L E S L E S 475
along with the Tchetchenians (about 165,000) the East
Caucasus group, and spreading southward over the borders
of Daghestan, the country which they have occupied from
time immemorial, into the Transcaucasian circles Kuba,
Shemakha, Nukha, and Sakataly. They are mentioned as
(
Greek characters) by Strabo and Plutarch along with the (Greek characters)
(perhaps the modern Galgai, a Tchetchenian tribe), and their
name occurs with great frequency in the old chronicles of
the Georgians, whose territory was exposed to their raids
for centuries, until through the fall of Shamyl they were
brought under subjection to Russia. Moses of Chorene
mentions a battle in the reign of the Armenian King Baba
(370-377 A.D.), in which Shagir, king of the Lekians, was
slain. Among the Lesghians the chief place, both on
account of numbers and importance, is due to the Avars
(155,191) and the closely related Andians (35,511), to
whom may be attached the Dido (9074) and a number of
small tribes, confined to a few villages or even to one, and
speaking different though intimately connected languages.
The Avars, extending from the Sulak and the Kumyk
steppe right through Daghestan to the Alasan in the
Sakataly circle, were once the dominant people as their
language is still the dominant language of all this district.
Their neighbours the Kasimukhiaus (35,139), who call
themselves Lakians, have a language of their own, and are
well known as traders not only through all Transcaucasia
but also in European Russia; beside them a small fragment
of another race occupies the village Artchi (592 inhabitants)
in a separate mountain valley. Towards the Caspian Sea
the Lakians are bordered by the Darginians (88,045) and
the Tabassaranians (16,350), who in the matter of dialect
are strongly marked off from each other. To the north
and south of the basin of the Samur (which consequently
bears the native name Kulan-uaz or "middle river";) lives
another of the leading tribes of Daghestan, the Kurinians
or Lesghians par excellence, who by themselves alone occupy
the circles of Kuri and Samur, as well as the greatest part
of Kuba, and parts of Shemakha, Nukha, &c. Their
language (investigated like other Caucasian tongues by
Baron Uslar) is there spoken by 130,873 individuals; and
closely related to it apparently are the languages of
the neighbouring Aguliaus (5357), Rutulians (11,803),
Zakhurians (4561). According to the specimens collected
by Von Seidlitz in 1880 during a visit to their country, which
lies round the snowy peak of the Shakh Dagh in the Kuba
circle, the Djekians, Haputlians, and Krysians speak what
seem to be dialects of Kurinian; but he cannot connect
with any other tongas the language spoken by the
peculiar-looking inhabitants of the neighbouring village of
Khinalugh (2196). The Udinians (9668) are another
Lesghian tribe, which, though at present it only occupies
a few villages in the Nukha circle, was formerly widely
distributed over the plain of the Kura, and may possibly
be the wretched remnant of the Albanians, mentioned by
Strabo and others as a people of similar importance with
the Grusinians and Armenians.
All these Lesghians are more or less tall, good-looking and powerful, sometimes fair sometimes dark, bold, enduring, and intelligent – in one word, excellent material for the work of civilization as soon as their country is opened up by roads and the railway just projected from Vladikavkas by Petrovsk to Baku. Smith-work and cutlery are skilfully wrought among the Lesghians in general; the women weave excellent shawls (which vary in style according to locality); and the felt cloaks of Andi are known throughout the Caucasus.
See Von Seidlitz, "Ethnographie des Kaukasus," in Petermann's Mittheilungen, 188O.
LESLEY, John (1527-1596), bishop of Ross, Scottish historian and statesman, was born in 1527. His father
was Gavin Lesley, parson of Kingussie. He was educated at the university of Aberdeen, where he took the degree of M.A. In 1538 he obtained a dispensation permitting him to hold a benefice, notwithstanding his being a natural son, and in June 1546 he was made an acolyte in the cathedral church of Aberdeen, of which he was afterwards appointed a canon and prebendary. He also studied at Poitiers, at Toulouse, and at Paris, where he was made doctor of laws. In 1558 he was appointed official of Aberdeen, and in 1559 he was inducted into the parsonage and prebend of Oyne. At the Reformation Lesley became a champion of the Romish faith, and appeared on that side at the disputation held in Edinburgh in 1561, when Knox was one of his antagonists. He was one of the commissioners sent the same year to bring over the young Queen Mary to take the government of Scotland. He returned in her train, and was appointed a privy councillor, and in 1564 one of the senators of the college of justice. Shortly afterwards he was made abbot of Lindores, and in 1565 bishop of Ross. He was one of the sixteen commissioners appointed to revise the laws of Scotland, and the volume of the Acts of Parliament known as the Black Acts was, chiefly owing to his care, printed in 1566.
The bishop was one of the most steadfast friends of Queen Mary.[1] After the failure of the royal cause, and whilst Mary was a captive in England, Lesley continued to exert himself on her behalf. He was one of the commissioners at the conference at York in 1568. He appeared as her ambassador at the court of Elizabeth to complain of the injustice clone to her, and when he found he was not listened to he laid plans for the escape of the queen. He also projected a marriage for her with the duke of Norfolk, which ended in the execution of that nobleman. For this he was put under the charge of the bishop of Ely, and afterwards imprisoned in the Tower of London. During his confinement he collected materials for his history of Scotland, with which his name is now chiefly known. In 1571 he presented the latter portion of this work, written in his own vernacular tongue, to Queen Mary to amuse her in her captivity. He also wrote for her use his Piæ Consolationes, and the queen devoted some of the hours of her captivity to translating a portion of it into French verse.
In 1573 he was liberated from prison, but was banished from England. For two years he attempted unsuccessfully to obtain the assistance of Continental princes in favour of Queen Mary. While at Rome in 1578 he published his history De Origine, Moribus, et Rebus Gestis Scotorum, the Latinity of which is held only second to that of Buchanan. In 1579 he went to France, and was made suffragan and vicar-general of the archbishopric of Rouen by the Cardinal de Bourbon. Whilst visiting his diocese, however, he was thrown into prison, and had to pay 3000 pistoles to prevent his being given up to Elizabeth. During the remainder of the reign of Henry III. he lived unmolested, but on the accession of the Protestant Henry IV. he again fell into trouble. In 1590 he was thrown into prison, and had to purchase his freedom at the same expense as before. In 1593 he was made bishop of Coutances in Normandy, and had licence to hold the bishopric of Ross till he should obtain peaceable possession of the former see Being tired of life, he retired at last to a monastery at Gurtenburg near Brussels, where he died in 1596.
The works of Lesley are as follows: – A defence of the Honour of Marie Quene of Scotland, by Eusebius Dicæophile, 8vo, London, 1569; A treatise concerning the defence of the Honour of Marie Queene of Scotland, made by Morgan Philippes, bachelar of divinitie,
- ↑ An interesting account of his care of her during her illness at Jedburgh is given in Proc. Roy. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. xv. p. 210.
