thirty miles broad. On the opposite side of the ravine, to the left,
stood a very extensive fortification with ruined towers, a stronghold
of some importance during the war with Shamil; behind this could be
seen the Armenian church and the outskirts of the town. Straight in
front lay the grand Caucasian mountains, rising like a wait from the
plain, their glittering snow-clad tops dividing the dark forests on
their flanks from the deep blue of the summer sky. In the midst of
the plain flowed the silvery Alazana, in its winding course dividing
the cultivated land on this side from the virgin forest beyond. Along
the nearer edge lay scattered hamlets with their neat little white
churches; farther off might be seen a wood, which we always thought
of as that of the Sleeping Beauty. From the heights of Signakh it does
not look large, but it is six miles in diameter, and the underwood is
so thick that it can only be penetrated by cutting a path with axes;
it is full of all sorts of wild beasts and dangerous reptiles. In
the distance on the left may be seen the mountains on which Telav is
situated; to the extreme right a few huts on the river bank indicate
the position of the Alazana bridge, and beyond this begins the long
sandy steppe which stretches in unbroken barrenness to the Caspian.
Signakh is 100 versts to the eastward of Tiflis, and stands about 1000
feet above the plain of the Alazana. The population is over 10,000, the
majority being Armenian shop-keepers, usurers, &c. The name signifies
"city of refuge," and the place was founded and fortified in the last
century, in order to serve as a retreat for the country people in
times of Lesghian raids. The fortress consists of a very large piece
of ground enclosed by high walls, with towers at regular intervals,
and the whole city used to be within these walls. The post-road to
Bakurtsikhe runs through the stronghold, and about sunset all the
wealth and beauty of Signakh may be seen promenading on the highway,
for this is "the boulevard;" on Sunday afternoon wrestling goes on
merrily to the sound of the pipe and drum. At present the military
importance of Signakh is almost at an end, but if Russia should
ever find herself involved in a great war we might probably hear
something of the doings of the Lesghians in that region. The garrison
is very small.
The Club is the centre of all the social life of Signakh, and on
Saturday evenings there are informal dances, to which the stranger
looks forward as a welcome break in the monotony of provincial
life. The Gostinnitsa "Nadezhda" (Hope Inn), which we nicknamed
"Grand Hôtel de Kakhétie," is dirty and uninviting to a degree which
Europeans could hardly imagine possible; but it is the best hostelry
in the town. The Court-house is just opposite the inn, and I remember
spending a very interesting evening there on one occasion, watching
the trial of Georgians, Tatars, Armenians, by a Russian justice of the
peace in a gorgeous uniform. The cases were settled with a rapidity
to which the High Court of Chancery is a stranger.
Altogether, Signakh is a dirty but highly picturesque little town;
its streets are narrow, crooked, and ill-paved, the shops, as is usual
in the East, are small, open rooms, in which saddlers, tailors, and
smiths may be seen plying their respective trades; all round about
the town are beautiful hills covered with oak, walnut, and other
tall forest-trees. The only other place it reminded me of was Amalfi,
and even in this case the resemblance was but slight.
On one of the neighbouring hills, at Bodbé, is the Monastery of
St. Nina. This venerable relic stands in one of the finest pieces
of scenery in all Kakheti, and is surrounded by a thick forest,
which has from the earliest times been protected from destruction
by a popular tradition, declaring that he who breaks off a branch
therein will die within the same year. The monastery was originally
built by King Mirian immediately after the death of the apostle
of Georgia, and her tomb may still be seen in the present church,
which, according to an inscription on one of the walls, was restored
by a certain King Giorgi, after the country had been laid waste by
Tamerlan. In the sacristy are many old manuscripts, amongst which
there are doubtless some of great historical interest, but, as far
as I know, they have not yet been catalogued. On the occasion of my
visit to Bodbé I passed a wine-shop, where three or four Georgians
were making merry; they pressed me to stay and drink with them, but,
offering them my thanks, I begged to be excused on the ground of want
of time. On my return they came out, hat in hand, to the middle of
the road, and presented me with a goblet, which I could not refuse to
drain without giving serious displeasure to my kind entertainers. This
little incident is a very good illustration of the Georgian character:
when the Georgian is merry, everybody else must share his jollity or
he is unhappy. I have seen a squire quite unnecessarily leave a scene
of revelry for a minute or two in order to heap up food in his horse's
manger, so that the faithful beast might share in the universal joy.
A TRIP ACROSS THE ALAZANA.
BAKURTSIKHE--KARTUBAN--LAGODEKH.
By daily excursions among the sloping vine-clad hills I soon made
myself familiar with Kakheti, the garden of Georgia; at Kodalo I had
shared the munificent hospitality of the Andronikovs, at Bakurtsikhe
that of the Vachnadzes; but I had never been in the wild country beyond
the Alazana, and it was with pleasure that I accepted the invitation
of the Princes Vachnadze to accompany them on their yearly visit to
their estates at Kartuban, on the River Kabalo, at the foot of the
mountains on the other side of the plain.
Accordingly, on a certain bright summer morning our cavalcade might
have been seen winding down the steep main street of Signakh. The first
halting-place was to be Bakurtsikhe, seventeen versts from Signakh,
where we had been invited to meet a large company of Kakhetian squires
and ladies at dinner. Our path, for some miles after leaving the
town, lay in the dry bed of a torrent. The remembrance of the wild,
beautiful scenery of that narrow gorge still fills me with delightful
emotions. It was the scene of so many pleasant rides--in the fierce
heat of the noonday sun, in the cool of evening, after midnight on
stormy nights, when we had returned homewards drenched with rain, our
path illumined only by dazzling flashes of lightning. As we picked
our way among the stones we met many a courteous gentleman, most of
them clad in the same Circassian garb as ourselves, but not a few,
especially the older men, in the true national garb--a short tunic,
with long flaps of cloth hanging from the shoulders; a dress said to
resemble the ancient Polish costume. Each raised his tall papakh of
Astrakhan fur, and, with graceful bow, saluted us, after the manner of
the country, with the word Gamardjwéba, which is, being interpreted,
"I wish thee the victory," to which we answered Gaguimardjos--"May
God grant thee the victory." These salutations are as eloquent as a
dozen volumes of history. I never heard them without thinking of the
sad but glorious past of the Georgian kingdom, nobly holding its own,
unaided, and witnessing for Christ and His Cross against all the hosts
of Islam, performing prodigies of valour that would have added to
the fame of Greece or Rome. God grant thee the victory, brave Georgia!
Emerging from the glen, we joined the post road at Anaga, and our
impatient horses set off at a gallop. On we sped through the well-kept
vineyards of a Russian capitalist, Count Sheremetiev, who threatens to
ruin all the poor squires of the district by selling his wines under
cost price. At a little village, about half-way between Signakh and
Bakurtsikhe, two of us had far outstripped the rest, and were racing
neck to neck when my companion's horse cast a shoe; so leaving him at
a roadside smithy, I went on alone. The fierce summer sun stood high
in the blue arch of heaven; on my left were vine-clad crags; to the
right, beyond the river, rose the white peaks of the mountain wall
between me and Europe. But I thought not of Europe. I forgot kindred,
country, humanity--everything. My horse and I were one, and we were
merged in that great, living ocean of life--our mother earth. My pulse
beat in harmony with the heart of Nature herself, keeping time with
the rippling rills, the whisper of the wandering airs to the leaves
of the trembling trees. I had entered a blissful Nirvana, in which
all consciousness of self was swallowed up in the world's soul.
I had ridden half a mile beyond the point whence I should have ascended
by a bridle-path to our host's house, before the cool shade of a cliff
aroused me from my state of forgetfulness. It was on the summit of
this cliff that my friends had recently met their tenants to discuss
some little differences that had arisen between them. Honest folk
do not like law-courts--especially Russian law-courts--so the good
Kakhetians decided to settle their dispute in the old-fashioned,
orthodox manner. A couple of horses were killed, and a good many
men on either side were pretty severely hacked and bruised; but the
landlords came off victorious. They, nevertheless, agreed to grant
certain concessions to the farmers, so all left the field of battle
delighted with one another. It is only just to say that this case was
an exceptional one. The relations between the gentry and peasantry
are excellent; they are on terms of such affectionate familiarity
that the latter always address their prince by his pet name.
Soon after noon we were all enjoying the hospitality of our
friend. When I say hospitality, I am not using the word in its
conventional sense; a Georgian displays towards his guest such courtesy
and kindness as are unknown among European peoples. Other friends soon
arrived, and at three o'clock, the usual dinner-hour, a score of us
sat down to dine in a shady arbour on the hillside. The dishes were
purely Oriental; rich pilavi (rice cooked with fruits, pistachio nuts,
&c.), shishlik (a choice cut of mutton roasted on a silver skewer over
a yard long, on which it is served up), and many another delicacy,
the thought of which makes my mouth water even now. The wine deserves
special mention. Kakheti has one of the finest soils in the world
for grape-growing, and any kind of wine, including fine champagne,
can be produced there. Unfortunately, the people in general have
not yet become acquainted with the methods by which wine has to be
"manipulated" in order to make it at once agreeable to a European
palate. Some of the best brands are not, however, open to this
objection, and are largely sold in Petersburg and Moscow, but they
are not so well known as they deserve to be. Merchants discourage
the introduction of new wines, as our Australian and South African
fellow-subjects know to their cost; but the day will undoubtedly come
when Caucasian vintages will be known and appreciated.
The drinking habits of the Georgians are interesting. A toastmaster
(tolumbash) is always chosen, and it is his duty to propose the
health of each guest in turn. To those who do not drain their glasses
before the time for the next toast has arrived, the tolumbash cries
Alaverdi! to which the laggard replies, Yakhsheol, and immediately
finishes the draught, in order to escape the penalty of swallowing a
large hornful of liquor at a breath. These words are of Tatar origin,
and commemorate a brave Tatar named Alaverdi, who fell in a battle
between the Georgians and Persians. The glasses contain a quarter
of a pint, and the stranger who sits down with a score of friends
is somewhat apprehensive as to the condition in which he will leave
the table. Luckily, the wine is nothing but pure grape-juice, and a
person with a tolerably strong head can dispose of two or three quarts
of it without feeling much the worse. Each toast is accompanied by the
singing of a grand old song called Mraval djamier ghmerthma inebos (May
God grant thee many years), to which the person thus honoured must sing
the reply, Madlobeli vart (I thank you). I have transcribed the song
in the Appendix. The ladies drink water scarcely coloured with wine.
Our dinner lasted more than two hours, and concluded with some
miscellaneous toasts, among which those of England and her Queen were
received with the greatest enthusiasm. Then, after tea, the guests
amused themselves with music and dancing, and nightfall found us all,
young and old, chasing one another about on the hillside in the games
of cat-and-mouse and blindman's buff. It was past midnight before we
retired to rest; some of us lay on the low, carpet-covered takhti,
or divans, which in Georgia replace beds, while those who preferred
it slept out on the green, wrapped up in their cloaks.
It had been arranged that we should start for the Alazana on the
following morning at four o'clock, in order to escape the terrible
midday heat of the low-lying plains by the river-side; but when we
rose we found that a couple of the horses had disappeared, and this
delayed us for two or three hours. At length we started, and, waving
farewells to all our good friends at Bakurtsikhe, we proceeded down
the long slope to the plain. There were six of us, besides a servant,
and we were armed to the teeth, after the manner of the country, with
daggers, pistols, swords, and rifles--not an unnecessary precaution,
for we saw ploughmen with a double-barrelled gun slung over the
shoulder, and sword and dagger at the girdle, while a man stood at
the end of the furrow ready to give the alarm. These fertile lands are
only half tilled. The wild Lesghian marauders come down upon the farms,
and steal all that can be carried away, and in the event of a war they
would simply burn up the whole country to the very gates of Tiflis.
It was a weary journey down to the river-bank, and we did not reach
the ferry until noon. The ferryman lives in a hut a good way from
the river, and it was only after firing half a dozen shots in the
air that we succeeded in attracting his attention. That half-hour
of waiting among the reeds, with the sun right overhead, was the
warmest half-hour I ever spent. At length the ferry-boat, a long
tree-trunk with the inside burnt out of it, came across the stream,
and we took our saddles and bridles and laid them in it. The horses
had, of course, to swim, and it was a long and difficult task to get
them all over. The current is very strong, and it was a subject for
congratulation that none of them were carried away by it. Excepting at
the ferry, the banks are so steep that it is impossible to land. When
all had safely reached the other side we lay down under the shade of
the trees, and lunched off cucumbers and coarse bread, washed down
by the white Kakhetian wine, of which we carried a full sheepskin.
The hottest part of our day's work was over; instead of burnt,
shadowless plains we should now have the sunless forest to ride
through until we reached our halting-place for the night. But we well
knew that we should not be in clover for the rest of the day, for we
had often been told that this wood was infested by a horse-fly of a
very malignant character, and as we rode along the northward path
we had an opportunity of making the acquaintance of the insect in
question. Within a mile of the bank we were surrounded by swarms of
them, and the horses, becoming more and more restless, at last went
perfectly mad with pain, while the blood dripped plentifully from their
flanks. To think of holding them in by bit and bridle was out of the
question, the only thing to be done was to let them gallop ahead and to
keep a sharp look-out for the many boughs that overhung the scarcely
perceptible track. Although Georgia is not in the tropics, this was a
truly tropical forest with all its luxuriant and beautiful vegetation;
walnut and other fancy woods abound, but they are allowed to fall
and rot unutilized; the undergrowth on either hand is so thick as to
be impenetrable; on all sides are masses of strange, bright flowers,
making the air heavy with perfume, and birds of dazzling plumage sit
chattering on every tree.
About an hour before sunset we reached the river Kabalo, a swift,
shallow mountain stream, which we forded, and then rode up a fine
glade to the encampment of my friends' Tatar herdsmen. About a score
of families live there all the summer in large tents, which are not
altogether devoid of comfort; in the interior may be seen carpeted
divans, gold and silver ornaments are not uncommon, and the copper
household utensils are thoroughly artistic in shape and beautifully
engraved. We dismounted at the chief man's tent, and, lying down on
the greensward, waited impatiently for dinner. The fare was abundant
and good, as was to be expected in a country so rich in game and fish,
and we slaked our thirst with cool kumiss (fermented mare's milk). The
Tatars are fine, bold-looking fellows; there is in their faces a
look of wild freedom that is extremely attractive to one who has
spent the most of his life in cities. I believe that if I had stayed
a week or two in that camp on the Kabalo, I should have been content
to renounce civilized life altogether. A very houri, a gazelle of the
wilderness, a sixteen-year old maiden in red tunic and wide trousers,
with long dark hair in countless tiny braids and pretty little white
bare feet and ankles, cast timid glances in our direction, and lovely,
languorous eyes said as plainly as possible, "Fly to the desert! fly
with me" ... and many other things which the curious reader may find
recorded in the works of the late Mr. Thos. Moore.
At nightfall we rode away, accompanied by a few Tatars, to visit
the large herds of horses and cattle which feed near here, and
then proceeded to the little cluster of cottages where the Georgian
farm-labourers live, about a couple of miles higher up the river. We
were received by the steward, a Greek from Cilicia, and after chatting
merrily over our tea for a few hours, we spread our burkas on the
ground and slept as well as the clouds of fierce mosquitoes would allow
us to do, under the starlit sky, lulled by the music of the stream.
About an hour before dawn the cold aroused us all, and after a
bath in the icy waters of the Kabalo, and a hasty breakfast, we
visited the farm-buildings. Tobacco is the chief commodity produced,
but its cultivation is at present rather unprofitable; I saw three
hundred bales of the finest leaves of last year's growth lying in
the store unsold; it is quite equal to Turkish, and can be bought at
a ridiculously low price, but it is not yet known in Europe, even in
Russia "Batumskii tabak" has only recently been introduced, although it
is far superior to that which is grown on the Don. Georgian landowners
cannot afford to push the sale of their wares in Europe, but I am sure
that if English firms would send out buyers they would not regret it,
unless they dealt with the wily Armenian middle-man instead of the
Georgian producer. The fear of the Lesghian robber-bands prevents any
great outlay of capital in the development of such a district, and,
indeed, nobody in Georgia has much capital to spare, so the greater
part of the estate I am speaking of, hundreds of square miles in
extent, is a pathless forest.
By eight o'clock we were in the saddle. The path rises through thick
woodlands to the summit of a hill crossed by a narrow, rocky pass
which has an unpleasant reputation as being the haunt of brigands;
only a few weeks before, a party of travellers had been attacked there,
two of their number were wounded, and they were all relieved of their
purses, jewellery, and arms. We were within half a mile of the top when
we perceived a Lesghian prowling about a little in advance of us. We
halted, unslung our fire-arms and loaded, then extending for attack,
as far as the nature of of the country would allow, we went forward
at a quick walking pace. We soon caught sight of three more Lesghians,
but this was evidently the whole force, for they contented themselves
with looking at us from a distance, and seeing that the odds were
in our favour, they galloped away into the depths of the forest,
and left us to pursue our journey unmolested.
Climbing to the summit of the hill, we enjoyed a splendid view of
the Alazana valley from the opposite side to that whence we had been
accustomed to see it; behind us rose the white peaks of the Caucasus,
looking very near in the clear morning air. A little way off the blue
smoke rising from among the trees showed us where our friends, the
highwaymen, were cooking their breakfast. To the eastward, almost at
the foot of the hill, lay the Russian military colony of Mikhailovka,
to which we descended.
Mikhailovka is fairly prosperous compared with other Russian
colonies in Transcaucasia, but to a European it does not seem an
Arcadia; it is one wide, straggling street of poor, dirty-looking
farmhouses. The colonists have to struggle with fever and ague,
not to speak of Lesghians, and altogether do not seem to enjoy their
life very much. Mikhailovka is the point at which the military road
from Signakh turns to the eastward, and about five miles farther
on arrives at Lagodekh, the staff head-quarters of an army corps,
into which we rode about an hour before noon.
