Kuban

“ Before the garrisons in the strongholds fairly knew that he was among them he was gone; and while the Kabardians believed that he was lurking in the mountain depths, he suddenly dashed into their midst. Sixty populous Kabardian villages were plundered, and the mountaineers proudly refused to turn till they had watered their horses in the Kuban and even reached the more distant banks of the Laba. ”

“ I am poor, and my brothers Selim and Karolyi are also poor, for we have no inheritance but the name of our father, and what we can wrench in combat from the enemies of our country, and for every meal of food we have to fight the convoys of the Russ on the mountain, or the wild beasts in the forest; but a time is at hand when I shall have all my father's patrimony again, when the forts of the Kuban shall lie in ruins by its shore, while the wolf shall batten on the bones of their defenders. ”

“ Of these streams the Kuban is the largest, and empties itself as does the Rion, into the Black Sea; the other two running eastward to the Caspian.
The western portion more especially of the Black Mountains is heavily wooded. Gigantic oaks spread their branches above cliffs and summits, where in less favored climes only [3] the cold pine would be able to find a scanty subsistence; while the spray of the Black Sea is dashed against the immense stems of the blood-wooded taxus, and the red and almond-leaved willows sweep with their long branches the waves. The box here is a giant of the forest ”

“ KUBAÑ, a province of Russian Caucasia, having the Sea of Azov on the W., the territory of Don Cossacks on the N., the government of Stavropol and the province of Terek on the E., and the government of Kutais and the Black Sea district on the S. and S.W. It thus contains the low and marshy lowlands on the Sea of Azov, the western portion of the fertile steppes of northern Caucasia, and the northern slopes of the Caucasus range from its north-west extremity to the Elbruz. The area is 36,370 sq. ”

“ With his left hand he holds the patient’s wrist, and with his right drops from a leaf cup grains of rice on to the flame. As each grain drops, he calls out the name of different deities, and Kulbas, and, [339] whichever spirit is being named as a grain catches fire, is that causing the sickness. The Kudang is at once in communication with the deity or Kulba, who informs him what must be done for him, what sacrifice made before he will go away. There is, in some parts of the Saora country, another method by which a Kudang divines the cause of sickness. ”

“ The Kulba is still a Saora, though a spiritual one. In a village two miles from that in which I saw the gaily ornamented hut, no hut of any kind is built for the Kulba; the bones are merely covered with grass. Weapons, ornaments, etc., are rarely burned with a body outside the Kolakotta villages. In some places, perhaps one weapon, or a few ornaments will be burned with it. In some places the Limma and Guar feasts are combined, and in other places (and this is most common) the Guar and Karja are combined, but there is no burning of houses. In some places this is performed if crops are good. ”

“ It was the first time that the khan, a man full of energy and intelligence, had fallen in with European gentlemen. He was delighted with the Venetian brothers, listened eagerly to all they had to tell of the Latin world, and decided to send them back as his envoys to the pope, with letters requesting the despatch of a large body of educated men to instruct his people in Christianity and the liberal arts. With Kublai, as with his predecessors, religion was chiefly a political engine. ”

“ Yes, I failed, Cobber said, the bitterness of complete defeat rankling in his heart. The man your people want for revenge is my chief. I cannot deliver him. I cannot!
When Cobber first came to our planet, the Great Kama's thoughts rang in his head, who welcomed him? Who crossed the barriers between our different forms of life? Who told Cobber the tragic history of our people? ”

“ The great men of Kupang stick the heads of those they have killed on poles; and set them on the tops of their houses; and these they esteem above all their other riches. The inferior sort bring the heads of those they kill into houses made for that purpose; of which there was one at the Indian village near the fort Concordia, almost full of heads, as I was told. ”

“ Another army was to act in Kiang nan under Polo hwan and four other commanders. These two great groups of warriors reached perhaps two hundred thousand. She tian tse died soon after his appointment and the whole command of that first group was given to Bayan, the best leader among all the Mongols.
Bayan was of the Barin tribe. He had passed his youth in Persian regions, and had come on an embassy from Abaka the Ilkhan. Kubilai was so pleased with Bayan’s speech and bearing that in 1265 he took the man into his service, and made him Minister of State very quickly. ”

