PASSES OF CAUCASUS. 
73 
notices it particularly, describing its fortress by the name of 
Cumania. These defiles, as keys of the East, have always been 
vigilantly guarded by the possessors, who knew their value. But 
Leon the First, rather chose to incur an inroad from the Barba¬ 
rians, than be at the smaller expense of keeping the gate that 
fixed their boundary. Justinian knew better ; and concluded a 
treaty with Kobad King of Persia, (A. D. 532.,) agreeing, that 
this pass should be protected by both sovereigns in common ; 
or, if totally confided to Kobad’s troops, the Boman should pay 
the Persian monarch, one million and a hundred thousand pounds 
weight of gold, in reward of the double service ! * 
The first syllable in the word Derial, as well as in that of 
Derbent, in the Asiatic languages, implies gate, door, or narrow 
pass ; which confirms the other evidences, that here was the chief 
barrier of the valley, and that the castellated promontories of 
Lars, and other minor posts lower down, were probably the chain 
of communication from this great station, to others of different 
magnitude; but all to the same purport, ports of defence against 
the Barbarians. 
I had time sufficient, before our detachment came in, to attempt 
making a sketch or two of the objects around me. j* I took my 
views from the old fortified height; and from the Russian redoubt 
below: but no pencil can convey, nor pen describe, the grandeur 
of the scene. At this one tremendous point, the chasm rises 
from the river’s brink, upwards of a thousand feet. Its sides are 
broken into clefts and projections, dark and frowning; so high, 
so close, so overhanging, that even at mid-day the whole is 
covered with a shadow bordering on twilight. According to the 
> * Procop. B. P. f Plate 3. 
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