Lagodekh is a place of some size, with wide, clean streets and large
grassy squares, planted with fine trees, the houses are neat and
comfortable-looking. Swift mountain streams run through it and supply
delicious water. The public buildings comprise barracks, hospital,
stores, a fine church of red sandstone, a modest club-house, bazar,
&c. We made our way to the quarters of an officer of the 39th, whose
hospitality we enjoyed until evening. In spite of the terrible heat,
our host showed us everything worth seeing. The park is the great
attraction, it is beautifully kept, and contains a fine long avenue
of tall poplars; in the middle of it is a pavilion with the garrison
ball-room, and near the entrance may be seen a small cemetery where
there is a real, old-fashioned ghost, which, under the semblance of
a white lady carrying a cross, affrights the local Tommy Atkins every
year in the month of June. I commend this sprite to the attention of
the Psychical Research Society, and I am quite willing to proceed to
Lagodekh and spend a month there in investigating the matter--at the
Society's expense.
The troops suffer a good deal in the summer months, and there are
many casualties from apoplexy, dysentery, and other complaints.
Early in the afternoon we sat down to dinner, and did full justice to
the fare. My neighbour on the right was the brother of a charming lady
whom I had met in Tiflis, and it so happened that he had that very day
received from her a letter in which I was spoken of, for Englishmen are
rare birds in these lands. This gentleman had wandering proclivities
almost as strong as my own, and he informed me that he thought of
travelling overland by Merv to India, "where the English pay private
soldiers as much as the Russians pay a captain." After dinner we all
slept for an hour, and then, the heat having slightly diminished,
we started for Mikhailovka. A bear hunt was to take place on the
following day, and we were urgently pressed to stay and take part in
it, but we had to be back in Signakh within the next twenty-four hours,
and were therefore obliged to deny ourselves this pleasure.
Before we were clear of Lagodekh somebody had the unfortunate idea of
starting a wild gallop, but the spot was badly chosen, for a sudden
turn in the road brought us to a river with a wide, stony bed. The
leading horse threw his rider into the very middle of the stream,
I was deposited on a heap of big stones on the other side; all the
rest, warned by our mishap, escaped. It took over an hour to catch
the runaway horses, and when we reached Mikhailovka I felt as if
I had passed through a thrashing-mill, every bone was aching. Our
camping-ground was under a large oak-tree, behind a peasant's house,
and we lay there on the ground, a prey to the mosquitoes, until
early morning.
At half-past four we were in the saddle, and after a stirrup-cup
of Russian vodka, galloped down the smooth, well-kept military road
towards the Alazana, occasionally glancing back at the beautiful hill
country behind us. I felt all my many bruises with double force after
the night's rest, and it was as much as I could do to keep my seat, not
to speak of emulating the exploits of my companions, who were amusing
themselves with shots at the hares and feathered game with which the
country abounds. At length, at about eight o'clock, we reached the
Chiauri Bridge, a shaky-looking wooden structure. There is a wretched
little wine-shop, where we dismounted for breakfast. A fine fish of
fifteen pounds' weight, with some of the coarse, indiarubber-like
bread of the country, formed the solid part of the meal; I need not
say what the liquid part of it was; we emptied our sheepskin and then
fell back on mine host's supplies. The river, in summer at least,
is sluggish and dirty, and has an evil smell of decaying vegetable
matter, very suggestive of malarial fever; if our acquaintance with
the Alazana had been confined to this portion of it, we should have
been at a loss to understand the high praise which has been bestowed
on it by all the sweet singers of Rustaveli's land.
We spent a couple of hours in rest and refreshment, and then started
for home across the broad plain yellow with ripe grain. Noon saw us
begin the toilsome ascent of the hills of Signakh, and an hour later
we were lying on our balcony dreamily smoking cigarettes of Kartuban
tobacco, while we mentally retraced every step of our delightful
journey among the fair scenes which now lay spread at our feet.
SIGNAKH TO TELAV, AND THENCE TO TIFLIS.
My stay in Kakheti was so pleasant that I found it very hard to
leave. My good friends there insisted that I should marry a Georgian
lady and settle down as a country squire, to grow wine and drink
it among them for the remainder of my natural life; when I finally
decided upon the day for my departure they pressed me to stay, at
least, until the vintage-time, but I still had much ground to go over,
and I had made up my mind to return to England before winter set in.
One morning in July I said good-bye to Signakh, and set out in a
post-cart for Telav. As far as Bakurtsikhe the road was quite familiar
to me; it had never seemed so beautiful as it did when I said farewell
to it. Then came Kalaki, which like Bakurtsikhe, is full of members
of the Vachnadze family, and Gurdjani, one of the villages belonging
to the Andronikovs. The Andronikovs are descended from a Byzantine
prince who fled to Georgia during the reign of Queen Tamara; they
have always been distinguished for bravery and munificence, the two
virtues which are most appreciated in this country; in the present
century they have produced a general worthy to rank with any who have
ever served the Tsars. I may say, in passing, that it is astonishing
to find what a large percentage of the great military leaders in the
Russian army have been and are of Georgian birth. Another curious
circumstance is that some of the best families in Georgia are of
foreign origin; the Bagrats, the royal family, were once Hebrews, and
claim to be descended from David, the son of Jesse; the Orbelianis,
the second family in the kingdom, came from China; the Andronikovs,
as we have just remarked, were originally Greeks.
Near Gurdjani is Akhtala, a muddy hollow in which are slime baths,
resorted to by persons suffering from rheumatism, scrofula, and
many other diseases; the baths are simply round holes full of mud,
in the middle of which an evil-smelling gas slowly bubbles up;
the largest bath of all is reserved for cattle. I need hardly say
that all the bathing goes on al fresco, for nobody has thought of
building a hydropathic establishment in this remote corner of the
Caucasus. Akhtala has, of course, its legend. It is said that a farmer
was once working in his vineyard on the Feast of the Transfiguration,
when a passer-by asked him why he was not at church on so holy a
day. The scoffer replied that he had seen enough of transfigurations,
he and his wife had been transfigured into old people, and their
children into men and women; the wayfarer, who was none other than
our Lord, said, "Well, you shall see yet another transfiguration,"
whereupon the ground opened, and belched forth a liquid mass, which
swallowed up the vineyard, with the sinner and all his household.
The road continues to run parallel to the Alazana, and the next
station is Mukuzani, seventeen versts from Bakurtsikhe, near which is
the flourishing town of Velistsikhe. All this region is a fertile,
well-cultivated plain, and there are many villages renowned for
their wines; the peasants of the Telav district are much wealthier
than those near Signakh. Akuri, fourteen versts from Mukuzani, is
the last station. The city of Telav is now visible on the top of a
hill straight in front, and it has a very picturesque appearance.
About half a dozen miles beyond Akuri, in a beautiful valley, is
Tsinondal, formerly the home of Prince David Chavchavadze, but now the
property of Alexander Alexandrovich, Autocrat of all the Russias, for
whom a vast palace was being built at the time of my visit. The Tsar
would be far safer here than at Gachina, for there are no anarchists
among the Georgians, and I cannot account for the rumour that it was
proposed to exile a large number of the young nobles, in order to
assure the monarch's safety during his sojourn in the Caucasus.
Tsinondal is famous as the scene of one of the most dramatic
incidents of the war with Shamil, viz., the capture of Princesses
Chavchavadze and Orbeliani in July, 1854. On account of rumours of
Lesghian raids the Chavchavadze family had not left Tiflis for their
estates until the month of July. They arrived safely at Tsinondal,
and were soon joined by Nina Chavchavadze's sister, Princess Varvara
Orbeliani, whose husband had just been killed while fighting against
the Turks. They were but newly settled in their summer quarters,
when Prince Chavchavadze received orders to go and take the command
of a fortress some distance from home. Before leaving, he reassured
his family by telling them that reinforcements were about to be sent
to Telav, and that the Alazana was so high that the enemy could not
cross it. In a few days the prince wrote to his wife to say that he
was besieged by a force of five or six thousand Lesghians, but had
no fear of the place being taken; if he thought it advisable for his
family to leave Tsinondal, he would let them know.
Meanwhile the Lesghians were nearer than was imagined, and the flames
from burning villages in the neighbourhood soon warned the family that
no time was to be lost. First of all the peasants came and begged
the princess to fly to the woods with them; then the gentry of the
district offered their aid for the same purpose, but these offers were
declined; her husband had told her to stay there, and there she would
stay. At length, the advance of the enemy had proceeded so far in the
direction of Tsinondal, that the princess consented to have all her
plate and jewels packed up one night, ready for flight on the morrow;
but it was too late. Soon after dawn the Lesghians were in the gardens
of the castle. The family doctor and a handful of servants gallantly
held the gate for a few minutes, but they were soon shot down, and
the place was in the hands of the wild men of the mountains.
The women and children sought refuge in a garret, whence they heard
the smashing of mirrors, pianos, and other furniture. A few Lesghians
soon discovered the hiding-place of the terrified family, and each
seized a woman or child as his share of the booty. As they bore away
their prisoners the staircase broke under their weight, and all fell
in a confused heap on the lower floor. Then there was a murderous
fight for the possession of the ladies; their garments were torn to
shreds, and some of them were wounded. The conquerors picked up the
senseless victims from a heap of dead Lesghians, and forced them to
mount on horseback behind them.
The passage of the Alazana was accomplished with great danger, and when
they reached the other side the half-naked ladies were wet, chilled,
and miserable. Strange to tell, Princess Baratov, a beautiful girl of
eighteen, had not lost any article of dress, and was as richly attired
as if she had been on her way to a ball. But poor Mdme. Drançay,
the French governess, had nothing left but a chemise and a corset. A
handful of Georgians attempted a rescue; the Lesghians mistook them
for the skirmishers in advance of an army, and fled. Princess Nina
Chavchavadze had an infant in her arms, and after riding for some
distance she was so wearied that the baby fell and was trampled under
the horses' feet. She would have leaped after it, but her captor held
her fast, and another man coolly cut the child's throat.
Finding the number of prisoners too large, the Lesghians killed sixty
of them on the road. All the villages on the way were burned, and their
inhabitants butchered. Then they mounted through a thick forest and
up among the mountains to Pokhalski, where Shamil was staying with an
army of ten thousand men. There they were joined by a new prisoner,
Niko Chavchavadze, who, with thirty Georgians, had held a castle for
three days against five hundred Lesghians, and only surrendered when
he had not a cartridge left. Shamil ordered the princess to write to
Tiflis saying that all the prisoners would be handed over to Russia in
exchange for his son, Djemal Eddin, and a fair ransom. In the meantime
the ladies had to make themselves veils of muslin, and they lived in
the harem of Shamil. They were, however, treated honourably, and they
always had the highest respect for the great warrior and prophet.
Eight months elapsed before the negotiations were concluded, and on
the 10th of March, 1855, the exchange took place at Kasafiurte. Djemal
Eddin, Shamil's son, had since his early youth been held as a hostage
at Petersburg. He was a most amiable man; had become perfectly Russian
in his way of life, and spoke Russian, French, and German fluently;
he was colonel of a regiment, and aide-de-camp to the Tsar. It was
with deep regret that he left civilization to return to the wild life
of his native mountains, and in 1858 he died of a broken heart.
Mounting the sloping Tsivi hills, the road enters Telav by the
Boulevard, at one end of which is the inn; but on my applying for
lodgings I was told that the house was under repair, and travellers
could not be entertained. I was recommended to go to "The Club." At the
Club the room offered me was so dirty and cheerless that I decided
to make the post-house my headquarters. It was only one o'clock
in the afternoon, and I determined to have an early dinner. In a
town like Telav, thought I, it will be possible to get something
to eat. I first addressed myself to the postmaster, who replied
that boiling-water was the only refreshment he could offer me, but
held out the hope that I might get dinner in the town. I wandered
up and down the streets for an hour, hungry, thirsty, and hot, and
then found a dirty eating-house where I refreshed myself with vodka,
eggs, wine, and bread. It took three quarters of an hour to boil the
eggs! I leave the reader to imagine whether my first impressions of
Telav were favourable or not. I returned to the station and slept.
It was beginning to get cooler before I went to examine the objects
of interest in the town. Telav, the capital of the ancient kingdom of
Kakheti, lies in a very strong position on two hills, about 1400 feet
above the Alazana. It was founded by King Grigal I., first king of
Kakheti, destroyed by the Persians under Shah Abbas in the sixteenth
century, and rebuilt by Irakli II. The present population is about
eight or nine thousand. In going from the post-house to the centre
of the town I passed through a gateway in the old wall, which used
to surround the whole city, and is of great antiquity. On the left
is the palace of Irakli II., now used as a grammar-school for young
gentlewomen, and in it may be seen the room where the old hero died,
on January 11th, 1798. There are a couple of interesting old churches,
containing curious pictures and ornaments of a certain artistic
value. The main street is well paved, and has a long arcade under
which are the chief shops. Telav is much more cheerful than Signakh,
although the population is smaller, and there are comparatively
few Armenians. From a low bridge across the dry bed of a torrent,
one gets a splendid view over the Alazana to the Caucasian range and
the country of the Tushes.
When I had seen all the sights of Telav, I felt bored to death, and
was just preparing to leave the Boulevard for a walk in the country,
when a handsome boy of fourteen, in a cadet's uniform, ran up and
welcomed me effusively. It was young Prince M----, whom I had met in
Tiflis. He was soon followed by his father, a retired colonel, who
has done good service for the great white Tsar, and has been wounded
more than once. Although I had only seen him once or twice before,
he reproached me for not coming to take up my quarters at his house,
and repeatedly urged me to stay a few days with him. But I had made
up my mind to leave for Tiflis early on the following morning. We
took a walk in the park called Nadikari, given to the town by the
Vakhvakhovs, and enjoyed enchanting views of the Alazana dale and
the mountains. Returning to my friend's house, we supped, and sat
over our wine until past midnight. When I left for the post-house
the grey-headed warrior and his pretty son embraced me and wished me
every good thing. They insisted upon sending with me a servant who
carried wine and bread for my journey.
At four o'clock on the following morning I left my wooden couch,
and seated myself in the stage-coach for Tiflis. I only had two
companions, an Armenian trader of the most objectionable description,
and a Georgian schoolmaster on his way to Odessa for a holiday. The
latter was a very jolly fellow, and intelligent withal. He was an
ardent champion of the doctrines of the First Revolution, and of the
modern principle of nationality. He soon entered into conversation with
me. My unmistakably foreign accent immediately roused his curiosity,
and when I told him that I was English he steadfastly refused to
believe me, asserting that I was a Mingrelian. The road passes through
a few villages, and then, as it mounts by the side of the river,
the houses become scarcer. On the right are many square holes in the
face of a steep cliff; they are said, like those between Tiflis and
Mtzkhet, to have been used as places of refuge in time of war, and
they are approached from a monastery on the top of the hill. On the
left is the monastery of the Mother of God, a favourite resort of the
people of Telav. The track then runs along the bottom of the valley,
on the right bank of the river Turdo, amid rich woodland scenery.
It takes a long time to mount to the summit of Gambori. This
winding road had only recently been opened to traffic, and there is
no posting yet. The best means of conveyance is the daily coach,
and it is a slow and uncomfortable vehicle. I had been advised to
make a good meal at Gambori station, and, as the coach waits there
for half an hour, I entered the dukhan, or wine-shop, with this
object in view. Alas! nothing was to be had but vodka, tobacco, and
matches! Beyond Gambori the scenery becomes quite English-looking
for a time. There is abundance of game of all kinds, and I saw two
fine deer run across the road behind us. Climbing to a grassy knoll,
bare of trees, we arrived at length at the Pass of Gambori, deservedly
called Cold Mountain (6044 feet above sea level, and thirty-four versts
from Telav), and, leaving Kakheti behind us, descended into the valley
of the Iora and the province of Kartli. Passing the ruined castle
of Verena, built in the fifth century by King Gurgaslan, we enjoy an
ever-changing view of indescribable loveliness all the way to Lager.
Lager, as the name indicates, is a military post, and is of some
importance on account of its position, about half-way between Tiflis
and Telav; it is the summer quarters of a brigade. The garrison was
not at that time very large, but there was some talk of increasing it;
indeed, we met a couple of hundred men and half a dozen guns only a
few versts beyond the village. The heat was terrible, and we could
not help pitying the poor soldiers, who were cursing and sweating
as they toiled up the mountain side. The radical schoolmaster began
to descant on the advantages of universal disarmament, but he was
interrupted by a good little peasant woman from the Russian colony
at Lager, who replied that it was certainly very hard, but "if we
had not a large army the English would come and make slaves of us all."
The next station was Udjarma, a fortress of great importance from the
third century to the fifteenth, but now an uninteresting place, chiefly
remarkable for the fact that the village graveyard is on the top of
a very steep, isolated hill. From this point the road becomes dull;
it crosses a bare, windy plain, and is as wearisome as the Signakh
road, which it meets near Vaziani. The white church of St. David's
was soon seen glittering in the sun; then Orkhevi was passed, and not
long after sunset we entered Tiflis, hot, dusty, tired, and hungry,
after our journey of 70 versts. I spent two days in Tiflis, where
the heat had by that time become stifling; then I regretfully doffed
my Circassian garb, and again submitted to the bondage of the stiff
linen collar. On the afternoon of the third day I was in Baku.
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
Georgian history may be said to begin with Pharnavaz, the first
king of the country, who reigned in the third century B.C. It is to
him that the invention of the ordinary civil alphabet is commonly
attributed. From this remote date down to the present time we have an
almost unbroken narrative, the trustworthiness of which is proved
by its agreement with the annals of other lands. Those who are
specially interested in the early history will find in the sequel
such bibliographical references as will enable them to satisfy their
curiosity; but the present sketch will be confined to the more modern
period, beginning in the eleventh century A.D.
