[A descendant of these Princes was in St. Petersburg about 1870.  He wore the Russian uniform, and bore the title of Prince Bagration-Mukransky.]

NOTE 2.—­This fashion of tonsure is mentioned by Barbaro and Chardin.  The latter speaks strongly of the beauty of both sexes, as does Della Valle, and most modern travellers concur.

NOTE 3.—­This refers to the Pass of Derbend, apparently the Sarmatic Gates of Ptolemy, and Claustra Caspiorum of Tacitus, known to the Arab geographers as the “Gate of Gates” (Bab-ul-abwab), but which is still called in Turkish Demir-Kapi, or the Iron Gate, and to the ancient Wall that runs from the Castle of Derbend along the ridges of Caucasus, called in the East Sadd-i-Iskandar, the Rampart of Alexander.  Bayer thinks the wall was probably built originally by one of the Antiochi, and renewed by the Sassanian Kobad or his son Naoshirwan.  It is ascribed to the latter by Abulfeda; and according to Klaproth’s extracts from the Derbend Namah, Naoshirwan completed the fortress of Derbend in A.D. 542, whilst he and his father together had erected 360 towers upon the Caucasian Wall which extended to the Gate of the Alans (i.e. the Pass of Dariel).  Mas’udi says that the wall extended for 40 parasangs over the steepest summits and deepest gorges.  The Russians must have gained some knowledge as to the actual existence and extent of the remains of this great work, but I have not been able to meet with any modern information of a very precise kind.  According to a quotation from Reinegg’s Kaukasus (I. 120, a work which I have not been able to consult), the remains of defences can be traced for many miles, and are in some places as much as 120 feet high.  M. Moynet indeed, in the Tour du Monde (I. 122), states that he traced the wall to a distance of 27 versts (18 miles) from Derbend, but unfortunately, instead of describing remains of such high interest from his own observation, he cites a description written by Alex.  Dumas, which he says is quite accurate.

["To the west of Narin-Kaleh, a fortress which from the top of a promontory rises above the city, the wall, strengthened from distance to distance by large towers, follows the ridge of the mountains, descends into the ravines, and ascends the slopes to take root on some remote peak.  If the natives were to be believed, this wall, which, however, no longer has any strategetical importance, had formerly its towers bristling upon the Caucasus chain from one sea to another; at least, this rampart did protect all the plains at the foot of the eastern Caucasus, since vestiges were found up to 30 kilometres from Derbend.” (Reclus, Asie russe, p. 160.) It has belonged to Russia since 1813.  The first European traveller who mentions it is Benjamin of Tudela.

Bretschneider (II. p. 117) observes:  “Yule complains that he was not able to find any modern information regarding the famous Caucasian Wall which begins at Derbend.  I may therefore observe that interesting details on the subject are found in Legkobytov’s Survey of the Russian Dominions beyond the Caucasus (in Russian), 1836, vol. iv. pp. 158-161, and in Dubois de Montpereux’s Voyage autour du Caucase, 1840, vol. iv. pp. 291-298, from which I shall give here an abstract.”