some adjacent mountainous tracts. Klaproth, who traced
every race of men to some particular mountain, where he
imagined that their ancestors escaped the Flood* supposes
that the primitive Georgians descended after that catastrophe
from the high chain of the mountains of Pambaki, in
the south of Georgia, the highest part of which, the double
summit of Alages, near the mountain-lake of Sevan, is
covered; with snow in the month of June. They spread
themselves thence, in Klaproth’s opinion, towards the north,
occupying the lower countries between the chain of Pamhaki
and that of Caucasus. Mount Alages is not very far
distant from Ararat. According to the Georgian tradition,
the Original country of their patriarch, Kartlos, was the
province of Kartli, in the west of Georgia. He is said to
have founded the town of Mtskheka, which was the seat of
Georgian government till a .d . 469. Kakhos, one of the
sons of Kartlos, is supposed to have given his nârnè to*
Kakheti, the province of Georgiar4ying towards the northeast
and at the foot of Caucasus. A third province is called
Somkheti, meaning Armenian Georgia. The_ Georgians
call the Armenians Somekhi.# This province borders on
Georgia.
Georgia thus occupies the space 'given by the ancients
to the Iberi, who were probably the ancestors of the proper
Georgians. By the Armenian writers the Georgians
are still called Virk, a name perhaps of the same origin
as lfôrjpeç. From the Albani to the eastward of the Iberians,
and the Colchians to the westward, are descended
the other branches of this race..
The tribes of people allied to the Georgians and speaking
cognate dialects are enumerated by different writers nearly
as follows ■f
1 . The Mingrelians in Mingrelia, the ancient Colchis,
and in Guria or Guriel on the Euxine. The Immiretians, or
people of the district of Immireti, belong to this division
of the race.
* Smith and Dwight, ubi supra, page 145.
t Mémoires Inédits rélatifs à l’Histoire et à la Langue Géorgienne.—Par
Brosset Jeune Paris, in MS.—Adèlung, Mithridat. 1.—Klaproth, As. Polyglotte
2. The Suani, who are the Soani of Pliny, are a barbarous
people inhabiting the western extremity of the Caucasian
chain to the northward of Mingrelia. They call themselves
Tsoa, or, as Klaproth says, Shnau: they speak a barbarous
dialect of the ^Georgian.
3. The Lazians, knownSby the name of Lazi to Pliny
and in after- ages, to the Byzantine writers, are another
barbarous -and predatory tribe of thisj race who are spread
through the ? qountijy/jngar the .south-eastern angle of the
Euxine from Guriel to .the. neighbourhood of Trebizond.
The language of ^e^Laziaris apprqximat<gs,<to that of the
Mingrelians. In. the^nyjddle ages - the kingdom <^£, thS
Lazians.reached from t^ r iy e d Chorokh, teethe Phasis, and
Pmcppius and Agathias|deolarp. that the'iLazi were, descendants.
of (the ancient Colchians.
From all this^it- appears .that there are two branches^qf the
Georgian race,,—First, the western or Ccriqhji’an, do, which
-banged the- old people of .PplchiSjdheiCountry,of Medea;
t|pif ^ibe-who were supposed|b|| Herodotus to be descended
from the Egyptians j^ ^ ^ ^ tr is v |C^ause,-as he says, they
G$ntinued{ife'bis time'.to have,black cqmplexions and woolly
hair; the Lazi.of the, Byzantine writers? and jthe modem
Lazians,and Mingrelians areto, be referred ^ th i s branch.
Secondly,.the proper Georgians or Kartuhligns,'tjie' re puted
posterity of Kartlos, anciently called Iberians, to ybom
language and the history of Georgia^qLong.
S ection VL.— History of tke; Georgians and'of their
Literature-s
The Georgians make their patriarch KartloSdo have been
the second son ofThargamos,meaning Togarmab, the/g-rand-
son of Japbet, as tbe Armenians b e l i e f a n c e s t o r
Haig or Hai’k to have, been his eldest son. Probably both
theSe stories have been invented since the»Gqpversion of both
nations to,. Christianity. They^is n^1, such affinity in their
languages as would have led to an opinion of affinity in their
origin and descent. The notion that ti^y are thus «. allied,