ces. This working-over
process, which has been going on in the Caucasus without interference
and without literary restraint for hundreds--perhaps thousands--of
years, has given to Caucasian stories a peculiar psychological interest
which in their original forms they never could have had. The themes upon
which they were originally founded are most of them perfectly familiar
to every student of comparative folk-lore, but the modifications which
they have undergone, the changed forms in which they reappear, are all
new, and every such change or modification points to some peculiarity in
the character of the people who originated it. The variations of a
story, therefore, are so many "Fraunhofer's lines" which reveal to us
the nature of the intellectual medium through which it has passed. For
these reasons the stories, fables and songs which are herewith presented
must not be judged by their intrinsic value as literature alone, but by
the light which they throw upon the life, tastes, temperament and
artistic methods of a semi-barbarous but naturally gifted people.

The space to which I am limited will enable me to give only one or two
specimens from each of the three classes into which I have for
convenience' sake divided Caucasian literature. I will begin with one of
the shortest of its popular tales, a humorous narrative entitled "The
Hero Naznai." This story, in one form or another, is common to all
branches of the Aryan family, but the mountaineers have so modified and
improved it as to make it almost their own. It recites the adventures
and achievements of a certain worthless coward who is made by the force
of circumstances to appear a hero.

_The Hero Naznai._--Listen! listen! There was and there was not. The fox
lived with the hare in the fields, the bear lived with the wild-boar in
the forest, and in the land of Daghestan there lived a hero, a scurvy
fellow without brains or bravery. When he should have been in front he
was behind; when he should have been behind he was in front; and if his
wife only lifted the poker he hid himself behind the door. Oh, he was
very brave! He was called "the hero Naznai." One night he went out of
doors to get a drink: it was bright moonlight. Beside him, with a
pitcher in her hand, stood his wife. Without his wife he never went out
at night: he said, because he didn't like to leave her alone; she said,
because he was afraid to go out of doors without her. "What a beautiful
night!" exc