In 1089 David II., of the Bagratid line, descended, if we are to
believe tradition, from David the Psalmist (note the harp and the
sling in the royal arms of Georgia), as well as from Pharnavaz,
came to the throne. During the reigns of his immediate predecessors
the land had been mercilessly laid waste by the Seldjukid Turks;
but the successes of the Crusaders, and the temporary decline of the
Mahometan power in the East, enabled him to raise his country to a
very high position. Having boldly attacked the Turks, and driven them
out of every part of his dominions, he set himself to rebuild cities,
fortresses, and churches, purged the state and the church of many
abuses, and liberally encouraged education. These deeds have won for
him the name of David the Renewer. Georgia enjoyed prosperity for
the next hundred years, and then came the zenith of the national glory.
In 1184 Queen Tamara succeeded her father, and reigned twenty-eight
years, the happiest and most glorious period in the history of the
country. The queen had the good fortune to be surrounded by wise
counsellors and brave generals, but it is chiefly to her own virtues
that her success is to be ascribed. The military exploits in which she
was engaged spread her fame throughout the whole of Asia. Erzerum,
Dovin, Trebizond, Sinope, Samsun, Kars, and Ani saw the triumph of
the Georgian arms, the renowned Rokn Eddin was signally defeated,
and the Persians were terror-stricken by her expedition to Khorassan.
Yet she did not neglect home affairs; she was the orphan's mother,
the widow's judge. Religion was the moving force in everything that
she did; when a large booty was captured, a portion of it was always
set aside for the Blessed Virgin, and churches soon sprang up in every
village. She daily spent much time in prayer, and made garments for
the poor with her own fair, queenly hands. There is a tradition to the
effect that she every day did as much work as would pay for her food,
and although this is probably an exaggeration, it serves to show what
the character of the queen was.
Her literary talents were of no mean order; when she had won a battle,
she could, like Deborah, tell forth her triumph in a sweet, glad song
to the Lord of Hosts, and one, at least, of these psalms is still
preserved; but it is chiefly as the inspirer and patroness of poets
that she is famous. Such fragments of her correspondence as we have
before us reveal the fact that she was no mean diplomatist. One of
them especially breathes forth a noble spirit of fearless faith. Rokn
Eddin had raised an army of 800,000 men, and was preparing to march
against Georgia. Before setting out he sent an ambassador to the
queen, asking her to renounce Christianity and become his wife, and
concluding the letter with the threat that if she would not submit,
he would come and make her his mistress. The ambassador who proposed
such insolent terms would have been killed by Tamara's courtiers
if she had not protected him. She wrote back calmly, expressing her
trust in God, and declaring her determination to destroy Rokn Eddin
and his infidel hosts. She finishes with a truly womanly touch:
"Knowing how careless your men are, I do not return this by your
messenger, but send one of my own servants with it."
Not contented with driving the Mahometans out of her own land,
she sent ambassadors to the Christian communities in Alexandria,
Libya, Mount Sinai, Jerusalem, Cyprus, Greece, and Rumania, to offer
them help if they needed it; and in order to secure orthodoxy in the
theology of her people, she commanded that a great disputation should
be held between the doctors of the Georgian and Armenian Churches.
Her private life was not free from trouble. Three years after
her accession she was prevailed upon to marry a Russian prince,
Bogoliubovskoi, who had been driven out of his dominions in
Muscovy. This individual conducted himself towards his consort in a
shameful manner, and, after enduring his indignities for a long time,
she complained to the ecclesiastical authorities, who granted her a
divorce. She had no children by her first husband, so the nobles of
the kingdom pressed her to marry again, in order that she might have
an heir. Her beauty and her fame brought her suitors from the most
distant lands. Mahometans renounced their religion for her, and there
were many that died for love of her. She chose Prince David Soslan,
an Osset, who, by his bravery and devotion, proved himself worthy to
possess such a pearl among women, and she bore him a son, called Giorgi
Lasha, in 1194, and a daughter, Rusudan, in 1195. Bogoliubovskoi,
although he had been treated far beyond his deserts, twice invaded
Georgia, but without success.
In 1212, wearied by her continual campaigns, and sorrow-stricken at
the death of her husband and her greatest general, Tamara died, and
left the throne to her son, Giorgi Lasha, at that time eighteen years
of age. The young king was no sooner crowned than Ganja revolted,
and this was soon followed by a still greater calamity, the invasion
of Genghis Khan. Giorgi led 90,000 troops against the Mongols, but
was defeated. In the meantime the Shah of Persia had asked for the
hand of the beautiful Rusudan, and the Shah of Shirvan made a like
demand. Giorgi promised his sister to the latter, but he died in 1223.
Rusudan now became queen, and rejected both suitors in favour of Mogit
Eddin, Lord of Erzerum. The Sultan of Khorassan thereupon desolated
Georgia and took Tiflis, and the Persians and Mongols together made
terrible havoc for a time. Rusudan at last submitted to the Mongols,
and sent her son to the great Khan as a hostage. Georgia had now
sunk very low indeed, and in 1243, on the death of Rusudan, her son,
David IV., and her nephew, David V., divided the kingdom between
them. Henceforth Kartli and Imereti were independent.
For the next 200 years we read of nothing but battles, sieges,
raids, and in 1445 King Alexander completely destroyed the unity
of the kingdom by dividing it among his three sons. He gave Kartli
to Vakhtang, Imereti to Dimitri, Kakheti to Giorgi. In course of
time Mingreli, Guri, Apkhazi, Svaneti, all revolted, and the land
became the prey of Turks and Persians alternately, although even in
its distracted condition, its people never lost their bravery, and
were always respected by their enemies. Now and then the Mahometans
succeeded in conquering one or other of the provinces, but it was
never long before they were driven out again, and fire and sword
carried into their own land.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century we find the country divided
between the two great Mahometan powers, who had long made it their
battle-field. Mingreli, Guri, Saatabago, and Imereti were held by the
Turks; Kartli, Kakheti, Somkheti, and Kartuban voluntarily submitted
to Persia, and were, in consequence, repeatedly devastated by the
Tatar allies of the Ottoman Empire. In 1586 King Alexander II. of
Kakheti sent ambassadors to the Tsar Feodor Ivanovich, asking for
help, and a treaty was signed, according to which the Russian monarch
agreed to protect Kakheti against the Turks, and to send troops to the
Caucasus for this purpose. Shah Abbas the Great made no objection to
this treaty, for he himself was anxious to gain the alliance of the
Muscovites against Turkey.
Early in the seventeenth century King Giorgi of Kartli also sought
Russian protection, and it is probable that Russia and Georgia would
have been brought into very intimate connection by royal marriages,
&c., if the death of Tsar Boris Godunov, and that of King Giorgi,
who was poisoned by order of Shah Abbas, had not broken off the
negotiations. The Persian Shah, suspecting King Alexander of Kakheti
of a treasonable correspondence with the Turks, sent against him his
(Alexander's) own son, Konstantin, who had been brought up at the
Persian Court, and had embraced Islam. This apostate mercilessly
killed his father and brother; but the nobles rose against him,
and almost annihilated his army, whereupon he fled to the Lesghians,
and offered to allow them to plunder Tiflis for three days if they
would help him. They agreed. The nobles were defeated, and the land
was again given up to the devastating infidels.
King Teimuraz of Kakheti, grandson of Alexander, in 1619, from
a hiding-place in the mountains, sent an embassy to the Tsar
Mikhail Feodorovich, beseeching him to have pity on his Georgian
fellow-Christians. The Tsar requested Shah Abbas to cease from
persecuting the Georgians, and his wish was granted in the most
friendly way possible. Not only was Teimuraz allowed to return to
Kakheti, but Kartli also was given to him, and remained a part of his
kingdom until 1634, when it was taken from him and given to Rostom,
a Mahometan. In 1653 Rostom took Kakheti also, and Teimuraz was
obliged to seek refuge at the Court of Imereti, whence he proceeded
to Moscow to ask for help; but in consequence of the war then being
waged against Poland, the Tsar could not spare any troops. Teimuraz
returned to Georgia, and was taken prisoner by the Shah.
Imereti was at this time governed by King Bagrat, who came to
the throne at the age of fifteen, his stepmother, Daredjan, being
appointed regent. Daredjan endeavoured to gain the love of the young
king, who was already married to her niece, and on his refusal to
listen to her incestuous proposals, she had his eyes put out, and
married Vakhtang Dshudshuna, whom she proclaimed king. Assisted by
the Pasha of Akhaltsikhe, the loyal Imeretians replaced Bagrat the
Blind on the throne, and then the eyes of Vakhtang were put out,
and he and Daredjan were imprisoned.
On the death of Rostom, in 1658, Vakhtang IV., of the Mukhran family,
became King of Kartli and Kakheti, and reigned till 1676. When he died
his son Giorgi usurped the throne of Kartli, leaving only Kakheti
to his elder brother Archil, who journeyed to Moscow, but did not
get the desired aid from Russia. He then returned to the Caucasus,
five times succeeded in obtaining the crown of Imereti, and five
times was deposed. He died in Russia in 1713.
In 1703 Vakhtang V. came to the throne of Kartli. The first seven years
of his reign were spent as a prisoner in Ispahan. In 1723 there was a
fresh invasion of Turks, and, thinking his kingdom irrevocably lost,
he fled to Russia, where he died.
Shah Nadir usurped the crown of Persia in 1736, and freed Kartli
and Kakheti from the Turkish yoke. A little before his accession,
in 1732, Russia had renounced in favour of Persia all right to the
land between the Terek and the Kura. Nadir ingratiated himself with
the Georgian nobility, and always gave them the post of honour in
the victorious campaigns for which his reign is famous. Almost all
the great warriors of the land accompanied him on his Indian march of
conquest, and his especial favourite was Irakli, the son of Teimuraz,
King of Kartli and Kakheti. An interesting story is told concerning
the young warrior, in connection with this expedition. Kandahar having
been taken in 1737, Nadir was marching towards Scinde, when he arrived
at a certain column bearing an inscription which foretold death to
those who went beyond it. Irakli, at that time only nineteen years
of age, solved the difficulty by ordering the stone to be placed on
the back of an elephant, which was led before the army. Scinde was
conquered, and Irakli was richly rewarded. The Shah endeavoured to
persuade the young prince to renounce the Christian religion, but
neither threats nor caresses prevailed. India having been conquered,
Nadir dismissed Irakli in 1739, and then invaded Central Asia, taking
Balkh, Bokhara, Samarkand, whence he returned to the Caucasus and
made war on the Lesghians. Irakli continued to distinguish himself
by great bravery. On the Aragva he defeated 2000 Turks and Lesghians,
was the first to cross the swollen river under a heavy musketry fire,
and killed the leader of the enemy with his own hand. For this service
Nadir bestowed upon him the kingdom of Kakheti in 1744.
In 1747 Shah Nadir was assassinated, and a period of anarchy began
in Persia. Aga Mahmad Khan, the chief eunuch, usurped the dignity of
Shah. Teimuraz and Irakli saved Erivan from the Persians in 1748,
and this city paid tribute to Georgia until 1800, when the people,
not wishing to fall into the hands of Russia, invited Persia to take
the place. In 1749 Irakli, with 3000 men, signally defeated 18,000
Persians at Karaboulakh and again saved Erivan; then Granja was
taken, the Lesghians were dispersed, and an alliance was made with
the Cherkesses. Teimuraz went to Russia in 1760; Tsaritsa Elizabeth
received him with great honour, and promised to send troops to Georgia,
but she died in 1761, and Teimuraz only survived her about a fortnight.
Irakli now succeeded to the throne of Kartli, and thus reunited this
kingdom to Kakheti. The Catholicos Antoni, the most learned Georgian
of his time, was recalled from exile in Russia and made patriarch;
he founded at Tiflis and Telav schools where the "new philosophy"
of Bacmeister was taught, translated many educational works into his
native tongue, reformed the Church and encouraged literature.
A plot was formed against the king's life in 1765, under the following
circumstances: Elizabeth, Irakli's sister, had been married for
three years to a certain Giorgi, son of Dimitri Amilakhorishvili,
who, for physical reasons, had been unable to consummate the
marriage. Elizabeth applied for and obtained a divorce. Dimitri
thought himself insulted in the person of his son, and he and his
friends began to conspire with Paata, a natural son of Vakhtang V.,
who had been educated in Russia and England, and had just arrived in
Georgia from the Persian court. Paata was to kill Irakli and proclaim
himself king. The conspiracy was discovered in time, and all those
who had taken part in it were punished with death or mutilation.
Solomon, king of Imereti, had, in the meantime, been driven from his
throne by the treachery of some of his nobles, who delivered Kutais,
Shorapan and other fortresses to the Turks. He appealed to Catherine
of Russia for help. Count Todleben arrived in the Caucasus with
5000 men in 1769, and Kutais was taken back, and Imereti freed from
the oppression of the Turks. In the following year a great plague
devastated the whole of Transcaucasia, 5000 died in Tiflis alone. The
Holy Spear from the Armenian Convent at Edchmiadzin was brought out,
and the plague ceased; whereupon the Lesghians demanded that the
precious relic should be sent to them also; a spear was made exactly
like the holy one, and it produced the same beneficent effect. Todleben
was succeeded by Sukhotin, and in 1772, peace having been restored,
the Russians returned homeward. But no sooner were they gone than
the Turks again invaded Imereti; King Solomon, however, defeated them
with great slaughter, killing many with his own hand.
Irakli's kingdom enjoyed comparative peace and prosperity for a time,
and advantage was taken of this to disband the regular army and
organize a militia, for the defence of the country against the raids
of the irrepressible Lesghians. The king and his sons set an example
to the people by subjecting themselves to the same discipline as
private individuals, and those who did not present themselves for
service were sought out and beaten with sticks. In 1779 the Khan
of Erivan refused to pay tribute, and strongly fortified the city;
the Georgians took the place and carried off several Armenians, who
were removed to Tiflis, Gori, and Signakh, where they now constitute
the trading and money-lending community.
In 1795 happened the terrible catastrophe which was to bring about the
ruin of Georgia--the destruction of Tiflis by the Shah Aga Mahmad. The
Persians marched through Armenia in great force, and reached the
banks of the Kura without meeting with any serious opposition. Their
advanced guard was attacked by the Georgians just outside the city,
and was defeated on the 10th of September. Speaking of this battle, the
Shah himself said, "I never saw so valorous a foe." On the following
day the main body arrived, and Tiflis was taken by storm. King Irakli
was so overcome with grief that he must have fallen into the hands
of the enemy had not a few faithful nobles forcibly removed him from
the captured city and conveyed him to Mtiuleti, on the Aragva. Almost
all the Georgian artillery, thirty-five guns, was taken, and the city
and its environs were burnt to the ground.
For six days the work of destruction went on; women and young children
were barbarously murdered, and the stench of rotting corpses made the
place uninhabitable. A Persian historian says, "The brave Persian
army showed the unbelieving Georgians what is in store for them at
the day of judgment." All this havoc might have been prevented if
Russia had sent the troops which she had solemnly promised by her
treaties with Irakli, for the Shah had been making preparations for
the invasion four months before it took place, and both Russia and
Georgia were well aware of this.
Prince Giorgi, unworthy son of such a father, had been repeatedly
ordered to bring his army to Tiflis, but he refused. No sooner did
he hear of the fall of the capital than he prepared to flee from
Signakh, although the place was strongly fortified, and there were
many armed men there; but the inhabitants refused to let him go,
and it was only by bribing his guards that he succeeded in escaping
to Telav. Not one of Irakli's sons served him in the hour of his need.
Mtzkhet was captured and burnt, but the famous cathedral was spared,
at the entreaty of the Khan of Nakhitshevan, who remonstrated against
the desecration of the tomb of so many of Georgia's brave kings.
From Mtiuleti, Irakli proceeded to Ananur. The Shah sent after him
8000 men, guided by one of the king's own courtiers, but they were
defeated. Aga Mahmad then offered to give up all the prisoners as
well as the citadel of Tiflis if Irakli would renounce his treaty with
Russia, and become tributary to Persia; but Irakli would not hear of
any terms, however favourable, which would force him to be false to
his alliance with Russia, although she, on her part, had forsaken
him. He quickly assembled an army and marched to the southward,
met the Persians between Kodjori and Krtsani and defeated them,
re-taking Tiflis on the 6th of October.
A large Russian force now arrived and took Derbent, Shemakha, Baku,
and several other fortresses in Daghestan, but the death of the
Empress Catherine in 1796 put an end to the campaign, for Tsar Paul
recalled all the troops from Transcaucasia. In 1797 Aga Mahmad Khan was
again marching against Georgia, when he was fortunately assassinated,
like his predecessor Nadir. Plague and famine came to slay those who
had escaped the sword of the Persians, and, worst of all, the great
Irakli died in January, 1798, at the age of eighty, after a career
almost unparalleled in history. Frederick of Prussia might well say,
"Moi en Europe, et en Asie l'invincible Hercule, roi de Géorgie."
Giorgi now succeeded to the throne, and entered into negotiations
with Persia, but Tsar Paul heard of the proposed alliance and outbid
the Shah. A treaty was signed, confirming the throne to the Bagratid
dynasty for ever, and promising military aid whenever it might
be necessary. Alexander, the king's brother, now raised a revolt,
which was put down with the help of the Russians; after all he had a
grievance, for Irakli's will declared that he was to succeed Giorgi,
while the Russians had persuaded the king to appoint as his heir
his son David, a major-general in the Russian army. Alexander now
appealed to Persia for aid, which he obtained, and in a three hours'
battle at Kakabeti, on the Iora, he and Omar Khan, with an army of
12,000 men, were defeated. Giorgi died in 1800, and Georgia was then
formally incorporated in the Russian empire.
General Knorring, the first governor, proceeded to the country with
10,000 men, and in the following year, under Tsar Alexander I., the
annexation was confirmed. In 1803 Prince Tsitsishvili, a Georgian,
succeeded Knorring. By his advice all the royal family were summoned
to Russia, "in order to prevent civil dissensions," and this removal
was accompanied by a very unfortunate incident. Queen Maria, widow of
Giorgi, refused to go; General Lazarev proceeded early one morning to
the queen's sleeping apartments with some soldiers and attempted to
force her to accompany him; she killed him with a dagger which she had
concealed under her dress, and her young son and daughter stabbed some
of the soldiers. They were, of course, overpowered and carried off; at
Dariel, in the narrowest part of the pass, a few Tagaur Ossets made a
vain attempt at a rescue. Queen Maria was kept imprisoned in a convent
at Voronezh for seven years, and never saw her native land again.
