Georgian women, according to Reineggs,- are more beautiful
than the Circassians,* but the complexion of the race is not
so fair as that of the latter people,, who are natives of the
heights of Caucasus®: ^
* Reineggs, Description of Caucasus, page 289, vol*l.
CHAPTER XV.
OF THE CAUCASIAN NATIONS.
S ection 1.— General Observations.
U n d e r this name are comprehended by modern travellers
and geographers a variety of tribes who have long ago lost
all traces of connexion with each other, except those which
an accurate comparison of their, dialects affords. They
inhabit the heights and v a l l e y s -of the great chain of
Caucasus.
The Russian, or rather German travellers, Guldenstedt,
Pallas, and Reineggs, and lastly Klaproth, has given us
most of the information we possess respecting these nations.
The latter, particularly, by a copious vocabulary of their
languages published ;in his “ Sprach-atlas,” has afforded an
opportunity of forming some idea of their relations to each
other.
Guldenstedt, and most former writers, included among
the Caucasian races some tribes belonging to nations already
mentioned, as the Ossetes, who are probably a remote branch
of the Indo-European stock. The remaining Caucasian
nations are distributed by Guldenstedt into four classes,
namely, the Abassi, the Circassians or Tscherkessi, the
Kisti or Ingushi, and the Lesghi. Klaproth reduces these
four classes to three, by including the Abassians and Circassians
together under the o name of Western Caucasians, but
this is merely a nominal alteration, -for these last nations
were before known to be allied. I shall mention the most
remarkable circumstances in their history, dividing them
into Western, Middle, and Eastern Caucasians.
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