. All the Russias: travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. ic belief thatIfasbek was the scene of the martyrdom of Prometheus, and the Christian legend : ; • - that Abrahams tent and Christs cradle are still to be found hidden on its slopes. The Caucasus, in fact, was destined by nature to be the home of myth, for in ancient times it was the barrier beyond which no man could go, and therefore the gate of the land which man populated with the offspring of his dreams—the land of Gog and Magog, of gold-guarding GrifBns, one-eyed Arima
. All the Russias: travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. ic belief thatIfasbek was the scene of the martyrdom of Prometheus, and the Christian legend : ; • - that Abrahams tent and Christs cradle are still to be found hidden on its slopes. The Caucasus, in fact, was destined by nature to be the home of myth, for in ancient times it was the barrier beyond which no man could go, and therefore the gate of the land which man populated with the offspring of his dreams—the land of Gog and Magog, of gold-guarding GrifBns, one-eyed Arimaspians, and Amazons—of all the fabulous creatures which pass slowly ?out of the atlases of the learned into the picture-books of the nursery. History is so romantic, however, in the Caucasus, that myth-can be dispensed with. It tells us how Alexander the Great•conquered Georgia; how the legions of Pompey, and, long after-ward, those of Justinian, fought at the mouth of the Dariel Pass,but that neither soldier nor merchant ever passed up from thesouth, while the Scythian barbarians to the north were equally. ^^^7^555^5^^?^ Caucasian Types—Tatars. 174 ALL THE RUSSIAS unable to push their way down. The history of the people whoheld the Pass begins in the third century , with King Phar-navaz, and goes on, in an unbroken and often bloody story, downIj300 years till the swords of the Crusaders had so weakenedthe infidel hordes that King David II. (1089), whose descentfrom the Psalmist is commemorated by the harp and the slingin the arms of Georgia, drove out the Turks and laid the founda-tions of order and civilisation upon which, a hundred years later,Queen Tamara of immortal memory built up the Augustan ageof her country. If half that is told of this lady be true, she wasone of the most remarkable women that ever filled a throne orbroke a heart. So beautiful that Shahs and Sultans competedfor her hand; so gifted with poesy that she celebrated her glori-ous victories i
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecttolstoy, bookyear1902
