Georgian

“ But, after all, Georgia’s chief attraction lies in its people; the Georgians are not only fair to look upon, but they are essentially a lovable people; it is a true proverb that says, “The Armenian’s soul is in his head, the Georgian’s in his eyes;” to live among such gay, open-hearted, open-handed, honest, innocent folk is the best cure for melancholy and misanthropy that could well be imagined.
The language will occur to most people as a difficulty. Either Russian or Georgian carries the traveller from the Black Sea to the Caspian, even Turkish is pretty well known ”

“ There is a revelation of intellect, an air of majesty, about the Georgian women, which seems so utterly at variance with their condition, that you involuntarily ask yourself if they can indeed ever be slaves; and you have some difficulty in admitting the fact, even to your own reason.
Nearly all the ladies of the Princess Azmè’s household are Georgians: and I have already had occasion to remark that her harem is celebrated for the beauty of its fair inhabitants.
But Devlehäi Hanoum left every individual of the Imperial Seraï of Ortakeuÿ immeasurably behind her. ”

“ Southwards, however, no hard and fast ethnical line can be drawn, for even immediately south of Tiflis, Georgians, Armenians and Tatars are found intermingled confusedly together.
The Georgian race, which represents the oldest elements of civilization in the Caucasus, is distinguished by some excellent mental qualities, and is especially noted for personal courage and a passionate love of music. ”

“ For many had known of the existence of the beautiful Georgian slave and the subject was a good one for a song—how she had caressed him to sleep and fostered his foolish security while he loved her blindly, and how she and her mysterious lover had bound him and shaved his head and face and made him a laughing-stock, so that he must hide himself from the world for months, and moreover how they had carried away by night all the precious gifts he had heaped upon the woman since he had bought her in the slave-market. ”

“ The natives are a fine-looking race, the Georgian women, like the Circassians, being celebrated for their beauty. The Georgian language, together with that of the Mingrelians, Lazes, and other Caucasian peoples, seems, according to the latest researches, to form a perfectly distinct linguistic family. ”

“ It’s a joke among the Russians that every Georgian is a nobleman and that your porter or drosky driver is certain to be a baron or perhaps a count. It is undoubtedly true that titles were once bestowed with lavish generosity by the Georgian kings, who paid their debts as well as rewarded merit by conferring rank promiscuously. ”

“ But Georgia lies beneath the mountains, and is sheltered from the chill blasts. Georgia is, therefore, far more fruitful than Circassia, the people, too, are less fair, and less industrious. The sides of the hills are clothed with vines, and houses with deep verandahs are scattered among the vineyards, and women wrapped in long white sheets may be seen reposing in the porticoes, enjoying the soft air, and lovely prospect. While Circassian ladies are busy weaving and milking, the Georgian ladies loll upon their couches, and do nothing. ”

“ The Georgians, famous for their beauty, are the greatest dandies in the world. The young men, dressed in handsome and high-coloured tunics, well armed, show such extraordinarily slender and constricted waists that one is tempted to think they wear corsets. The leather belt round the middle of a young Georgian 127is strapped so tightly that he cannot use his legs freely. ”

“ In another moment he advanced between the contestants, and with his sword struck the knife from the uplifted hand of the Georgian, and commanded him to spare the life at his mercy. "Pray, sir," said he, "don't forget to be merciful, for he is a military gentleman of distinction, and I am sure it was an accident you will readily forgive when it is explained." The Georgian replied, that it had become a fashion with military men to carry their gallantry a little too far with females, and rather than regret the trouncing he had given the major, he hoped the example would have its effect. ”

“ Of them all, the Georgian tribes have the oldest culture, the traditions reaching as far back as 1200 B. C., and some trustworthy data as far as 700 B. C. They were among the early converts to Christianity, and about the beginning of this century voluntarily accepted the sovereignty of Russia.113
The Georgian girls have long been celebrated for their beauty, and merit their renown; but they age very rapidly. The Circassian women are also celebrated, but are less perfect beauties. Both have black 172 eyes and dark hair, the complexion a brunette sometimes to brownness. ”

