Photo from George Kennan 



THE DESCENDANTS OF THE CRUSADERS 



The Khevsurs of Tooshetia are among the few Christian tribes of the Caucasus and are 

 said to be the descendants of the Crusaders, In the more remote sections of the mountains 

 they have preserved the coats-of-mail of their ancestors, which they wear on certain cere- 

 monial occasions. 



psychological traits that grow out of and 

 depend upon topographical environment. 

 They number perhaps a million and a 

 half and are settled in small, isolated 

 stone villages throughout the whole ex- 

 tent of the range from the Black Sea to 

 the Caspian, at heights ranging from 

 3.000 to 9,000 feet. They maintain them- 

 selves chiefly by pasturing sheep upon 

 the mountains and cultivating a little 

 wheat, millet, and Indian corn in the 

 valleys, and before the Russian conquest 

 they were in the habit of eking out this 

 scanty subsistence by making plundering 

 raids into the rich neighboring lowlands 

 of Kakhetia and Georgia. 



ONE REEIGION, BUT MANY TONGUES 



In religion they are nearly all Moham- 

 medans, the Arabs having overrun the 



country and introduced the faith of 

 Islam as early as the eighth century. In 

 the more remote and inaccessible parts 

 of the eastern Caucasus, there still remain 

 a few isolated aouls (villages) of idola- 

 ters. 



In Daghestan there are four or five 

 thousand Jews, who, although they have 

 lost their language and their national 

 character, still cling to their religion ; and 

 among the high peaks of Tooshetia, in 

 the same province, is settled a community 

 of Christians, said to be the descendants 

 of a band of medieval Crusaders. But 

 these are exceptions ; nine-tenths of the 

 mountaineers are Mohammedans of the 

 fiercest, most intolerant type. 



The languages and dialects spoken by 

 the different tribes of this heterogeneous 

 population are more than thirty in num- 



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