The Caucasian Mountains and their Inhabitants. 99 



themselves over neighboring mountains. This is sup- 

 ported by agreement with others which state that the 

 ancestors of the generations which cover the great plateau 

 of Tartary, the vast Scythia of the ancients, Persia and 

 Asia Minor, were descended from the Caucasus. 



Still the question recurs, who were the original inhabit- 

 ants of this realm ? It is a natural supposition that they 

 were one people, speaking one language ; but history does 

 not fully sustain this idea. The Caucasus was rather a 

 refuge, for the oppressed of all nations. From a discovery 

 made by Mr. Biberstein, in the Georgian chronicles, of an 

 account of an invasion of Magogs at precisely the period 

 in which Herodotus places the invasion of the Cimmerians, 

 it has been inferred that they were the same Tartars or 

 Mongols (bearing a name signifying heathen, and whom by 

 prediction the Jews were to destroy), driven out of Tar- 

 tary by the Scythian into the Caucasian mountains, 

 whence they descended on Asia Minor about B. C. 950. 

 Dr. Clarke says: "The Tcherkessi continually repelled 

 from their ancient boundary, the Tanais and Lake Meotis, 

 and ultimately driven beyond the Kuban and Terek, hung 

 on the northern sides of the Caucasus." Pallas says: 

 " That the tribe of Cabardians consider themselves as 

 descendants of the Arabs; " and adds that the Abhasians 

 are distinguished from the neighboring natives by their 

 'faces, by the figure of their heads which are compressed 

 on both sides, by their prominent noses and dark- brown 

 hair." The same author after giving cogent reasons for 

 supposing that the Amazons were not a fabulous race says: 

 " It is obvious that they and their husbands (which they 

 eventually took, at least for a time), lived in Cabadar of 

 the Caucasus." As they were Sauromatians from whom 

 probably are descended the Ossetis who resided further 

 north and are the Alanes of the middle ages, it plainly 

 appears that the Amazons, Mcetians, Sauromatians, 



