THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



253 



descendants of some 

 Frankish Crusaders 

 who fell in love with 

 Georgian womanhood 

 and forgot the Holy 

 Grail in the midst of 

 Georgian loveliness ; 

 but a matter-of-fact 

 and very erudite Geor- 

 gian scholar in Tiflis 

 spoiled that story. 



Inside the church, 

 erected on the spot 

 where the unseamed 

 vesture of the Christ 

 was found, after hav- 

 ing been brought 

 hither from Golgotha 

 by a Jew, there lie 

 buried many of the 

 proud but ill-fated line 

 of Georgian kings, the 

 last of whom, George 

 XIII, ceded his terri- 

 tory to Russia in 1801 

 and died that year, 

 broken-hearted, a true 

 ruler, who could not 

 conquer and therefore 

 faced the only alter- 

 native — death. 



Sixteen centuries 

 have passed since the 

 first Christian church 

 was erected on that 

 site ; yet in the ne- 

 cropolis beyond there 

 are remains of broad- 

 headed men of the 

 Iron Age, compared 

 with whom Heraclius, 

 Queen Tamara, the 

 Guramides, and the 

 Pharnavasians are unromantic moderns. 

 They could tell of times before Prome- 

 theus was bound to the heights of Kasbek 

 and Jason came hither in search of the 

 Golden Fleece. Mtzkhet is ancient, but 

 it is only a way station on the great high- 

 way of history across the mountain bar- 

 rier which bridges the land-masses of 

 Europe and Asia. 



Georgia's relations with Russia should 

 have a peculiar interest for Americans, 

 for the King of Kakhetia sought the pro- 

 tection of Ivan III the year Columbus 

 discovered America, and our Pilgrim 



Photograph by M. O. Williams 

 THE SLOPES 



A GEORGIAN MOUNTAIN GIRE OF GERGETl ON 

 OF KASBEK 



There is so much strength in the Georgian face that the women 

 lose their greatest charm by the time they mature. The classic nose 

 is too noble to be pretty; the straight, large mouth shows determina- 

 tion rather than a Cupid's bow. 



Fathers were about to embark for the 

 rock-bound coast when Georgia, harried 

 by Persia, appealed to Michael, the first 

 of the Romanoffs, for protection. While 

 our first Federalists were drafting our 

 Constitution, Heraclius II declared him- 

 self a vassal to Russia. Last October, 

 Georgia planned to be one of a group of 

 autonomous States that would be the 

 nucleus for a federated Russia. 



WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THE CAUCASUS 



"I divorce you three times !" The silk- 

 clothed Tatar with his well-trimmed 