Tsitsishvili set himself to improve the condition of the country
as much as possible. He began the military road over the Caucasus in
1804. He succeeded in persuading King Solomon of Imereti to acknowledge
the Tsar as his suzerain, but Solomon soon began to intrigue with the
Turks again. After taking Gandja by storm, and subduing a rising of the
mountaineers under Pharnavaz and Iulon, sons of Irakli, Tsitsishvili
marched against Baku, where he was treacherously murdered by the Khan
of that city in 1806.
Count Gudovich was now appointed commander-in-chief, and his courtesy
won for him the friendship of the Georgian people. Kakheti voluntarily
submitted to his rule. He defeated the Turks in several battles, but
was unsuccessful in his attack on Erivan, where he lost 2000 men. He
was then recalled and made governor-general of Moscow. General Tormasov
was the next ruler of Georgia, and he continued the war against the
Turks, who were aided by King Solomon of Imereti. Poti was taken in
1810, and Princess Nina of Mingreli, who was allied to the Russians,
herself led her troops to the assault. Sukhum was also taken. King
Solomon was persuaded to go to a certain village in Kartli to sign a
treaty of peace with Russia. The Russians treacherously seized him
by night, and carried him off to prison in Tiflis, but he escaped
in disguise, and fled to Akhaltsikhe, where he was received by the
Turks with great honour. He returned to Imereti, and the whole country
rose in his favour. There were revolts in Kakheti, and even among the
Ossets, but they were soon crushed by force of numbers. Then came a
plague which carried off vast numbers of victims in Imereti.
Tormasov was replaced by Paulucci, who, after a few months, was,
in his turn, superseded by Rtishtshef. In 1813 took place the famous
storming of Lenkoran, on the Caspian, by General Kotliarevski, followed
by the Gulistan Treaty of Peace, which was signed on behalf of Persia
by Sir Gore Ouseley, British ambassador at Teheran.
King Solomon died at Trebizond in 1815, and with him ended the
troublous existence of Imereti as an independent kingdom. In about
three and a half centuries thirty kings had sat on the Imeretian
throne, twenty-two of them were dethroned (one of them, Bagrat the
Blind, eight times), seven died a violent death, three were blinded.
Yermolov became governor-general in 1816, and soon afterwards
the Chechens and Daghestanians began to give the Russians serious
trouble. Then the clergy raised a national movement in Imereti, in
which Guri and Apkhazi joined, and in Mingreli, hitherto faithful,
the Dadian's brother revolted. All these efforts to shake off the
Russian yoke were, of course, fruitless, and they ended in 1822
with the capture of Zakatali from the Lesghians. Then the Cherkesses
(Circassians) broke into rebellion, and in 1826 Persia again declared
war against Russia and marched 60,000 men into Georgia. Aided by the
Lesghians and the Kakhetians, under Alexander, son of Irakli, they
were at first successful, but the tide turned, and Erivan, Tavriz,
and other places saw Russia victorious.
Paskevich succeeded Yermolov in 1827, and the peace of Turkmenchai
having been concluded with Persia, war was declared against Turkey. The
Russians took Kars, Poti, Akhalkalaki, Akhaltsikhe, Bayazid from the
Turks, and in 1829 the belligerents signed the treaty of Adrianople.
In 1830 Kasi-mullah began his revolt, and brought about a general
rising among the Mahometan peoples of the Caucasus. Baron Rosen, who
took the command of the army in 1831, captured Gimri, and Kasi-mullah
was killed. Golovin (1837), Neidhart (1842), and Prince Vorontsov
(1844-1854) enjoyed comparative peace, and were able to turn their
attention to the internal condition of the country. Prince Vorontsov
especially deserves credit for his honest and painstaking efforts
to ameliorate the economic situation of Georgia, and it flatters our
national pride to remember that that statesman was English by birth
and education, if not by blood.
The pacification of Daghestan did not, as was expected, follow the
death of Kasi-mullah. A greater prophet and warrior arose to take the
place of the vanquished hero of Gimri. Shamil, after carrying on a
guerilla warfare for about ten years, raised the whole of the Eastern
Caucasus in 1843, and continued to inflict a series of crushing defeats
on the Russian generals who were sent to oppose him. The declaration
of war with Turkey in 1853 raised the hopes of the Lesghians, but
the utter incapacity of the Turkish leaders in Armenia prevented the
realization of those hopes. Everybody is familiar with the incidents
of Shamil's career down to the capture at Gunib in 1859; but it seems
to me that too little attention has been devoted to the remarkable
religious system which inspired the Murids to their marvellous deeds
of valour. It is surely a noteworthy fact that the mysticism of the
Sufis should have been found to be compatible with a purely militant
faith like Islam.
During the last thirty years little of interest has happened in
Georgia. The appointment of the Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich to the
lieutenancy of the Caucasus in 1862, the gradual freeing of the serfs,
the construction of railway and telegraph lines of communication,
the founding of one or two banks, schools, and other establishments
of public utility, are the chief events which the annalist has to
chronicle. "Free" Svaneti was conquered a few years ago, and, for the
present, Russia's supremacy is undisputed as far as the frontiers of
Turkey and Persia. Even the last war between Russia and Turkey was not
accompanied by any visible commotion among the peoples of the Caucasus.
There is as yet no history of Georgia in the sense in which we now
understand the word. Those works which are dignified with the name
are merely more or less trustworthy collections of materials, which
in their present form produce only a feeling of bewilderment in the
reader. We trust that a man worthy of the task will seriously take
the annals of his nation in hand, and present them to the world in an
intelligible form; and we also cherish the hope that he will not finish
his task without being able to chronicle the new birth of a strong,
independent state worthy to maintain the fame of Irakli and Tamara.
THE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF GEORGIA.
The origin of the Kartlian or Kartvelian language is still involved
in some doubt, but the general opinion of philologists seems to
be that it does not belong to the Indo-European family, although
it has been powerfully influenced by Zend, Sanskrit, Persian, and
Armenian. The ancient speech of the country is preserved to us in
the ecclesiastical rituals and books of devotion, which are written
in characters differing very considerably from the civil alphabet,
the "war hand," the invention of the latter being ascribed to King
Pharnavaz I., a contemporary of Alexander the Great. The Khutsuri,
or ecclesiastical character, bears a striking resemblance to Armenian;
an excellent specimen of it may be seen in the British Museum Library,
in the famous Moscow Bible of 1743, recently purchased. The number
of letters is the same in both alphabets, viz. thirty-eight, and the
modern alphabet is as follows:--
a
b
g
d
e
v
z
é (short)
th (not English th but t followed by sound of h)
i (English ee)
c
l
m
n
i (short)
o
p
zh
r
s
t
u (oo)
vi (vee)
ph (p followed by sound of h)
k
gh (guttural)
_ (something like a guttural k)
sh
ch
tz
dz
ts
dch
kh
khh
j
h
ho
The orthography is purely phonetic. There is very little difference
between the language of the sacred books and that of to-day, not
nearly so much as between Anglo-Saxon and English; but many foreign
words have been introduced in modern times.
The earliest specimens of Georgian literature which have come down to
us are translations of the Scriptures, and theological works written
under the influence of the Greek clergy, who, until the eleventh
century, occupied almost all the high ecclesiastical offices in
the land.
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries of our era the relations
between Georgia and Greece were of the most intimate character. The
young nobles of the court of King David the Renewer and his immediate
successors frequented the schools of Athens, and brought back with them
Platonic and Aristotelian teachings which exerted a very powerful
influence on the intellectual and social life of that period,
and prepared the way for the golden age of Georgian literature,
which dawned on the accession of Queen Tamara. Sulkhan Orbeliani,
in the preface to his dictionary, compiled early in the eighteenth
century, says that he consulted translations of Proklus, Platonicus,
Nemesis, Aristotle, Damascenus, Plato, Porphyry, and many other Greek
writers. If these MSS. were still extant, they might prove valuable
to classical scholars.
During the stormy times that soon followed, the countless lyrical
pieces which were produced were nearly all lost, but the epic which is
now looked upon as the greatest masterpiece in the language has escaped
with but a few mutilations. This is "The Man in the Panther's Skin"
(Vepkhvis Tkaosani) by Shota Rustaveli.
History tells us very little about Shota Rustaveli. We only know
that he was born in the village of Rustavi, near Akhaltsikhe, that he
received his education in Athens, returned to his native land, where
he wrote his great work, was secretary to Queen Tamara, then became
a monk, and died in the monastery of the Holy Cross, near Jerusalem,
where his portrait may still be seen. Tradition says that the poet
was passionately enamoured of his royal mistress, and this assertion
seems to be borne out by many passages in the poem.
During nearly seven centuries of ceaseless struggles for freedom,
the Georgians have kept this great work fresh in their minds. It has
inspired them with hope and courage in the darkest hours, and at the
present day it is as great a favourite as it ever was. Not only are
many of its verses household words in cottage and hall, but there are
not a few Georgians, especially among the women, who know every word
of it by heart; indeed, there was a time when no woman was allowed
to marry unless she could repeat the whole poem. The reason for this
extraordinary popularity is to be found in the fact that the poem
is a thoroughly national one in its smallest details. Although the
heroes and heroines are described as Arabians, Indians, Chinese,
they are all Georgians to the very finger tips.
The plot is of the simplest description possible. Rostevan, a
patriarchal Eastern king, who has renounced the throne of Arabia in
favour of his daughter Tinatina, is out hunting one day with Avtandil,
one of his generals, when he sees a weeping youth of wondrous beauty,
dressed in a panther's skin. The king orders his guards to seize
the stranger, but the latter kills several of them and mysteriously
escapes, whereupon the old king falls into a fit of sadness so deep
that Tinatina at length promises her hand to the knight who will
satisfy her father's curiosity. Avtandil sets out to seek the man
in the panther's skin, wanders about for three years, meeting with
wondrous adventures, before he finds the object of his search, who
turns out to be Tariel, a young knight enamoured of Nestan Daredjan,
daughter of the king of India, and then returns to claim the hand of
his queen.
In Avtandil we have a Christian chevalier of the East who is worthy
of comparison with our Rolands and Red Cross Knights, while Tariel
is a wild Mussulman, whose passion drives him to excesses worthy of
Amadis of Gaul.
The interest is powerfully sustained all through the poem, and its
dramatic unity is never lost sight of; yet, however interesting the
narrative may be, it is chiefly as a picture of life in Georgia in
the days of Tamara that "The Man in the Panther's Skin" is valuable.
Tinatina, who is none other than Tamara herself, is described as
follows:--
"One daughter only had the aged king,
And she was fair as is the Eastern sun.
He upon whom her gaze but once did rest
Was ravish'd of his heart and soul and thought."
Tinatina is a beautiful type of womanhood, such as we might expect
to find in the literature of Western Europe, but hardly in a little
country standing alone amid the wild hordes of Asia. Her wisdom,
her strength of character, the purity and loyalty of her love, have
made her the model of many a generation of Rustaveli's countrywomen,
who have ever behaved nobly alike in joy and sorrow.
Avtandil is thus portrayed:--
"A prince's son was Avtandil, the very first
'Mong all the bravest warriors of the aged king
His form was slender as the cypress-tree,
And clear and beauteous was his piercing glance.
Though young, his soul was true and strong
As adamant is hard.
The fire from Tinatina's eyes had long
Set his young heart aflame with strong desire,
And stricken him with wounds that never heal'd.
Many a day he hid his burning love,
And sunder'd from his mistress, all the red
Fled from his roselike, tender cheeks;
But soon as fate did bring him near to her again,
The wildly beating heart crimson'd his face,
And all his aching wounds did gape afresh.
Thus hidden love doth torture youthful breasts."
From "The Man in the Panther's Skin" we learn that the ideal hero
of Rustaveli's times was distinguished for bravery, truthfulness,
loyalty to promises, self-sacrifice, munificence, and burning love.
"Falsehood's the root of all the thousand ills
That curse our race. Lying and faithlessness twin sisters are.
Why should I try to cheat my fellow-man?
Is this the use to which my learning should be put?
Ah, no! far other aims our hearts inspire,
We learn, that we may near the angelic choir."
The most famous line in the whole poem is, perhaps, the one which
says:--
"A glorious death is better than a life of shame."
And many a warrior has sought death, in the hour of defeat, with
these words on his lips.
Another verse which has become proverbial is:--
"That which thou dost on other's wants bestow, is thine,
While that thou hoardest is all lost to thee."
The ideas of love expressed by Rustaveli are partly of the Ovidian
type, without any of the indelicacy of the Latin poet. But he had
not studied Plato for nought, and we see in his work traces of those
metaphysical theories which S. Bonaventura, Dante, and many of their
contemporaries and successors found in Christianity.
In the last strophe we have a prophecy, conscious or unconscious,
of the evil days that were about to dawn.
"Their deeds are ended, like a dream at night.
With them their golden age has ended too.
Far other days have dawn'd.
Such is that old deceiver Time; he makes
That which at first did everlasting seem
As short as is the twinkling of an eye."
As far as style is concerned, we find that Rustaveli strikingly
resembles the European writers of his own time, to wit the troubadours,
and we can easily imagine that his career was not unlike that of some
of those sweet singers who enjoyed the favour of the noble ladies of
France and Italy. Among the great poets of Europe, Ariosto and Tasso
are, perhaps, the ones who are most akin to Rustaveli. The Platonism
of the latter furnishes another ground of resemblance, in addition
to the similarity of theme.
The poem in its present form consists of about 1600 quatrains. There
are sixteen syllables in each line, and the four lines end with the
same rhyme. The rhythm is due to the accents, as in English verse,
and may be called hexametric, i.e. there are in each line six feet,
divided into two sets of three by means of the cæsura; the fourth
line invariably begins with the particle i, which does not count as
a syllable.
As far as I know, the poem has not been translated into any European
language; although fragments and abstracts of it have been published in
Russian and Polish magazines, and I have seen the name of "Rostavvelo"
quoted in one of Gioberti's works. By the publication of a carefully
collated text, about a year ago, Georgian critics have prepared
the way for those who may wish to make the national epic known to
European readers.
Among the contemporaries of Rustaveli may be mentioned the following:--
Chakhrukhadze, the author of the "Tamariani," a long poem in honour
of Queen Tamara; it is composed entirely of epithets, thus:--
"Tamartsknari, shesatsknari, khmanarnari, pirmtsinari,
Mse mtsinari, sachinari, tskalimknari, momdinari,"
i.e.
"Tamara, the mild, the pleasing, the sweetly speaking, the
kindly smiling,
The sunlike shining one, the majestic, the gently moving, like
a full river."
Shavteli was even more highly prized than Rustaveli, but his greatest
work is lost. Khoneli and Tmokveli, the former in "Daredjaniani,"
the latter in "Visramiani" and "Dilariani," have left us romances of
chivalry and adventure which are still much admired, and are well
worthy of comparison with the best European literature of the same
class. About the same time the national chronicle, called "Kartlis
tzkhovreba," i.e. Georgia's Life, was written.
This period of literary activity was brought to an abrupt close by
the terrible invasion of Genghis Khan, and for about four centuries
the incessant wars in which the country was engaged gave plenty of
opportunity for acting romances, but little time for writing them.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century Prince Sulkhan Orbeliani
described his "Journey through Europe," and wrote a collection of
fables and folk-tales, lately published in Russian. Orbeliani had lived
at the court of Louis XIV., and was very friendly with La Fontaine,
who is indebted to the Georgian prince for some of his fables. His
greatest service to his country was, however, the compilation of a
dictionary, containing 25,000 words, which has formed the basis for
all later lexicographical works.
In 1712 King Vakhtang VI. opened a printing office in Tiflis, and
issued the chief poems and romances of the Tamarian period at such
a price as to make them attainable by all his subjects. Irakli II.,
of glorious memory, continued to act as the Augustus of Georgian
literature, and in the Catholicos Antoni it found a Mæcenas or
Pollio. The chief writers of the eighteenth century were Prince
Vakhusht, son of Vakhtang VI., who compiled a "History of Georgia"
and a "Geography of Georgia," and the Catholicos Antoni, who published
many educational and religious works. Guramoshvili and Savatnava sang
the triumphs of Irakli in powerful lyrics which are still familiar
to every peasant.
The following serenade belongs to this period; it was copied down by
Pushkin in 1829, and he says of it, "There is in it a certain Oriental
inconsequence which is not altogether devoid of poetical worth."
"Soul newly born in Paradise!
Soul made for my delight!
From thee, thou deathless one,
I wait for life.
From thee, thou flowery springtide, moon but two weeks old,
From thee, my guardian angel,
I wait for life.
With joyous smiles thy face doth shine.
I would not change thy glance against the throne of all the world.
From thee I wait for life.
Rose of the mountain, wet with the dew of dawn!
Nature's chief favourite! Hidden treasure house!
From thee I wait for life."
It was not, however, until the present century was well begun, that
Georgian poetry abandoned the "Oriental inconsequence" to which I
have just referred; the literary awakening which began about sixty or
seventy years ago was largely due to the work of Western poets, such
as Byron, with whom the Georgians became familiar chiefly through
Pushkin and Lermontov. Prince Alexander Chavchavadze (1786-1846),
a general in the Russian service, was the founder of the modern
school; his song is all of love and wine. The influence of Western
romanticism is still more clearly visible in the earlier productions
of Baratashvili (1816-1846), but he succeeded in throwing off the
gloomy misanthropy of his youth, and had the courage to acknowledge
that he had been deluded by that "evil spirit" of Byronism.
