274 BRIGANDAGE IN THE CAUCASUS. 



became a seat of civilization is doubtless to be found in 

 the famous hot springs, which possess an even higher im- 

 portance for Orientals than for dwellers in the Occident. 

 From Tiflis our course lay along a tolerably good 

 high -way to Axtapha , where the road to Baku via 

 Elizabethpol branches off from that to the Goktcha 

 Lake and to Persia, and the vast steppes extending 

 to the Caspian Sea begin. On account of the high 

 temperature we chose to continue our journey in the 

 early morning , and ordered the horses for 3 a. m. 

 The postmaster however energetically opposed this, as 

 a band of robbers was rendering the country unsafe. 

 The Russian government even to the present day has 

 not succeeded in entirely suppressing brigandage in 

 the Caucasus. The Tartars of the steppes and of the 

 neighbouring mountain regions , in spite of severe 

 punishments, cannot be weaned from it. Just now, in 

 the summer of 1890, when on the point of making 

 a third journey with my wife and youngest daughter 

 to Kedabeg, I get the news that a band of robbers 

 is carrying on its nefarious practices in the neighbour- 

 hood of our mining works and has given occasion for 

 extreme measures against them. 



o 



The predatory propensity of the Caucasian tribes, 

 ever manifesting itself afresh, has its root in the habits 

 and sentiments of the population of a country, in which 

 the bearing of arms still forms the man's pride. 

 Plundering is there considered more as a prohibited 

 sport than a crime. As knights in the Middle Ages 

 deemed it compatible with their dignity to snatch 



