March 26, I8G0.] BARON DE BODE ON DAGISTAN. 91 



The second Paper read was— ^ 



2. Sketches of the Hilly Dagistdn, with Lesghi Tribes of the Eastern 

 Chain of the Caucasics. By Baron de Bode. 



Communicated by Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, m.d., f.r.g.s. 



DagistAjt is probably less known than the remainder of the Cau- 

 casian chain west of the Caspian. That part of the Caucasus is 

 split up into hill and dale, with offshoots from the principal snowy 

 range ; but Dagistan is formed of stupendous barren granitic 

 masses, that form a high table-land, intersected by rapid streams. 

 There are no roads in the country, nor do the foot-paths of the 

 inhabitants serve, without difficulty, for beasts of burden. The 

 small amount of cultivated ground that exists in Dagistan consists 

 of small terraced gardens, high on the hill sides, often at points 

 very difficult of access. 



The ethnography of the Caucasus is exceedingly complicated, 

 owing chiefly to its having been a thoroughfare to the hordes of 

 Central Asia, and to the encroachments of surrounding races. 

 Baron de Bode's paper is largely occupied with a discussion on the 

 origin of the Lesghi of Dagistan, who were under the sway of 

 Schamyl, who are totally distinct from the Cherkesses (Circassians), 

 and are geographically separated from them by the military road 

 that joins Tiflis with Eussia. 



The Chairman said the Society were exceedingly indebted to Baron de Bode 

 for the account he had given of the interior of a country with which we were 

 so little acquainted. The contrast which he had drawn between the Tcherkess, 

 or Circassians, and the Lesghi of Dagistan was very striking. This was not, 

 however, the first time the Society had been indebted to Baron de Bode. Many 

 years ago he contributed a vahiable paper on a portion of Persia to the south 

 of the great Caucasian chain, the north-eastern parts of which he had described 

 on the present occasion. Baron de Bode was so thoroughly acquainted with 

 the habits of the people, and their language, that it was of great value to 

 receive from him so vivid a description as they had just listened to. They 

 had present an experienced English geographer, General Monteith, who, 

 twenty-three or twenty-four years ago, explored this very region, and who had 

 still many unpublished documents on the subject. 



General Monteith, f.r.g.s., observed that the name of Dagistan (simply, 

 Country of Mountains) would be applied by the inhabitants of the low country 

 to any part of the Caucasus ; from which, he presumed, has arisen the mistake 

 on the map of the locality of the Lesghi, whose country is particularly men- 

 tioned as Dagistan, is bounded on the west by the Aksi Kiver, extending to 

 the Caspian on the east, to the north nearly to the Terik, and the south the 

 frontier of Georgia, Kakhelia. Half-way between Derbend and Kislar is situated 

 the town of Terki, formerly the capital of the Shum Khal or Chul, the great 

 Lesghian confederation. The four great divisions are the Kasi Kumaks, Kafer 

 Kumaks (so called before their conversion to Mahomedanism), Avars, and 

 Ah Kourhchey (white Falcons). All the Lesghi are comprised in these 

 four tribes, though many mixed clans exist. There is considerable difference 



