1895.] ^'-^ [Brinton. 



Their immediate neighbors on the soutli were the inhabitants 

 of the basin of Lal<e Van. These were the " Urartu " of the 

 Assj^rian texts, the " Alarodi " of Herodotus, dwelling near tlie 

 Ararat of the Hebrew Scriptures. They spoke a non-Semitic 

 language, which by Sayce, Lehmann, Hommel and others has 

 been classed with the Georgian. This is probable, although it 

 was certainly more or less Aryanized when we first become ac- 

 quainted with it (about 800 B.C.).* The native name of the 

 land was Biaina, and of the people, C/laW^, after their chief god 

 Chaldis. From this they are designated in ancient geography 

 as the " Pontic Chaldeans," to distinguish them from those in 

 Babylonia (the Kash du). A sharp culture-line, however, di- 

 vides these Chaldi from the Georgians. Their mode of burial 

 was quite different, and their proper names cannot be analj'zed 

 from the Grusinian lexicon. This line crosses the river Araxes 

 above Ordubad, and is easily traced by the existing remains. f 



Another people claimed, with some show of reason, to have 

 belonged to this family were the Mitani, who occupied the great 

 bend of the Euphrates about 31° N. Lat.| Certain proper 

 names of divinities and affixes are common to them and to the 

 old Yannic language. The name Mitani itself sounds Georgian, 

 as in that tongue -ani or -mni is an adjectival suffix (okhro, gold ; 

 okhrani^ golden). 



Bold attempts have been made to trace the Georgian into 

 Europe. 



It has been pointed out that Strabo mentions the Iberians 

 and Albanians as tribes dwelling in Trans-Caucasia ; and this is 

 enough to have induced Prof. Hommel to claim that the Grusin- 

 ian is related to the Albanian of ancient Illyria and to the 

 Basque of the Pyrenees. § As the former is a well-marked 



*" stark indogermanisirt," as Hommel says. His articles in point \\\\\ be found in 

 the Archivfilr Anthropologie, Bd. xix, s. 251, sq., and the ZeUschri/tfur Keilscliriftforschung, 

 Bd. i, s. 162, sq. In the latter he says ihat the old Armenian, the Cossaean and the Suso- 

 Medic belonged "zvveifellos" to the Georgian family. Heinrich Winkler considers the 

 affinity of the Vannic to the Georgian is " shown to be highly probable " ( Ural-Altdische 

 Vulker unci Sprachen, p. 145). 



t See an excellent article by Waldemar Belck in the Verhand. der Berliner Anthrop. Ges., 

 1893, s. 81, sq. Bertin {Gram, of the Langs, of the Cuneiform Inscrips.) gives three Vannic 

 numerals : 1, shushi; 2, tara; 3, shishti. These are rather similar to the Caucasic : 1, eshku; 

 2, heri; 3, shshi. 



I Among others, Dr. Lehmann supports this opinion, Zcitschrift fiir Elhnologie, 1892,' 

 s. 130 (though with some hesitation). Compare his Shamashshuinakin, s. 63. Others con- 

 nect the Mitani with the " Hittite " tongue. To this I shall refer later. 



I Arehiv fiir Anthropologie, Bd. xix, s. 251. 