To Prince Giorgi Eristavi fell the task of familiarizing his countrymen
with the poetical literature of Europe. He was exiled to Poland
for his share in a plot against the Russian government, and spent
his leisure in studying Mickiewicz, Schiller, Petrarch, and Pushkin,
selections from whose works he published in his native tongue. On his
return to Tiflis he founded a National Theatre, for which he himself
wrote many comedies. With Eristavi sentimentalism died, and the poets
who succeeded him sought inspiration in patriotic ideals.
Prince Grigor Orbeliani (1801-1883), sang the past splendour of his
fatherland, and bewailed the low estate to which it had fallen. In his
"Ode to Tamara's portrait" he beseeches the great queen to look down
with pity on Georgia, and bless her sons with strength and wisdom;
he despairingly asks:--
"Shall that which once was wither'd, ne'er again
Enjoy the fragrance of its former bloom?
Shall that which fell, for ever fallen remain,
O'erwhelm'd in an unchanging, cruel doom?"
His lines on the death of Irakli II. breathe the same spirit:--
"Ah! full of splendour were the fateful days
That saw the quenching of thy quickening light,
Thou sun of Georgia, yet thy dazzling rays
Still lighten up the darkness of our night.
"Thine all-o'erpowering sword, whose mighty blows
Scatter'd like chaff the bravest of the brave,
Shall never more affright thy country's foes--
Georgia's fame lies buried in thy grave."
Orbeliani had a warm heart for the poor and suffering, and his
"Lopiana the Fisherman" and "Bokuladze the Musha" (a musha is a
carrier of heavy burdens) are masterpieces in their way.
While Orbeliani's eyes are ever turned regretfully to the past,
Akaki Tsereteli (born 1840) looks hopefully forward to the future:--
"Ah no! our love is not yet dead,
It only sleeps awhile...."
In elegant yet forcible lyrics he invites his countrymen to manfully
follow the path of progress. Tsereteli has written a great historical
poem called "Torniki," and is, besides, an orator and publicist of
the first rank.
Of the same school is Prince Ilia Chavchavadze (born 1837), who is
in many respects the most remarkable man that Georgia possesses. All
his poems, and indeed all his work, whether as a poet, a novelist,
a journalist, an orator, or a financier, breathe a spirit of the
loftiest patriotism. The return of spring and the awakening of bird
and flower to fuller life are to him a reminder of the long-delayed
awakening of his beloved land; his elegies on the Kura, the Aragva,
the Alazana are all full of the same feeling. It is, however, in
"Lines to the Georgian mother" that he most clearly expresses his
ideas; after reminding the matrons of Georgia how they have served
their country in times past, cheerfully sending their sons forth to
the fight and sustaining their courage in the hour of misfortune,
he says:--
"... But why should we shed idle tears
For glory that will ne'er return?
The ever-flowing stream of years
Leaves us no time to idly mourn.
"'Tis ours to tread an untried path,
'Tis ours the future to prepare.
If forward thou dost urge thy sons,
Then answer'd is my earnest prayer.
"This is the task that waits for thee,
Thou virtuous mother of our land,
Strengthen thy sons, that they may be
Their country's stay with heart and hand.
"Inspire them with fraternal love,
Freedom, equality and right,
Teach them to struggle 'gainst all ill,
And give them courage for the fight."
Chavchavadze's tales and poems have done more than anything else
to awaken the Georgian people to a sense of the duties they have to
perform in the altered conditions under which they now live. His poem,
"Memoirs of a Robber," which portrayed the lazy country squires who
lived on the toil of their serfs, made a powerful impression on
the class it was meant for; and the tale, "Is that a man?" which
describes the life of a young noble who spends his whole time in
eating, drinking, sleeping and folly, brought a blush to the faces of
hundreds of his countrymen, and prompted them to seek a worthier mode
of existence. At first, the more conservative part of the nobility
were bitterly opposed to the radical ideas of Chavchavadze, but he
has now succeeded in bringing round the majority of them to his way
of thinking. He is editor of a daily paper, Iveria, which is read by
all classes of society, and most of his time is spent between his
journalistic duties and the management of the nobles' Land Bank,
an institution founded for the relief of the farmers.
Besides those I have mentioned, Chavchavadze has written many other
works; with the following extract from "The Phantom" I conclude this
brief notice of him:--
"O Georgia, thou pearl and ornament of the world. What sorrow and
misfortune hast thou not undergone for the Christian faith! Tell
me, what other land has had so thorny a path to tread? Where is the
land that has maintained such a fight twenty centuries long without
disappearing from the earth? Thou alone, Georgia, couldst do it. No
other people can compare with thee for endurance. How often have thy
sons freely shed their blood for thee! Every foot of thy soil is made
fruitful by it. And even when they bowed under oppression they always
bravely rose again. Faith and freedom were their ideals."
The novel of social life is represented by Prince Kazbek, a young and
energetic writer, many of whose productions have appeared as serials
in the newspapers. The best writer of historical novels is Rtsheuli;
his "Queen Tamara" is a great favourite with the people.
The National Theatre is kept well supplied with new and original
comedies by Tsagareli and others, and Prince Ivané Machabeli, who, as
far as I know, is the only Georgian who can read English literature
in the original, has translated some of Shakspeare's plays; these
always draw a full house, and are thoroughly appreciated. Leaving
out of the question "King Lear," which has a special interest for the
people, on account of its reminding them of Irakli II., this hearty
admiration for Shakspeare is somewhat remarkable; in my opinion it is
to be explained by the fact that the Georgian people are in almost
the same state of intellectual and social development as were our
forefathers in the days of Queen Elizabeth, and they can, therefore,
the more fully enter into our great poet's way of thinking. Besides
the essential part of his work, the effect of which on the minds of
men will always be the same, there is an accessory part, a tone,
an atmosphere, which more particularly belongs to the early part
of a period of transition from feudalism to freedom, from faith to
rationalism, from the activity of war to the activity of peace; ten
or a dozen generations have lived in England since this stage in our
history was reached; in Georgia there still live men who were born
in the age of chivalry and adventure.
Prince Machabeli, in spite of the fact that he is only about thirty
years of age, is, perhaps, after Prince Ilia Chavchavadze, the man
who enjoys the greatest influence among his fellow-countrymen. His
studies at the University of Paris, and his intimate acquaintance
with the intellectual and social life of Europe, have enabled him
to bring the younger generation at least to a fuller appreciation of
the superiority of the West over the East; everything which savours
of Asia is now rigidly proscribed or ridiculed, and Romano-Germanic
ideals prevail. As the editor of Droeba (Time), a capital daily paper,
Machabeli had an opportunity of spreading his opinions throughout
the country, but an imprudent article brought about the suppression
of the journal by the Censure.
This notice would be incomplete without a brief reference to the
venerable Bishop Gabriel of Kutais, whose homilies are at once
elegant in style and simple in doctrine; they have had a very powerful
influence on the Georgian people, and their author is sincerely loved
by all his countrymen. An English translation of his earlier sermons
has been published by the Rev. S. C. Malan.
The popular literature of Georgia is rich in folk-tales, fables,
ballads, riddles, &c., and would well repay an attentive study
(v. Bibliography).
THE POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE KINGDOM OF GEORGIA.
It is well known that there are within the Russian frontiers peoples
not inferior in historical importance or intellectual development to
the regnant race, and we might reasonably suppose that Russophobes
would give us some information about those nations which would
probably be their allies in the struggle which they profess to consider
inevitable. Yet the course of action likely to be adopted by Poland,
Finland, or Georgia, in case of an Anglo-Russian war, is hardly ever
discussed, and when a passing reference is made to the matter, the
most erroneous ideas are expressed.
As far as I know, the only living English statesman who knows anything
at all about the condition of the Caucasus, is Professor James Bryce,
who, in a work published in 1877, records the impressions received
during a short visit made in the previous year. His remarks are
interesting in the highest degree, and exhibit a rare keenness of
insight; yet that part of them which refers more particularly to
Georgia is open to three very serious objections.
1. The shortness of the author's stay forced him to come to conclusions
which a longer experience would have modified very considerably. He
himself frankly acknowledged this in many places.
2. Mr. Bryce did not come into contact with any prominent Georgians;
he was, therefore, obliged to depend upon foreigners for information
about the political condition of the country and the aspirations of
the native population. This is why he said so little about Georgia in
the last chapter of his book. In that chapter the place of honour is
reserved for the Armenians, whose recognized champion our illustrious
fellow-countryman has now become.
3. There has, of late, been a great change in the country. The Georgia
of to-day is not the Georgia of 1876. Certain causes, which will be
touched upon in the present article, have, in the meantime, brought
about an awakening as sudden as it is complete.
There is one Englishman who could accurately describe the political
condition of Transcaucasia, and it is a subject for congratulation that
he is Her Majesty's Vice-Consul at Batum. When the British Government
wakes up to a recognition of the fact that we have interests to protect
in the region between the Black Sea and the Caspian, the consulate
in Tiflis (abolished in 1881, "because the objects for which it was
founded were not accomplished") may, perhaps, be re-established,
and in that case no more able and sympathetic consul could be chosen
than Mr. D. R. Peacock, who for so many years has upheld the honour
of our flag in the fever-stricken swamps of Poti and Batum.
The writer of the present article is well aware of his unfitness for
the task he has set himself, yet he feels sure that the result of
his unprejudiced observation cannot fail to be interesting; if he
only succeeds in provoking adverse criticism he will be satisfied,
for thereby attention will be drawn to a question the discussion
of which must lead to a far better understanding of many points of
vital importance.
At the very outset it is necessary to remove from the mind of the
reader an opinion which is almost universally held in Europe, and which
is, perhaps, the chief cause of that apathy with which politicians look
upon the Caucasus. It is generally believed, even by some of those
who have been in the country, that Transcaucasia is inhabited by a
vast number of tribes, more or less wild, having nothing in common
but the doubtful benefits of Russian rule. Nothing could be more
misleading. Students of ethnography may amuse themselves by making
elaborate investigations into the origin and characteristics of the
Khevsur, the Svan, the Pshav, the Osset, it is sufficient for us to
know that all these peoples are, politically at least, Georgians,
and have fought under the Kartvelian kings since the days of William
the Conqueror. Between the Caucasus, the Black Sea, the Caspian,
and the frontiers of Turkey and Persia, there are only three native
peoples who deserve our consideration, viz.:--
The various Lesghian tribes in the E., numbering about 1,500,000
The Armenians, in the S., numbering about 740,000
The Georgians, in the W., numbering over 1,000,000
The latter total is made up as follows:--
(a) Kartlians, Kakhetians, and Ingiloitsi 310,000
(b) Highlanders, i.e. Khevsurs, Pshavs, Tushes 20,000
(c) Imeretians and Gurians 380,000
(d) Adjartsi, Kobuletsi (in valleys near Artvin) 46,000
(e) Mingrelians 200,000
(f) Lazes (near Batum). The majority are still in Turkey 2,000
(g) Svans 12,000
To these may be added:--
The Apkhazi (near Sukhum) 32,000
and
The Ossets (south of the Caucasus) 53,000
There are also many Georgians in Turkey, and a few in Persia. The
numerous local appellations given above mean no more than Yorkshireman,
Cornishman, or Aberdonian do to us. If I succeed in impressing upon
my readers the fact that there is a politically homogeneous region
stretching from the steppe of Baku to the Black Sea, my labour will
not have been fruitless.
It is a significant fact that the pure Georgian language is now far
more generally spoken than it has been for many centuries, and that
the dialects are rapidly disappearing. This is due in a great measure
to the growth of a taste for literature, which is fostered by the
newspapers and other periodical publications. There are, besides,
many schools where the language is taught, for the Georgians have
hitherto escaped the fate of the Armenians, whose schools were closed
after the recent insurrection, and a society exists in Tiflis for
the dissemination of the national literature among the peasants. All
this has helped to produce a national feeling, stronger than any
that has existed since the fatal partition of the kingdom in the
fifteenth century. The petty jealousies between Kartlian, Kakhetian
and Imeretian have been forgiven and forgotten, and when Georgia's
voice is again heard in Asia she will speak with that authority which
belongs only to a united, patriotic people.
In order to understand the state of political feeling in Georgia during
the present century, it is necessary to remember what her previous
history has been. During a long period, stretching back to ages of
which we have only fragmentary records, the country had ever been
at war; often conquered, still more often conquering, never crushed,
this brave little state maintained its existence for a thousand years,
alone in the very midst of those fierce fanatics whose fame made
all allied Europe quake. At length, rent by civil war and ravaged
by the infidel, it wisely resolved to throw itself into the hands
of a Christian power able and willing to protect and avenge. After
availing themselves of Russia's help, it was but natural that the
Georgians should seek the repose of which they were so much in need;
and, though they were ever ready to fight against the common foe, yet,
with a few praiseworthy exceptions, they busied themselves little
with the internal administration of their land. Indeed, there was
no call for such interference as long as they were under the mild
and beneficent rule of that ideal Tsar, Alexander I., represented by
such worthy lieutenants as Tsitsishvili and Yermolov. They continued
to live thus contentedly and, it must be confessed, lazily for about
two generations; only ten years ago it used to be said in Tiflis,
"If you see a shopkeeper asleep, he is sure to be a Georgian." This
sleepiness is now at an end. Opinions may differ as to the cause of
the awakening; harsh measures on the part of Russia, whose policy in
Transcaucasia has been becoming more and more irritating ever since the
removal of Prince Vorontsov, in 1854, and culminating last year in the
enforcement of military service, have undoubtedly had some effect of
this kind, but unless there had been a simultaneous progress in the
intellectual and social development of the nation, this overbearing
legislation might have been sullenly submitted to without complaint.
There can be little doubt of the fact that the excessive precautions
taken by the police, with a view to put down political agitation of
any kind, have produced the very thing they are intended to prevent. A
country squire in talking to me, one day, about a little market-town
near his home, said, "They have posted a gendarme there. Until he
came nobody ever bothered about politics. Now there is nothing else
talked of." Some time ago the young Georgian nobles who were serving
in the Russian army became infected with the doctrines of revolutionary
socialism, and not a few suffered for their imprudence (e.g. the famous
Tsitsianov, in 1877); at the present time the national feeling has
become so strong as to leave no room for these ideas. Nevertheless,
during my stay in Tiflis, last summer, a rumour was rife to the effect
that a large number (a hundred or two) of young noblemen were about
to be exiled, in view of the visit of the Tsar, who was expected to
arrive at his new palace at Tsinondal, near Telav, in the autumn. The
fact that this report was believed by the parties interested, is a
powerful testimony to the arbitrary character of the proceedings of
the Russian police.
In the rural districts the people only know Russia as a foreign power
that sends them tax-collectors, justices of the peace, and other civil
servants, who perform obnoxious functions in a manner not calculated
to conciliate the ratepayers. It is notorious that the chinovnik has
an unpleasant reputation, even among his fellow-countrymen, and those
who consent to a temporary exile in Transcaucasia are not precisely
the flower of the profession, although their behaviour to Europeans
leaves little to be desired. The justices of the peace, as in Poland,
are directly appointed by the Minister of Justice at Petersburg;
all the evidence has to be translated into the official language,
and this accentuates the natural feeling of the litigants that they
are being tried by foreign laws arbitrarily imposed from without. The
personal character of the judges is, in many cases, not such as to
inspire respect for the law; the arrogant, bullying tone of these
personages is intolerable at any time, but especially when aggravated
by alcoholism. I shall never forget one scene in particular at which
I was present; a fine, tall mountaineer came humbly to present a
petition to a puny, besotted judge, who was a guest at the house
where I was staying; the representative of law and order was drunk,
hopelessly drunk, and treated the suppliant in such a manner that
I blushed to be in his company; I feared that the petitioner would
take summary revenge for the insult, but he restrained his wrath;
as he turned away there was on his face a look of hellish hatred,
and I do not think that he will trouble the court again as long as
he has a sharp kinjal of his own wherewith to settle disputes.
Whatever may be the cause of the awakening, there cannot be any
doubt of its reality. Nevertheless, it is hard to give any definite
description of the channels into which the national activity is finding
its way. In any case it may be safely said that the Georgian people
are not likely to imitate the imprudent conduct of their neighbours
the Armenians, who have, more than once, unseasonably provoked popular
movements which they had not the power to bring to a happy issue. The
character of the Georgians is too frank and open for the hatching of
plots; however strong their feelings may be, they know how to wait
until an opportunity arrives for the satisfaction of those feelings;
the perfect unanimity in the aims of the people renders an elaborate
organization unnecessary.
It is interesting to notice that the political ideals of the country
are borrowed from Western Europe. Excepting in Japan, perhaps, there
is no such instance of a people passing directly from feudalism to
liberalism. The grandsons of absolute monarchs, the men who little
more than a quarter of a century ago were large slaveholders, are
now ardent champions of the democratic idea, and loudly proclaim the
freedom, the equality, the brotherhood, of prince and peasant, master
and man. This is not the only case in which Georgia has turned her
back on Asia and opened her arms to Europe--Parisian fashions, German
rationalism, English sport and other products of our civilization
are beginning to have an influence; however, it is a consolation to
remember that the women, in every country the more Conservative and,
at the same time, more patriotic half of the community, may be counted
upon to restrain their husbands and sons from a too hasty advance in
the slippery paths of modern progress.
It must not be supposed that the Georgian people are forgetful of what
Russia has done for them in protecting them against Persia and Turkey;
they have no hatred for their Slav fellow-subjects, indeed, it is hard
to imagine how any one could dislike such an amiable individual as
the average Russian, not being an official; but on the other hand, it
must be remembered that this military aid is the only benefit Georgia
has ever received. It is true that roads have been made, but their
construction was only undertaken in order to facilitate the movement
of troops, and they are practically worthless for the purposes of
trade. The industrial and commercial development of the country has
been wholly neglected; and, at the instigation of the late editor of
the Moscow News, the transit of foreign merchandise was prohibited. At
the present time a few Russian capitalists are endeavouring to get a
footing beyond the Caucasus, but they experience some difficulty in
doing so, for the Georgians prefer to avail themselves of the services
of European investors; among others, the Rothschilds have not been slow
to see that Transcaucasian wines, ores and oils are worth attention.
