THE DIRTIEST PEOPLE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue I, 4 July 1896, Page 8

THE DIRTIEST PEOPLE.

The dirtiest people in the world have recently been discovered by an explorer in the Caucasus. They live in an inaccessible mountain range between the Black Sea and Caspian, their villages being so snugly hidden away that no Government has yet been able to reach them. As they were 2,500 years ago, so they are to this day. Seen from without there is a certain picturesqueness about a Svanetian village, although it merely consists of miserable stone hovels without any attempt at form or adornment. Within, however, tLe houses are inconceivably filthy. They are filled with rags, vermin and dirt of every description. They possess no fireplace or chimney. All the cooking, in fact, is done over a hole scooped out in the middle of the floor. In these houses men, women, and children are huddled together. During the long winter months they are shut up for days at a time, the cattle often sharing their quarters. Every aperture has to be closed, on account of the cold. The long imprisonment is, perhaps, the chief cause of the degradation of the people. Horrible diseases result from it, which are aggravated by an abnormal consumption of arrack, the strong distilled drink of the Asiatics. Besides being the dirtiest they are probably the laziest people on the earth. It is the invariable rule to take four days a week holiday, with Saints' day as extras. Since they have adopted the holidays of every other country with which they have come in contact, it is not surprising that the men find little time for work.

Farming, bee culture and cattle breeding are the onlyindustries of these lazy people. Throughout their territory there is not a single manufactured article, the children marry very young, they attend no school, aud, lastly, they have no money.