“ Togachar, a nephew of Jinghis, rose then and said: “The Khan desires no mention to-day of the past. He wishes you to feel nothing but pleasantness.” Turning to Kubilai then, he added: “Arik Buga is standing; what place dost thou give him?” He was seated with Kubilai’s sons and they passed that day in company. On the morrow, however, Arik Buga’s officers were all put in irons, and Kubilai appointed a commission of four princes and three generals to interrogate Arik Buga and his partisans. ”

“ Before Bayan had arrived at the army Kamala, a son of Chingkin, led a corps in advance and tried to stop Kaidu from crossing the mountains of Kang kai. Kamala, Kubilai’s favorite grandson, was defeated and surrounded near the river Selinga. He was barely rescued by Tutuka and his Kipchak warriors.
Affairs now seemed so serious that the Emperor, despite advanced age, thought it best to march forward in person. He sent for Tutuka to act with him, and praised the recent exploit of that general. Kubilai left Shang tu for the West July, 1289, but returned without meeting Kaidu, or coming near him. ”

“ They were divided into tribes under the rule of chieftains called Khans; and over the whole was a chosen ruler named the Khakan—the Khan of Khans. Their numbers grew. They led the pastoral life. As conquerors they were as ruthless as the Huns from whom they were descended, and at length, under the famous Kublai Khan, they possessed by far the greater portion of Asia and Europe as far as the boundaries of Poland. Before the end of the thirteenth century Kublai Khan, with his palace at Peking, dominated the whole of China, and a vast portion of the earth's surface besides. ”

“ Yet from the still surviving recollections in his mind, the Author has frequently purposed to finish for himself what had been originally, as it were, given to him. Σαμερον αδιον ασω: but the to-morrow is yet to come.
As a contrast to this vision, I have annexed a fragment of a very different character, describing with equal fidelity the dream of pain and disease.
KUBLA KHAN.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea. ”

“ Relationship does not prove parentage. Far more likely does it appear that the Koban culture is a relic or an offshoot rather than a cradle of bronze civilization. And even Chantre, ardent advocate as he is of Oriental derivations, seems to feel the force of this in his later writings, for he confesses that Koban is rather from Mediterranean European sources than that Europe is from Koban. Most probable of all is it, that both Hallstatt and Koban are alike derived from a common root in the neighborhood of Chaldea. ”

“ This overscrupulous vigilance turned out to be unnecessary, for rumors of his approach had set the city agog with delight; and every morning a band of converts and refugees had posted themselves on a hill to watch his arrival. On this morning one of them, catching sight of the travelers as they trudged toward Koba, raised the rapturous shout: “Ho! he has come! he whom we have been looking for has come!” The marvelous news flew from tongue to tongue, and everybody rushed forth to Koba to greet the majestic guest. Even the children cried out: “Here is the Prophet! He is come! ”

“ KUFA, a Moslem city, situated on the shore of the Hindieh canal, about 4 m. E. by N. of Nejef (32° 4′ N., 44° 20′ E.) , was founded by the Arabs after the battle of Kadesiya in A.D. 638 as one of the two capitals of the new territory of Irak, the whole country being divided into the sawads, or districts, of Basra and Kufa. The caliph ‛Ali made it his residence and the capital of his caliphate. After the removal of the capital to Bagdad, in the middle of the following century, Kufa lost its importance and began to fall into decay. ”

“ Kubilai had five principal wives the chief of whom was Jambui Khatun. Each wife had her own court and was attended by not fewer than three hundred damsels as well as by many pages and eunuchs. The Kunkurats were celebrated for the beauty of their women and supplied most of the wives and concubines of the Khan. Officials were often sent to select several hundred girls and pay their parents for them, estimating their value according to their beauty. ”

