THE DIRTIEST NATION ON EARTH.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume VI, Issue 60, 22 July 1897, Page 2

THE DIRTIEST NATION ON EARTH.

SOME EXTRAORDINARY CUSTOMS. The dirtiest peoDle on the face of the earth have at last been discovered, a modern traveller, Victor Diugelstedt, having ]ust returned from a journey through the almost inaccessible gorges which they inhabit, gorges in the high mountain ranges of the Caucasus, where Europe meets Asia, between the Black Sea and the Caspian. Here in the isolation of the valleys of Svanetia the Svanetiaus live as they have lived for over twenty-five hundred years, ignorant of and unknown to the world beyond tUem. In the works of Strabo, the ancient Greek geographer, tbese Svauetians are mentioned as a great aud powerful people. Thsir land in the days before tbe Christian era covered practically all what is now Transcaucasia, and extended down into what is now Persia besides. To-day the Svanetians are merely the remnant of that historic race, couquered long ago by the Milgrelian princes and and forced to flee into the niches and corners of the steep mountains to the north. There for years they have been so snugly hidden away that Governments cannot get at them, and were they fully known about they would not be worth bothering with. “ Free ” Svanetia is the title by which this modern province goes. It is within Russian boundaries, and therefore practically under the Great White Czar s domination. Neverthe less the country remains independent, under its own laws and customs exclusively. One who has not travelled through their villages can have no realisation of the filth in which they live. Hitherto it has been supposed that that little remnant of the Oregon Indian tribe, the Siwashes, were fairly entitled to be considered the dirtiest in the world, but the Svaijetians far exceed even these wretched red men. To a great extent they are nothing more or less than cave-dwellers. Their villages, which are known as auls, are situated in such deep gorges that at first sight it seems hardly possible to get iuto them. They are almost hidden away in the bowels of the earth, in fact, so deep down, so shaded by trees and underbrush, that even in the summer months, when the sky is blue, the sun shines there only a few hours a day. Iu the winter the only light that these strange mountain people get is reflected from the heaped-up snow. Two sorts of buildings make up a Svanetian village, towers of about seventy feet iu height, strongly built of rough stone cemented together, having been constructed centuries ago

for purposes of defence, and miserable stone hovels in which the villagers live. Backed up against the towers these hovels are tumbledown creations of piled up stone, without cement, adornment,or any regular form whatever. They have small apertures instead of windows and are divided into a ground floor and a garret, roofed with slate or slabs of stone. Some picturesqueness there is without these gloomy abodes, but within there is a desolation of darkness, filfth, and vermin. They contain ouly heaps of rags,hollowed tret-trunks, wooden cups and plates, and a few cooking vessels. These khors (the Svanetian word for house; are without chimneys, the nearest approach lo a cooking place beiug a hearth built of slate iu an excavation in the middle of the floor used as a bread oven. The gariet is a store room for fodder in the winter. In these houses men, women, children, and cattle are huddled together during the winter months, the excessive cold making it necessary thui to keep every aperature closed.ln the summer the cattle are seut off to the pastures, and the families live more comfortably. Tlie long winter imprisonment is sufficient in itself to explain tbe degradation of this people. Idiocy are the natural result. Miil'i-ia, dyspepsia, rheumatism, and anosmia are common in all the villages, and canny off the inhabitants to a frightful extent. Goitre, that terrible and incurable swelling of the neck which is so often found iu mountainous countries, and which is invariably produced by bad sanitary conditions, is horribly prevalent in tbese valleys. In one of the districts, the Upper Takhenis Valley, almost the entire population is altlcted with this revolting complaint. Not infrequently does the swelling attain to the size of a child’s head. Cretinism, an incurable disease no less dreadful, characterised by bodily deformity and imbecility, also attacks them. Bad sanitation is not aloue responsible for these evils—an abnormal and bestial consumption of arrack, the strong distilled liqi*or of Western Asia, doing much to undermine their constitutions. The Svanetian peasant is utterly indifferent to his attire. He seldom wears undergarments ; they are never washed ; a shirt once put on is worn as long as it will hold together. The men wear a long, close tunic, an upper coat, narrow trousers, and pointed moccasins of undressed hide and stuffed with grass. A rough, undyed felt cap is pulled well over their heacs, aud Loth iu winter and summer they wear a dirty sheepskin over their shoulders. With the women there is much diversity of costume, with but one point of similarity—the dirtiness of each garment, Son e dress precisely like the peasants of Little Russia, others iu the fashion of the Georgian tribes, wearing a loose black gown very open in front aud full behind. At home they most frequently wear a long chemise and a gaily-coloured handkerchief. Most primitive of all are these people when they retire at night. They have no bedclothes, and sle< p in sacks well filled with chopped straw, having first stripped off ev< ry article of clothing.

