classes of supernatural beings,
karts, narts and hare-riders, are known to the whole body of the
Caucasian mountaineers without distinction of tribe or race; and it is a
significant fact that the two first mentioned have everywhere and in all
Caucasian languages the same names. By whom they were originally
invented, and from what tongue their appellations were derived,
philologists can as yet only conjecture. Among the Ossetes, who are
unquestionably an Aryan race, narts have a quasi-historical existence
like the Knights of the Round Table, and their lives and adventures have
been woven by popular tradition into a sort of mediaeval epic resembling
the _Nibelungen Lied_ of Germany. Elsewhere, among the Chechenses, the
Avars and the Circassians, narts are simply giants of the orthodox
nursery type.

It is remarkable that we should also find among the _dramatis personae_
of Caucasian popular tales such Old-Testament heroes as Jonah and
Solomon, and such historical characters as the Roman Caesars. The former
were very likely introduced by the Jews and Arabs, whose descendants
form no inconsiderable part of the present population, but the Roman
emperors must have gained a foothold in Caucasian traditional lore
before the downfall of the Byzantine Empire, and may have done so as
long ago as the reign of Augustus, when the lowlands of the Caucasus
were under Roman rule.

Next to anecdotes and stories in importance and popularity come
beast-fables, of which the mountaineers have an almost endless number
and variety. Animals, especially birds and foxes, figure more or less
extensively throughout Caucasian literature, but in the beast-fables,
properly so called, they have the whole stage to themselves, and think,
act and talk in perfect independence of natural laws and limitations.
The view taken by the mountaineers of the animal world seems to be the
view of the Aryan races generally. With them, as with us, the fox is the
embodiment of cunning, the ass of stupidity, and the bear of clumsy
strength and good-humored simplicity. If they can be said to have a
favorite animal, it is the wolf, whose predatory life, ferocity when at
bay and ability to die fighting and in silence comprise all that in a
mountaineer's eyes is most worthy of admiration. "Short-eared wolf" is a
Caucasian girl's pet name for her lover, and "wolf of the North" was the
most complimentary title which the Chechenses could think of to head an
address to a disti