War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
and those that occupy themselves with this, hibernate during the winter in underground houses. But over the greater part of these regions the natives live in tents and migrate to the lowlands in the winter. In the parallel range of the Ala-Dag, farther to the north, although this is not, strictly speaking, Khurdistan, the same conditions as those in the Taurus are repeated on a smaller scale. Throughout these two mountain regions the predominant population are of Iranian extraction and are known as Khurds. The climatic conditions under which they live are very severe. A great struggle for existence is necessary, to enable them to wring sustenance for their families from the land. Thus there is created a hardy and virile race, always ready for expansion, to relieve the pressure of population. Hence also its tendency to restlessness and to turbulent encroachments on its neighbours, which is so frequently observed among the Khurds.
The other region of the Armenian plateau lies at the lower levels of from 4,000 to 5,000 feet, where the country opens out into wide, sweeping downs, covered with layers of volcanic soil. Here the Armenians are found in numbers varying from 25 per cent. to 75 per cent. of the population. It is often imagined that the Armenians are a commercial people like the Greeks; but this idea is far from accurate. The Armenians are essentially agricultural, and their ancestors, from the dawn of history, have cultivated corn in the basin of Lake Van and the plain of Mush. In these regions life can only be sustained by hard work, and the Armenian peasant is forced to be more practical and industrious than his neighbours in the fertile oases of Persia. On the other hand Nature
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