[35] Zeuss, v. Finni, and p. [157].
B.
DIOSCURIAN MONGOLIDÆ.
The term Dioscurian is taken from the ancient sea-port Dioscurias. Here it was that the chief commerce between the Greeks and Romans, and the natives of the Caucasian range took place. According to Pliny,[36] it was carried on by one hundred and thirty interpreters, so numerous were the languages. Without raising the number thus high, the great multiplicity of mutually unintelligible tongues is still one of the characteristics of the parts in question. And this fact has determined the application of the term. To have used the word Caucasian would have been correct, but inconvenient. It is already mis-applied in another sense, i.e., for the sake of denoting the so-called Caucasian race, consisting, or said to consist, of Jews, Greeks, Circassians, Scotchmen, ancient Romans, and other heterogeneous elements. In this sense it has been used in more than one celebrated work of fiction. In such, and in such only, it is otherwise than out of place.
DIOSCURIAN NATIONS AND TRIBES.
Physical Conformation.—Modified Mongol.
Languages.—Paurosyllabic,[37] agglutinate; of all the tongues not Seriform, the nearest approaching to an aptotic state.
Area.—The range of Mount Caucasus.
Chief Divisions.—1. The Georgians. 2. The Lesgians. 3. The Mizjeji. 4. The Irôn. 5. The Circassians.