Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 180, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1920 — KURDS A PRE-ARYAH RACE? [ARTICLE]

KURDS A PRE-ARYAH RACE?

Fierce Warriors Have Boon Distinguished for Their Turbulsnce Since Days of Xenophon. / Perhaps toe most interesting thing about the Kurds*is that at least one ethnologist has said of them that they might easily be taken for Germans yt . color of. hair, skin and eyes. They are one of the faces which" have 'provided plenty of speculation, and they have been classed as pf the Caucasian .type,, though one authority has described them as representing probably the aborUdnal race, pre Ayran, ■which extended once over the whole of Armenia, Luristan and Kurdistan. It seems pretty certain that they are descendants of those Carducht whom Xenophon mentions as harassing the retreat.of tfie. Ten Thousand, and still use the caves he mentions for their winter quarters. Whatever their race, there Is no dpubt about their turbulence. They have the* z alr of fierce warriors,- And they live up to their appearance, having given end-less-trouble to the Persians at one time: or another. But they have a reputation for honor as well as courage, and, just as the Romanoffs chose their personal guards from among the fierce Cossacks, so the Persian shahs have been accustomed, to confide themselves more wlHingly- to Kurdish officers. At one time or another the Kurds have been the scourge e£ Armenia, and ‘have committed some terrible excesses there in their forays. * ■' ■ ■ 4->