Farming of a very primitive sort, bee culture, cattle breeding, and hunting are the only industries. In all the length and breadth of the territory there is not a single article manufactuied.uot even earthenware. Nor is there a single shop or school iu the whole country. There is no money. Everything is done by means of barter. A Svanetian having something to dispose of travels to the place where he thinks he can make the best bargain. He will go long distances, over almost impassable mountains, snow fields and glaciers, to barter a small quantity of fruit in exchange for meat and grain. These peasants are bad bargainers, for they have no idea of trade. They will ask the same price, regardless of the size or the quality of of the article—tiie same for a fowl as for a chicken, the same lor a lamb us for a sheep. Aud once having set a price they always hold out for it. The only way they can calculate is by menus of pebbles.

Though on the borderland of Mahometan regious.Svauetia is a Christian country. Christianity was iutroduci tl there in the middle of the fourth century,aud, as its original disciples were much persecuted by the believers in the creed of Zoroastor, the glens and gorges of this mountainous country made a superb place of refuge, and many churches and chapels were built there. Now the country is under the control of the Gr< c-k Church, and its welfare is looked after by the tL orgian Pope. Nominally Christianised never!heless, is all that can be said of Svanetia. Though every village has its clergymen and its tiuy church the people themslvs cling to old superstitious forms of belief and ideas, and care not a row of pins about the religion that is set before them. Superstition marks these valley people all over. They reverence the sun and the celestial bodies, swearing by them, and I hey have many strange rites to exercise the evil spirits that are supposed to cause disease. Oxen and cats are the Svanetian’s chief regard, and he has raised these animals up almost to the

* position of gods. Frequent are the sacrifices to both the wicked and good spirits to bring about the success or failure of any particular project. Most curious, though, is their remarkable observance of holidays. They are so naturally lazy and indolent, and so extremely improvident, that they have adopted the holidays of every other race they have come into contact with. On neither Sunday, Monday, Friday, nor Saturday will they work, this being an invariable rule with them ; and if there is any other handy saint’s day on the calender that they know about, they will make it another day off. When a man is dead his friends surround his bed and wail loudly, the men and the women being gathered in separate groups. They rehearse his good deeds and those of his forefathers in minute detail. On the third day after death the body is placed on a bier or is wrapped in a cloth and carried to the burialground preceded by a cat or a sheep, the fee of the priest officiating. After the burial the mourners return to the house of the dead, where a repast is served, arrack being a staple feature, and the carouse often ending in a fight. Astonishingly enough, women have a very tolerable position in tins community after they have grown up. Girls are not highly regarded, and the olden custom of the race was to kill off all Ihe superfluous female children. It is quite possible this custom is still observed to-day, for there are fully 10 per cent, less women than nieu. All these people marry very young—girls at the age of twelve and boys at sixteen. The basis of society in Svanetia is the commune, or village. The population of the entire country is only 15,000, and this is divided into eleven communes. These are ruled over bv elders, who are practically heads of a great family, and the tribe is of much greater importance than the individual household.