(;KOK<;IA 



165 



disgraceful traflir WIIH put an end to by the treaty 

 of Kin-link Kainardji in 1774. Though endowed 

 by naimi- with mental no less than physical ad 

 vantages, the long course of oppression to \\ hii-h 

 they have IKHMI subjected lias had its effect u|on 

 their characters. Hut, despite I he supremacy and 

 limtal tyranny uf their Mohammedan conquerors, 

 they liave as a nation remained faithful to the 

 ChiUtian religion, according to the doctrines of 

 the Greek Church. In (Juria, however, and the 

 country of the La/es, large numbers of the inli.-il.it 

 ante were forced by persecution to embrace Islam, 

 and in t he-e district^ the ruins of many churches 

 may still be seen. The southern Caucasians, with 

 magnificent physique, fertile soil, and enervating 

 climate, are somewhat indolent ; they are passion- 

 ately fond of singing and music. 



The four chief tongues Georgian, Mingrelian, 

 Suanei ian, and La/ian. which some have called the 

 Iberian group stand to each other more in the 

 relation of languages than dialects, although they 

 certainly all had a common origin ; Mingrelian 

 especially has greatly diverged. Georgian alone 

 of the four has a literature, if we except the few 

 folk-tales of the Mingrelians. These languages 

 are of the agglutinative - ty pe ; the chief difficulty 

 lies in the verbs, which incorporate the pronominal 

 prelixes and suffixes. In their structure they 

 resemble Basque, but no affinity can be established 

 between these two families of languages, as their 

 vocabularies have no word in common. 



The Georgians use two alphabets the khutsuri 

 or ecclesiastical, and the mKhedruli or civil : the 

 first is only employed in the religious books. They 

 are very old, and legendary accounts are given 

 of their origin. The ecclesiastical resembles the 

 Armenian alphabet ; the civil is a very pretty 

 character, with many rounded letters, which make 

 it somewhat resemble Burmese. Georgian litera- 

 ture is by no means poor. Professor Tsagarelli gives 

 a list of 946 Georgian MSS. known to exist ; they 

 are preserved in monasteries at Jerusalem, on 

 Mount Athos and Mount Sinai, and at Tirlis, in the 

 library of the Society for the Diffusion of Educa- 

 tion among the Georgians. Besides these, there 

 are 30 MSS in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, 

 and 34 in private hands at Tirlis. Further search 

 will, no doubt, bring to light others. As far as it 

 can be traced back, the literature begins about the 

 5th century A.D., with translations of the Scrip- 

 tures and the Fathers, and later on .we get versions 

 of the Greek classical authors, including Plato, 

 Aristotle, and Josephus. To the 7th century 

 belongs a fine psalter on papyrus, and there is a 

 complete manuscript of the Bible of the 10th, 

 preserved at Mount Athos. The great literary 

 development, however, of the country was during 

 the llth and 12th centuries, and especially in the 

 reign of Queen Tamara. To this period belongs 

 the popular epic, ' The Man in the Panther's Skin ' 

 ( VephJchvit^Koosani), a poem narrating the love 

 of Avtandil for Tinatina, daughter of the Arabian 

 king Rostevan, and that of Tariel for Nestan Dar- 

 edjan, daughter of the Indian king Parsadan. It 

 is a richly-coloured work, as if written by an 

 oriental Tasso, and enjoys great popularity among 

 the Georgians at the present day, many of the 

 couplets it is written in quatrains having passed 

 into proverbs. The author, Shota Rustaveli, was 

 the glory of the reign of Queen Tamara, and is 

 said to have died at Jerusalem as a monk in 1215. 