Should Russia ever become involved in a great war, Georgia would
undoubtedly declare her independence, and endeavour to seize the
Dariel Road; the Armenians and Lesghians would also revolt, each
in their own way. It is idle to speculate as to the result of such
a movement, but it may interest the reader to know that it took an
army of more than a quarter of a million men to conquer the Lesghians
alone, in the time of Shamil. The Russians put so little confidence
in the loyalty of their Caucasian army, that they took care to send
a large part of it to Poland in January last, when there seemed to
be a prospect of war with Austria. This was a prudent measure; but,
after all, it does not matter so very much whether Georgian soldiers
mutiny in Georgia or Poland, Poles in Poland or Georgia, the essential
point at which diplomats hostile to Russia would aim is, of course,
to bring about perfectly simultaneous action on the part of all the
enemies of that power, both at home and abroad. It is superfluous
to add that the Georgian troops are the flower of the Russian army;
every schoolboy can ride and shoot like a trained man; their officers
are especially good, and there are at present many generals who are
worthy successors of Andronikov, Bagration and Loris Melikov.
The sympathy with which the Armenian national movement has been
regarded in Western Europe encourages the Georgians to hope that a
like feeling will be manifested towards them when the time is ripe
for action. It is especially upon England that their hopes are fixed,
for they are well aware of the fact that the existence of a strong,
independent state between the Black Sea and the Caspian would be
an enormous advantage to our country. The possibility of Armenians,
Georgians and Lesghians consenting to combine into one homogeneous
state is not to be thought of; but there is no reason why the
descendants of the three sons of Targamos, great-great-grandson of
Noah, should not, if they were free, form a defensive alliance for the
protection of common interests; the Lesghians have, in past times,
done good service against both Persians and Turks. In any case,
Georgia has a frontier which she is quite able to defend, and she
could always count upon the assistance of the mountaineers on the
northern side of the Caucasus. The Cherkesses (Circassians), whose
hatred of Russia is well known, have almost all migrated to Asia Minor.
It is sincerely to be hoped that the present good feeling between
the Georgian and Russian peoples may continue. If they were kindly
treated, and trusted with some measure of local government, I am
sure that the Christian peoples of the Caucasus would never cause the
Tsar's ministers any trouble; but if an attempt be made to crush the
national spirit, the descendants of the men who fought under Irakli
will, at least, show despots how men can die.
APPENDIX.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The standard work on Transcaucasian bibliography is Miansarov (M.),
Bibliographia Caucasica et Transcaucasica. S. Pbg., 1874-76, 8vo,
804 pp., 4840 refs. It is rather scarce, as the edition was limited
to 600 copies. Only one volume has been published, although a second
was promised. Most of the works mentioned are in Russian or Armenian,
and as far as European publications are concerned, Miansarov is very
incomplete. In the following pages I have referred to comparatively
few Russian books.
After Miansarov, the following, among many others, may with advantage
be consulted:--
Catalogue de la Section des Russica, published by Bibl. imp. publ. de
St. Pbg., 1873. 2 vols. 8vo.
Semenov (P.), Geografichsko-statistichskii slovar Rosiiskoi
Imperii. Pbg., 1863-1885. 5 vols. 4to.
Stuckenberg (J. Ch.), Versuch eines Quellen-Anzeigers ... fuer das
Studium der Geographie ... des Russischen Reichs. Pbg., 1849-1852. 2
vols. 8vo.
I am fully conscious of the shortcomings of this essay, and shall be
glad to find it extended and corrected by later writers, to whom it
may serve as a groundwork.
Works of special interest are marked *.
GEOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, AND MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE.
* Brosset (M. F.), Description géographique de la Géorgie par
le Tsarévitch Wakhoucht. Texte géorgien suivi d'une traduction
française. Avec 6 cartes lith. S. Pbg. Acad. Scient., 1842. 4 to.
Wakhoucht wrote to the local authorities all over the country, asking
each for information about his own district; the present standard
work was the result of his inquiries.
Ancient Geography.
Cf. Apollonius Rhodius, Strabo, Plinius, Arrianus, Ptolemæus,
C. Rommel's Caucasiarum Regionum et gentium straboniana
descriptio. Lipsiæ, 1804. 8vo.
Luenemann (G. H.), Descriptio Caucasi. Lipsiæ, 1803. 4to.
Carli (Joh. Rinaldi), De expeditione Argonautorum in Colchidem. Venet.,
1745. 2 vols. 4to.
Vivien de St. Martin (Louis), Mémoire historique sur la géographie
ancienne du Caucase. Paris, 1848.
---- ----, Etude géographique sur le Caucase de Strabon. In Etudes
de Géogr. Anc. Paris, 1852.
Preller (E.), Bedeutung des schwarzen Meeres fuer die Handel und
Verkehr der alten Welt. Dorpat, 1842. 8vo.
Mediæval Geography.
Stephanus Byzantinus, Massudi, Abulfeda.
Defrémery, Fragments de géographes et d'historiens arabes et
persans inédits, relatifs aux anciens peuples du Caucase. In
Nouv. Journ. Asiat., 1849-1851. Paris.
Rubruquis (1253) in Navigantium atque itinerantium bibliotheca, by
John Harris, D.D., continued by J. Campbell. 2 vols. in fol. London,
1764. In this collection will be found other records of travel
in Georgia.
Barbaro (Josafat), Viaggio alla Tana e nella Persia (1436). In
Ramusio's Raccolta di Viaggi. Venetia, 1583.
Contarini (Ambroise), Voyage de Perse (1473). In Bergeron's Collection
de Voyages. Paris, 1735.
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.
Hakluyt (Richd.), The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries
of the English Nation in ... the Empire of Russia, the Caspian Sea,
Georgia ... London, 1589. Fol. Also 1600. 3 vols. Fol. New edition,
London, 1809-1812. 4to.
Jenkinson (Anthony), Early Voyages and Travels to Russia and Persia,
by A. J. and other Englishmen (in reign of Queen Elizabeth). Hakluyt
Soc. London, 1886. 2 vols. 8vo.
Zampi (Giuseppe Maria), Relatione della Cholchida. 1620.
Lamberti (Arcangelo), Relatione della Cholchida, hoggi detta
Mengrellia, nella quale si tratta dell' origine, costumi e cose
naturali di quei paesi. 2nd edition. Napoli, 1654. 4to.
Olearius (Adam), The Voyages and Travels of the Ambassadors sent
by Frederick, Duke of Holstein, to the Great Duke of Muscovy and
the King of Persia ... in 1633-1639. Translated from the Dutch by
J. Davies. London, 1662. 2 vols. Fol.
Dapper (Olfert), Asia ... beneffens en volkome Beschryving van geheel
Persie, Georgie, Mengrelie en andere Gebuur-gewesten. Amsterdam,
1672. Fol.
----, German edition. Nuernberg. Translated by Beern. 2
vols. Fol. 1681.
Novikov, Drevnaya rossiiskaya biblioteka. S. Pbg., 1788. 8vo. For
Travels of Russian Ambassadors to Georgia in Seventeenth Century.
Moreri (Ludvig), Relations nouvelles du Levant, ou Traité de la
religion, du gouvernement et des coutumes des Perses, des Arméniens
et des Gaures. Lyon, 1671. 12mo.
Bruin (C. de) (Dutch painter), Voyages au Levant. Delft, 1700. Fol.
---- ----, Voyages dans la Moscovie et la Perse. Amsterdam, 1718. 2
vols. Fol. And Paris, 1725. 5 vols. 4to.
Struys (Jean), Voyages en Muscovie, en Tatarie, en Perse,
etc. Amsterdam, 1720. 3 vols. 12mo.
Tavernier, Six voyages ... en Perse (1663-69). Rouen, 1724.
Chardin (Sir John), The Travels of Sir John Chardin into
Persia. London, 1686. Fol. 2 vols.
Tournefort (Pitton de), Rélation d'un Voyage du Levant, contenant
l'histoire ancienne et moderne de ... l'Arménie, de la Géorgie
... Paris and Lyon, 1717. 2 vols. 4to. Amsterdam, 1718. English
edition, London, 1718. Dutch edition, Amsterdam, 1737.
Evliya (Effendi), Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa in the
Seventeenth Century. Translated from the Turkish by J. von
Hammer. London, 1846.
Eighteenth Century.
Lerch (Joh. Jacob), Zweite Reise nach Persien. In Buesching's
Magazin. 1776.
Reineggs (Jacob), Beschreibung des Kaukasus. Gotha, 1796-97. 8vo. And
some other works. Sketches in Pallas's Nordische Beitraege,
etc. A General, Historical, and Topographical Description of Mount
Caucasus. Translated by Ch. Wilkinson. London, 1807. (Reineggs was
a diplomatic agent of the Russian Court, and induced the Ossets to
submit, besides preparing the way for the annexation of Georgia.)
Gueldenstaedt (Joh. Ant.), Geografichskoie i statistichskoie opisanié
Gruzii (Geographical and Statistical Description of Georgia). S. Pbg.,
1809. 8vo.
---- ----, Reisen nach Georgien und Imerethi, ausg. von J. von
Klaproth. Berlin, 1815. 8vo.
---- ----, Beschreibung der Kaukasischen Laender, ausg. von J. von
Klaproth. Berlin. 1834. 8vo.
Peyssonnel (French Consul in Smyrna), Traité sur le Commerce de la
Mer Noire. Paris, 1787. 2 vols. 8vo.
Memoir of a Map of the Countries comprehended between the Black
Sea and the Caspian; with an account of the Caucasian nations, and
vocabularies of their languages. London, 1788. 4to.
Howell, Journal of the Passage from India through Armenia, &c.
Wilford (Francis), On Mount Caucasus. In Asiatic Researches. London,
1799.
Potocki (Jean), Voyage dans les steps d'Astrakhan et du Caucase
(in 1797) publié par Klaproth. Paris, 1829. 8vo.
Voyages historiques et géographiques dans les pays situés entre la
Mer Noire et la Mer Caspienne. Paris, 1798.
Biberstein (Maréchal de), Tableau des provinces situées sur la
Côte occidentale de la Mer Caspienne, entre les fleuves Térek et
Kour. S. Pbg., 1798. 4to.
Mémoires historiques et géographiques sur les pays situés entre la
Mer Noire et la Mer Caspienne. Paris, 1797. 4to.
Natolien, Georgien ... in historischer, geographischer ... politischer
Hinsicht. Berlin and Leipzig, 1799. 8vo.
Nineteenth Century.
Zass (de), Description du Caucase, avec le précis historique et
statistique de la Géorgie. S. Pbg., 1804. 8vo.
Langen (Jacob), Opisanié Kavkaza s kratkim istorichskim i
statistichskim opisaniem Gruzii (Description of the Caucasus, with a
short historical and statistical description of Georgia). Translated
from the French of J. L. S. Pbg., 1805.
Rommel (V. C.), Die Voelker des Kaukasus. Weimar, 1808.
Lagorio, Extrait du Journal d'un voyage en Mingrélie. In Annales des
Voyages. Paris, 1809.
----, Bemerkungen ueber Mingrelien. In Minerva. 1811.
Clarke (E. D.), Voyages en Russie etc., trad. de l'anglais. Paris,
1812. 2 vols. 8vo. I have not seen the English original.
Morier (John), Journey through Persia. London, 1812. 4to. ---- ----,
Second Journey through Persia ... with an account of the embassy of
Sir Gore Ouseley. London, 1818. 4to.
Kinneir, Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire, interspersed with
an account of manners and customs. London, 1813. 4to.
----, Journey through Asia Minor, Armenia, &c. London, 1818. 8vo.
Colchis oder Mingrelien. In Hormayr's Archiv. 1813.
Drouville, Voyage en Perse. S. Pbg., 1820. 2 vols. 8vo. With atlas.
Freygang (Wilhelm and Frederica), Lettres sur le Caucase et la
Géorgie. Hambourg, 1816. 8vo.
Engelhardt (Moritz von) and Parrot (Friedr.), Reise in die Krymm
und den Kaukasus. Berlin, 1815. Parrot also wrote Reise nach
Ararat. Berlin, 1830. Translated by W. D. Cooley, London, n.d. 8vo.
Kotzebue (Moritz von), Reise nach Persien im Jahre 1817.
Johnson (John), A Journey from India to England through Persia,
Georgia.... London, 1818. 4to.
Ker-Porter (Sir Robt.), Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient
Babylonia, &c., during the years 1817-1820. London, 1821. 2 vols. 4to.
Lumsden (Thos.), A Journey from Merut in India to London, through
Arabia, Persia, Armenia, Georgia.... London, 1822. 8vo.
Gamba (Jacques Francois), Voyage dans la Russie méridionale, et
particulièrement dans les provinces situées au-delà du Caucase,
fait depuis 1820 jusqu'en 1824. With an atlas. 2 tom. Paris, 1826. 8vo.
Lyall (Robt.), Travels in Russia, the Crimea, and Georgia. London,
1825. 2 vols. 8vo.
Asiatic Journal. London. Former and Present State of the Road over
Mount Caucasus, 1825; Visit to the Caucasian Wall, 1833; The Caucasian
Nations, 1837; and other articles.
Bronievskii, Puteshestvié na Kavkazié (Journey in the
Caucasus). Moskva, 1825. 2 vols. 8vo.
Henderson, Biblical Researches and Travels in Russia, including
... the Passage of the Caucasus. London, 1826. 8vo.
Halen (D. Juan van), Dos años en Rusia. Valencia, 1849. 8vo. Also
Mémoires. Paris and Bruxelles, 1827. 2 vols. 8vo.
----, Narrative of D. Juan van Halen's Imprisonment ... his Campaign
with the Army of the Caucasus. Translated from the Spanish. London,
1827. 2 vols. 8vo. Another edition in 1830.
Klaproth (Julius von), Voyage au Mont Caucase. Paris, 1827. 8vo.
----, Extraits d'une topographie de la Géorgie. Paris, n. d. 8vo. And
several other works.
Seristori (Comte), Notes sur les provinces russes au-delà du
Caucase. Odessa, 1829.
Vetter (J. C. W.), Meine Reise nach Grusien. Leipzig, 1829.
Rottiers, Itinéraire de Tiflis à Constantinople. Bruxelles, 1829.
Jaeger (B.), Reise von St. Petersburg in die Krim und die Laender
des Kaukasus. Leipzig, 1830. 8vo.
Pushkin (A. S.), Puteshestvié v Erzerum (Journey to Erzerum). 1829.
Lermontov (M. Y.), Geroi nashevo vremeni (A Hero of our
Times). 1839-40.
Kupfer, Voyage dans les environs du Mont
Elbrous. S. Pbg. Acad. Scient., 1830.
Jaeger (B.), Versuch einer Darstellung des natuerlichen Reichthums
... der russischen Laender jenseit des Kaukasus. Leipzig, 1830. 8vo.
Marigny (E. T. de), Portulan de la Mer Noire. Odessa, 1830.
Guibal (Paul), Industrie et économie des Abazes in Courrier de la
Nouvelle Russie. 25 Dec., 1831. Odessa.
Armstrong (T. B.), Travels in Russia and Turkey.... Itinerary through
... Georgia. London, 1831. 8vo.
Budberg (Leonh., Freiherr von), Galerie der neuesten Reisen von Russen
durch Russland. S. Pbg., 1832.
L. S. (Cte.) (? Seristori), Notes statistiques sur le littoral de la
Mer Noire. Vienne, 1832. 8vo. 22 pp.
Nouv. Annales des Voyages. Paris. Many articles.
Nouv. Journal Asiatique. Paris. Description géographique du
Ghouria. 1832. And many other articles.
Annalen der Erdkunde. Blick auf Georgien. 1832. Georgien und seine
Umgebung. 1843. And other articles.
Eichwald (Carl Eduard von), Reise auf dem Caspischen Meere und in
den Caucasus. Stuttgard, 1834-38. 2 Bde. 8vo. A scientific work.
Mignan, Journal of a Tour through Georgia.... Asiatic Society. Bombay,
1834.
Smith (Eli) and Dwight (H.), Missionary Researches in Armenia,
including a journey ... into Georgia. London, 1834. 8vo.
Conolly (Arthur), Journey to the North of India overland. London,
1834. 2 vols. 8vo.
Famin (César), Region caucasienne in Univers pittoresque. Paris,
n. d. 8vo. Caucasien in Weltgemaeldegallerie. Stuttgard, 1835. 8vo.
Hammer (Joseph von), Schwarzes Meer. Wien, 1835.
Evetskii (Orest), Statistichskoé opisanié Kavkaza (Statistical
Description of the Caucasus). S. Pbg., 1835.
Obozrenie russkikh vladenii za Kavkazom (Description of the Russian
Possessions beyond the Caucasus). S. Pbg., 1836. 4 vols. 8vo. An
official publication.
Zubov, Kartina kavkazskavo kraya (Picture of the Caucasian
Land). S. Pbg., 1834-35. 4 vols. 8vo.
----, Shest pisem o Gruzii i Kavkazié (Six Letters about Georgia and
the Caucasus). Moskva, 1834. 8vo.
Besse, Voyage en Crimée, au Caucase, etc. Paris, 1838. 8vo.
Belanger (Ch.), Voyage aux Indes par ... la Géorgie. Paris,
1838. 8vo. With atlas.
Spencer (Edm.), Travels in the Western Caucasus. London, 1838. 2
vols. 8vo.
Fragmens de lettres écrites de Tiflis en Géorgie. In Bibl. univ. de
Genève, 1838.
Wilbraham (Capt. Richard), Travels in the Transcaucasian
Provinces. London, 1839. 8vo.
*Dubois de Montpéreux (Frédéric), Voyage autour du Caucase. Paris,
1839-1843. 6 tom. 8vo. A well-written work. I am indebted to Dubois
for many bibliographical notes. The same author published an Atlas in
five parts in folio, Neuchatel, 1843, to illustrate his book (part 1,
Ancient Geography; part 2, Picturesque views; part 3, Architecture;
part 4, Archeology; part 5, Geology).
