3. _The Mizjeji._--Due east of the mountaineer Irôn come the equally mountaineer Mizjeji, a family numerically small, but falling into divisions and subdivisions. Hence, it has a pre-eminent claim to be considered aboriginal to the fastnesses in which it is found. The parts north of Telav, to the north-east of Tiflis, form the Mizjeji area. It is a small one--the Circassians bound it on the north, and on the east--
4. _The Lesgians_ of Eastern Caucasus or Daghestan, next to the Circassians the most independent family of Caucasus. None falls into more divisions and subdivisions: _e.g._
_a._ The _Marulan_ or _Mountaineers_ (from _Marul_ = _mountain_) speak a language called the Avar, of which the Anzukh, Tshari, Andi, Kabutsh, Dido and Unsoh are dialects.
The displacements of the Irôn and Mizjeji--and from the limited area of their occupancies, displacement is a legitimate inference--must have been chiefly effected by the Georgians alone; that of the Lesgians seems referable to a triple influence. That the Talish to the north of Ghilan are Lesgians who have changed their native tongue for the Persian, is a probable suggestion of Frazer’s. If correct, it makes the province of Shirvan a likely part of the original Lesgian area--encroachment having been effected by the Armenians, Persians, and Georgians.
5. _The Circassians_ occupy the northern Caucasus from Daghestan to the Kuban; coming in contact with the Slavonians and Tartars, for the parts between the Sea of Azov and the Caspian. As both these are pre-eminent for encroachment, the earlier contact was, probably, that of the most northern members of the Circassian family, and the southern Ugrians. The divisions and subdivisions of the Circassian family are both numerous and strongly marked.
_The Armenians._--Except amongst the mountaineer Irôn and Mizjeji, there are Armenians over the whole of Russian Caucasus--mixed, for the most part, with Georgians. They are sojourners rather than natives. In Shirvan, Karabagh, and Karadagh they are similarly mixed with Persians and Turks. In this case, however, the Armenian population is probably the older; so that we are approaching the original nucleus of the family. In Erivan there are more Armenians than aught else; and in Kars and Erzerúm they attain their _maximum_. In Diarbekr the frontier changes, and the tribes which now indent the Armenian area are the Semitic Arabs and Chaldani of Mesopotamia, and the Persian Kurds of Kurdistan.