THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



469 



Aryans, 50,000 Syro- Arabs, 1,900,000 Ural- Al- 

 taians, and 2,500,000 "Caucasians," the latter 

 term in this connection meaning simply nonde- 

 scripts. The disproportion of the sexes is 

 marked, there being only 91 women to every 

 100 men. 



Looking out from Mount Elbruz, a peak 

 3,000 feet higher than Mount Blanc, we have 

 on the northwest 200,000 Circassians, splendid 

 physical types of men and women, Moslems, 

 without written laws or written language, hos- 

 pitable in the extreme, revering old age, theft 

 no crime, but discovery in theft a disgrace, 

 personal and tribal independence a passion. 

 Women are little esteemed except as objects of 

 sale. The Circassian slave trade involved no 

 sense of disgrace in the mind of the seller or 

 the sold, as the girls were carefully nurtured 

 for a place in the harem. 



On the east 600,000 Lesghians, dwellers in 

 Daghestan "-from the beginning," an agglomer- 

 ation of tribes with an equal number of dia- 

 lects, devoted Moslems, brave to recklessness, 

 of almost exhaustless endurance, of stalwart 

 figure, but of every possible hue of eyes and 

 hair, marked diversity of skull, tenacious of 

 rights, a people incarnate in their leader, 

 Shamyl, who resisted Russia for twenty-five 

 years. 



In the southeast 270,000 Chechens, wild and 

 fierce, of imposing presence, generous and 

 friendly, their religion a peculiar blending of 

 Islam and Christianity, a people much resem- 

 bling the Circassians. 



Directly south of Mount Elbruz, to whose 

 crags Prometheus was bound, 1,350,000 Geor- 

 gians, a most interesting people, who claim 

 descent from Togarmah, the great-grandson of 

 Noah. Christianized about 330 by the nun 

 Nuna, they have always, despite continuous in- 

 vasion and persecution, remained steadfast to 

 their faith. In 1799 they and their last king 

 became Russian subjects as the only means of 

 escaping the Persians. Their origin and lan- 

 guage present problems unsolved. Perhaps 

 not Indo-European, they certainly are not 

 Ural-Altaians. Physically they are of the 

 purest Caucasian type, the women remarkable 

 for their stately beauty.* 



In Georgia was fertile Colchis, the land of 

 Medea and the Golden Fleece, of Jason and 

 the Argo, considered by some ethnologists the 

 original home of the Greeks. 



THE ARMENIANS f 



The presence of Armenians in every coun- 

 try, accentuated by their prominence, antiquity, 

 and sufferings, requires their inclusion among 



* See "Russia's Orphan Races," by Maynard 

 O. Williams, in the National Geographic 

 Magazine (October, 1918). 



f See also, in National Geographic Maga- 

 zine, "Armenia and the Armenians," by Hester 

 Donaldson Jenkins (October, 1915), and "Rus- 

 sia's Orphan Races," by Maynard O. Williams 

 (October, iqi8), 



the races of Europe. They belong to the 

 Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. 



The map indicates the region in Asia which 

 the greater number of the Armenians now in- 

 habit; it also affords a general idea of the situ- 

 ation and extent of their ancient kingdom. In 

 only a small part of this region do the Ar- 

 menians now constitute a majority of the popu- 

 lation, which largely consists of Turks, Kurds, 

 Chaldaeans, Persians, Syrians, and Bedouins. 



They claim to be the oldest people in the 

 world. Their national name is Haig, from 

 Haig, their traditional progenitor, a great- 

 great-grandson of Noah. Their country is the 

 doorway and thoroughfare between the East 

 and West. It has been tramped over by As- 

 syrians, Medes, Persians, Greeks, Parthians, 

 Romans, Byzantines, Mongols, Saracens, Sel- 

 juks, and Ottoman Turks, successively fighting 

 for its possession. 



At the birth of Christ the Armenians were 

 Parsees, fire-worshippers, followers of Zoro- 

 aster, but soon after the Crucifixion some be- 

 came Christians. The preaching of Saint Greg- 

 ory the Illuminator converted their king, Tiri- 

 dates, who, with his people, received baptism 

 at the end of the third century, thus antedating 

 by several years the conversion of Constantine. 

 Hence the Armenians were the first nation to 

 accept Christianity, their king was the first 

 Christian sovereign, and the Gregorian Arme- 

 nian is the oldest purely national church. 



In the fourth century Mesrob invented, or 

 adapted from the Greek, the Armenian alpha- 

 bet, still in daily use. He also began the trans- 

 lation of the Bible, completed in 410. A re- 

 ligious character, never lost, was early im- 

 parted to Armenian literature. This is felt 

 in the writings of their great historian, Moses 

 of Khoren. 



Since the sixth century the Armenians have 

 never known independence. At times they ex- 

 perienced periods of tranquillity; but, as sub- 

 jects of rapacious and sanguinary peoples and 

 without protection or security of any sort, 

 their property and lives through fourteen hun- 

 dred years hung upon a hair. Even before the 

 coming of the Turks, there was no outrage or 

 horror which they had not many times under- 

 gone. 



In mental keenness and manner of life they 

 were the superiors of their rulers, whose cu- 

 pidity and resentment their intelligence, indus- 

 try, and thrift often inflamed. With a devo- 

 tion surpassed by no age or country, they re- 

 mained all the time steadfast in their Christian 

 faith through a martyrdom of centuries. 



There has long been a continuous emigration 

 from Armenia to Constantinople and the West, 

 of late to the United States. Not a few as 

 merchants or bankers have amassed wealth. 

 More than one has served as financial minister 

 to the Sultan. Many are skilled artisans, archi- 

 tects, and engineers. 



An Armenian community is marked for its 

 love of education. To every Armenian church 

 is attached a school. Armenian students excel 

 in mathematics. In general, whatever faults 



