AN ISLAND IN THE SEA OF HISTORY 



1095 



and temperament of its component mem- 

 bers. These systems were of almost all 

 conceivable kinds, from the absolute 

 hereditary monarchies of the Arab khans 

 to the free communities or simple repub- 

 lics of central and southern Daghestan. 

 In the former the ruler could take the 

 life of a subject with impunity to gratify 

 a mere caprice, while in the latter a citi- 

 zen who regarded himself as aggrieved 

 by a decision of the ruler could appeal to 

 the general assembly, which had power 

 to annul the decree or even to change the 

 chief magistrate. 



Since the Russian conquest the moun- 

 taineers have altered to some extent both 

 their forms of government and their 

 mode of life. Blood revenge and plun- 

 dering raids into the valley of Georgia 

 have nearly ceased. Tribal rulers in 

 most parts of the mountains have given 

 place to Russian ispravniks (chiefs of 

 police) ; and the rude and archaic sys- 

 tems of customary law, which prevailed 

 everywhere before the Russian conquest, 

 are being slowly supplanted by the less 

 summary processes of European juris- 

 prudence. 



THK CUSTOMS O:^ A THOUSAND YEARS AGO 

 STiIvI, ]?I,OURISHING 



Of course, the life, customs, and social 

 organizations of a people who originated 

 in the way that I have described, and 

 who lived for perhaps 2,000 years in al- 

 most complete isolation from all the rest 

 of the world, presented when they first 

 became known many strange and archaic 

 features. In the secluded valleys and 

 canyons of the eastern Caucasus it was 

 possible to study a state of society that 

 existed in England before the Norman 

 conquest, and see in full operation cus- 

 toms and legal processes that had been 

 obsolete everywhere else in Europe for 

 at least a millennium. 



I had the good fortune to see the coun- 

 try before the fierce and wild population 

 of the mountain valleys had been much 

 influenced by Russian civilization ; and in 

 the unvisited and almost inaccessible 

 fastnesses of southern Daghestan I 

 found still in existence the men, customs, 

 and ideas of the tenth century. 



My attention was first attracted to the 

 Caucasus as a promising field for ex- 

 ploration in the spring of 1868, when I^ 

 passed through Moscow and St. Peters- 

 burg on my way home from eastern Si- 

 beria. The Caucasian war had then re- 

 cently closed ; and all Russia was ringing 

 with romantic stories of the Daghestan 

 highlanders — the Lesghians, the Che- 

 chenses, and the Avars — whose chival- 

 rous and heroic courage had won the 

 respect and admiration even of their ene- 

 mies. 



Russian regimental bands were play- 

 ing, on the banks of the Neva, the 

 strange, wild music that they had learned 

 on the coast of the Caspian; exquisitely 

 wrought shirts of chain-mail (see page 

 1093) and gold and silver hilted wea- 

 pons made by the gortse, or mountain- 

 eers, were exhibited in the shop windows^ 

 of St. Petersburg, and even the ladies 

 showed their interest in the men whom 

 their husbands and brothers had been 

 fighting by adopting a part of the latter's 

 picturesque costume and brightening the 

 sidewalks of the Nevski Prospekt with 

 the scarlet and white hoods of Circas- 

 sian horsemen. Everybody who had 

 visited the Caucasus spoke of it to me 

 with the greatest enthusiasm as "the 

 Russian Switzerland." 



So much was my imagination stimu- 

 lated by the descriptions which I heard 

 that I determined to devote my first 

 spare time and money to as thorough an 

 exploration of the eastern Caucasus as 

 circumstances would permit me to make. 



WHAT MIGHT HAVE: HAPPENI:d TO JOIIN 

 HAY 



The plunge into this wild region with- 

 out a companion seemed to me inexpedi- 

 ent if not unsafe, and in 1870 I pro- 

 posed the trip to John Hay, who was 

 then doing editorial work on the New 

 York Tribune and who, I thought, might 

 be interested in my plan. To my great 

 delight he received the proposition with 

 enthusiasm and agreed to sail for Russia 

 with me in June of that year. 



We had already begun to make prepa- 

 rations for the journey when, in the 

 early spring, Mr. Hay informed me that 



