54 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



M. de Chantre, in his monumental Recherches 

 Anthropologiques dans la Caucase, has a most beauti- 

 ful explanation of the impossibilities of reducing to 

 mere writing the intricacies of the Circassian tongue. 

 He tells us an old Adighe scholar set about compiling a 

 comprehensive guide to his unwritten language, which 

 was to be a linguistic encyclopaedia for all time. As 

 his pen hovered over the paper he was brought up 

 by an arresting Presence. " Give up your task," ad- 

 vised the majestic intruder. " Can you put into human 

 writing the rolling of the thunder among the peaks, 

 the crash of the falling avalanche, the deep roar of the 

 mountain torrents, the blast of the waterfalls ? Can 

 you represent the sound of the stones as they clatter 

 down the gorges, of the branches of the forest as they 

 moan in the tempest, the screams and songs of the 

 birds as they call to one another from height to 

 height ? How then can you hope to imprison in 

 letters the free speech of the tribes of the Caucasus ? " 



Presumably, after this poetical admonition, the 

 savant desisted from his self-imposed task. Certain it 

 is he left us no vocabulary. 



Of the Abkhas and Circassians I have already spoken. 

 " Tscherkess," which is the Russian name for the latter 

 tribe, has now become the equivalent of " Thief ! 

 Cut-throat ! Waster ! " No Circassian ever terms 

 himself Tscherkess. H you want to provoke a quarrel 

 —try it ! 



In the region of the Upper Aragva live the Khevsurs 

 and Pshavs, offshoots from the Georgian race. Both 

 tribes consider themselves Christian, although pos- 