 A handsome illustrated edition of this work ap- 

 peared at Tiflis in 1888. Of Shavtel, another poet 

 of the time who also enjoyed considerable reputa- 

 tion, only a few odes have come down. Chakh- 

 rukhadze composed a long and rather tedious poem 

 in honour of the famous queen ; prose tales were 

 written by Sarkis of Thmogvi, the most celebrated 



the Vitrumiani, and a poem by Mote of 

 Kin mi. called Jhtredjaniani. Now that the 

 ( ieorgiatiH have been secured by Russian protection 

 from their Moslem foes, they are busy in xtudying 

 their old literature and editing their MSH. Home- 

 where about the same time ax these authors 

 nourished was begun the Georgian chronicle, called 

 Kin-thlia Tskhuvreba, or life of Georgia, the tint 

 part of which is anonymous, and carries the history 

 tiiim the earliest times to the year 1224; a con- 

 tinuation, also anonymous, brings it down to the 

 year 1445. 



Km this brilliant period was destined to a 

 temporal v eclipse ; during the 14th and the next 

 two centuries the country was a prey to Mongols, 

 Tartars, Persians, and Turks ; the cities were 

 devastated, many of the inhabitants were carried 

 into captivity, and valuable MSS. were lost or 

 destroyed. In the 17th century, however, matters 

 began to mend. Towards the close nourished Saba 

 Sul khan Orbeliani, one of the most learned men 

 of his time, who visited Paris, where he was well 

 received by Louis XIV., and Home. To him his 

 countrymen are indebted for the first dictionary 

 of their language, called, in oriental style, 'The 

 Bouquet of Words ; ' it was edited at Tiflis in 

 1884. His also was the popular work, ' The Book of 

 Wisdom and Falsehood ' ( Tsigni Sibrmni-sitttruisa), 

 a collection of amusing fables and apologues, some 

 of his own invention, and others drawn from the 

 stores of Georgian and other oriental folk-tales. 

 A Russian translation of this interesting book has 

 been published by Professor Tsagarelli of St Peters- 

 burg. 



In 1709 King Vakhtang VI. established a print- 

 ing-press at Tiflis. One of the works whicn ap- 

 peared was ' The Man in the Panther's Skin,' to 

 which he added a curious mystical commentary, 

 giving the book a religious meaning, perhaps to 

 rehabilitate it among the clergy, who regarded it 

 as a profane work. Vakhtang also laboured at a 

 translation of the Kalilah and Damnah, in which 

 he was assisted bv Sul khan Orbeliani (edited at 

 Tirlis in 1886). T*his king, thinking his country 

 lost on account of a fresh invasion of the Turks, 

 emigrated to Russia with many Georgian families, 

 and in consequence of their presence in the country 

 the great Georgian Bible was published at Moscow 

 in 1743. To this century also belong the Davithi- 

 ani, a poem by Guramishvili, and the first Georgian 

 grammar, by the Catholicos (Primate) Anthony, 

 besides other works. Vakhusht, the son of Vakh- 

 tang, continued the chronicle of his country till 

 1745, and wrote a geographical description of* it, a 

 work of great value. Since the peaceful settle- 

 ment of Georgia under the Russians, literature 

 has been greatly developed. The fine lyric poets, 

 Alexander Chavchavadze ( whose daughter married 

 Griboiedov, the Russian dramatist), Raphael Eris- 

 tavi, Nicholas Baratashvili, and Akaki Tsereteli, 

 have appeared. The most conspicuous literary 

 man of Tiflis at the present time is Prince Ilya 

 Chavchavad/e, author of some of the most grace- 

 ful lyrics in the language, and some spirited tales 

 in winch he has satirised the luxury and other 

 weaknesses of his countrymen. He is editor of 

 the Georgian literary ami political daily journal, 

 Iberia. Some of the plays of Shakespeare, among 

 others Hamlet ami Othello, have IKH-II translated 

 by Prince Machabeli. Altogether, Georgian litera- 

 ture may be said to be in a nourishing condition. 



The pioneer in the study of Georgian history and 

 philology was Brosset, who published Eltmentt de la 

 Lanfiue Georyiennc (Paris, 1837), an elaborate edition of 

 the Georgian Chronicle (St Petersburg, 1849-58). and 

 many other works. Chubinov's Gruzintko-riutko-frant- 

 suskii Slovar, Dictionnaire Georflitn-franfai*-ruue (St 

 Petersburg, 1840), and Jtwuian-Georyian Dictionary 