“ A number of other tribes or nationalities such as the Imeretians, Gourians, Mingrelians, Wanetes, Khevsoures, etc., also belong to what is called the Georgian family of nations. The greatest poet of Georgia is Prince Kazbek. Among the grand old families we find the Orbelians, who trace their ancestry back to an emperor of China, the Chavchavadzes, the Growzinskys, Bgaration-Moukranskys, Amilakvaris, Tsitsianovs, and many others, all of whom have rendered their native land incomparable services and deserve the highest praise. ”

“ A Georgian dandy is a great sight, and you see them everywhere in the Caucasus. The most perfect costume and the most becoming to their dark complexions, intensely black hair and beards, and their glowing black eyes is, I think, a pure white coat and a shako of white lamb’s-wool. And with that colour the Georgian gentleman usually wears a long dagger with an ivory handle and an ivory sheath and a revolver mounted to match; although other people might fancy a gentleman done up in scarlet, who is also worth looking at. ”

“ They spoke among themselves in the Georgian tongue, evidently discussing the democratic institutions of Great Britain, and then the priest said to me, “They keep us down, they don’t educate us; they forbid us to have schools; they call us savages. What do you think of us Georgians—aren’t we an unhappy nation? I 178myself am not an educated man. I finished the seminary, and then the Russian teacher said, ‘Georgian, that is a dog’s language,’ and I gave up learning. But these,” said he, pointing to his companions, “are as ignorant as the sheep, they know nothing. ”

“ Several handsome Ossets, as they pass, courteously salute us with the phrase, “May your path be smooth!” a peculiarly appropriate wish in such a region. When we go through a little village, pretty children run out to look at us, but they never beg, indeed I never saw or heard of a Georgian beggar, although there is much poverty among the people. ”

“ The condition of the Georgians is very similar to that of their neighbors the Circassians.
The Georgian women are very remarkable for beauty; but are said to be wanton, treacherous, and uncleanly. A great trade in female slaves has been carried on in Georgia. Fathers sell their children, brothers their sisters, and nobles their vassals. Jewish agents are continually traversing the provinces about Caucasus, seeking the fairest flowers for the harems of Turkey and Persia. A handsome, red-haired girl will sell in Constantinople for six or seven thousand piastres. ”

“ Those who have travelled know that a very slight knowledge of a language is sufficient for all practical purposes, and such a knowledge of Georgian could be picked up in a week or so; Russian is more difficult, both in grammar and pronunciation. ”

“ It must not be supposed that the Georgian people are forgetful of what Russia has done for them in protecting them against Persia and Turkey; they have no hatred for their Slav fellow-subjects, indeed, it is hard to imagine how any one could dislike such an amiable individual as the average Russian, not being an official; but on the other hand, it must be remembered that this military aid is the only benefit Georgia has ever received. ”

“ The amount of Lesgian, Irôn, Mizjeji, and Circassian blood is uncertain.
The safest view to be taken of the history of Georgian civilization is to remember that, different as may be the languages of Georgia and Armenia, the political history and the local relations are alike, and have generally been so. The Christianity of Georgia was from Armenia; so was its literature; so also its alphabet—although in their present rounded form its letters are very unlike the square and angular characters of Armenia.
THE LESGIANS.
Locality.—Eastern Caucasus, or Daghestan. ”

“ The foreign policy of this Socialist Republic is better understood when a little of its history is known. The Georgians are a race of enormous antiquity. Their exact origin is still a matter of dispute amongst the savants. It is now generally believed they are descended from the ancient Babylonians. They are certainly not Slavs. Nor is their language a Slavonic language. They are usually a dark-skinned race, tall and graceful, with aquiline features and flashing black or dark brown eyes. [Pg 212] The typical Georgian man is superbly handsome, passionate in love and brave in war. ”

