Show I NATION THAT LIVES IN AR3IOR I A People in the Caucasian Mountains Moun-tains Who Wear Iron Mail I From the Literary Digest 1 Among the many diverse races that occupy the Caucasus the Danish traveler Olof Lange describes the Chevaurians a 1 pagan people who appear to be dlptinet in religion and habits from the people of the Caucasus generally but of whom almost al-most nothing Is known In Europe We condense somewhat his description published pub-lished in Naturen og Mennesket He says The Caucasian mountains Anatoris gele Archotistavi and Tschauchl rising to an elevation of from 10000 to 12000 feet Inclose 0 baawi the home of the Chevsurlans who number about 6000 souls The Chevsurlans are pagans and one may get a general idea of their civilization civiliza-tion when it Is related that their miserable miser-able huts are lighted only by means of pine torches They are a people In arms The men never lay aside their heavy iron armor nor their weapons even while ploughing in the field they carry them The f gives them a mediaeval appearance yet the poor covering of the leg shows barbarism bar-barism In a strap on the back everyman every-man carries a whip heavy and strong enough to break an arm On the thumb he wears an iron ring Sazeruli with a rough surface that he may leave an everlasting mark in his enemys face when he strikes him with i The Chevsurians like the old Iberians the modern Basques and other peoples who preserve traces of a matriarchal order or-der of society have perpetuated the custom of the father lyingin on the birth Ot a child as evidence of paternal rtnt 1 parentage The women are Cn at pregnancy in special quarters known as the Satschechl and can not return to their own residences until after a ceremonial cere-monial purification A Chevsurlan father has his trials too He must live very abstemiously for seven weeks while friends and relatives are treated with liquor and beer In abundance I is believed be-lieved or the belief is pretended that the fathers diet reacts on the childs health The childrens names are drawn directly from nature The boys are named after animals and the girls after sun moon stars or flowers Public opinion among the Chevsurlans demands that no child be born till four years after the marriage and that after that there must be three years at least between births and no family ought lo have more than three children Thus the Malthualnn laws rule these poor people as the Code Napoleon rules the French peasants who fear too great a subdivision sion of their farms The main work of the girls Is to collect the cows excrements and to dry them for fuel The boys are trained In eloquence elo-quence and the use of arms A boy 8 to 10 years old endeavors to imitate the grown man The vendetta takes a peculiar form among the Chevsurians As soon as a murder is reported all the relatives of the deceased go to the village o the murderer and burn his house Th murderers mur-derers relatives dare not show themselves them-selves for a year lest they be killed At the end of one year the murderer In company of a brother arrives secretly at the altar of his victim to make an offer of atonement and ask protection Word Is sent to the family of the dead one that the assassin wishes to pay the penalty pen-alty for his deed They all come rushing rush-Ing and crying Blood for blood but enter Upon peace negotiations It is agreed that the slayer shall make a memorial feast and pay 416 sheep the regular price for homicide Every year thereafter he must sacrifice a sheep to the memory of the slain one Only one exception is made to the paying of that great penalty If one of the family of the deceased Is dangerously ill the peacemaker announces that the sick one win cue umeg tne muraerer is torgiven This is done the slayer pays a smaller penalty and in this case to the maternal mater-nal side of the family This custom of paying to the maternal side is undoubtedly undoubted-ly a survival from the matriarchical times i The Chevsurians have no money The I standards of value are the ox the cow the sheep and the horse A stallion is equal to four cows a mare to six a cow to four sheep A wound to the head which exposes the brain is worth sixteen cows the same price is assessed for an Injury to a leg or an arm If one d stroys the use of a thumb hp mii t pay the sufferer five rows four for the next finder three for the next two for that after and one for the last An eye costs thirty cows i If A owes B one sheep and does not I pay B may select C who pays him the I sheep and requires two from A If A does not pay C may go to D to get his two sheep while D demands four from A and thus ad infinitum Very prominent among the Chevsurians are the Kadaglens or soothsayers Next In importance are the Dasturlens or i sacrificial priests Their rellsion is mainly main-ly pagan with a few Christian and Mohammedan Mo-hammedan ceremonies They are not monotheists Sacred proves and altars everywhere to the gods of trees etc prove that The Rod of the east and west and the cuckoo and swallow are prominent deities rho cat Is an accursed animal among them As to the race affinities of the Chevsu rians Olaf Lange concludes that they area are-a mixture of Georgian Circassian and I Ossets with the first element predomln ating i |