The Russians are the dominant race in the Caucasus, but th aristocrats of the region are the Georgians. A people of mysterious antecedents—their ~ace, according to some enthnologists, being older, even, than the Egyptians. -they stand upon a higher plane of eivilization and culture than any of their neighbours. Formerly, Georgia was an independent kingdom, its] h people, converted to Christianity in the fourth century, have never relapsed into the Mohammedanism of the surrounding ibos, Their golden age was the twelfth century, in the days of the great Queen Thamara, There are no more kings in i zing mumber of prinees—in fact, as a writer in the "Pall Mall Gazette" reminds us, it is a standing joke amongst the Russians that every Georgian, whatever his occupation, borists a title, It might be added, with very Jittle exaggeration that every Georgian.is poet
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.