Hamilton (Walter), Researches in Asia Minor, Armenia, &c. London,
1840. 2 vols. 8vo.
Southgate, Horatio. Narrative of a Tour through Armenia. New York,
1840. 12mo.
Samuel (J.), The Remnant found, or the Place of Israel's Hiding
discovered ... the Result of Personal Investigation during a Missionary
Tour in Georgia. London, 1841. 8vo.
Teule (Jul. C.), Pensées ... extraites du journal des mes voyages dans
... les provinces russes, géorgiennes et tartares du Caucase.... Paris,
1842. 2 vols. 8vo.
Hommaire de Hell, Voyage à la Mer Caspienne. Paris, 1845. 3 vols.
Cameron (Geo. Poulett), Personal Adventures and Excursions in
Georgia. London, 1845. 2 vols. 8vo. Cf. United Service Journal. London,
1840-44.
Hagemeister, Zakavkazskie ocherki (Transcaucasian sketches). S. Pbg.,
1845. 8vo. Novie (New) do. do. S. Pbg., 1848.
Joselian (Plato), Opisanié Shiomgvimskoi pustini v Gruzii (Description
of the Desert of Shiomgvim in Georgia). Tiflis, 1845. 12mo.
---- ----, Puteviya zapiski po Kakhetii (Travel Notes from
Kakheti). Tiflis, 1846. 12mo.
Suzannet (Cte. de), Souvenirs de voyage. Les provinces du
Caucase. Paris, 1846. 8vo.
Danilevskii (N.), Kavkaz i evo gorskie zhiteli (The Caucasus and its
Mountaineers). Moskva, 1846. 8vo.
---- ----, Der Kaukasus. Physisch-geographisch, statistisch,
ethnographisch und strategisch. Leipzig, 1847. 8vo.
Kolenati, Die Ersteigung des Kasbek. In Russ. Archiv. S. Pbg., 1848.
Wagner (Moritz), Reise nach Kolchis und nach den deutschen Kolonien
jenseits des Kaukasus. Leipzig, 1850. 8vo. And Der Kaukasus und das
Land der Kosaken. 2te. Ausg. Leipzig, 1850. 2 Bde. 8vo. Translated
into English as Travels in Persia, Georgia, and Koordistan. London,
1856. 3 vols. 8vo.
*Stackelberg (Count Ernst von), Le Caucase pittoresque, dessiné
d'après nature par le Prince G. Gagarine; avec une introduction et
un texte explicatif par le Comte E. S. Paris, 1847-59. Fol.
*---- ----, Scènes, paysages, moeurs et costumes du Caucase, dessinés
d'après nature par le Prince G. Gagarine, et accompagnés d'un texte
par le Comte E. S. Paris, 1850, etc. Fol.
Bodenstedt (Fr.), Tausend und ein Tag im Orient. Berlin, 1850. 2
vols. 8vo.
Marmier (X.), Du Danube au Caucase. Paris, 1854. 8vo.
Haxthausen (August, Baron v.), Transcaucasia. Translated into English
by J. E. Taylor. London, 1854. 8vo.
Golovine (Ivan), The Caucasus. London, 1854. 8vo.
Spencer (Edm.), Turkey, Russia, the Black Sea. London, 1854. 8vo.
Thuemmel (A. R.), Bunte Bilder aus dem Kaukasus. Nuernberg, 1854-55. 2
vols. 8vo.
Borozdin (K. A.), Zakavkazskiya vospominaniya. Mingrelia i Svanetia
s 1854 do 1861 g. S. Pbg.
*Dumas (Alexandre), Le Caucase. Paris, 1859. 4to. A charming book.
Gille (F.), Lettres sur le Caucase.... Paris, 1859. 8vo. Cf.--
Bocage (V. A. B. du), Rapport fait à la Société de Géographie. Paris,
1860. 8vo.
Chodzko (General), Die neuesten Hoehenmessungen im Kaukasus. In
Petermann's Mittheilungen. Gotha, 1859.
---- ----, Die russischen Aufnahmen im Kaukasus. Ibid., 1862.
Moynet, Voyage à la Mer Caspienne et à la Mer Noire. In Charton's
"Tour du Monde," 1860. 1er. sém. Paris.
Blanchard, Voyage de Tiflis à Stavropol. In Charton's "Tour du Monde,"
1861. 2er. sém. Paris.
Lapinskii (T.), Die Bergvoelker des Kaukasus. Hamburg, 1863. 2
vols. 8vo.
Bianchi (A. de), "Viaggi in Armenia ... e Lazistan. Milano, 1863. 8vo.
Ruepprecht, Barometrische Hoehenbestimmungen im Caucasus, 1860-61. In
Mém. de l'Acad. de Sc. S. Pbg., 1864.
Bergé (Adolphe), Voyage en Mingrélie. Paris, 1864. 8vo.
Ussher (John), A Journey from London to Persepolis; including
Wanderings in ... Georgia. London, 1865. 8vo.
Stebnitzky, Uebersicht der Kaukasischen Statthalterschaft. In
Petermann's Mittheil. Gotha, 1865.
Petzholdt, Der Kaukasus. Leipzig, 1866. 2 vols. 8vo.
*Radde (Dr. Gustav, Curator of Caucasian Museum, and corresponding
member of R.G.S., London), Bericht ueber die biologisch-geographischen
Untersuchungen in den Kaukasus-Laendern. Tiflis, 1866. 4to.
---- ----, Reisen und Forschungen im Kaukasus im 1865. In Petermann's
Mittheil. Gotha, 1867. 4to.
---- ----, Vier Vortraege ueber dem Kaukasus. Ibid., 1874.
---- ----, Die drei Langenhochthaeler Imeritiens. Tiflis.
---- ----, Das kaukasische Museum in Tiflis. In Jahresbericht des
Vereins fuer Erdkunde. Dresden, 1878.
---- ----, Die Chews'uren und ihr Land. Cassel, 1878. 8vo.
Abich (Hermann), Geologische Beobachtungen auf Reisen in den
Gebirgslaendern zwischen Kur und Araxes. Tiflis, 1867. 4to. And other
geological works.
Becker (A.), Reise nach dem Kaukasus. Moskau, 1868. 8vo.
Schlotheim, Vier Monate in Grusien. Hermansburg, 1869. 8vo.
Favre, Notes sur quelques glaciers de la chaîne du Caucase. In
Bibl. universelle de Génève, 15 Janv., 1869.
Vereschaguine (Basile), Voyage dans les Provinces du Caucase. In
Charton's "Tour du Monde." Paris, 1869. 4to.
*Freshfield (Douglas W.), Travels in the Central Caucasus and
Bashan. London, 1869. 8vo. Contains an account of the famous ascent
of Mkhinvari (Mt. Kazbek). Cf. Mr. Freshfield's Lecture before the
Royal Geographical Society, London, March 12, 1888.
Cunynghame (A.), Travels in the Eastern Caucasus. London, 1872. 8vo.
Mounsey (Aug. H.), A Journey through the Caucasus. London, 1872. 8vo.
Lyons (F. A.), Adventures in Lazistan. In Bates's Illustrated
Travels. London, 1872.
Dilke (Ashton), An Article on Transcaucasia in the Fortnightly
Review. London, 1874.
Grove (F. C.), The Frosty Caucasus. London, 1876. 8vo. (Account of
ascent of Elbruz in 1874.)
Bunbury (E. H.), Art. Caucasus in Encyc. Brit. Vol. v. 1876.
Thielmann (Baron Max von), Journey in the Caucasus. Translated by
Dr. C. Hemeage. London, 1875. 2 vols. in 1. 8vo.
Ernouf, Le Caucase, le Perse et la Turquie d'Asie. D'après la relation
de M. le Baron de Thielmann. Paris, 1876. 8vo.
Schneider, Vorlaeufiger Bericht ueber im Laufe des Sommers 1875 in
Transkaukasien ausgefuehrte Reisen. In "Isis." 1876.
Fuchs (P.), Ethnologische Beschreibung der Osseten. In "Ausland." 1876.
Bernoville (Raphael), La Souanétie libre. Illustr. Paris,
1875. 4to. Also Notes d'un voyage au Caucase. In Revue catholique de
Bordeaux, Oct. 1883.
Telfer (J. B., Commander R.N.), The Crimea and Transcaucasia. London,
1876. 2 vols. 8vo.
*Bryce (Prof. James), Transcaucasia and Ararat. London, 1877. 8vo.
Bakradse (D.), Das tuerkische Grusien. aus d. Russischen
uebers. v. N. v. Seidlitz. In Russ. Revue. 1877.
Call (G. v.), Eisenbahnen im Kaukasus. In Oesterr. Monatsschrift fuer
d. Orient. Wien, 1877.
Kohn (A.), Kaukasien und seine Bewohner. In "Grenzboten." 1877.
Reisen im Kaukasus Gebiet. In "Ausland." 1877.
Travels in the Caucasus. In Edinburgh Review. January, 1877.
Cole (G. R. F.), Transcaucasia. In Fraser's Magazine. December, 1877.
Schweizer-Lerchenfeld (A. v.), Lazistan und die Lazen. In Monatsschrift
fuer d. Orient. Wien, 1878.
Karsten (K.), Natur- und Kulturbilder aus Transkaukasien. In "Aus
allen Welttheilen." 1878.
Smirnow (M.), Aperçu sur l'ethnographie du Caucase. In Revue
d'Anthropologie. Paris, 1878.
Kaukasische Skizzen. In Russ. Revue. S. Pbg., 1879.
Art. Georgia in Encyc. Brit. Vol. x. 1879. Only remarkable for its
typographical errors.
Vivien de Saint-Martin (Louis), Nouveau dictionnaire de Géographie
universelle. Paris, 1879. 4to. Art. Caucase and Géorgie. Also his
Nouv. Annales des Voyages.
Serena (Mme. Carla), Articles in Charton's "Tour du
Monde." Paris. 4to. Iméréthi, 1880. Mingrélie, 1881. Kakhétie,
1882. Samourzakan, Abkasie, 1882.
Seidlitz (N. v.), Die Voelker des Kaukasus. In Russische
Revue. 1881. Vide also Petermann's Mittheilungen and Russ. Revue
passim.
Reclus (Elisée), Nouvelle Géographie Universelle. Paris, T. vi.,
1881. 4to.
Morrison (M. A.), Caucasian Nationalities. In Journal of Royal Asiatic
Society. London, 1881.
Wolley (Clive Phillips, formerly British Vice-Consul at Kertch). Sport
in the Crimea and Caucasus. London, 1881. 8vo.
---- ----, Savage Svanêtia. 2 vols. London, 1883. 8vo.
Koch (C.), Wanderungen im Oriente. Weimar, 1846-47. 3 vols. 8vo.
---- ----, Die Kaukasische Militaerstrasse. Leipzig, 1851. 8vo.
---- ----, Nachklaenge orientalischer Wanderungen. Erfurt, 1881. 8vo.
Koechlin-Schwartz (A.), Un touriste au Caucase. Paris, 1881. 12mo.
Bayern (Fr.), Contribution à l'archéologie du Caucase. Lyon, 1883.
Wanderer (an English officer), Notes on the Caucasus. London,
1883. 8vo.
Sobolsky (W.), Spuren primitiver Familienordnungen bei den Kaukasischen
Bergvoelkern. In Russ. Revue. 1883.
Vladikin, Putevoditel po Kavkazu (Guide to the Caucasus). Moskva,
1885. 2 vols. 8vo.
Chantre (Ernest), Recherches anthropologiques dans le Caucase. Paris
and Lyon, 1886. 2 vols. 4to.
Erckert (R. von), Der Kaukasus und seine Voelker. Leipzig,
1887. 8vo. Ethnography.
Kovalevskii, Customs of the Ossetes. In Journ. R. Asiat. Soc., July,
1888. Translated by E. Delmar Morgan, M.R.A.S.
Kavkaz, Spravochnaya kniga. Tiflis, 1888. 12mo.
Weidenbaum (E.), Putevoditel po Kavkazu (Guide to the
Caucasus). Tiflis, 1888. An official publication. A good guide on
the principle of those of Murray is much wanted, but Murray's Guide
to Russia, 4th edition, 1888, gives very little information about
the Caucasus.
*Sbornik Svdenii o Kavkazié, Tiflis, 9 vols., 4to,
beginning 1871, contains a mass of interesting and useful
information. Vol. I. 1871. Monograph on the Ossets, by
Pfaff. Collection of Georgian, Armenian, and Tatar proverbs,
&c.--Vol. II. 1872. Statistical and economic condition of the Ossets,
by Pfaff. Serfdom in Georgia at the beginning of the present century
by Kalantarov. Railway routes to India.--Vol. III. 1874. Exhaustive
Treatise on Viniculture in the Caucasus.--Vol. IV. and
V. 1878-79. Statistics.--Vol. VI. 1880. Tiflis according to the census
of March 25, 1876. Also contains a brief historical account of the
city.--Vol. VII. 1880. And Vols. VIII. and IX. 1885. Statistics.
*Sbornik materialov dlya opisaniya myestnostei i plemen Kavkaza. The
sixth volume was published in Tiflis this year.
For Archeology vide--
Akti of the Kavkazskaya Arkhéografichskaya Kommissiya of Tiflis,
from 1866. In fol. Also the Zapiski and Izvestiya of the Obshchestvo
Lyubiteléi Kavkazskoi Arkhéologii of Tiflis. Former, from 1875,
in fol.; latter, from 1877, in 8vo.
The Best Map is that of the General Staff. Five versts to the inch.
HISTORY.
General.
*Brosset (M. F.), Histoire de la Géorgie (two volumes of
Georgian text, and six volumes of French translation and
notes). S. Pbg. (Acad. Scient.), 1849-58. 4to. M. Brosset has written
a great many books and articles on Georgian history, published
by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in S. Pbg.; some of them may
still be purchased. Cf. Bibliographie analytique des ouvrages de
M. Marie-Félicité Brosset ... par M. Laurent Brosset. S. Pbg., 1887.
Joselian (Plato), Istoriya gruzinskoi tserkvi. S. Pbg.,
1843. Translated into English under the title of "A Short History
of the Georgian Church," translated from the Russian by the
Rev. S. C. Malan. London, 1866. 8vo.
---- ----, Razlichniya naimenovaniya Gruzin (On the various
Appellations of the Georgians). Tiflis, 1846. 12mo.
---- ----, Istorichskii vzglad na sostoyanie drevnei Gruzii (Historical
glance at the condition of ancient Georgia). In Zhurnal Ministerstva
narodn. Prosv. S. Pbg., 1843. Cf. also his periodical Zakavkazskii
Vestnik from 1845. Tiflis.
Baratov (Prince Sulkhan), Istoriya Gruzii. S. Pbg., 1865, &c. 8vo.
David (Tsarevich of Georgia), Kratkaya istoriya o Gruzii. S. Pbg.,
1805. 12mo.
Barataiev, Numizmatichskie fakti Gruzinskavo tsarstva (Georgian
numismatics). S. Pbg., 1844. 8vo.
Villeneuve (de), La Géorgie. Paris, 1870. 8vo.
Breitenbauch (Georg Aug. von), Geschichte der Staaten von
Georgien. Memmingen, 1788. Thin 8vo.
Reineggs (Jacob), Kurzer Auszug der Geschichte von Georgien. Published
in P. S. Pallas's Neue Nordische Beitraege, III. Bd., S. Pbg.,
1781. 8vo.
*Evgeny (Bolkovitinov, Metropolitan of Kiev), Georgien, oder
historisches Gemaelde von Grusien, aus dem Russischen uebers. von
F. Schmidt. Riga, 1804. 8vo. A capital little book.
Malcolm (Sir John), History of Persia. 2nd edition. London, 1829. 8vo.
Fraser, An Historical and Descriptive Account of Persia. Edinburgh,
1834. 12mo.
Kazem-Beg, Derbend Nâmeh, or the History of Derbend. Translated from
the Turkish (into English). S. Pbg., 1851. 4to.
Early History.
Ditmar (T. J.), Von den kaukasischen Voelkern der mythischen
Zeit. Berlin, 1789. 8vo.
Ritter (Carl), Die Vorhalle Europaeischer Voelkergeschichten vor
Herodotus, um den Kaukasus und an den Gestaden des Pontus, eine
Abhandlung zur Alterthumskunde. Berlin, 1820. 8vo. The copy in the
British Museum is lettered "Ritter's Wahnsinn," and we must own that
we think the book more interesting than instructive.
Neumann (Carl), Die Hellenen im Skythenlande. Berlin, 1855. 8vo.
Shea (D.), Mir Khwand. History of the Early Kings of Persia from
Kaiomars to ... Alexander the Great. London. Oriental Translation
Fund. 1832. 8vo.
Procopius, De bello persico ... De bello gothico. Continued down to
560 A.D. by Agathias.
Constantinus Porphyrius (X. cent, A.D.), De administrando imperio.
Boyer, De muro caucasico. In vol. i. of Comment. de l'Acad. de
Sciences. S. Pbg.
Polybius, De bello persico. Lib. i., cap. xii. et passim.
Ruffinus, Historia ecclesiastica. Lib. i., cap. x. Conversion of
Georgia.
Saint-Martin (Jean Antoine), Mémoires historiques et géographiques
sur l'Arménie. 2 tom. Paris, 1818 and 1819. 8vo.
Ashik (Anton), Bosforskoye Tsarstvo s yevo paleografichskimi i
nadgrobnimi pamyatnikami, raspisnimi vasami, planami, kartami i
vidami (The Kingdom of the Bosphorus, with its paleographic and
monumental remains, inscribed vases, plans, maps, and views). Odessa,
1848-49. Three parts. 4to.
Neumann (C. F.), Elisha Vartabed. The History of Vartan, and of
the battles of the Armenians. 1830. 8vo. And Vahram's Chronicle of
the Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia. 1831. 8vo. Published by Oriental
Translation Fund. London.