“ Unfortunately we are constrained to avow, that the reputation of their charms appears to us greatly exaggerated, and that in person they are much less remarkable than the men. It is true we have not been able to visit any of the great centres of the population: we have not been among the independent tribes; but we have been in several aouls on the banks of the Kouban, and been entertained in a princely family ”

“ The right hand ever hovers near the lever. His arms are covered with black, oily smears; drops of sweat are on his forehead and run down his cheeks in rivulets. Perhaps it is for this reason that his companions have called him ‘spattered’ Kuba, or it may be because of the freckles with which his plain, red-bearded face is sprinkled; they are as large as a threepenny piece. ”

“ He declared at last that Alemdar and Bolga had said to him: “Hulagu and Kubilai are on distant expeditions, and our late sovereign has left you at the head of the principal ulus of the Mongols. Why hesitate? Make yourself [339] Grand Khan immediately.” He had consulted with the other officers; all held that opinion together. The officers present confirmed what Arik Buga had stated, and ten of them were sentenced to pay the death penalty. But to judge Arik Buga himself Kubilai wished the presence of Hulagu, Berkai, and Algu. ”

“ Nor is it sur199prising that this province should produce distinctive types, when it is considered that it has a length of over two hundred miles; that its topography is diversified by glaciated mountains, barren steppes, and fertile valleys; and that it is occupied by numerous clans, many of whom differ in origin as well as religion. Some of the rugs come from the city of Derbend on the Caspian Sea; some come from Kuba in the southeastern corner; others, called Kabistans, are produced in the country about Kuba; a few are made by the Lesghians who live among the lofty mountains ”

“ Kubla Khan, with its slumberous melody and vague music, embodies the Asiatic sentiment. We feel in reading it on the borders of the Buddhistic territory. To those endowed with such a temperament the opium habit is easy to fall into; their dreamy soul is the seed-bed on which it fastens. ”

“ In 1227 he died, while conducting a campaign in Central Asia; and it remained for his vigorous grandson, Kublai Khan, to complete the conquest of China more than half a century afterwards. So early as 1260, Kublai was able to proclaim himself emperor at Xanadu, which means Imperial Capital, and lay about one hundred and eighty miles north of modern Peking, where, in those days known as Khan-baligh (Marco Polo's Cambaluc) , he established himself four years later; but twenty years of severe fighting had still to pass away before the empire was finally subdued. ”

“ Kubilai, who had sent forward provisions by sea to the mouth of the river Liao, moved on Nayan by forced marches, and found him near that same river, at some distance south of Mukden in Manchuria. The Emperor had sent scouts far ahead of his forces so that no knowledge of his movements might reach the man against whom he was marching. Kubilai divided his army into two parts, one composed of Chinese, under Li ting, a Manchu, the other of Mongols, under Yissu Timur, a grandson of Boörchu, one of Jinghis Khan’s four great heroes. ”

“ So it befell that, one day, as Gopani-Kufa was gazing up at the river from a window of the palace he again saw the war-canoes of the white men; and at the sight his spirit misgave him.
‘Shasasa! my daughter!’ he cried wildly, ‘go fetch me the mirror, for the white men are at hand.’
‘Woe is me, my father!’ she sobbed. ‘The Mirror is gone! For I loved Butou the traitor, and he has stolen Sipao from me!’
Then Gopani-Kufa calmed himself, and drew out Zengi-mizi from its rush basket. ”

“ By the bull that I killed, am I to stand nosing into your dog's den for my fair dues? It is I, Shere Khan, who speak!'
The tiger's roar filled the cave with thunder. Mother Wolf shook herself clear of the cubs and sprang forward, her eyes, like two green moons in the darkness, facing the blazing eyes of Shere Khan.
'And it is I, Raksha [The Demon] , who answer. The man's cub is mine, Lungri—mine to me! He shall not be killed. He shall live to run with the Pack and to hunt with the Pack; and in the end, look you, hunter of little naked cubs—frog-eater—fish-killer—he shall hunt thee! ”