“ In the eleventh and twelfth centuries of our era the relations between Georgia and Greece were of the most intimate character. The young nobles of the court of King David the Renewer and his immediate successors frequented the schools of Athens, and brought back with them Platonic and Aristotelian teachings which exerted a very powerful influence on the intellectual and social life of that period, and prepared the way for the golden age of Georgian literature, which dawned on the accession of Queen Tamara. ”

“ Never has a single head done more harm to science than was [Pg 109] done in the way of posthumous mischief, by the head of this well-shaped female from Georgia. I do not say that it was not a fair sample of all Georgian skulls. It might or might not be. I only lay before critics the amount of induction that they have gone upon.
2. The connexion of the Dioscurian nations with those of Europe as determined by the evidence of language.—Here I can only give a sample of the philology which would connect the Georgian with the Indo-European tongues. ”

“ Nobody calls the Georgian poets gigantic. By force of combatting them Mr Sitwell has assumed their likeness, but not in all respects. The Georgians were dull, and yet with an effort they were readable. It takes someone more clever to be profoundly boring. ”

“ The Georgians were the only nationality to maintain their independence up to the end of the eighteenth century. Georgia existed as a State long before the Christian era; Alexander the Great conquered the country. In 1080 the Kingdom of Georgia was established by David III. Peter the Great of Russia, recognizing its importance, entered into an alliance with the kingdom, and in 1721 Russian and Georgian troops penetrated to Baku, the rich industrial district bordering on the Caspian Sea. ”

“ Then in the Caucasus you have those extremely interesting languages related to Georgian, and also to Armenian, languages which are believed by the scholar who knows them best, Professor Marr, of Petrograd, the son of a Scotch father and a Georgian mother, to form what he calls a Japhetic group, which is a kind of cousin to the Semitic group of languages. ”

“ A feeling creeps over father. He is, you see, a southern man himself, a man of the Georgia hills and plains. There is no law that shall prevent his having been born in Georgia, although to-morrow night it may be North Carolina or Kentucky. But to-night his birthplace shall be Georgia. He is a man who lives by his fancy and to-night it shall suit his fancy and the drift of his tale to be a Georgian. ”

“ And as we read, by almost imperceptible stages, the Georgian has merged into the Victorian, and the young generation of one age has faded into the older generation of the next, till we are left confronted with the knowledge, albeit difficult of credence, that both have vanished into the mists of the Unknown. ”

“ We wait and chat outside with acquaintances, and some ladies practise curtseys whilst the natives are being received—the coloured man first, the white man and his womenfolk when they may! Then we all go up the steps and into the brilliant interior, which is Georgian in style, and light and prettily coloured. It is distinctly a sensation, to come from semi-darkness into full light and such an extraordinary variety of people and colour and costumes. ”

“ As the Chronicle thus had to leave politics for literature, we may perhaps, in our turn, digress from a consideration of its pages, to note briefly that this period was set in the very midst of the celebrated Georgian era, in which this country could boast of more distinguished men—especially in literature—than at any other period. ”

“ The Georgian kingdom had an independent existence for about seven centuries, but suffered much from Mongolian and especially Turkish invasions. Georgia and Circassia furnished the majority of white slaves for Turkish harems. ”

“ All arms must be left at the entrance. Georgian music is very unlike our own, and at first it strikes the European as loud, wild, discordant, positively unpleasant, but when one is accustomed to it, it is very agreeable. ”

“ The one is entirely distinct from the other and it is mischievous to confound them. The second variety is Georgian and it is illogical and indefensible to call it anything but Georgian. The Colonial architecture evolved its distinctive forms in America subject to the dictates of local necessity while the Georgian was directly transplanted from England and, although it showed marked tendencies to differentiation in the several parts of the Colonies, preserved its unmistakable likeness in every instance to the parent stock from which it sprang. ”

“ Georgian landowners cannot afford to push the sale of their wares in Europe, but I am sure that if English firms would send out buyers they would not regret it, unless they dealt with the wily Armenian middle-man instead of the Georgian producer. ”