D'Ohsson (Chév.), Des peuples du Caucase au Xe. siècle. Paris, 1828.
Lebeau (Charles), Histoire du Bas Empire. Corrigée et augm. par
M. de Saint-Martin et continuée par M. Brosset jeune. 20 tom. Paris,
1824-36. 8vo.
Vivien de Saint-Martin (Louis), Recherches sur les populations
primitives et les plus anciennes traditions du Caucase. Paris,
1847. 8vo.
Stritter (J. G.), Memoriæ populorum olim ad Danubium, Pontum
Euxinum, Paludem Mæotidem, Caucasum, Mare Caspium, et inde magis ad
Septentriones, incolentium, e scriptoribus Historiæ Byzantinæ erutæ
et digestæ. Petropoli, 1771-79. 4 vols. 4to. (Vol. iv. refers to
Georgian History.)
Modern History.
Klaproth (J. von), Aperçu des entreprises des Mongols en Géorgie
... dans le XIII. siècle. Paris, 1833. 8vo.
Comte L. S. (? Seristori), Memoria sulle colonie del Mar Nero nei
secoli di mezzo. 26 pp. 8vo. (n. d.) An account of the Genoese
trading colonies.
Dorn (B.), Beitraege zur Geschichte der Kaukasischen Laender und
Voelker, aus morgenlaendischen Quellen. Esp. III. Bd. (Geschichte der
Georgier), which contains a work by a Mahometan writer named Iskender
Munshi, and a History of the Szafid Dynasty; it deals with the period
1540-1663. Acad. Scient. S. Pbg., 1844. 4to.
*Perepiska na inostrannikh yazikakh gruzinskikh tsarei s rosiiskimi
gosudaryami ot 1639 g. do 1770 g. (Correspondence in foreign languages
between the Kings of Georgia and the Sovereigns of Russia from 1639
to 1770.) Acad. Scient. S. Pbg., 1861. 4to.
Hanway (Jonas), The Revolutions of Persia during the present century
(being the second volume of the Historical Account of the British
trade over the Caspian). 2nd edition. London, 1754. 4to.
Der allerneueste Staat von Casan ... Georgien und vieler andern
dem Czaren, Sultan und Schach ... unterthanen Tartarn Landschaften
... Nuernberg, 1724. 8vo.
Van der Quelle (Philander--pseudonym), Leben und Thaten des persischen
Monarchen Schach Nadyr. Leipzig, 1738. 8vo.
Peyssonnel (French Consul in Smyrna), Histoire des Troubles dans
la Géorgie. (? Paris, 1754.) 8vo. Translated into German, also into
English as a continuation of Hanway's History. London, 1756. 4to.
Ouosk' Herdjan (Jean), Mémoire pour servir à l'histoire des événemens
qui ont eu lieu en Arménie et en Géorgie à la fin du XVIIIe. siècle et
au commencement du XIXe. Trad. de l'arménien par J. Klaproth. Paris,
1818. 8vo.
Cirbied (J.), Histoire arménienne; details sur les changements
politiques en Géorgie et en Arménie dans les premières années du
XIXe. siècle. (? Paris, 1818.) 8vo.
Rottiers (Col.), Notice biographique sur Marie, dernière reine de
Géorgie. Journal Asiatique. Tom. 10. Paris, 1827.
*Zubov, Podvigi russkikh voisk v stranakh kavkazskikh v 1810-34 (The
Exploits of the Russian Army in the Caucasian Countries from 1810 to
1834). S. Pbg., 1835-36. Ten vols. 8vo. With portraits and plans.
----, Kartina voini s Persieiu (A Picture of the War with
Persia). S. Pbg., 1834. 8vo.
Fonton (Félix de), La Russie dans l'Asie Mineure. Histoire de la
campagne du Maréchal Paskewitch. Paris, 1831. 8vo. With atlas.
Urquhart (David), Progress and Present Position of Russia in the
East. London, 1836. 8vo. And second edition "continued to the present
time." London, 1854. 8vo.
Hommaire de Hell, Situation des Russes dans le Caucase. Paris,
1844. 8vo.
Holland (Thomas Erskine), Lecture on the Treaty Relations of Russia
and Turkey from 1774-1853. London and Oxford, 1877. 8vo.
Haxthausen (August, Baron von), The Tribes of the Caucasus, with an
account of Shamyl. Translated by J. E. Taylor. London, 1855. 12mo.
Moser (L.), Der Kaukasus, seine Voelkerschaften ... nebst einer
Charakteristik Schamils. Wien, 1854. 8vo.
Our Dangerous Neighbour over the Way, and Two Questions upon the
Caucasus. London, 1854. 8vo.
*Bodenstedt (Friedrich Martin), Die Voelker des Kaukasus und ihre
Freiheitskaempfe gegen die Russen. 2 Bde. 2te. Ausg. Berlin, 1855. 8vo.
Wagner (Dr. Friedr.), Schamyl als Feldherr, Sultan und
Prophet. Leipzig, 1854. 8vo. English translation by L. Wraxall. London,
1856. 8vo.
Douhaire (P.), Les Russes au Caucase. Prise de Schamyl. Paris,
1859. 8vo.
*Dubrovin, Istoriya voini i vladichestva russkikh na Kavkazié
(History of the War and Supremacy of the Russians in the Caucasus). 3
vols. S. Pbg., 1871. The first volume is introductory, and contains
an excellent ethnographical account of the country.
Baumgarten (G.), Sechzig Jahre des kaukasischen Krieges. Nach
russischen Originalen.... Leipzig, 1861. 8vo.
Dulaurier, La Russie dans le Caucase. In Revue des Deux Mondes. Paris,
1865-66.
Boys (A. du), Le Caucase depuis Shamyl. In Le Contemporain. Paris,
25 Août, 1876.
The following Periodical Publications should also be consulted:--
The official newspaper Kavkaz. 1844-88. Tiflis.
Kavkazskii Sbornik. 1876-86. 10 vols. 8vo. Tiflis. A series of articles
chiefly referring to Russian military exploits in the Caucasus during
the present century.
For Georgian Jurisprudence, cf.--
Sbornik zakonov gruzinskavo tsarya Vakhtanga VI. (Collection of the
laws of the Georgian King Vakhtanga VI.), izd. A. S. Frenkelya, pod
redak. D. Z. Bakradze. Tiflis, 1887. Bagaturov (S. J.), Lichniya
i pozemelniya prava v drevnei Gruzii (Personal and Agrarian Laws
in Ancient Georgia). Tiflis, 1886. Dareste, An Art. in Journ. des
Savants. Paris, 1887. Kovalevskii, Arts. in Vestnik Yevropi.
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.
Georgian Grammars and Dictionaries--Comparative Philology.
Alphabetum Ibericum sive Georgianum. Romæ, 1629. 8vo.
Paolini (Stefano), Dittionario Giorgiano e Italiano, composto da
S. P. con l'aiuto del M. R. P. D. Niceforo Irbachi Giorgiano. Roma
(Propag.), 1629. 4to.
Maggi (Francesco Maria), Syntagmatwn linguarum Orientalium quæ
in Georgiæ regionibus audiuntur. Romæ, 1643. Fol. And 1670. Fol.
Hyde (Thomas, D.D.), Historia religionis veterum Persarum .... Oxonii,
1700. 4to. And 1760. 4to. Contains Georgian alphabet.
Tlulcaanti (David), Dottrina Cristiana per uso delle missioni
della Giorgia, tradotta dalla lingua italiana in lingua civile
giorgiana. Roma, 1741. 8vo. And 1800. 8vo.
Vocabularium Catherinæ. Nos. 108, 109, 110, &c. S. Pbg.
Varlaamov, Kratkaya gruzinskaya grammatika. S. Pbg., 1802.
Hervas, Vocabolario poliglota, p. 164, &c. Madrid.
Witsen, Nord en Oost Tartarye II., 506, 526.
Firalov, Samouchitel, soderzhashchii v sebé Grammatiku, Razgovori,
Nravoucheniya i Lexikon, na Rossiiskom i Gruzinskom yazikakh
(Grammar, Dialogues, Moral Precepts, and Dictionary in Russian and
Georgian). S. Pbg., 1820. 8vo.
Vater (J. S.), Vergleichungstafeln der Europaeischen Stamm-Sprachen
... Grusinische Grammatik, nach Maggio, Ghai und Firalow ... Halle,
1822. 8vo.
Klaproth (H. J. v.), Kaukasische Sprachen. Halle and Berlin, 1814. 8vo.
---- ----, Vocabulaire et grammaire de la langue géorgienne. Paris
(Soc. Asiat.), 1827. 8vo.
---- ----, Sur la langue Géorgienne. In Journal Asiat. Paris, 1827.
Brosset (M. F.), L'Art libéral ou grammaire géorgienne. Paris,
1830. 8vo.
---- ----, Éléments de la langue géorgienne. Paris, 1837. 8vo.
Soulkhanoff (A.), Vocabulaire méthodique
géorgien-français-russe. S. Pbg., 1839. 8vo.
*Chubinov (David), Gruzinsko-russo-frantsuzkii slovar. Dictionnaire
géorgien-français-russe avec un abrégé de la grammaire géorgienne
par M. Brosset. S. Pbg., 1840. 4to.
---- ----, Kratkaya gruzinskaya grammatika. S. Pbg., 1855. 8vo.
---- ----, Russko-gruzinskii slovar. Vnov sostavlenii po noveishim
russkim slovaryam. S. Pbg., 1886. 8vo.
Bopp, Kaukasische Glieder des Indo-Europaeischen Sprachstamms. Berlin,
1847.
Mueller (F. C. J.), Zur Conjugation des georgischens Verbums. Wien,
1869. 8vo.
Schiefner (Prof.), Report on the languages of the Caucasus. In
Transactions of Philological Society. London, 1877.
Gatteyrias (J. A.), Etudes linguistiques sur les langues de la famille
géorgienne. In Revue de linguistique. Paris, Juillet, 1881.
Tsagareli (Prof.), Georgische Inschrift aus Jerusalem. In Zeitschrift
des Palestina-Vereins. 1881.
*---- ----, Examen de la littérature relative à la grammaire
géorgienne. S. Pbg., 1873.
Peacock (D. R.), Original Vocabularies of Five West Caucasian Languages
(Georgian, Mingrelian, Lazian, Svanetian, and Apkhazian). Journal of
Royal Asiatic Society, 1877, pp. 145-156.
Osset, Mingrelian, Abkhazian, Svanetian, and Lazian Languages.
Sjögren (A. J.), Ossetische Sprachlehre (also published in
Russian). S. Pbg. (Acad. Scient.), 1844. 4to.
---- ----, Ossetische Studien. S. Pbg. (Acad. Scient.), 1848. 4to.
Schiefner (A.), Ossetinskie texti (Osset
texts). S. Pbg. (Acad. Scient.), 1868. 8vo.
---- ----, Versuch ueber die Thusch-Sprache. S. Pbg. (Acad. Scient.),
1856. 4to. And other works.
Mueller (F. C. J.), Ueber die Stellung des Ossetischen. Wien,
1861. 8vo.
---- ----, Beitraege zur Lautlehre des Ossetischen. Wien, 1863. 8vo.
Miller (Vsyevolod, Professor at Moscow), Ossetinskie etyudi.
Bartolomaei (Lieut.-Gen.), Lushnu Anban. Svanetskaya Azbuka
(Svanetian Primer with Georgian and Russian translation. Includes a
large vocabulary, Lord's Prayer, colloquial phrases, &c.). Tiflis,
1864. 4to. 147 pp.
Klaproth (J. de), Détails sur le dialecte géorgien usité en
Mingrélie. In Journ. Asiat. Paris, 1829.
Rosen, Sprache der Lazen. Berlin, 1840.
----, Abhandlungen ueber das Mingrelische. Berlin, 1840.
----, Ueber das Suanische und Abchasische. Berlin, 1845.
Georgian Literature.--Translations and criticisms.
*Brosset, Articles, Lectures, &c., published by
Acad. Scient. S. Pbg. in their periodical and other publications.
*Leist (Arthur), Georgische Dichter. Leipzig, 1887. 12mo. A collection
of modern lyrics translated into German verse.
---- ----, Georgian, Natur, Sitten u. Bewohner. Leipzig, 1885. (Last
chapter contains a short history of Georgian literature, which I
freely used in writing the present work.)
*Evgeny (Bolkovitinov), Georgien, oder historisches Gemaelde von
Grusien, aus dem Russischen uebers. von F. Schmidt. Riga, 1804. 8vo.
Alter (Franz C.), Ueber georgianische Litteratur. Wien, 1798. 8vo.
*Gulak (N. I.), O barsovoi kozhé Rustaveli. (Two lectures in Russian
on Rustaveli's "Man in the Panther's Skin.") Tiflis, 1884. 8vo.
État actuel de la littérature Géorgienne. In
Nouv. Journ. Asiat. Vol. I., p. 434.
Gabriel (Bishop of Imereti), Sermons, &c. Translated from the Georgian
by S. C. Malan, Vicar of Broadwindsor. London, 1867. 8vo.
Orbeliani (Prince Sulkhan), Kniga mudrosti i lzhi. (A Russian
translation of a collection of Georgian fables and folk tales of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.) Perevod i obyasneniya
A. Tsagareli. S. Pbg. (Acad. Scient.), 1878. 8vo.
Bebur B ... Gruzinskiya narodniya skazki. S. Pbg., 1884. 8vo. (A
collection of folk tales, &c., chiefly from Guri.)
Mueller (W.), Prometheische Sagen im Kaukasus. In Russische
Revue. 1883.
Bleçki (R. v.), Das Schloss der Tamara. Eine kaukasische Sage. S. Pbg.,
1852. 8vo.
Tsagareli (Prof.), Svedeniya o pamyatnikakh gruzinskoi pismennosti
(Information concerning the monuments of Georgian literature). S. Pbg.,
1887. 8vo.
Morfill (W. R.), An Article on Georgian Literature in "The Academy,"
July 21, 1888.
Mr. Morfill has catalogued the Georgian Library presented to the
Indian Institute at Oxford by the Rev. S. C. Malan, with whom he
shares the honour of being the only Georgian scholar in England,
and he will shortly publish a History of Russia, a chapter of which
will be devoted to Georgia.
STATISTICS.
All the following figures are from official papers, and they refer
to the year 1886. They must not be too implicitly believed:--
A. Statistics of Population.
Area in sq. km. Total population.
Government of Tiflis 40,473 735,000
Government of Kutais 35,000 814,000
Population of the chief towns in Georgia:--
Government of Tiflis. Government of Kutais.
Akhaltzikhe. 13,265 Batum 11,878
Akhalkalaki 4,303 Kutais 20,227
Gori 5,386 Poti 4,785
Dushet 2,041 Sukhum 1,279
Signakh 10,069
Telav 8,014
Tiflis 104,024
It will be seen that the urban population is very small.
B. Trade and Agriculture (1886).
Total trade of Transcaucasia (value in roubles at, say 22d. per
rouble):--
Exports. Imports. Total.
27,812,402 11,452,145 39,264,547 Rbl.
Trade of the interior of Russia and Transcaucasia with Persia:--
Exports. Imports. Total.
6,128,933 10,256,056 16,384,989 Rbl.
Transit trade through Transcaucasia:--
From Asia to Europe. From Europe to Asia. Total
1,017,607 95,614 1,113,221
Traffic returns of Transcaucasian Railway.
Total weight of goods carried, 58,000,000 puds (Ton = 62 puds).
To Batum and Poti, for export, 32,000,000 puds.
viz. 15,000,000 pd. petroleum and its products.
9,000,000 pd. grain.
8,000,000 pd. miscellaneous goods.
Goods imported from abroad and despatched from Batum and Poti by
railway, 5,000,000 pd.
Bread stuffs produced in Transcaucasia:--
Wheat 50,000,000 puds.
Barley 30,000,000 puds.
Maize 20,000,000 puds.
Millet 9,000,000 puds.
Rice 5,000,000 puds.
Oats 350,000 puds.
Potatoes 4,000,000 puds.
Total 118,350,000 puds.
Wine.--The total annual production of wine In Transcaucasia was
about 25,000,000 gallons, of which about 15,000,000 gallons in the
government of Kutais.
The Transcaucasian Rwy. carried a weight of 247,000 puds from
stations in the government of Kutais; 173,000 puds from stations in
the government of Tiflis.
(As there is no railway to Kakheti, the wine from that district comes
to the capital by road, in carts.)
Two hundred thousand puds were sent to Batum, presumably for export
(chiefly to France, where it is "manipulated" and sold as Burgundy).
Sundry goods despatched by Transcaucasian Railway.
From stations in the From stations in
govt. of Kutais. the govt. of Tiflis.
Puds. Puds.
Manganese ore 3,800,000 chiefly to Great --
Britain
Timber 536,000 817,000
Dried raisins -- 116,000
Palm wood 23,000 --
Walnut wood 20,000 12,000
Walnuts 6,000 36,000
Tobacco 64,000 31,000
Silk and cocoons -- 1,500
Wool -- 195,000
Fruits 70,000 110,000
Raw hides 8,000 36,000
Manufactured hides 21,000 45,000
C. Education (1886).
No. of Schools.
Higher Lower Private Elementary Total No.
gymnasia, municipal. schools. schools. of
&c. schools.
Government 17 16 35 339 407
of Tiflis
Government 5 9 7 459 480
of Kutais
No. of Pupils.
Boys. Girls. Total. For every 10,000
inhabitants there
are--
Schools. Pupils.
Government of 16,282 6,727 23,009 5·03 284
Tiflis
Government of 19,234 1,662 20,896 5·90 257
Kutais
SPECIMENS OF GEORGIAN VOCAL MUSIC.
1.--The River Aragva.
2.--The Singer.
3.--Avtandil's Song.
4.--Drinking Song (p. 88).
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Kingdom of Georgia - Notes of travel in a land of women, wine, and song" ***
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